Squash & Gourds
1180 recipes found
Ultimate Pumpkin Pie
The type of pumpkin used to make canned pumpkin purée is very close to sweet winter squashes like butternut and honeynut. Making your own fresh purée from these varieties will give you the best possible pumpkin pie, one that’s both ultracreamy and richly flavored. Just don’t be tempted to halve the whole squash and bake it still in the skin. Cutting it into cubes allows for the most evaporation and condensation for the best texture and taste. If using a glass or ceramic pie pan, you might want to parbake the crust. Since glass doesn’t conduct heat as well as metal, the crust may not cook through if you don’t parbake.
Vegetarian Chili With Winter Vegetables
I have made several versions of vegetarian chili; in some the beans take center stage, others are just as focused on vegetables. This thick, satisfying chili is equally focused on both. I particularly like the way the sweet flavor and comforting, creamy texture of the winter squash plays against the spicy flavors in the chili.
Mushroom-Butternut Squash Strata
This golden-topped strata has a savory mushroom and butternut squash filling, which gives it a complex, earthy flavor. Mozzarella adds mild richness, while the Parmesan gives everything a hit of salt and depth. You’ll need to let the strata sit in the fridge for at least eight hours (and preferably overnight) before baking. This allows the bread to soak up all the custard. Then, run it under the broiler after baking so the edges become crunchy and pleasingly singed. It’s a lovely main dish for a celebratory brunch or meatless supper, or a hearty side dish with roast chicken or fish for dinner.
Roasted Butternut Squash With Brown Butter Vinaigrette
This roasted butternut squash is every bit as caramelized as you’d want it to be, without the prep work that’s usually involved. First, it’s cooked without being peeled: The skin is a crisp counterpart to the jammy interior. (If you do want to get rid of the peel, it tears away easily after roasting.) Then, it’s dressed with a vinaigrette made with brown butter, vinegar and dried chile. Mint is added for freshness and flaky salt for crunch, and you could also throw on some cheese — Parmesan, Gruyère, ricotta — for more richness. Serve the squash over sturdy salad greens, or add nuts or pepitas to the browning butter for more texture.
Delicata Squash and Corn Fritters
These vegetable-packed fritters are crispy around the edges and tender in the center. Delicata squash has a thin skin that can be left on, adding color and a dose of nuttiness. Corn adds pops of sweetness, while moist zucchini helps bind the patties. Fragrant fried sage leaves do double duty in this dish: First they infuse the oil with herbaceous flavor, then they become a beautiful, crisp garnish. For the best results, fry the fritters and serve immediately; however, they can also be made a few hours ahead and reheated at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes until hot and crisp.
Chili- and Cinnamon-Roasted Butternut Squash
Roasting butternut squash at a high temperature helps the sugars caramelize, bringing out a sweetness that pairs perfectly with fall flavors like cinnamon and cayenne. This recipe plays on the duality of butternut squash – its savory and sweet components. The ground cinnamon complements the caramelization, and the chili powder and cayenne play on the vegetable’s more savory profile. The cayenne also adds a kick, though you can omit it if you prefer to keep this dish’s heat limited to the more subtle chili powder.
Roasted Delicata Squash Purée
Cold Pork Rice Noodles With Cucumber and Peanuts
Sometimes you want dinner to be cold. For those evenings, there's this make-ahead pork and rice noodle dish, offering a robust infusion of zing from garlic, fish sauce and tons of fresh herbs plus plenty of flexibility. Add more peanuts and basil, or go heavy on the mint and lime. Use pork tonight, and ground turkey or chicken the next time; it’s your choice. This basic formula is easily adapted, and the components pack up easily for a work lunch or another night’s dinner. To make this vegetarian, substitute semi-firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, for the pork, and substitute a few tablespoons of soy sauce for the fish sauce.
Classic Chicken Schnitzel With Smashed Cucumbers
If making chicken schnitzel sounds hard, perhaps it’s because you’ve never tried. The technique itself is so simple, effective and addictive that you might find yourself turning to it all the time. For the crispest crust, you'll want to keep the hot oil circling the schnitzel as it cooks, creating a little space between the crust and the chicken. As for the side, giving your cucumbers and green beans a good whack with the rolling pin opens them up and creates crevices that soak up the harissa and garlic. Be generous with the squeezes of lemon at the end. They'll bring the chicken and spiced cucumbers to their fullest flavor.
Brandied Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin pie made with canned pumpkin is all well and good, but pumpkin pie made with fresh butternut squash purée is even better. Thin-skinned and easy to cut, butternut squash turns soft and velvety if you roast it, and a quick whirl in the food processor or a blender quickly reduces to it to a luscious purée. Here we’ve kept the seasonings on the light side to best showcase the character of the squash. But feel free to amp up the cinnamon and ginger if you like a spicier slice. The brandy is optional, and if you’d rather not use it, you can leave it out or substitute another spirit; bourbon is excellent. (Don't let making your own pie crust intimidate you: our pie guide has everything you need to know.)
Lamb Stew With Chickpeas and Butternut Squash
There is no high drama about simmering a stew. However fine, stew is a homey, intimate exchange, a paean to the way living things improve when their boundaries relax, when they incorporate some of the character and flavor of others. Soulful, a word inextricably linked with a good sturdy stew, is the payoff to the cook who plans a little and has the patience to abide. Here, long-simmered lamb combines with chickpeas and butternut squash to yield a stew rich with the flavors of cumin, cardamom and coriander, that can help keep a chilly night at bay.
Dudhi Kofta Curry (Indian Squash Dumplings)
The Indian cookbook author Raghavan Iyer experienced his first Thanksgiving, in Minnesota, in the early 1980s. “Coming from a land of spice, I thought, ‘Man, how boring,’" he recalled. He shared this recipe for squash dumplings in a creamy tomato sauce spotted with cashews and raisins, a bright and spicy dish welcome on any table, any time of the year. In a pinch? The sauce and dumplings can be prepared a day ahead and refrigerated separately.
Cazuela
Puerto Rican cazuela, a richly spiced crustless pie with a texture between thick custard and bread pudding, is a unique dessert with a complex history. The name means “cooking pot” in Spanish, and the key ingredients — batata (white sweet potato), pumpkin and coconut milk — and the traditional cooking process speak to the island’s African ancestry. Flavored with ginger, cloves, cinnamon and anise, this dish also includes spices brought to the Caribbean during the spice trade. Cazuela has been prepared since at least the 19th century, and today it’s largely reserved for holidays. This version is an adaptation of the classic, with sweet plantain added for flavor, and a tip for using canned ingredients. While this dessert may seem challenging at first glance, it is incredibly adaptable and can be prepared days in advance in a casserole dish, ramekins or even foil cupcake tins.
Pumpkin Flan
This flan recipe comes from Margarita Velasco, who left Cuba for America when she was 10. She got it from a relative who for years made it when Ms. Velasco and her family would gather for big American-style Thanksgiving dinners. Ms. Velasco makes it with three kinds of squash: butternut, a cooking pumpkin like a calabaza and canned pumpkin. But it works just as well with a mix of pulp from the squash and the pumpkin, which you can get by cutting them into large chunks, seeding them and then roasting or boiling. In a pinch, you could use canned pumpkin.
Pumpkin Panna Cotta
When you want a pumpkin dessert, but not the heft of a pie, this light and creamy make-ahead custard will do the trick. It's surprisingly simple to prepare; just combine the ingredients in a saucepan, heat, then strain through a sieve and chill for at least 3 hours. Divine.
Roasted Vegetable Bibimbap
The vegetarian cookbook author Lukas Volger has a way with Asian condiments and flavors. In this recipe for bibimbap, the egg-topped Korean rice bowl, he roasts squash, shiitakes and broccoli rabe in a sweet and spicy mix of soy, chile paste, sugar and oil. Mr. Volger crisps cooked rice in a skillet to get the characteristic crunch of bibimbap; you can prepare the rice up to three days ahead, but be sure to crisp it just before serving. If you want to skip that step, use freshly cooked rice instead.
Shell Bean Ragout
Shell beans take less than half the time to cook than their dried counterparts. Look for varieties such as mottled pink and white cranberry beans, also known as borlotti beans; large scarlet runner beans that are mottled and purple, despite the name; and pale yellow cannellini beans.
Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Walnut Pumpkin Butter
These homemade ravioli are simple to make but add a wow factor to the holiday table. And they can be made ahead and frozen, and cooked up in minutes on the day. Two (15-ounce) cans of pure pumpkin purée may be substituted for the fresh pumpkin if desired.
Shrimp in Green Mole
There are only three basic steps to making green mole: Whip up a purée of toasted pumpkin seeds, tomatillos and chiles in a blender; sear the purée in oil and cook it until it thickens slightly; then add chicken stock and simmer until the mixture is creamy. Once the sauce is done, you can poach shrimp right in it; it only takes five to eight minutes to cook them in the simmering mole. Better yet, you can make the sauce up to three days ahead and keep it refrigerated until you’re ready to use it, or freeze it (whisk or blend to restore its consistency after thawing).
Stuffed Baby Pumpkins
Sarah Frey, who sells more pumpkins than anyone else in America, often entertains retailers and produce executives at her farmhouse in southern Illinois. She likes to serve white baby pumpkins stuffed with spinach and cheese. Along with their orange counterparts, mini-pumpkins are often considered more decorative than culinary. But they make a dramatic side dish that can be stuffed with any manner of fillings that complement the layer of soft, cooked pumpkin that clings to the skin. This recipe uses Gruyère and kale, with pine nuts for texture and red pepper flakes for heat. The hardest part is carving off the pumpkin tops and cleaning out the tiny seeds. Bake for an hour, then test; it is hard to predict how much time each pumpkin takes to become tender when pierced with a fork.
Crispy Tofu With Sweet-and-Sour Sauce
Inspired by McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets dipped in sweet-and-sour sauce — a classic combination that debuted nationwide in 1983 — this tofu appetizer gets its inexorable crunch from potato starch. Pan-fried until shatteringly crisp, pressed tofu, cut into cute little rectangles, eats a lot like Chicken McNuggets and cooks up gorgeously every time. But the true joy of a nugget lies in the dipping, and this recipe stars a totally chill, no-cook sweet-and-sour sauce. Apricot preserves provide fruity sweetness as well as body, and rice vinegar, soy sauce and onion powder add savoriness.
Eintopf (Braised Short Ribs With Fennel, Squash and Sweet Potato)
There are as many versions of eintopf, a hearty German stew, as there are people who love it. A traditional eintopf may include bratwurst and sauerkraut, but it’s how it is cooked that’s important (eintopf translates to “one pot”). This particular recipe, made with bone-in short ribs, is braised until the meat melts off the bone. Fennel — fresh bulb and dried seeds — stars in the braise, while the fronds are sliced for garnishing. Every bite of this stew bursts with flavor, and, as is the case with so many one-pot meals, this dish will only improve with time as all the ingredients sit and mingle. Serve this hot off the stove, with some warm crusty bread for dipping. If you plan to save it for later, reserve the fresh greens for stirring in right before serving.
Gamja Salad With Cucumber, Carrot and Red Onion
Gamja (“potato”) salad is likely to be included among a sea of other banchan at Korean restaurants, and is typically mounded on a plate using an ice cream scoop. It’s similar to mashed potatoes in texture, mayo-laden like many potato salads, and studded with crunchy vegetables and hard-boiled egg. It’s generally a restaurant food, but when home cooks do make it, the salad might be sandwiched between two slices of soft white bread and eaten for lunch. The world is your oyster when it comes to gamja salad: It may include apples, peas, corn kernels, raisins and even nuts, and you can add whatever you like and nix whatever you don’t. But the cucumber is gibon (“standard”), and essential, because it adds a vegetal freshness that pulls this dish back from feeling heavy in any way.
Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts
These fuss-free (no electric mixer needed!) pumpkin doughnuts are flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg, classic spices we associate with fall. But they’re also loaded with pumpkin pureé, which makes them moist and flavorful and gives them their orangey hue. They’re finished with a simple — and forgiving — vanilla glaze that sets beautifully. If your glaze is too thick to dip, just add a little more milk. If your glaze is too thin and runs off the doughnut, add a little more confectioners’ sugar.