Thursday, January 13, 2011

Apres Soup

So, even though I tried to halve the recipe, the batch of butternut squash soup I made yesterday was vastly more than my Lovely Bride® could possibly eat. Even after I gave a bunch to the very helpful neighbor who helped dig me out of the snowpocalypse, and accounting for the pint I plan to take to work for lunch tomorrow, there was still plenty left over.

So naturally I fired up the thrift-shop Seal-a-Meal, and sealed up and froze three pint bags, each of which should be one full meal or two side portions. It feels good to be filling the chest freezer with home-cooked meals for the future!

In addition, while seeding and scraping the butternut squash yesterday, I noticed that the seeds looked like slightly smaller pumpkin seeds. This should've been no surprise to me; butternuts are so similar to pumpkins that Alton Brown suggested them as a potential main ingredient for pumpkin pie on a recent episode of Good Eats. So I reserved the seeds and toasted them (~25 minutes @325°F), tossed in a tiny bit of canola oil, some curry powder, pepper, and kosher salt. Just like pumpkin seeds, they make a great snack... and just like pumpkin seeds, I couldn't stop myself from eating them all!

3 comments:

  1. What? No sharing with Lovely Bride®?

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  2. I have that very same problem. I roast all my seeds - pumpkin or squash - and then usually no one else is fast enough to get them!

    One thing I do before roasting is to let them sit for an hour or so in a relatively strong brine then rinse them off well before roasting. It adds just a little saltiness that I find nice. Not good if you want to reduce your Na intake though.

    JC

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  3. Dietra, she's having problems with her teeth at the moment, and so wasn't interested in the seeds (she loved the soup, though). It's not so much that I hogged them from other folks, as that I always hope to have toasted seeds around for a couple days of casual snacking... but always end up finishing them off in one sitting.

    Jack, good tip about brining them. I did wish they were a little saltier, despite having used what I thought was a good amount of salt. I'll give it a try next time.

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