The recipes below feature ingredients that can be purchased at the NYC Greenmarkets.
Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 350
Cut the butternut squash in half, scoop out the seeds and pulp and set aside in a bowl. Place the squash in a shallow pan with a quarter inch of water in the bottom, cover in tin foil, and roast in the oven for approximately 30 minutes, or just until tender when pierced with a fork.
While squash is cooking, separate the seeds from the pulp and rinse. Roast the seeds with a little olive oil and salt, in a toaster oven, oven, or in a pan over the stove. Use low heat, because they cook fast! They are ready when they have just started to turn brown. Use these for garnish on the soup, or as a side dish.
Dice the white portion of the leek. Saute the onions, garlic, and leek in olive oil in the bottom of a large soup pot until light brown.
When the squash is done, remove from the oven and allow to cool enough until you can scoop out the insides without burning yourself. Add the squash, ginger, and three-quarters of the broth to the soup pot. Allow to simmer 30 minutes, stirring regularly.
Remove soup from heat and puree until soup is a smooth, consistent texture. An emersion blender is the best for this, although a regular blender can work. Just be careful not to burn yourself!
Add the rest of the broth, flavor with salt and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. That's it!
Garnish with squash seeds or parsley. I like to sprinkle a little curry powder on top, it adds a wonderful, warm flavor to the soup. You can also put in a little drop of sour cream or yogurt, or serve over brown rice.
Notes: Substitute the butternut squash for other kinds of squash. Buttercup squash has an even richer flavor than Butternut. Acorn squash and carnival squash are delicious as well. Experimentation highly encouraged!
Ingredients:
*-Cook as much as you want! I like to make a big batch, and eat leftovers for lunch at work.
Preheat oven to 400.
Chop beets and potatoes into one-inch chunks. Make sure to cut the beets a bit smaller than the potatoes, cause they cook slower. Put in a large mixing bowl.
Dice the rosemary and garlic and add to veggies. Throw in some olive oil, salt, and pepper and mix.
Put everything into a casserole dish, cover with tin foil, and bake for 30-45 minutes, until beets are just tender when poked with a fork. That's it!
Notes: I find that the garlic loses some of its flavor in the oven. You could cook it separately, with onions if you like, then add to the beets and potatoes when they are done cooking.
I like to serve this one with cous cous or brown rice and some leafy greens or steamed broccoli.
