fall | A CoLoRfUl PaLaTe

Ooooh Fall I love you.

Every time I find myself feeling slightly saddened about the end of summer and impending onslaught of cold weather and snow storms, I have to stop myself and go take a walk. Right now, the trees are BEAUTIFUL (living through a New Hampshire winter is worth it!) and the temperatures are PERFECT. There is literally nothing about this season to dislike.

And I could go on and on about how this is the best time of year for farm-fresh veggies, but if you’re reading this you probably already know this, so instead I will just move ahead to the reason you’re here and give you this recipe for potato and roasted red pepper soup. It has all the farm veggie essentials loaded right in, and is super easy to make.

What You Need:

6-7 smaller sized red potatoes, skins on, diced into cubes
1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
5-7 red small-medium sized red peppers, seeded and sliced
1 jalapeno, roughly sliced
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
About 3 cups vegetable broth. I made mine using my tried and true vegetable broth recipe.
2 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 tsp. dried parsley
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/4 cup chives chopped
1/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated

What You Do:

Preheat oven to 350F

Add your veggies to a large baking dish and bake for about 20-30 minutes, or until the veggies are soft and emitting juices.

While the veggies are cooking, fill a large pot with enough water to cover all your cubed potatoes. Add potatoes, cover, and bring to a slow boil, watching to ensure the water doesn’t foam and bubble over.

When boiling, turn down to a simmer, and leave covered, cooking until potatoes are soft and fork tines easily pierce through.

When both the potatoes and vegetables are done cooking, add everything to your food processor and pulse, being careful to just roughly blend and not puree. We want this to be a little chunky with standout potato pieces!

Transfer the blended mixture to the large pot and, keeping the pot on low-medium heat, and add 3 cups of vegetable broth (you may need slightly more or less depending on your mixture and how thick you prefer your soup.)

Stir well until well mixed and soupy.

Pour into bowls, and top with chives and cheese. Then, enjoy!

Pro Tip: This is an awesome way to create almost a week’s worth of food without really doing too much. You can beef up this soup to an even larger total yield by adding additional ingredients like your favorite type of bean (cooked and roughly blended into the mixture), shredded chicken (cooked and added at the same time as the vegetable broth), or a 28oz can of diced tomatoes, with juices (this will cut down on the amount of broth you have to add).

Ok. I know I have some explaining to do.

I’m making a somewhat sheepish return to this blog with my tail between my legs; this newest post clouded by the undeniable fact that it has been LITERALLY MONTHS since my last post, which is not only unfair to those who actually read and like my blog (thank you!) but is also really sad because I’m letting the entire fall season virtually pass by without posting any of the great fall vegetable recipes that make this time of year a true delight.

I’m sorry. I have no excuse. You should know that I have still been cooking, so you will finally get to take part in that experience. I hope these next recipes will be at least marginally useful to you, even though fall is half over.

Some exciting news though! It was my birthday the other day, which means I’ve been blogging steadily (don’t say it) for about a year! I find this to be among my top accomplishments as a person, and to celebrate, I bestow upon you this quintessentially fall dish, which I owe to the wonderful people at Barker’s Farm in Stratham, NH for hooking me up with some of the coolest must-have squashes of the season (You know how I feel about squashes – **swoon**)

What You Need:

Two medium or large carnival squashes (or four smaller ones if you’re feeding several people or prefer smaller portions) If you don’t have or can’t find a carnival squash, acorn squash is the most similar, and delicata would also be delicious.
2 medium or large apples, any type (I used Cortland) peeled and cut into apple pie-type chunks
1 tbsp butter, very soft or melted
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 cup diced red onion
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 habanero or hot pepper of choice, finely chopped (optional)
1 tsp chili powder
1 cup dry quinoa, cooked according to package directions
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice (I used goat cheese because that is what we had in the fridge)

What You Do:

Preheat oven to 400F

Cut the squash lengthwise from stem to bottom and scoop out the seeded insides.

Lightly brush the squash’s insides with butter, lay skin-side-down on a foil-covered baking sheet, and place in the oven to bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until it appears to be caramelizing and easily lets a fork through.

While the squash is baking, cook the quinoa.

While the quinoa is cooking, place the garlic, onion and hot pepper in a frying pan over low-medium heat with 1 tbsp oil.

When they become soft and translucent, add the apple pieces and stir until well-mixed.

Add the brown sugar and chili powder, salt and pepper and continue stirring until the apples become warm and juicy (but still maintain their shape and don’t get mushy) and are well-mixed with the sugar and spices.

Once the quinoa is cooked, add it to the apple mixture in spoonfuls to gauge how much you need to make a nice balanced mix of quinoa and apple mixture. I found 2 cups of quinoa was enough to create a decent amount for stuffing the squash.

When the squash has cooked, place them skin-side-down in a baking dish.

Gently scoop the apple and quinoa mixture into each squash.

Sprinkle your cheese of choice over the top of each (optional) and place back in the oven for about 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted. (If you choose not to use cheese you can skip this step. It’s plenty hot at this point!)

Pro Tip: Add shredded chicken instead of or in addition to the quinoa to make it a non-vegetarian dish. If you’re a fan of raisins (I’m not), sprinkle some into the apple mixture while it’s cooking to add a new texture and flavor.