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New Recipes From Moosewood Restaurant: Autumnal Flavors

creamy squash soup, Middle Eastern carrot salad

SoupInBowlNew Recipes From Moosewood Restaurant appears to be one of the last comprehensive vegetarian cookbooks left on my list. I thought of putting it off, saving it for later so I wouldn’t have too long a run of Recipes of the Damned books. But I had picked up acorn squash at the Greenmarket and needed to find something to do with it. None of the other cookbooks yielded CarrotSalad3satisfactory options, but Moosewood came through. I may shed a tear later this fall as I wrangle Jell-O and canned pineapple, but it was all smiles at the dinner table last night.

We have a houseguest, staying for a time while professional cleaners take care of smoke damage from a fire near her building. We’ve been indulging in AcornSquasha fair amount of Thai delivery, I admit, but we’ve also done some collaborative cooking, and last night we decided to put together a light and flavorful dinner. She contributed poached tilapia, rice pilaf and steamed summer squash, and I provided creamy squash soup and Middle Eastern carrot salad.

AcornSquashSeedsI started the soup by cutting an acorn squash in half and scooping out the seeds. I rubbed some olive oil on a baking sheet and put the squash halves in the oven for an hour. While it baked, I put together the carrot salad, which I’ll describe below. When the squash was done I set it to cool, and did my prep for the soup base: I chopped up a couple of onions, a carrot, a couple of small SquashRoastedpotatoes, and two Granny Smith apples. I heated some olive oil and sauteed the onions until they were soft and translucent, then added the carrot, potatoes and apples along with 3 1/2 cups of water. I brought this to a boil and let it simmer about 20 minutes, until the chunks were softened. Then I added the squash, scooped out of its skin, plus 1 1/2 cups of apple juice (one could also use milk or SoupBasecream, but our guest can’t eat dairy).

Now it was time to do the magic. The directions say to combine all the ingredients and puree the soup in batches using a food processor or blender. I think our food processor is still out of commission, and there are a whole lot of things I’d rather do than transfer hot liquid back and SoupBaseCookingforth from pan to blender jar. But I have an immersion blender attachment for my hand mixer, so I was able to puree the soup without dirtying any new vessels. Well, mostly; I had a very brief practical reminder that when you are using an immersion blender, it is crucial not to lift up the stick while it’s running. Unless you like mopping puree off random surfaces. I lost very little soup to ScoopingOutRoastedSquashthat, happily, and in less than five minutes I had a nice pot of smooth, pleasingly colored puree. I returned the pan to the heat, stirred in a bit of cinnamon and some salt and pepper, and let it keep warm while we got the rest of the dinner together.

While the squash cooked I did all the salad prep. I had picked up some enormous, delicious carrots SoupPureedat the Greenmarket as well, and I spent a fair bit of time shredding them to produce four cups of carrot bits. To these I added lemon juice, olive oil, ground cumin (it was supposed to be coriander but I was out and cumin is close enough in my estimation), chopped fresh mint, chopped fresh parsley, and salt. I stirred it all together, tasted, and considered: Did I want to add the ShreddedCarrotsoptional touch of sweetener? The mixture was fairly aggressive as it stood, with the carrots’ blend of bitterness and sweetness, the fresh burst of mint, the sharp tang of lemon juice. I decided to go for it, and stirred in a teaspoon of maple syrup, then tasted again. The difference was surprising; the sweet tones pulled together the more extreme of the savory flavors, and the distinct ParsleyAndMinttaste of maple played beautifully off the carrots. I stirred once more and put the salad in the fridge to chill.

When the meal was all ready, I brought out the salad and spooned soup into small bowls. The flavor of the salad balanced nicely against the smooth, rich fish and the earthy rice pilaf, but the textural contrast was also a IngredsForCarrotSaladbig part of its appeal. And the soup was surprising: sweeter than I had expected, it had a velvety texture that was light and not cloying but very satisfying.

Verdict: Success. I should make up some more batches of the soup to freeze for winter. I have squash left.

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