Here is a great use for butternut squash (my fav!). It’s a lovely curried soup and it’s so easy to make. I served this for my friends when they came over for a “Fall Dinner” and they asked me if it was from a package because they thought it was too good. What a great compliment!

Curried Butternut Squash Soup (adapted from The Everyday Vegan)

• 1 large butternut squash, cooked (6-7 cups)
• 1 large yam, cooked
• 1 cup carrots, roughly chopped
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 cup sweet white onion, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup celery, roughly chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger
• 1 tsp Madras curry powder
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1- 1 1/2 cups of water
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 F and bake squash and yams for 55-60 minutes (until soft when pierced). Remove from oven and let cool enough to handle. Prepare other ingredients while squash and yams are baking and cooling. Once cooled, slice squash and peel from flesh. Slice yam.

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, celery, sea salt, and pepper. Cover and cook for a few minutes. Add some water or stock if necessary. Stir in garlic, ginger, curry powder, coriander, and cinnamon. Cover and cook for another 4-5 minutes, until onions soften. Add vegetable stock, 1 cup of water, squash and yam. Puree soup in blender or food processor until smooth. Add extra water depending on desired thickness. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer for ten minutes. Season to taste.

This makes a lot of soup, but I like to put it in single-serving sized containers and freeze it. Yum!

Ooh, and I finally got my copy of Foodies of the World in the mail. Check it out!! Excuse the crappy pictures…I took them with my cell phone!

I love salads and I eat them everyday. The key to getting the most out of them is to pack them with nutritious and filling ingredients. Lettuce, spinach, or mixed greens are just the base, and in this delicious case, I roasted up some butternut squash to add on top. It made this salad so much for substantial and it was a great dinner. Take advantage of all the in-season squash!!

Balsamic Roasted Butternut Squash

• 1 butternut squash, peeled, and cut into roughly 1-inch cubes
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• salt + pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place squash on a lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Roast for 25 minutes, or until tender and beginning to caramelize, turning once or twice.

The rest of my salad was made up of spinach, romaine, goat cheese, red onion, tomato, pecans and avocado.

One of my all-time favourite foods is butternut squash. I love it simply roasted in olive oil with some pepper and lots of sea salt! I got through a lot of squash throughout the fall and winter. While attending a local summer market that is held every couple of weeks, I found a vendor selling delicious thai sauces. Man, was he ever generous with the samples!!! I ended up buying a Sesame BBQ sauce and a Yellow Coconut Curry sauce, and my boyfriend bought one of our favourites- Green Coconut Curry Sauce. We ate the Sesame BBQ sauce over stir fried vegetables and tofu and it was wonderful. I had a butternut squash to use up and at the suggestion of the vendor, I tried the Yellow Curry sauce over it. It was DIVINE. The sauce had a nice kick to it and all the flavour from the roasted squash went perfectly- yet exotically with it. The sauces come from Thai Princess and they are available on Granville Island in Vancouver, or at Whole Foods in Vancouver. I really recommend picking some of their sauces up if you are in the area- they can be frozen for up to six months and are perfect for days when you are short on time around dinner.

Roasted Butternut Squash

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Peel squash and cut up in small cubes, place on parchment-lined tray

Drizzle with olive oil and season with pepper and salt.

Cook for 40-45 minutes until squash is nicely carmelized. Toss once or twice throughout the process.

If you have a sauce, warm it up on the stove and pour over squash. Enjoy!!

One of my favourite memories from Thailand was when my boyfriend and I (as well as a bunch of other people) were feeding a group of monkeys on a beach. All of a sudden, one of the monkeys went running across the little river and climbed right up my leg and onto my HEAD! I absolutely adore animals so while I should have been scared, I was so excited! After getting plenty of peanut shells and banana in my hair (ick!!), he was coaxed back onto the ground.