Although it is available all year, the local (Long Island) season is from late fall through winter. If you see it at the market, don't hesitate stock up. Thanks to its thick, hard skin it will keep for over a month if stored in a cool dry place.
Like all squash, the butternut is actually a fruit. It has a sweet, nutty taste that combines well with other fruits like apple, cranberry and pear. It is also well complemented by most nuts and many seasonings like cinnamon, nutmeg, thyme, rosemary, allspice and coriander. It even goes well with the hot stuff like cayenne and curry.
Not only can this humble fruit/squash be combined with a ton of other flavors, it also lends itself to a myriad of presentation options. It can be boiled and it can be broiled. You can roast it, toast it, mash it and smash it.
You can stuff it into ravioli or a pastry puff. It can be found on salads and in soups. It bakes well so you can make it into a pie, a casserole, bread, or muffins.
I think it even tastes good cold. My cold squash experiments have yielded some awesome chocolate / banana / butternut squash pudding and I have even been planning to break out the old ice cream machine and try making a dairy free butternut squash frozen dessert.
I think what I love most about this squash is its nutritional qualities. One cup of mashed squash has 2 grams protein and 18 grams carbohydrates (don't freak out, these are "good carbs"). The stuff is also packed with riboflavin, iron, Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Thiamin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Calcium and Magnesium, as well as plenty of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Potassium and Manganese. To make the deal even "sweeter" this same cup weighs in at only 80 and calories and just 1 gram fat. If you were to eat an entire POUND of this stuff (that's a lot of squash!) it would still only cost you about 180 calories. There are more calories than that in a HANDFUL of nuts!
One of the most universal ways to prepare this squash is to make a purée. This purée is simple to make and, if left thick, can be used as gravy or diluted to make a wonderful soup. Often, I will enhance the flavor and nutritional quality of the soup by adding a cooked grain such as Quinoa. When I do that, my soup becomes an entire meal!
As with all recipes, this one is simply a guideline. I encourage you to make this recipe your own by adding some of your favorite flavors.
To begin, prepare some mirepoix (pronounced meer pwah). Of course this is just a fancy French way to say chopped onions, carrots, and celery. The French use this particular combination of "aromatics" to begin many classic soups and sauces. I find it works real well here and I tend to use the traditional ratio of one part carrot, one part celery and two parts onion. Occasionally, I will substitute leek for the onion and, if I want to add sweetness, I will double or triple the carrots. For the liquid component, I usually use vegetable stock although I hear chicken stock works just as well. When I make a large pot, I tend to refrigerate the thick purée in mason jars. This leaves me open to blend in baked, puréed fruit, thin it with coconut milk, or add peanut butter or. . . and the list goes on. Once I have the purée in the fridge, I have about 100 different meal options.
Ingredients:
*1 large onion, diced (Remember, you can also use leeks. Shallots are also a nice addition) *4 cloves garlic, minced (Optional)
*4 carrots, sliced
*3 stalks celery, diced
*2 large butternut squash, peeled and chopped
(or, simply cut squash in half and roast, once cooled the squash can be scooped out of skin. I find roasting first enhances flavor and saves me the trouble of peeling and dicing.)
*5 cups vegetable broth (Varies depending upon desired thickness)
*2 tbsp chopped fresh sage (Rosemary is also nice, I have also used thyme. If I plan to make a stock purée, I go light on the seasonings.)
*Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
In a large soup pot, sweat the onion and garlic in vegetable broth until onions turn soft, about 3 to 5 minutes.Add the carrots and celery and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes.
Add the squash and add enough vegetable broth to cover the softened veggies and sprinkle in the sage. (For a thinner soup, simply add more broth.)
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a slow simmer.
Allow to cook for at least 25 minutes, or until squash is soft (that is, if you did not roast it already).
While you can certainly use a potato masher or a large fork to mash your creation into gravy, I prefer POWER TOOLS. As many of you might remember from the kitchen disasters chronicled in my article "Real Men Make Hummus - With Power Tools!", I love my immersion blender. If you don't have one of these wonders of modern kitchen mechanization, you can still use food processor or blender to puree the mixture but, the immersion blender is much more fun! Just be careful, if you don't take it off the heat before you puree it, the thickened liquid will bubble up on you and it will spit and sputter hot squash all over you and your stovetop. A word of advice, have the cover to the top at the ready! As with many soups, the taste appears to improve if allowed to set in the fridge overnight.
Remember, be creative! I often add pears, apples, raisins, cranberries, sweet potato, parsnips, turnips and even rutabaga to the soup (not to mention a wide range of herbs and spices) and I am rarely disappointed with the results of my experiments. The idea is to have fun. One word of caution is that you pay close attention to the calories of what you are putting into this soup. While the basic soup is only about 200 calories a POUND, you could easily make a 500 calorie cup of soup by adding peanut butter or too much walnut oil (by the way a few drops of walnut oil is very nice). One way I deal with the peanut butter problem is by adding powdered "de-fatted" peanut flour instead of peanut butter. I find it gives me all the flavor of peanut butter with far fewer calories.
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