Butternut Squash Soup

Posted on by aurorameyer

Butternut Squash Soup

We love love love love love this perfectly fall soup (even the toddler!)
Print Recipe
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1 butternut squash roasted at 425 for about 45 minutes
  • 3 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 shallots
  • 1/2 yellow onion
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 6 garlic cloves minced
  • 1 teaspoon maple syrup
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 Cup vegetable broth
  • 2 Tbs butter

Instructions
 

  • Coat squash in olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Roast squash in the oven at 425 for about 45 minutes.
  • Peel the squash and set aside.
  • In a soup pot, heat up 1 tablespoon olive oil until shimmering over medium heat. Add the chopped shallot, onion and salt. Cook, stirring often until the shallot and onions have softened and are starting to turn golden about 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, stirring frequently. DON'T LET THE GARLIC BURN.
  • Add the reserved butternut squash, maple syrup, nutmeg and a few shakes of ground black pepper, plus half the butter.
  • Pour in the broth and using your favorite stick blender, blend until smooth. Add the butter and blend again.

Instant Pot Directions

  • On medium saute heat 1 tablespoon olive oil until shimmering. Add the chopped shallot, onion and salt. Cook, stirring often until the shallot and onions have softened and are starting to turn golden about 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, stirring frequently. DON'T LET THE GARLIC BURN. Add the reserved butternut squash, maple syrup, nutmeg and a few shakes of ground black pepper, plus half the butter. Pour in the broth.
  • Add the broth and CANCEL the saute function. Turn on Pressure cook. Set time for 10 minutes. Turn steam value to seal. When cooking time is done, let NATURAL release for 10-15 minutes. If the release valve hasn't depressed after 10-15 minutes, SLOWLY turn the release valve to venting. NOTE: if you get liquid coming up through the valve wait 2 to 3 minutes and try again.
  • Remove the lid when the pressure has released. Using your favorite stick blender, blend until smooth. Add the butter and blend again. Serve.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Yum

Mexican Black Bean Soup with Sausage Recipe

Posted on by aurorameyer

Mexican Black Bean Soup with Sausage
It’s been a roller coaster of spring-like temperatures and freezing, regular February temperatures around here the last few weeks. That plus the lovely no six diet (no: dairy, wheat,eggs, fish, soy or peanuts) diet I’m on to help baby A’s digestive issues means we’ve had to get very creative with dinners. Luckily for me, J has taken the changes to our culinary repertoire in stride and has come up with a lot of alternatives to our favorite dishes. He found this lovely one from Food and Wine magazine.  Since I was baby A wrangling, I only got a picture of the finished product.

Mexican Black Bean Soup with Sausage Recipe

Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 medium white or yellow onion finely chopped
  • 3 tablespoons garlic cloves very finely chopped (we used about 3of minced garlic, but we like garlic a lot)
  • 1 teaspoon canned chipotle chile seeded and finely chopped (since we didn't have this on hand, we used 1ground chipotle)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • Two 15-ounce cans black beans drained
  • 3 cups chicken stock or canned low-sodium broth
  • 3/4 pound smoky cooked sausage such as andouille or kielbasa, thinly sliced (we just went with two andouille)
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice plus wedges for garnish
  • 2 tablespoons very finely chopped cilantro
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • Sour cream for serving we left this out because it's dairy

Instructions
 

  • In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil until shimmering.
  • Add the onion and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally until softened, about 3 minutes.
  • Add the garlic and the chipotle or ground chipotle, cumin and oregano and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
  • Add the black beans and chicken stock and simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes.
  • Using a potato masher, coarsely crush some of the beans (we skipped this step).
  • Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over high heat.
  • Add the sausage and cook until browned, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.
  • Add the sausage to the beans.
  • Then add the lime juice and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper.
  • Simmer the soup for 2 minutes to allow the flavors to blend, or longer if you'd like!
  • Ladle the soup into bowls and serve, passing the sour cream and lime wedges separately.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

My opinion:
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but this ended up being very filling and just the right amount of heat to warm me from the inside. It’s absolutely a soup we will add to the rotation, even once we (hopefully!) can start adding the no items back to my diet.

Homemade Beef Pho

Posted on by aurorameyer

Homemade Beef Pho by Dispatches from the Castle

The more J and I cook at home, the more we find amazing recipes of meals we once thought were super complicated and therefore only available in a restaurant. Pho is one of those dishes. With the complexly deep flavors and food coma-inducing warmth, we were sure we couldn’t make it in our own kitchen. We were so wrong. J found this recipe from Sarcastic Cooking (love!) and it was dead on. We adjusted a few things to our taste and suggest you do too.

East at Home Beef Pho Ingrdients

My opinion:
This makes a lot. Enough for three of us to have two large bowls each and quite a bit leftover. It’s in the freezer waiting for one of those cold, rainy late fall days when soup sounds best. I love this dish. I couldn’t eat it fast enough.

Homemade Beef Pho

Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 2 Tablespoons Canola Oil we used vegetable
  • 2 Yellow Onions halved (we ended up quartering them)
  • 1, 3- inch Piece of Fresh Ginger halved (we left this whole but kind of crushed to infuse more flavor)
  • 2 Cloves Garlic we used minced
  • 4 Quarts Low-Sodium Beef Stock
  • In a tea ball we put: 1 Cinnamon Stick, 3 Star Anise Pieces, 3 Whole Cloves, broken If you do not want to invest in cinnamon sticks star anise, and cloves, some stores sell pho seasoning packs. But it's worth it to have your own, plus, with a tea ball removing it is simple!
  • ⅓ cup Fish Sauce
  • 3 Tablespoons Packed Light Brown Sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon Kosher Salt
  • cup Button mushrooms we used sliced
  • Ingredients for the Pho:
  • 1 12-ounce Ounce Package of Bahn Pho or Udon Noodles These ended up being hard to find so we just used glass noodles . Flat Rice Noodles, thin rice noodles
  • 1 Pound Flank Steak or charcoal steak
  • 2 Thai Chiles stems removed and thinly sliced (we left these out)
  • 2 Handfuls Bean Sprouts fresh is crunchier and we loved it!
  • 1 Bunch Fresh Cilantro
  • 1 Bunch Fresh Mint
  • ½ White Onion sliced paper-thin
  • Sriracha or Chili Garlic Sauce for Serving
  • Lime Wedges for Serving
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

Posted on by aurorameyer


In college, J and I practically lived on jambalaya and coffee. Of course, it was the boxed version and after eating it for two years, we got pretty burned out. Which was sad because jambalaya is so tasty and easy and perfect for a chilly evening. Luckily, J found this jambalaya recipe and with a few tweaks cured the burnout.

Ingredients:
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
1 (14 ounce) package andouille sausage, sliced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 large celery ribs, chopped (we left them in half moons)
3 tbs garlic, minced (we eyeballed this as we like garlic)
1 bunch scallion, chopped
1 (32 ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juices
about 15 ounces chicken stock
1 1/4 cups long grain rice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon Tony Chacere’s creole seasoning (as the original recipe states, there is absolutely no substitute for Tony’s)
cracked black pepper (to taste)

Directions:
Cook sliced sausage over medium high heat in a 6 quart stock pot until slightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add bell pepper, onion, celery, garlic and scallions and cook until softened but not translucent, about 4 minutes. Add cubed chicken breast and Worcestershire sauce and cook just until you can no longer see pink. Add the bay leaves, basil, oregano, sage, paprika, Tony Chacere’s, salt, black pepper, tomatoes and chicken broth. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Add rice, bring back up to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Cover and reduce heat to low, simmer for 30 minutes. The jambalaya should still be wet, but not soupy. Remove the bay leaves. Enjoy!

My opinion:
We’ll be adding this back to our regular dinner rotation. It was super easy to make and make more than enough to freeze half for a later meal.

Pumpkin Ravioli

Posted on by aurorameyer

I’m learning to like pumpkin. It’s not that I don’t like it, so much as I’m ambivalent, sometimes it’s great. Other times, not so much. We didn’t want to waste the wonderful pumpkins we got from the Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival, so after checking out a number of recipes, we settled on this Pumpkin Ravioli recipe from Food.com. Only after we’d settled on this plan, did I learn that pumpkins for eating are different from carving pumpkins. Luckily, Austin American-Statesman food writer, Addie Broyles, helped me plan. So we carved and then roasted the pieces.

  • We went from this:To this:

Ingredients:
8 tbsp Butter (one stick)
1 tbsp Sage, Fresh, chiffonade8 oz Pumpkin1 medium Yellow Onion, diced1/2 cup Pine Nuts (Toasted. We used olive oil and salt and pepper)12 oz Wonton Wraps (one package)2 eggs3 Roma Tomatoes, diced (the last from our garden!)3 tsp Lemon Juice (or half a fresh lemon)

Directions:

1. Add 1 tablespoon butter to each pumpkin half, and season with salt and pepper. Add 1 tablespoon butter to onion, season with salt and pepper and wrap in aluminum foil. In a preheated 350-degree oven, roast onion and pumpkin, cut-side up, until completely soft and somewhat caramelized, about 45 minutes. (If using roasted, roast pumpkin first at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. Remove skin and dice. Sautee in butter salt and pepper with the diced yellow onion. Then move on to step 2.)

2. Add cooked pumpkin and onion in a food processor (we used a blender), pulsing until smooth. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Transfer pumpkin puree into a bowl, add half of the toasted pine nuts and 1 beaten egg and stir to combine.

3 Cover wonton wrappers with a damp cloth. Assemble bowl of pumpkin puree, beaten egg, pastry brush and a sheet tray dusted with flour. Lay out 1 wonton wrapper and place a heaping tablespoon of pumpkin puree in the middle. Brush around the filling with beaten egg and cover with another wonton wrapper. Press edges. Place raviolis on a sheet tray and put in freezer.

4. In a small sauce pot, add remaining butter and cook on medium heat until the butter bubbles and turns brown. Remove from heat and add tomatoes, sage and a squeeze of lemon. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Cook ravioli in boiling water until they float. (Note: This happens quickly!) Transfer ravioli to 4 warm bowls and drizzle with brown sage butter sauce. Top with remaining toasted pine nuts.

My Opinion:
The first taste was off, but by the third I couldn’t stop eating. Some bites were very pumpkin flavored, others more subtle. It’s filling, not terribly difficult and a lovely fall flavored dish. Another few dashes of salt and pepper made a difference. J added Parmesan cheese. We will be making it again.