Butternut Squash, Kale, and Cheddar Bread Pudding

I’d never actually made bread pudding before this savory version, even though a sweet, boozy bread pudding studded with raisins is one of my all-time favorite desserts. It’s rare that I have leftover bread of any kind, so it felt strange to buy a baguette with the explicit purpose of letting it get stale. Definitely worth it though.

Being a mostly meatless type, I offered to bring a vegetarian entrée to Thanksgiving, letting our marvelous hostess off the hook. While it isn’t even close to vegan or low-calorie, I think I would much prefer this to a Tofurkey. Everyone knows that the sides are the best part of Thanksgiving anyway. And the kale and squash at least gives the illusion of getting in some real vegetables.

My one tip would be to use the sharpest, best cheddar cheese you can find/afford. I skimped on that, and it just wasn’t as good as I know that it could’ve been. Another bonus: this can be made in advance and is probably even best made in advance. I spent nearly a week taking the leftovers for lunch, and it only got better as the flavors melded. Perfect for when your Thanksgiving morning is routinely taken up by running a 5K with your family.

Butternut Squash, Kale, and Cheddar Bread Pudding
source: Ezra Pound Cake

Ingredients

• 2 POUNDS PEELED SEEDED BUTTERNUT SQUASH, CUT INTO 1-INCH CUBES (ABOUT 6 CUPS)
• 3 TABLESPOONS OLIVE OIL, DIVIDED
• KOSHER SALT
• FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER
• 7 LARGE EGGS
• 2 1/4 CUPS HALF AND HALF
• 6 TABLESPOONS DRY WHITE WINE (OR HARD CIDER)
• 2 TABLESPOONS CHOPPED FRESH THYME (OR 1 TABLESPOON DRIED)
• 1 TABLESPOON CHOPPED FRESH SAGE (OR 1/2 TABLESPOON DRIED)
• 1 TABLESPOON DIJON MUSTARD
• 1 DAY-OLD BAGUETTE (DO NOT REMOVE CRUST), CUT INTO 1-INCH CUBES (ABOUT 8 CUPS)
• 1 CUP CHOPPED SHALLOTS (ABOUT 4 LARGE)
• 2 CLOVES GARLIC, FINELY CHOPPED
• 1/4 TEASPOON CRUSHED RED PEPPER FLAKES (OPTIONAL)
• 2 BUNCHES TUSCAN KALE (ABOUT 1 POUND), RIBS REMOVED, KALE COARSELY CHOPPED (CAN BE SUBSTITUTED WITH SPINACH)`
• 8 OUNCES EXTRA-SHARP CHEDDAR CHEESE, COARSELY GRATED

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place squash and 1 tablespoon oil in a large bowl; sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Spread out squash cubes on a large rimmed baking sheet. Roast until squash is tender, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes. Set aside.
2. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
3. Whisk eggs in large bowl. Continue whisking as you add half and half, wine, thyme, sage, mustard, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Add baguette cubes to the egg mixture, and gently fold them into the mixture to coat each side. Let the baguette pieces soak 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons oil in large pot over medium heat. Add shallots, garlic, and crushed red pepper flakes, and sauté until soft and fragrant, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Add kale; cover and cook 2 minutes. Uncover the pot, and stir until kale is wilted but still bright green, about 5 minutes (the kale will still be a little crunchy).
5. Generously butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Using slotted spoon, transfer half of bread from egg mixture to the dish, spreading evenly. Spoon half of kale over the bread layer. Spoon half of squash over the kale layer, and sprinkle it with half of the cheese. Repeat with remaining bread, kale, squash, and cheese. Pour the remaining egg mixture over the bread pudding.
6. Cover bread pudding with foil, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil; bake uncovered until custard is set, about 20 minutes longer.
7. Preheat broiler; broil pudding until cheese browns slightly, about 2 minutes. Cool 5 minutes and serve.

Butternut Squash & Black Bean Enchiladas

Every other week, I get a box from Delvin Farms that looks like this:

Fortunately, I split it with the lovely Erin and her husband because that is a lot of food, and someone does not always great about eating his veggies. Late summer means peppers galore, but we also received a watermelon, cantaloupe, and butternut squash hiding under all of those peppers. This was our second butternut squash, and because I am incapable of cutting them in half without injuring myself, I got the first one and gave Erin this most recent one.

Without a particular plan for it, I roasted that squash whole, scraped out the insides, and froze the puree for a later date when I would be in a bit of a rush, like, my first day of chaplaincy residency. Switching from grad student schedule (flexible but stressful!) to camp schedule (fun and outdoors!) to free time (boring!) and now to a normal working person schedule is going to take some getting used to. After getting home from the gym after 6:30, having the squash thawed and ready to go was crucial because I was about to chew my arm off. Lesson #1: Don’t skip your snack.

I quickly whipped up the filling. Joe stuffed and rolled the enchiladas. I covered them with sauce, and we threw them in the oven, allowing us enough time to clean up before they were ready to go. We were both surprised how filling they were. Two of these with a quarter of an avocado and we were stuffed, and the cinnamon/nutmeg/cumin combo was a just-right hint of fall. I always thought enchiladas were way too time-intensive for a normal weeknight, but with some of the components pre-made or bought, it was perfect for a relatively quick dinner. 

Butternut Squash & Black Bean Enchiladas
source: The Daily Garnish
Yields 6-8 enchiladas

Ingredients

• 1 large butternut squash, roasted and mashed 
• 1 medium onion, diced 
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• salt to taste
• 6-8 whole wheat tortillas
• 1 large can red enchilada sauce (or homemade if you prefer)
• 1/2 cup of shredded cheese

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a medium-sized pan with olive oil and sauté the onion until translucent. Add in rinsed and drained black beans and stir until heated.

Add the black bean mixture to the squash and fold in to combine. Add spices and salt to taste.

Pour a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 pan to coat. Fill a tortilla with about 1 cup of mixture and loosely roll, placing the rolled tortilla seam-side down in the pan. Repeat with remaining tortillas.

Cover the rolled up enchiladas with the rest of the sauce and top with cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

San Diego and Quinoa-Stuffed Acorn Squash

Last weekend was my Fall Break, which also happened to coincide with the American Society of Anesthesiologists conference in San Diego. Earlier this year, Joe had submitted four medically challenging cases, and all of them were accepted for the ASA. Because his department will reimburse travel expenses, I decided to take advantage of a free hotel room and tag along.

In brief, we stayed at the Sofia Hotel (very nice and modern appointments but tiny, so it’s a good thing we aren’t large people). The first night we met up with ThatGirl and her husband, Thatboy. They greeted me with a belated birthday present – a bag full of her favorite San Diego treats including the three most important food groups: bread (with some local jam as well), booze (hard cider and a local beer), and chocolate. Then we headed out to Starlite, their favorite restaurant, for some delicious cocktails and burgers. The food and drinks were great, but I particularly liked the architecture and ambience. It was very 1970s-lounge but without the sleaze factor.

The next morning, Joe and I went for a run along the harbor, grabbed breakfast, and headed to the conference. Joe’s dad (also Joe) drove down from LA, where he was for business, to join us, and his hotel room had some killer views as well as being right next door to the convention center.

We walked around the convention center for a while before Joe had to put up his posters. Joe showed his dad how to do an epidural and intubate someone on a simulator, and then it was time to present!

I didn’t understand anything that was being presented, though I still walked around and looked at some of the other posters and tried to seem pensive and impressed. I might be a little biased, but I thought the Vanderbilt posters (and Joe’s particularly) were the most professional and aesthetically interesting posters that I saw. Of course, Joe had some help with last minute editing from a certain spouse who does a lot of writing.

After that, we headed to Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres, for the opening reception. There was lots of fun food like tamales, nachos, cotton candy, hot dogs, and fish tacos. I can’t even remember the last time I had eaten cotton candy so I had to get some. Then Vanderbilt had a reception at the Marriott, so we headed there. Between the food at Petco Park and the food at the Vandy reception, we skipped our reservation for dinner and loaded up on the mashed potato bar (roasted garlic!) and chocolate covered strawberries.

The next day was more of the same thing – presenting posters, wandering around the expo, and attending some lectures. We met Joe’s cousin, her husband, and kids at The Fish Market. Since living in a land-locked state, fresh fish has a particular appeal, especially when it doesn’t have to go very far. Thanks to Thatgirl, I was loaded down with all kinds of delicious-sounding recommendations for places where we could eat and drink. We decided to make reservations at Searsucker, a new restaurant by Brian Malarkey, and our friends Brett and Katie joined us. The food was good and of high quality, but the service was a bit spotty.

 

Now this is where Thatgirl makes me look like a rock star. We took our friends to a secret bar. Noble Experiment is a bar within another bar, and you make reservations via text message. It’s similar to Nashville’s Patterson House in the atmosphere and quality of the drinks but way more secretive. So we walk into the bar that houses Noble Experiment, go down the hallway with the bathrooms, and there is what looks like a wall of kegs. Brett and Katie start wondering why I’m pushing on the wall, and, like Indiana Jones, the wall of kegs is actually a door that leads to the bar. We had a great time there, and the drinks were inventive and extremely high-quality, though not inexpensive.

After all of that rich food and beverage, my body was craving a lot of vegetables and plant proteins, something exactly like this quinoa-stuffed acorn squash. I noticed that the original recipe included garbanzo beans, which I think would’ve been more appropriate for the sort of Moroccan flavor the recipe is going for. The brown sugar/butter mixture is also expendable. I didn’t feel that it added much to the recipe since the acorn squash were already sweet enough. My changes are reflected in the recipe. Because you make the quinoa and vegetable mixture while the squash cooks, it’s a relatively quick weeknight meal considering you’re roasting squash and perfect for a clean meal after an indulgent weekend!

Quinoa-Stuffed Acorn Squash
adapted from FitSugar

Ingredients

3 medium acorn squash, halved and seeded
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
6 teaspoons shredded cheddar cheese

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Arrange squash halves cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake 30 minutes, or until tender.
3. While the squash is baking, heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the garlic, celery, and carrots, and cook five minutes. Mix in the beans and raisins and continue to cook and stir until vegetables are tender.
4. Boil two cups water, one cup quinoa, and the bouillon cube together. Once this comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 to 20 minutes until quinoa is cooked. Season cooked quinoa with cumin, salt, and pepper. Then stir in the veggies and beans.
5. Stuff each squash halve with about a cup of the quinoa veggie mixture, and sprinkle with one teaspoon cheddar cheese. Cook another five minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Acorn Squash Quesadillas

While Joe and I have always been active, we recently started the Couch to 5K program. I have this crazy idea that we should run. We’re surrounded by gorgeous parks, Nashville has relatively good weather for most of the year, and I wanted a challenge. Plus, my best friend and her boyfriend have had a lot of success with the program. Since we weren’t quite “Couch”, the first few weeks were pretty nice. Last night, however, was the dreaded Week 5 Day 3 workout. Twenty solid minutes of running. I know that for some people that’s no big deal, but neither Joe nor I are natural-born runners. It also happened to be about 90-degrees in the evening when we headed to the greenway to do it. But we did it!

Those stats include our 5 minute warm-up walk and 5 minute cool-down walk. I was pretty impressed by how we did. We ran all of Lap 2, and a 10:40 mile sounds pretty good to me.

The problem with running as exercise, particularly with it being so hot, is that, even though I only burned about 250 calories, I felt like I deserved a bunch of beer and ice cream. Instead, I got these delicious quesadillas.

Smoky roasted poblanos, spicy jalapenos, and nutty acorn squash plus melty cheese. Joe is also hereafter going to be the quesadilla-maker, as long as I’m not watching to see how much cheese he puts in and how much oil he uses in the pan, because these were perfect. The tortilla got super crisp while the filling stayed hot and creamy. We will be making these again, particularly if our CSA keeps giving us winter squash.

Acorn Squash Quesadillas
source: Erin’s Food Files
Yields 2 or 3 quesadillas depending on how full you stuff them

Ingredients
1 small/medium acorn squash
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons diced white onion
1 tablespoon minced jalapeno
1 clove garlic, minced
2 poblano chiles, roasted, peeled and cut into strips
Salt and pepper to taste
10-inch flour tortillas
1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend of your choice
Butter for frying quesadillas
Garnishes: sour cream and/or salsa verde cruda

Preparation

First, roast the acorn squash. Preheat the oven to 400° and lightly oil a baking sheet. Halve the squash, scoop out the seeds (you can save them to toast later, if you wish) and cut each half into half-inch slices. Lay them on the baking sheet and roast for about 20 minutes, until soft but not cooked to mush. (You’ll finish it in the pan.)

When cool enough to work with, use a paring knife or your hands to peel the skin off each slice. Lightly chop the squash and put it in a bowl.

Saute the onions, garlic and jalapeno in the oil until translucent. Add the poblano strips and cook for a couple minutes more. Add the squash and cook for another 5 or 10 minutes, until the squash is tender and the flavors have melded. Season with salt and pepper and take off heat.

Spread a few tablespoons of the cooked squash mixture onto one half of a 10-inch flour tortilla. Sprinkle with a couple tablespoons of the cheese. Fold over and place in a hot pan with melted butter, and fry until crispy. Cut the finished quesadilla into triangles and top with your choice of garnishes. Eat while warm.

Summer Squash and Corn Chowder

Being part of a CSA has changed how I cook and meal plan. Where I used to find recipes I wanted to make and shop around what those recipes required, now I have to focus on using up ingredients. Fortunately, the August 2010 issue of Cooking Light is allowing me to pick recipes I want to make that also use the fresh, local produce I get in my CSA, like this soup. There are only so many times you can grill corn on the cob in a week, so making it into a soup topped with bacon, green onions, and cheese is a delightful departure from the status quo. Blending the corn with the milk gives it creaminess without added fat.

I prefer a thicker, more uniform-textured soup, so I used an immersion blender to puree the squash (and the celery, had I remembered to pick it up at the store) before the addition of the remaining cup of corn. Joe said it reminded him of a much lighter baked potato soup. Cooking Light recommends serving it with a tomato bruschetta, but I had eaten all of my tomatoes already, so we settled for a multi-grain baguette.

Summer Squash and Corn Chowder

source: Cooking Light August 2010

Yields 4 servings

Ingredients

2 slices applewood-smoked bacon

3/4 cup sliced green onions, divided

1/4 cup chopped celery

1 lb yellow summer squash, chopped (I used pattypan squash)

1 lb frozen white and yellow baby corn kernels, thawed and divided (I used 2 1/2 cups of fresh corn kernels.)

2 1/4 cups 1% low-fat milk, divided

1 tsp chopped fresh thyme

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 cup (1 oz) shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese

Preparation

1. Cook bacon in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving 2 teaspoons drippings in pan. Crumble bacon, and set aside. Add 1/2 cup onions, celery, and squash to drippings in pan; sauté 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

2. Reserve 1 cup corn; set aside. Place the remaining corn and 1 cup milk in a blender; process until smooth. Add remaining 1 1/4 cups milk, thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to blender; process just until combined. Add pureed mixture and reserved 1 cup corn to pan. Reduce heat to medium; cook 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring constantly. Stir in 1/8 teaspoon salt. Ladle about 1 1/2 cups soup into each of 4 bowls; top each serving with about 1 tablespoon bacon, 1 tablespoon remaining onions, and 1 tablespoon cheese.

Spaghetti Squash with Kale, Raisins, Walnuts, and Feta

One of the oft-repeated tips to eating healthfully and sustainably is to use meat as a side or garnish, which is exactly what I did last night. The central focus of the plate was this gorgeous vegetarian dish using the odd but filling spaghetti squash. On the side, I had a link of pesto chicken sausage. The kale added a hint of bitterness and a touch of color, but I loved the addition of the sweet raisins and salty feta. There's something to that sweet-salty combination. The original recipe calls for spinach, which would cook down a bit more than my kale, but any green you have around will do.

Spaghetti Squash with Kale, Raisins, Walnuts, and Feta
source: Cara's Cravings

Ingredients
1 large spaghetti squash, roasted, seeds discarded
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small sweet onion, sliced
10 oz of kale, chopped and stems removed
30gm walnuts
40gm raisins
1oz feta cheese, crumbled
pinch of nutmeg, salt & pepper

Preparation
Toast the walnuts in a dry skillet over low heat. Remove from heat when they are fragrant and just beginning to brown.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Cook the onions until soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the kale, cover, and let cook until the kale is wilted down, about 5 minutes.

Use two forks to remove the stringy flesh from the cooked spaghetti squash. Toss this with the kale and onions, and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add the walnuts and raisins and heat through. Mix in about half of the crumbled feta, and top with the rest of the cheese to serve.