An easy kabocha puree (Early Days cont'd)

Hey there! Look, I am posting a recipe! There is something I haven't done in a while.

You can probably imagine that with two small people on my hands, I have been attracted to dishes that don't take very long or involve much active prep time. This is something I threw together really quickly, but I'm delighted with how it turned out so I'm recording it for future use.

While at the farmer's market last week, one of my friends recommended I try out a variety of kabocha squash that I hadn't had before. The sad thing is that it's been less than two weeks and I've already forgotten the name of the squash... maybe something with "candy" or "sweet" in the name... sort of a pasty green exterior. (Not one of those super dark green kabochas.) I had thought about roasting it and eating slices of it, but no one in the house really likes squash that much except me so instead I threw this soup together.

So! here it is:



Sweet roasted kabocha-beer puree
Serves 4-6 as an entree

1 medium sweet kabocha squash (3-4 lbs including rind)
olive oil for spraying
2 tsps olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 tbsp earth balance
~1 c unsweetened soy milk
2/3rds bottle of beer - I used something amber-y, I think a darker beer might have been nice too
salt & pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400F to roast squash.
2. Cut squash in half, scoop out seeds & guts. Spray halves lightly with olive oil and place cut side down on a baking sheet.
3. Bake squash for 45 minutes or til tender.
4. When squash has 10 minutes left, heat olive oil in a pan over medium-high.
5. Add onions and a pinch of salt and cook until onions start to caramelize, about 10 minutes.
6. Allow squash to cool just enough to scoop it out of its peel. As soon as it's cool enough, scoop the flesh out into a large sauce pot.
7. Add earth balance to squash flesh and stir to combine. Add a bit of soy milk if too thick to stir.
8. Place onions in food processor with about 1c of the squash flesh. Puree, then return to pan.
9. Add the rest of the soy milk and the beer, and mix well to combine.
10. Taste for salt and pepper and add as needed.

That's all! Like 15 minutes of active work for a very delicious soup that's pretty easy on the eyes. I liked it a lot. The Emperor ate one bite of it and was not thrilled with it. Josh seemed to like it okay.

We ate it with some garlic toast, but it'd also be nice with your choice of crackers (gluten-y or gluten-free) and/or maybe a salad on the side...

Bonus meal: here's yesterday's dinner:



Hot sauce glazed tempeh (the Veganomicon recipe with a couple of tweaks... broth instead of wine and a bit of ketchup added), baked sweet potato fries, and sauteed greens. The Emperor consented to eat one triangle of tempeh and 2.5 sweet potato fries.

We had a great day today-- our first day where I was home with the Emperor & the Magician and no other adult for backup-- so I don't know why the best picture I got of the Emperor makes him look so sullen. But here you are anyway:



And here's the Magician, who is 3 weeks old (!!) today:



He celebrated by finally getting a belly button. Woo!