Mushroom, Leek, Butternut Squash & Barley Bake

I came across this recipe in my usual mishmash of blog reading last week and immediately sent it around to my friends – this looks like us. 

YES! Everyone agreed. So when Jess visited over the weekend we decided to test it out and see if this Mushroom Leek & Barley Bake is as delicious as it looks. (Spolier alert: it is.)

After a hunger-inducing day of yoga and shopping, we stopped by the ridiculously fancy Whole Foods in Foggy Bottom to buy ingredients: barley, leeks, mushrooms, and parmesan. It really is that simple! 

Back in my kitchen we started sautéing and roasting (the original recipe doesn’t call for squash, but Jess and I are firm believers in the fact that roasted squash makes everything better). And I learned something new: you don’t have to peel butternut squash! You can roast or sauté it with the skin on and it’s fine. It’s even better than fine, it’s good for you.

Because we added the squash we had extra filling on the side. No problems with that! This bake is awesome, and could easily be made with any grain or veggies. It's also good cold and made a delicious lunch for me on Monday. Total win.

Mushroom, Leek, Butternut Squash & Barley Bake (recipe adapted from So Good and Tasty)

serves 4-6

Go here for the printable recipe.

• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• 4-6 ounces mushrooms, chopped
• 1 leek, white and light green parts only, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 cups cooked pearl barley (about 1/2 cup dried cooked in 1 1/2 cups water)
• 2 cups cubed butternut squash
• 1/2 cup Parmesan, divided
• 4 eggs
• Salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F and grease a 1 3/4 qt. baking dish. We used a 9-inch cake pan. 
2. Prepare the barley: Cover 1/2 cup of pearl barley with 1 1/2  cups of water and simmer for 30-40 minutes, then fluff with a fork.
3. Spray a baking dish and toss the butternut squash with salt and pepper. Roast for about 25 minutes, or until tender.
4. In a large frying pan heat the oil over medium heat. Add in the mushrooms and a pinch of salt, cooking for about 3 minutes or until just beginning to soften. Stir in the leeks, cook another 2 minutes, then add in the garlic. Continue cooking until everything is softened and the mushrooms are a nice brown color, about another 3 minutes. Mix in roasted squash. Let cool slightly.
5. Place the barley in a large bowl. Stir in the mushroom mixture and half the Parmesan.
6. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and salt. Fold the eggs into the barley mixture, then pour into your prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with the last half of the Parmesan. 
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until set. Remove from the oven, cool for 10 minutes, and serve.

Go here for the printable recipe.

Butternut Squash Fettuccine Alfredo

Can we agree that butternut squash makes everything better? Because I’m pretty sure it does. Fall comes around and it’s squash season and I get excited. Butternut squash are like potatoes, but healthier and with more flavor – win and win. Basically, life rule: When in doubt, add squash.  

Which is exactly what I did last weekend when I invented this Butternut Squash Fettuccine Alfredo recipe for a house dinner. 

Now, I’m not going to claim that this is health food. It is fettuccine alfredo -- by definition, it's cream and butter sauce. BUT I will say that if you’re going to go for alfredo sauce, this is definitely a healthier version. It’s more than half BNS, plus some Greek yogurt just for fun. 

It was super simple, fast to make, and pretty freaking delicious. I added chicken, but this could easily be vegetarian. 

Butternut Squash Fettuccine Alfredo

(This version serves 8-10, depending on how many 20-something boys you’re feeding. The sauce stores well, so you don’t have to use it all at once.)

Ingredients: 

• 1 jar Alfredo Sauce
• 1 medium-sized butternut squash, about 3-4 cups (basically, just use what you have)
• 4 oz Greek yogurt
• ¼ cup chicken broth or water
• 1 ½ boxes fettuccine (18 oz)
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts (optional)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375*.

2. Peel  squash and scoop out seeds. Cut it into 1-inch cubes. (If you prefer, you can just cut the whole squash in half and roast it without peeling – the roasting will take longer.)

3. Grease or spray a roasting pan. 

4. Sprinkle the squash with salt and pepper, and roast for 30-45 minutes, until tender. Cool at least 10 minutes.

If you’re making the chicken:

At the same time you roast the squash, wash and dry the chicken. Sprinkle it with paprika, place it in a roasting pan, and roast in the same oven as the squash (at 375*) for 20 minutes (cooking times may vary depending on the thickness of the chicken). Cool completely and shred or dice.

5. In a food processor, combine alfredo sauce, Greek yogurt, roasted squash, and nutmeg. Process until smooth. Add water or chicken broth to thin the sauce as necessary.

6. Prepare fettuccine according to package instructions. 

7. Once the pasta is drained, put it back in the pot and toss with sauce and chicken.

8. Serve with parmesan cheese. 

Enjoy!

Fall Recipe Round-up

It's no secret that I love fall. The weather (cool! crisp!), the clothes (scarves!), and the food (pumpkin! squash! apples!), well duh!

Hope this recipe round-up gets you psyched for some fall baking and cooking - let the pumpkin/apple/cranberry mania begin!

Pumpkin:

Pumpkin Cake with Butterscotch Filling

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars with Pumpkin Buttercream

Mini Pumpkin Pies with Gingerbread Graham Cracker Crust

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

Pumpkin Chocolate Layer Cake

Pumpkin Chocolate Pie

Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Cinnamon Chocolate Streusel

Other Fall Fruits

Apple Cinnamon Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Caramel Apple Tart with Cinnamon Walnut Stresusl

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Plum Ginger Upside Down Cake

Apple Pie/Tart

Cranberry Maple Walnut Cupcakes

Caramel Apple Eggnog Cheesecake

Real Foods for Fall

Vegan Dark Chocolate Chili

Stuffed Squash

What are your favorite fall recipes? What should I make next?

Garlic Scape Pesto Pasta

Hello Readers, allow me to introduce you to Garlic Scape. Have you met before? Garlic Scape just entered my life and I have a feeling it’s going to be a long-term relationship.

 

 Garlic scapes are the curly shoots that spring from the tops of garlic plants. Garlic is a bulb, so the “scape” is the plant that shoots out of that bulb. According to Dorrie Greenspan, “They're brilliantly green, can be thick or thin, curved or corkscrewed, and, depending on how they're cut, just long or very long. They've got a mild garlic fragrance and a mellow garlic flavor. Smell the cut end or snap one and the scent will be a cross between garlic and summer grass. It's got a freshness that garlic loses as it develops.”

LOTR-Emily and I bought into a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this summer. CSA's are quite the trendy locovore thing. How it works: We paid in advance, so every week a local farm delivers a bag, or “share,” of fresh produce to Emily’s office. The fun part is, you never know what you’re going to get!

Some veggies are obvious – Swiss chard, zucchini, lettuce. But others are completely unfamiliar. For example, in my second bag of leafy greens I pulled out something that looks like a chive or green onion…but isn’t. Time to don my detective hat! I went to the farmer’s market and snooped around, eyeing the local veggies. And lo and behold, a sign labeling my long U.G.V. (unidentified green vegetable): “garlic scape.”

And now for the more important introduction: Garlic Scape, meet Basil. Oh, and Basil brought her friends Parmesan and Walnut. You guys are going to be bffs. I promise. 

Because the food blogger world seems to agree that the epitome of garlic scape cooking is to make pesto.

Garlic Scape Walnut Pesto

(Makes about 1 cup pesto)

3 tablespoons walnut pieces

1 cup garlic scapes, washed and roughly chopped

1 cup basil leaves (tightly packed)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (plus additional if necessary)

1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated

1. Toast the walnut pieces: in a small, dry skillet, add the walnut pieces and toast over medium heat until lightly browned and fragrant. Cool.
2. In the bowl of the food processor, combine the cooled walnut pieces, the garlic scapes, the basil, a pinch of salt, a grinding of black pepper, and the olive oil. Pulse until a rough paste forms. Add additional olive oil if the mixture is too dense.
3. Scrape the mixture into a bowl. Stir in the parmesan. Taste and correct for salt.

 

This pesto is pleasantly mild, subtle enough to spread on toast, or to toss with pasta. Here’s what I did:

Mollie’s Garlic Scape Pesto Pasta Veggie Bowl

(makes 2 servings…dinner and lunch the next day!)

1 medium-sized shallot, chopped

1 yellow squash, sliced

Splash olive oil

2 servings whole wheat spaghetti

2-3 cups greens (any kind works, whatever you have)

Salt and pepper

1 cup water or chicken broth
3 Trader Joe's Cooked and Frozen Turkey Meatballs, diced (optional)

1/2 cup pesto

1. Start boiling water for your pasta.
2. Heat a medium-sized skillet. Add a splash of olive oil and swirl to coat the pan.
3. Spread the squash slices in the pan and don’t move them. Cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, or until they begin to brown.
4. Flip the squash and equally brown the other side.
5. Remove from pan and set aside.
6. If your water is boiling, add the spaghetti and cook according to box instructions for al dente.
7. In the same pan you used for the squash, add another splash of olive oil and the shallot. Cook for 1-2 minutes over medium heat.
8. Add your greens, salt and pepper, and toss with the shallots.
9. 
   
10. Add 1 cup water or broth and simmer until greens are tender. You may need to add more liquid if they’re particularly tough greens.
11. Once they’re cooked, add the pesto, squash, meatballs, and drained spaghetti. Toss them all together and enjoy!

(You’ll notice I mixed fresh lettuce into my bowl o’pasta. It’s a thing I do called hot salad…I’ll tell you about it sometime.)

Literary Bite: Peace Like A River

“Once in a great while, a book comes along that has such wonderful characters and marvelous prose, that you read it as much for the pure joy it offers on every page as to find out how it ends.”

-       Tom Walker, The Denver Post

Agreed, Tom Walker. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger is a really good book. Usually the statements on the covers of books are silly and just generally uninformative (e.g. “Terriffic!” - The Washington Post…um, like, that doesn’t tell anyone anything.). The “Once in a great while” part is a bit of a stretch, considering I read a really good book last week…and another really good book a couple weeks before that. But I forgive him his exaggeration. Perhaps Tom has been going through a dry stretch in good reading.  

Anywho, my mom mailed me this book, and so far I am really enjoying it! However, I am hesitant to pass final judgment, because she hinted that it gets kinda weird at the end. I hope not – a bad ending is a major bummer. The book is going so well thus far, but I am afraid that the author will dig himself too deep into the story and be unable to tie it up with a satisfying conclusion…we shall see…

The story takes place in Minnesota in the early 1960s. It is told from the perspective of an 11-year-old boy, Reuben, who lives with his almost super-humanly nice father, older brother, and younger sister. I don’t want to give anything away…so for now I will just leave you with that. 

If you want a more revealing plot summary, check out this site.

The younger sister, in my opinion, is the best character. She is 9 years old, and completely obsessed with Westerns. And she is constantly writing poems/epics/novels in verse. I feel that’s a bit of a stretch (but then, there are some really smart 9–year-olds out there…). For example:

From Peace Like a River, pages 160-161

The blizzard shipped in from the west like a grin

On a darkened, malevolent face,

And the posse that sought Mr. Sundown was caught

In an awfully dangerous place.

For their horses were sore and their chances were poor

Of locating warmth or repose,

When the sweet sudden sight of miraculous light

Shone die in the dark and the snows, my lads,

A light through the dark and the snows.

And the lady who answered their knock at the door

Had answered another, an hour before. . . .

She bid them to stay, in her courteous way,

And insisted they sit by the fire,

And she poured them all brandy and sang them a song

And they slept as though lulled by a choir.

The sheriff next morning was first to awake

And he called all his men to the chase,

For a dream had suggested their quarry sought rest

In the hay in the barn on the place, lads—

He’d slept in the barn on the place.

But when they crept into the building to spy,

Gone horses, gone lady, gone outlaw, goodbye!

It reminds me of a novel in verse I once read, called The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth (one of my all-time favorite authors). It takes a bit of time to settle into the rhythym of a book written in that style, but I have found that once you do, it is really fun!

So anyway, I am up to page 167 out of 311. Stay tuned – next week I will let you know if the ending is good.

PS: It's being made into a movie with Billy Bob Thornton (not sure how I feel about that). Check out IMDB.

Hmm…now let’s talk about food. Thus far, the book takes place in fall and winter in Minnesota and North Dakota. So we’re talking cold. Some of their food sounds great – Mid-Western hearty breakfasts, including peach pie! But my question is, how were they getting peaches in late fall? Are we talking canned peaches here? I don’t do that. 

But this book did put me in the mood for something hearty, warm, and comforting. And thanks to my recent photograzing, a new winter squash possibility has entered my radar. Stuffed Squash.

I took inspiration from this recipe, but really what I ended up making was completely original (as far as I know). So here it is, the first ever, Mollie-Exclusive Stuffed Squash. Enjoy!

 

Ingredients:

-       Butternut squash (I just used the fat end of one because I had already eaten the “neck”)

-       1 cup cooked short grain brown rice

-       ½ cup mushrooms

-       2 Tablespoons blue cheese crumbles

-  Small handful chopped walnuts (DO NOT LEAVE THESE OUT - I think they're the best part!)

-       4 Tablespoons Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper soup (I always have the Trader Joe’s kind on hand)

-       Splash of vegetable broth

-        1 ½ cups roughly shredded greens (I had Swiss chard – spinach would work fine too)

-       Paprika

-       Salt and pepper

1. Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds (to make two little “bowls”
2. In a small saucepan, sautee the greens and mushrooms until they’re wilted (you can sautee them in oil, or add a bit of broth). Add the walnuts in with this to toast them.
3. Add cooked brown rice and season with paprika, salt, and pepper. Remove from heat.
4. Pour about 2 Tablespoons vegetable broth into each half of the squash.
5. Stuff butternut squash with mixture, sprinkle with blue cheese, and carefully pour Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper soup over the top.
6. Bake at 375* for about 40 minutes, or until squash is tender.
7. EAT!