Butternut Squash Sauce

More adventures in cooking! I can't figure out how the palates in our house can be so varied and different. It tends to fall into 25/75 -- meaning what I like (the 25%), the others (the 75%) do not. However, I keep trying. My next post will be one of my husband's favorite meals. That way you can get a sense of what is going on here.

I will be honest - this recipe was not a huge success at our house. I LOVED this recipe, ate 2 helpings and had it for lunch the next day. Two others ate it without a ton of enthusiasm, and one cried - then ate plain noodles with parmesan.  I thought that everyone would appreciate a new take on spaghetti. I was wrong. They all wished that I had just made regular spaghetti. This makes me think that butternut squash is not as popular as I would like it to be. On mother's day I made a huge pot of Barefoot Contessa's Butternut Squash and Apple Soup and it was barely dented. Hmmm.....

This sauce ended up being vegan (if you omit the parmesan) and gluten-free (if you use brown rice pasta or some other gluten-free pasta).

Butternut Squash Sauce

1 butternut squash (peeled, seeded and chopped into pieces) *see tip below
1 onion, chopped
2 cups vegetable broth

1 package spaghetti (I used brown rice pasta)
parmesan (optional)

Saute onion until soft. Add chopped butternut squash and 1 cup broth.  I also added a splash of white wine, some garlic powder and a few shakes of Italian seasoning (just use whatever you like). Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer until squash is tender 10-15 minutes. Now just puree it until smooth, adding more broth to make it the consistency that you like. Serve over noodles. Top with Parmesan if desired. You can puree in the blender, food processor, or if you are like me and don't want to dirty a large appliance, use the immersion blender. It is a bit trickier to use it for this purpose since you are trying to keep it thicker than a soup.

*My big tip here is making it easier to peel and chop a butternut squash. First, poke holes in squash (about 10-15). Wrap in kitchen towel. Microwave for 3 minutes, then leave to rest in microwave for 3 more minutes. Unwrap from towel. It is now a little bit steamed (and a little bit soft), making it easier to peel and to cut. This method works great if you are pureeing your squash in the end. I don't recommend using this method when you need to have nice little cubes of butternut squash for your recipe.

Vegetarian Paella

I love making one dish meals. This is one is easy turns out so colorful. I had been making a paella before using turkey sausage, but I wanted to do one that was vegetarian. So I changed it around a bit.  This recipe is very easy to throw together for dinner.

Vegetarian Paella

1 package yellow rice (see picture below)
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, cut up (I just make strips out of it and then cut the strips into shorter strips)*
1 can petite diced tomatoes, not drained
1 cup green peas (if frozen, soak in warm water for quick thaw, then drain)
1 can quartered artichokes, rinsed and drained

*if you are feeling lazy or short on time, I'm sure you could just use a jar of roasted red peppers, drained and chopped

Saute onion in oil for a couple of minutes. Add bell pepper and continue to cook until onions are soft. Add rice, diced tomatoes and however much water your package of rice says to add. Bring to a boil, then simmer and cover for 20 minutes. At this point, uncover, add peas and artichokes, adding more water if necessary to make it a good consistency. Continue to cook for about 5 minutes longer. Scoop and serve!

Now in order to avoid a revolt among the inhabitants of my house, I served the paella with this on the side:

Here is a breakdown of how we ate this meal:

Me: just paella 

Husband: cut sausage into pieces and mixed into paella

Child #1: sausage on side and paella

Child #2: sausage on side, tried paella, had jelly sandwich instead

To help them all recover from eating this variety of vegetables, I served good old fashioned CCC's (which stands for chocolate chip cookies - nicknamed this by Child #1, aka "Captain Dessert")