Roasted Squash and Beet Salad

Perhaps it won't take you three attempts at roasting squash (like it did for me) to make this salad with roasted squash and beets, dried cranberries, pepitas, and goat cheese inspired by a very similar salad I ate from the grab-and-go case at Talula's Table in Kennett Square.

Roasting squash is not hard at all, I promise. I just had a serious space case, and effed up royally -- twice in a row! But you will need to devote some time to roasting squash and beets, and toasting squash seeds, so that's why I'd deem this salad a special occasion salad, and not a quick what's-in-my-crisper-I'm-hungry salad.

This is really lame, but I'm not including a dressing. The salad at Talula's Table came with apple cider vinaigrette, and I hated it (liked the salad, obviously). I attempted an apple cider vinaigrette from Ina Garten for my rendition, and I hated it, too. According to everyone else, Talula's and Ina can do no wrong, so obviously I'm crazy. Just use your favorite vinaigrette. Mine is just straight-up balsamic vinegar.

Roasted Squash and Beet Salad
serves 6

2-3 large beets, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch dice
1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch dice
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
pepper
1/3 cup pepitas
1/2 cup dried cranberries
6 ounces goat cheese
mixed greens, enough for 6 (who measures?), washed and dried

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. The next three bullets can all take place in the oven at the same time, but have different baking times
  
• In a baking dish, toss beets with 1 tablespoon olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until tender, flipping beets half way through. (You can bake beets whole, then peel and dice, too, if you wish, but it'll take about 1 hour)
• In a seperate baking dish, toss squash with 1 tablespoon olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until tender (not squishy, though), flipping squash half way through.
  
• If using the seeds from the inside of your squash instead of purchasing pepitas at the grocery, wash pulp from seeds, dry seeds, and place in an oiled baking dish, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and bake for about 25 minutes, or until golden, checking and stirring after 10 minutes.
• Time to plate! Arrange greens on either individual plates or on one large platter. Top with roasted beets, roasted squash, pepitas, dried cranberries, and goat cheese. And the dressing of your choice.
  

Beet Curry Soup

I was a little more than disappointed with my last beet soup - a classic and spartan borscht. And, yet, I was so excited to make that borscht, as I've never eaten borscht before (not in my family's recipe repertoire, and rarely found on menu's unless you're at a Polish or other Eastern European restaurant).

I followed a recipe from Olive Trees and Honey, a Jame's Beard award-winning cookbook of authentic Jewish vegetarian recipes, but its borscht recipe with meager onion, vinegar and sugar stock, cubed beets, and sour cream garnish just did not impress. I chalk this up to the fact that I like bolder flavors, and borscht is a simple soup. I still would love to try another version of vegetarian borscht, though (hint, hint, borscht recipe holders). Maybe a version with more variety of vegetables, since I went bare bones borscht the first round.

I still couldn't shake the need for beet soup, so now I present you with a beet soup my taste buds can get behind. And yours will too, if you like bold flavors. Roasted beets add an earthiness, apples add sweetness, and ginger and curry paste add that kick I so love in food.

One word of warning: the recipe I followed called for 1 to 2 tablespoons of curry paste, which I found a bit vague since there are many curry pastes out there. I went with a green curry paste, and started by adding less than 1 tablespoon, but that already was too much. So, do start with a much smaller amount of curry paste, as curry pastes are very different, and add more if needed.

Beet Curry Soup
adapted from The NY Times
serves 6-8

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large beets (2 1/2 pounds total)
4 tablespoons butter
1 medium sweet onion, finely chopped
2 apples, finely chopped
4 cups vegetable broth, more if needed
1 teaspoon ginger, grated
1 tablespoons curry paste
salt, to taste
yogurt or sour cream, (optional garnish)

• In a bowl, drizzle oil over beets, and toss to coat. Put beets on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour, or until beets can be pierced easily. When cool enough to handle, peel beets and chop into large chunks.
• In a large pot, melt butter and saute onions until caramelized, about 10-15 minutes. Add apples, broth, ginger, curry paste, salt to the pot. Bring to a boil, and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, or until apples are soft.
• Pour soup into a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Adjust seasoning and add more broth if too thick.
  
• Garnish with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream.
  

Raw Beet Salad with Goat Cheese and Apple

I won Jamie Oliver’s cookbook, Cook with Jamie, from Serious Eats, and it arrived a few weeks ago! (Yes! Won! I can't believe it! This calls for one more exclamation point!)

This cook book, a couple of concert tickets, and a bouquet of Tootsie Pops are the extent of what I’ve won in my life from entering contests and playing bingo. I’m not the luckiest person, so I won’t be buying a lottery ticket anytime soon, and this recent winning guarantees that I won't be winning anything for the next three years – at least!

I think Serious Eats is, hands down, one of the best food sites out there, but I’m a little concerned about the state of their office space (my cookbook was covered in thick dust when I pulled it out of the padded shipping envelope), and wonder if a janitor made it into this year’s budget . No matter the filth, can’t beat free!

I’ve never watched Jamie’s cooking show, but I’ve caught him a few times on The Today Show before heading off to work, and he seems to be a very likable, chill dude that doesn't have a whisk up his ass. Cook with Jamie is a cookbook that covers the basics of cooking, and sticks to simple, fresh dishes. As Jamie states in the introduction, he thinks this cookbook should have been his first.Sliced beets before getting matchsticked.

My first dish from Cook with Jamie is the raw beet salad. Can you believe that I had never eaten a non-pickled beet until six years ago? It turns out I adore cooked beets, and eat them every chance I get. Now, can you believe I’ve never eaten raw beets until I tried this recipe? Turns out, I love raw beets, too.

This raw beet salad is very similar to coleslaw, which is up there at the top of the list of my favorite comfort foods. If you like the tang and crunch of coleslaw, but want to wow the crowd with color, I’d pull this recipe out.

Just like Jamie recommends in his book – substitutions, and a bit of this and a bit of that to suit your taste – I altered the recipe according to what I had on hand and my taste. It still turned out fabulous!

I used goat cheese instead of feta, green apple instead of pear, omitted the sprinkling of pine nuts, and changed the dressing to suit my love of tang and dislike of oil. (If you must know, the original dressing called for 3 ½ tablespoons lemon juice, 10 tablespoons olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste)

Raw Beet Salad with Goat Cheese and Apple
Adapted from Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver
Serves 4

4 beets, different colors if possible, washed, peeled, and cut into matchsticks
2 green apples, peeled, cored, and cut into matchsticks
7 ounces goat cheese
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
5 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
small bunch of fresh mint

• In a small bowl, mix lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper to make the dressing
• In a large bowl, pour the dressing over the beet and apple matchsticks.
• Individually plate the salad, and crumble goat cheese on top, and sprinkle with mint leaves.