Favorite Fall Squash Recipes

Oct21

Butternut Apple Cranberry Sandwich Butternut Squash Turmeric Curry Butternut Hummus with Feta & Pomegranates Butternut Squash & Leek Stuffing

It’s squash season! I think fall has a tendency to become “canned pumpkin season,” but there are so many great meals that can be made around fresh squash. Here are just a few of my favorites! Click directly on the photos to go to each recipe.

Butternut Apple Cranberry Sandwich
My current obsession – I’ve eaten this sandwich multiple times this week. I can’t get enough of those roasted butternut planks with tangy apple cider-marinated cabbage stacked between thick slices of bread.

Butternut Squash Turmeric Curry
A perfect weeknight creamy coconut curry. It’s easy to make, it’s flexible to adapt with ingredients that you have on hand, and it freezes well. Oh, and it’s super flipping delicious with the turmeric and cardamom spices.

Butternut Hummus with Feta & Pomegranates
Oh gosh, this hummus is so yummy. Butternut squash makes it creamy, while the pomegranates give a bright pop of flavor and color. Host a fall cocktail hour and serve this… or don’t and just make it for yourself 🙂

Butternut Squash & Leek Stuffing
Thanksgiving is around the corner, and you’ll love this colorful stuffing with squash, cranberries, sage, and purple cipollini onions!

A Spiced-up Fall Squash Salad Roasted Delicata Squash with Apples and Sage Homemade Pumpkin Puree Pumpkin Tortilla Soup

A Spiced-up Fall Squash Salad
Well, as you can probably tell, I love the combination of squash and pomegranates. In this salad, butternut squash is roasted with a bunch of warming spices (cumin, coriander, cinnamon & cayenne), which go so well with the apple-cider date dressing and creamy goat cheese.

Roasted Delicata Squash with Apples and Sage
This dish has been a reader favorite since I posted it last year. It’s simple to make but not simple in flavor. Roasted delicata squash, apples, sage, and kale are pepped up in a bright apple-cider Dijon dressing. A great fall side dish to have in your back pocket.

Homemade Pumpkin Puree
For all of you that don’t have access to canned pumpkin – here’s a simple recipe to make pumpkin puree using fresh pumpkin.

Pumpkin Tortilla Soup
I think there’s a tortilla soup for all seasons, and I love this fall version. It has a rich tomato base that’s flavored with pasilla chilies, cumin, and oregano. It’s hearty from the fresh pumpkin (you could also use butternut squash), and black beans. Top it with avocado and lots of lime to brighten things up.

For more squash recipes:
Click over to our recipe index and have a look! You can easily search for any recipe based on ingredient. If you click “Recipes” at the top of the page, it’ll take you to this page where you can search for any recipe by ingredient. You can search by squash type (acorn, butternut, etc.), or if you click “winter squash,” it’ll show you all of the squash recipes. You can also narrow your results by clicking “vegan,” or “main dish,” or whatever combination you desire. (Note, that the iphone/mobile version looks slightly different – you’ll click the upper left area to get to the ingredient/search options).

Happy Squashing!

Butternut Apple Cranberry Sandwich

Oct18

fall / vegetarian / main dish

This sandwich is, quite simply, fall between bread. It’s stacked with roasted planks of butternut squash, a layer of thinly sliced apple, white cheddar cheese, rosemary, cranberries, arugula, and red cabbage that I quickly marinated in a little apple cider vinegar. It’s like one of those next-day leftover Thanksgiving sandwiches… that is, if you had a really colorful Thanksgiving.

I made these last Sunday when the leaves were falling, the sun was out, and the air was crisp. I don’t know if it’s that cozy fall chill in the air, but suddenly we’re eating more grains with our meals – hearty sandwiches like this with thick crusty bread, grain bowls with farro, and curries with quinoa.

Speaking of grains, this post is in partnership with Panera. Why? Because they’re on a mission to get people to eat more whole grains by releasing a six-episode video series called Food Interrupted. The first episode, Grains Interrupted, follows culinary pioneers to a wheat field in Tehachapi, California where they talk about the importance of incorporating whole grains into your diet and what exactly a “whole” grain is. Plus, it’s beautiful, give it a watch!

Of course, we eat a ton of whole grains around here but many Americans aren’t getting enough high-quality whole grains in their diet, so Panera is committed to spreading the word about how important good quality grains are. It can be confusing what is actually considered a whole grain – to help this, Panera is launching new labels on their signage to note the servings and percentage of whole grains in their products. I’m personally inspired by this, because I love when large companies get on board to nudge our food system in the right direction.

Back to the sandwich! You’ll want to find a large thick-necked butternut squash to be able to get these sandwich-sized planks. I saved the bottom part of my squash for soup because, if you haven’t noticed, I’ve been on a bit of a butternut kick this week.

And while I didn’t set out to make this a make-ahead sandwich, these components all kept well for lunches for two days in a row. The butternut planks can be reheated the next day and the cabbage will keep in the fridge for about a week. The only thing I sliced up twice was the apple. Slather thick slabs of grainy bread with mustard and/or mayo, assemble, and enjoy!

Butternut Squash Turmeric Curry

Oct15

main dish / vegan / gluten free

This curry is everything I want on a weeknight. Scratch that – it’s everything I want… any time. I’ve been eating this as leftovers for lunch, dinner… I even ate a bowlful for breakfast the other day.

The recipe is particularly Monday night friendly – it’s quick to make yet packs a punch of flavor. It’s filled with cozy, nourishing vegetables that will help you recover from a weekend of maybe… I dunno… too much pumpkin cake?

The ingredient shot above makes this recipe look more complicated than it actually is. Once you’ve chopped the vegetables and measured the spices, you’re only about 20 (mostly hands off) minutes from a creamy, delicious hot curry dinner on the table.

I find this recipe really fun and soothing to make. There’s nothing better than this moment when the coconut milk and spices hit the vegetables. Of course, this moment will happen on the stove and not on the countertop, I just had to move my pot near the window to show you:

The ginger, cumin, coriander, turmeric, cardamom… it all smells so good! You’re going to have to take my word on it unless you can smell through your screen.

During the last five or so minutes, stir in the green things and add squeezes of lemon and lime to brighten everything up. So healthy!

This recipe is very flexible, so I encourage you to use it as a template. Don’t have butternut squash? Use sweet potatoes. Don’t have cauliflower? Use broccoli. If you want more heat, spice it up. You can serve it with basmati rice, brown rice, or even quinoa. You can also customize this with any type of protein that you like in your curry, or you can just make the recipe exactly as it’s written, a.k.a. my favorite version 🙂

Vegan Pumpkin Snack Cake

Oct11

vegan / fall / dessert

I’m not really a dessert person. Who I am is someone who rummages through the freezer or the pantry around 3pm, with coffee in hand, looking for something sweet because I often enjoy a little sugar rush in the afternoon. Enter: snack cake. Snack cake is a little indulgence that’s ok to enjoy at any time of the day, because it’s just a “snack” after all.

This recipe is based on my Vegan Pumpkin Bread that I make every fall. The texture of this cake is moist, similar to that pumpkin bread. And while these cake squares resemble the size and shape of a blondie, they’re not dense or fudgy… they’re just little cake squares that happen to not be tall.

Below, you’ll notice that I list 2 options for the frosting. The second option is a very delicious cashew-maple frosting with a tangy touch of apple cider vinegar. It’s yummy on this fall cake, however, it’s a little thinner (like a thick glaze) and the color is a not-as-photogenic light brown.

The first option (pictured here) is a more traditional cream cheese frosting, using vegan cream cheese, vegan butter, and powdered sugar. The cashew version is a tad healthier, the cream cheese is more indulgent – so the choice is yours!

I love chocolate and pumpkin together, so I topped my cake with chocolate chips. Some chopped pecans would be a delicious seasonal topping as well.

Happy snacking! I’m off to finish the last square that’s still in my fridge 🙂

Curried Red Lentil Hummus

Oct09

vegan / gluten free / snack

You know how much I love chickpeas, and you know how much I love hummus, but today I’m going out of my chickpea comfort zone with this red lentil hummus-like dip. It’s creamy, it’s tangy, and it’s nicely spiced with turmeric and other curry-type spices, because sometimes you run out of chickpeas but you still want a dippable snack.

We’ve been enjoying this with veggies, naan, crackers… I’ve also been caught sneaking spoonfuls straight from the fridge.

The first time I made this, I tried it in a food processor, but I was able to get it much creamier in a blender. See up there? So luscious.

This dip is best straight from the blender, although it’ll keep well in the fridge for 4 to 5 days. If it gets a little thick, stir in some water before serving.

Here’s another tip: when you have just a little bit left at the end, thin it to a drizzle-able consistency and pour it over a roasted veggie bowl with some quinoa. That was our quick dinner a few nights ago and it really pepped up an otherwise boring bowl.

Don’t let this ingredient list intimidate you – it’s all spices – hopefully you have most of them on hand in your spice drawer already. 🙂

Love and Lemons

Healthy, Seasonal, Whole Food Recipes Blog

Favorite Fall Squash Recipes

Butternut Apple Cranberry Sandwich

Butternut Squash Turmeric Curry

Vegan Pumpkin Snack Cake

Curried Red Lentil Hummus