Roasted butternut squash and tomato soup + chickpea curry
Winter is here. It's a brisk mid-50's in the early mornings / evenings and finally a warm mid 70's in the afternoons. I think LA winter is my favorite time of year. Because of the chillier weather, everyone has started pulling on boots, wearing darker colors, and making soup. So now it's socially acceptable to wear all black? My kind of time.
I've been receiving Imperfect Produce boxes for the past few weeks, and though I don't love everything I receive (sometimes tiny oranges just don't make the cut for a reason), I do appreciate that it makes me choose a wider variety of fruits and vegetables than what I would usually choose from the grocery store.
This week I roasted my Imperfect (but actually totally perfect) butternut squash with a bunch of Roma tomatoes and red bell peppers. I blended it to make a creamy soup served with a pesto grilled cheese, then used the leftover soup and transformed it into curry. The entire process required quite a few kitchen appliances, but was overall all very easy to put together. Very delicious, will make again - especially the curry.
Roasted butternut squash and tomato soup (serves 4-6)
1 butternut squash, halved
8 Roma tomatoes, halved
2 red bell peppers, halved
1 inch knob ginger, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups broth (low sodium vegetable or chicken)
1/2 cup kefir
2 tsp white wine
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp tumeric1/2 tsp black pepper
1 bay leaf
olive oil
1. Preheat oven to 400F. Rub olive oil on insides of squash, place cut side down onto pan. Line pan with tomatoes and bell pepper. Top with olive oil. Bake for 40 minutes.
2. In the meantime, sautee onion, ginger, celery, and garlic in 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large pot. Add white wine. Once onions are browned, add broth and bring to a boil.
3. Add squash, tomato, and peppers to pot. Add kefir, paprika, tumeric, black pepper, and bay leaf. Turn down heat and bring to a simmer for half an hour.
4. After soup has slightly cooled, remove bay leaf and immerse soup into blender until smooth consistency.
✓ plant based protein
✓ vegetables
✓ vitamin A
✓ fiber
✓ low sodium
Chickpea curry (serves 2)
2 cups roasted butternut squash and tomato soup
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 block Japanese curry
Optional: carrot, potato*
1. In a small saucepan, bring soup to a light boil. Add curry block.
2. Once curry block is dissolved, add chickpeas. Simmer for 3 minutes.
*If adding carrot and potato, sautee with olive oil first before commencing with step 1.
✓ plant based protein
✓ vegetables
✓ vitamin A
✓ fiber
✓ low sodium
