Cooking Calabaza Squash #pumpkin #pumpkinpuree #GardenCuizine

Cooking Calabaza

(Pumpkin Puree)

Nutritious Calabaza squash (West Indian Pumpkin) grows in several parts of the world including: Central America, South America, parts of Africa and North America and throughout Caribbean tropical areas. Ours may have come from Costa Rica, we bought it at ShopRite. The squash was beautiful with streaks of green throughout the melon color. We usually prefer to buy and support locally grown Jersey Fresh produce. 

Locally grown Pumpkins or other varieties of large squash can be cooked in the same way described below. Simply wash and roast whole. There is no need to waist time and try and cut into a hard-as-a-rock, large pumpkin and risk getting cut; when cooked it slices like butter.

Ingredients
1 Calabaza squash

Cooking

• Before cooking, wash and rinse outside of squash. 
• Place the whole squash on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake in a pre-heated 375 deg.F oven for about 1 hr, 15 min. Take out and check to see if done. When cooked the flesh will feel soft when pressing on the sides.  Let it cool before touching so you don't burn your finger!

• Let cool on baking sheet another 10-minutes or so. 
• Cut out and remove top stem and cut the squash in half. 
• Allow to cool another few minutes and spoon out the seeds. 
• When cool enough to handle, spoon out flesh into food processor.
• Process until smooth.
• Store in freezer containers and freeze or refrigerate and use in recipes calling for pumpkin puree as needed.

Happy Fall Baking and Cooking!
Blog post and photos Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

Today in Our Garden @birdsblooms #NJ #gardenchat Growing food teaches us not to waste food or water

Today in Our Garden

Use it or lose it!
Food Appreciation

Our gardens exhaust us during August. Now is about the time every season when we slack off in the fight against fast growing weeds and make time to enjoy the birds and blooms. We also start collecting seeds for next years plantings and are busy canning and preserving in the kitchen.

As we think about all there is to do... food is ripening at a rapid rate. Use it or lose it!

• Picking and preparing fresh, organic, homegrown foods gives us a total appreciation for our food and our environment.

Vegetable gardening also makes me wonder: Would people eat less if they grew and prepared their own food? We know scientific studies show that people do eat more fruits and veggies when they garden, but would they eat less overall?

Tomatoes
Heirloom tomatoes are ripening faster than we can pick them! Favorites include Chocolate Cherry tomatoes (shown). Harry cooked our first homegrown San Marzano tomatoes and made 5 quarts of pasta sauce so far with more tomatoes cooking down now. We freeze the quarts.

As gardening cooks, we want to savor and not waste what we plant and harvest. Cooking down a stockpot full of homegrown, ripe, plum tomatoes (with added basil, garlic and onion) made us realize that it sure takes a lot of tomatoes to make just one quart of sauce.

Onions
Garden space needed for growing onions has made us appreciate the abundance of onions always available at the market. We picked our first Ailsa Craig onions yesterday. Most green tops died back and the onions easily pulled up from the soil.

We probably should have picked the onions sooner. And, we weren't sure what to do about the dirt on them? We rinsed the dirt off. The onions are now air drying on a table outside. As you can see, their shape is teardrop and not large and round. 

The fun of gardening includes learning from other gardeners. Stay tuned for updates on how to grow bigger and better onions. If you already know - please share.

Grapes
One of our best years! Mom even helped pick the grapes off the stems. We picked 13.5 lbs. from one, established red grapevine, which made 12 pints of organic grape jelly.

Cow Peas
Cool beans: Fagiolo Nano Dolico -dall'occho: Italian black-eyed peas climbed up into our tomato vines this year - another garden first for us. I didn't realize they climbed. The pods hang like green beans and can be eaten green or left on the plants to brown. I've been picking them as they turn brown and plan to make Hoppin John with homegrown black-eyed peas for good luck in the New Year. 

To release the peas, rub your finger along the pod edge. If the bean is dry enough, the edge will split like a zipper and the beans can easily be dumped out.

Acorn Squash
Look what I found this morning! We have acorn squash growing from rotten squash rejects that were tossed in the beds last Fall.

Happy and Healthy Gardening! 

Related Links
Backyard Gardening, Grow Your Own Food, Improve Your Health 
GardenCuizine Recipe Baked Nutty Acorn Squash

Blog post and photos Copyright(C)Wind. All rights reserved.

Pumpkin Pie made with Butternut Squash #GardenCuizine

Pumpkin Pie 

made with Butternut Squash
Low in saturated fat, a good source of calcium, 

and a very good source of Vitamin A

Have you ever noticed that Christmas carols sing of pumpkin pie being served during the holidays? "...when they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie..."

Baking your own pie guarantees quality ingredients for you, your family and friends. Enjoy pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and at Christmas too. 

This year we had locally grown butternut squash available so I made pumpkin pie using fresh roasted butternut squash instead of canned pumpkin. It was one of the best pumpkin pies ever! Try butternut squash for a delicious substitute to canned pumpkin.

Click here for my pumpkin pie recipe published online.

Simply substitute pureed butternut squash for canned pumpkin.

Looking for the perfect pumpkin pie crust? 
Click here for my GardenCuizine pumpkin pie dough recipe.

Happy Holidays!
Blog post and photo Copyright © Wind. All rights reserved.

Better Butternut Squash Soup #wintersquash #GardenCuizine #JerseyFresh

Better Butternut Squash Soup

I've been recently testing and tasting recipes for our first outpatient dietitian hospital cooking class at Inspira Health Network. The class - "Soup's On" - featured nutritious butternut squash soup. My recipe uses soy milk so that anyone who is lactose intolerant can enjoy it too. Heavy, calorie-laden cream is not needed to make delicious cream soups.

A quick Google search will reveal a variety of ways to make butternut squash soup. I posted a recipe years ago using cinnamon and vanilla soy milk. Back then, I may have used "vanilla" soy milk because that was all we had in the house at the time. This version tasted even better with added curry, fresh ginger root and plain, versus vanilla, soy milk.

And, for those who tell me that they can't afford to eat healthy: the soup cost only about 58 cents per cup - more evidence that you can Cook Healthy on a Budget!

Yields 3 quarts - note: freezes well

Ingredients
one 2 to 3 pound butternut squash OR 2 bags (16 oz. chopped frozen butternut squash)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots
1/8 teaspoon (tsp.) minced dried hot peppers from your garden (or hot pepper flakes)
1 tablespoon no salt butter (or vegetable oil)
1 tsp. fresh grated ginger root (or one cube of frozen ginger*)
1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. salt
pinch fresh grated black pepper
2 cups low fat chicken broth (or water)
1 quart plain soy milk (or 2% milk)

 

Putting it all together
Step 1
Decide how you want to cook the squash. 
Wash hands. 
If roasting squash: Preheat oven to 350 deg. F.
Wash vegetables
Prep onions, celery and carrots: peel and chop - set aside.

Step 2

• Prep squash: cut ends off both sides. 
• If sauteing directly in the soup pot: cut in half across the middle and peel skin; cut each piece lengthwise and scoop out seeds. Cut into cubes. OR for convenience use precut, frozen butternut squash.
• If baking: Cut in half across the middle; cut again so there are 4 pieces. Rub olive oil on cut sides of squash. Place squash cut side down on foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 deg. F. until soft (about 30 minutes); remove from oven - scoop out seeds. Return to oven and continue baking until squash is full cooked and the edges show caramelizing and a little browning.

Step 3

• In stockpot saute chopped veggies in 1 T butter or oil for 10 minutes
• Stir in hot pepper flakes
• Stir in remaining seasonings
• Add 2 cups broth OR water and bay leaf. Cover, simmer and cook until veggies are soft

Step 4

• Remove bay leaf
• Stir in milk
• Puree in blender or with hand-held immersion blender
• Taste and adjust seasonings as needed

Enjoy with a few homemade whole grain herb pita chips

Buon Appetito! 

GardenCuizine Nutrition Data Butternut Squash Soup: 1 cup soup
Excellent Source: Vitamin A, Vitamin C
Good Source: Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Riboflavin, Folate, B12, Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium

Calories: 111; total fat: 3g; Sodium 246mg (10%DV); total Carbohydrate: 20g; dietary Fiber: 1g (4%DV); Sugars 6g; Protein 4g; Vitamin A 17250IU (345%DV wow!); Vitamin C 22.6mg (38%DV); Vitamin D: ~39.7IU (~10%DV); Vitamin E ~2mg (~10%DV); Riboflavin 0.2mg (13%DV); Folate 32mcg (11%DV); B12 1mcg (17%DV); Calcium 170mg (17%DV); Magnesium 57mg (14%DV); Potassium 593mg (17%DV)
 *thanks D.A. for introducing me to frozen ginger cubes! Ask for frozen ginger at your local supermarket.
Photos and blog post Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

How to Cook Spaghetti Squash #GardenCuizine #wintersquash

Cooking Spaghetti Squash

Cooked spaghetti squash resembles spaghetti strands when pulled with a fork, making it unique among winter squashes. The pulled squash can be eaten as is, or tossed with pasta sauce or garlic butter - with, or without added veggies. Spaghetti squash tastes delicious sautéed with spinach. And, make extra because leftovers can be refrigerated and easily reheated.

Note: this is another GardenCuizine "freestyle" recipe, meaning that you can use any amount of the ingredients you desire based on how many people you are cooking for. You don't need to use specific amounts. However, for those who prefer to follow a recipe I will note the amounts for serving 4 people the next time I cook it. Winter squash can be cooked many different ways: boiling, sautéing, steaming; roasting is best flavor.

I recently made it for a crowd at Inspira Health Network's Bariatric Holiday Party!

Ingredients 
Spaghetti squash 
olive oil
salt and pepper

Additional ingredients for Spaghetti Squash with Spinach
chopped onion
pinch chopped hot peppers
garlic
butter (or olive oil)
Parmesan cheese (or grated soy cheese if vegan)
chopped Spinach
broth (veggie or chicken)

Putting it all together 
Preheat oven to 350° F

• Cut a small portion off of each end. Cut the squash lengthwise. 
• Rub olive oil on the cut side.
• Place cut side down on a foil lined baking sheet.
• Bake for 30 minutes.
• Take out of oven and scoop out seeds. Season with salt and pepper. Return to oven cut side down and continue baking until fully cooked and the flesh touching the foil is slightly browned (may take another 30 minutes or so).
• When done, flip squash halves over so that their cut side is now facing up. Using a fork, pull the squash out of the skin into a serving bowl. Set aside if planning to sauté with spinach. The empty skins can be used as serving bowls if desired.

Spaghetti Squash with Spinach: In a sauté pan over medium heat, melt butter (or olive oil). Add onion and hot pepper; cook until onion is translucent. Stir in garlic; stir in chopped spinach. Add cooked spaghetti squash; gently mix together with grated cheese. Add a little broth as needed to moisten. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Can be made ahead and reheated before serving. 

GardenCuizine Nutrition Data Spaghetti Squash coming soon...
Buon Appetito!

Copyright ©Wind. All rights reserved.

GardenCuizine Recipe: Baked Nutty (Streusel stuffed Acorn Squash)

Baked Nutty
~Streusel stuffed Acorn Squash~
Low Sodium, High Fiber

This recipe was inspired by good friends who made us this memorable acorn squash vegetable side dish for a holiday get together. Their recipe used crumbled crackers in a buttery, aromatic, filling, and we all loved it! Name the dish whatever you would like, our friend's family called it Baked Nutty, and now we do too.

Today, we serve this slightly revised version of Baked Nutty with a streusel filling. Streusel is made with butter (or soy margarine), brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, spices and optional nuts. I love to have it ready-made and available to use; we always have a tub of streusel handy in our freezer. Streusel can be used to top squash, sweet potato casseroles, muffins, coffee cakes, fruit crisps, etc. 

The below short and sweet recipe is our favorite way to cook, garden fresh, acorn squash. Each half is stuffed with homemade sweet, nutty streusel and baked in the oven. You would expect the recipe for something so delicious to be more complicated to make, but It couldn't be any simpler. Baked winter squash is outstanding on its own in both flavor and nutrition.

Winter Squash

Acorn, Butternut, Hubbard, Sweet Dumpling, and Spaghetti squash are just some of the many types of winter squash available at the market, or that can be homegrown in your garden. This coming summer will be the first time we are going to grow our own acorn squash (Cucurbito pepo).

Acorn squash is ideal for this dish because, when cut in half, the hollow part in the center forms a bowl shape that is perfect for filling. Each half can be served as its own serving or, if they are really large, they can be quartered after being cooked. This elegant vegetable is suitable for company or holiday meals, especially Thanksgiving. Baked Nutty has become a regular on our fall and winter menus.

Putting it all together
Serves 4-8
Preheat oven to 375° F (190° C)

Ingredients
2 acorn squash
1 cup streusel (our favorite is streusel made with roasted pecans and ginger, recipe link below)
olive oil
fresh ground black pepper
sprinkle salt (optional, omit for low sodium. We usually leave it out because some of us have high blood pressure. Trust me, you'll never miss it)

This recipe is short and sweet:  

• First wash and dry each acorn squash
• On a cutting board, carefully cut a sliver off the bottom ends and cut each squash in half
• On a baking pan lined with foil, drizzle some olive oil
• place the squash halves hollow side down and rub the cut sides around on the oil
  
• Bake for 30-40 minutes (do not over-bake or the squash may collapse) 
• When bottom edges are lightly caramelized, turn them over and carefully scoop out the seeds (they scoop out easy after cooking)
• Season each half with salt (optional) and fresh ground black pepper
• Fill each half with streusel

At this point, I may let the filled squash sit on the stove-top until the 

rest of the meal is just about ready

• When you are almost ready to serve dinner, return the squash to the oven for a final 20 minutes

~ Buon Appetito!

GardenCuizine Nutrition Analysis: Calculated using USDA Nutrient data
Excellent Source: dietary Fiber, Magnesium, Potassium, Manganese, Vitamin C, Thiamin, Vitamin B6
Good Source: Iron, Folate, Pantothenic acid

1 cup (205g) baked squash, no added salt, no streusel: Calories 115; Protein 2.3g; total fat 0g (0%DV); Carbohydrate 30g; dietary Fiber 9g (36%DV); Calcium 90mg (9%DV); Iron 1.91mg (11%DV); Magnesium 88mg (22%DV); Potassium 896mg (26%DV); Sodium 8mg (0%DV); Manganese .496mg (25%DV); Vitamin C 22.1mg (37%DV); Thiamin .342mg (23%DV); Niacin 1.8mg (9%DV); Pantothenic acid 1.03mg (10%DV); Vitamin B6 .398mg (20%DV); Folate 39µg (10%DV); Vitamin A 877IU (18%DV), Omega-3 76mg

Percent Daily Values (%DV) are reference values for adults and children age 4 or older, and are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your personal daily values may be higher or lower based on your individual needs.   

Recipe GardenCuizine Streusel: Nutty Ginger Streusel
Related Links:

Winter Squash Nutrition and info CDC, Fruits and Veggies More Matters  
Acorn Squash Stuffed with Chard and White Beans EatingWell Magazine Recipe

Many varieties of Acorn Squash Dave's Garden
Copyright © 2009 Wind. All rights reserved. Rev. 11/17/11