Roasted Butternut Squash Lentil Vegetable Soup

If it’s possible for a dish to be hearty but also, somehow, light, roasted butternut squash lentil vegetable soup is it! It’s a substantial bowl of comfort, rich in nutrition and protein, not heavy, just luscious!

You’re probably going to laugh (I did when I cut it open!) but I bought this butternut squash back in February and never got around to cooking it until, I kid you not, September. But to show you the longevity and storability of a butternut, it was absolutely perfect. 

We love it simply roasted with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper but the weather had turned a little chilly on us so I was craving soup. I added the lentils to up the protein content and it was a very good decision. And since I was using the urad dal, a little curry powder seemed like it would be another good addition. And, indeed, it was.

Roasted Butternut Squash Lentil Vegetable Soup

To make this vegetarian, use vegetable stock instead of chicken. I make mine from stock cubes. For a vegan soup, also skip the yogurt to serve or use a non-dairy version. I give the weights of my vegetables below as a guideline but more or less won't affect the flavors of this lovely soup. Serves six. 

Ingredients

3 ½ oz or 100g red (masoor dal) or white (urad dal) lentils

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 butternut squash - small, medium, large - all good! 

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 medium onion – about 150g

2 cloves garlic

4 small carrots – about 7 oz or 200g

New potatoes, about 8 oz or 227g 

2 teaspoons curry powder

4 cups or 946ml chicken (or vegetable) stock

Good pinch asafetida – if you have it

3 ½ oz or 100g baby spinach (I like to pinch off the stems but you can leave the leaves intact, if you prefer.)

For garnish: small handful cilantro, roughly chopped

Optional to serve: dollop plain yogurt per bowl

Method

Rinse the lentils. If you are using red lentils (masoor dal), carry on. If you are using the white ones (urad dal) they need to be soaked in water for 30 minutes. Rinse and soak, drain, then carry on.

Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C and prepare a baking pan by lining it with baking parchment or a silicone liner. 

Halve the butternut squash and scoop the seeds out. Cut the halves in half and put them on the prepared baking pan. Drizzle them with half the olive oil then sprinkle with fine sea salt and black pepper. 

Roast in your preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until they are fork tender. 

Set them aside to cool while you finish prepping the rest of your vegetables.

Peel and finely chop the onion and mince the garlic. 

Peel the carrots and cut them into short, bite-sized pieces.

Scrub or peel the new potatoes, as needed. I scrubbed mine then decided they needed to be peeled because they were looking a little scruffy. Sorry, no pics.

In a Dutch oven, add the remaining half of the olive oil and sauté the onion and garlic until soft. Then, add in the curry powder and give it a stir to combine. 

Add in the stock and bring it to a low boil. 

Try the peel of your butternut squash. If it’s tender enough to eat, chop the whole thing into small bits. If it’s not, scoop the flesh out and discard the peels.

Put the squash into the Dutch oven along with lentils. If you have it, add the good pinch of asafetida now. When added to cooking lentils, it's said to help with the common side effect of eating them, flatulence. I can't say if that's true or not but I do always add it, just in case! 

Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 25-30 minutes or until the lentils are cooked and tender. 

Use a hand blender or normal blender to puree the soup at little, being careful not to splash yourself with hot liquid! I like to leave some bits of squash so I don’t puree until completely smooth. 

Add in the carrots and potatoes and cook for a further 30 or so minutes, or until they are both cooked through and tender. 

Add in the baby spinach. As per the note in the ingredients, as you can see, mine are sans stems.

Stir until the spinach is heated through and thoroughly wilted.

Serve the soup with a sprinkling of chopped cilantro and a dollop of plain yogurt, if desired.

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes with winter squash, sweet and savory, to celebrate the arrival of Autumn. Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out the link list below. 

• Apple & Butternut Squash Salad from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Creamy Sausage, Tomato, & Squash Pasta  from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Baked Acorn Squash with Butter and Brown Sugar from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Butternut Squash Cake from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Gnocchi with Roasted Squash and Sausage from A Messy Kitchen
• Parmesan and Thyme Honeynut Squash from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Pumpkin-Filled Flat White Pumpkin from Culinary Cam
• Pumpkin Soup for Two from Sneha's Recipe
• Roasted Butternut Squash Lentil Vegetable Soup from Food Lust People Love

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Lentil Vegetable Soup!

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Hubble Bubble Pumpkin Rice Pot

Perfect for a chilly fall evening, the wonderful flavor of this hubble bubble pumpkin rice pot is enhanced by smoked bacon, and cooked entirely in a microwave. Super easy and pretty quick to the table on a busy night. 

Even way back in the late 1970s, when my stepfather succumbed to our repeated entreaties and finally bought a microwave, we honestly really only ever used it to reheat leftovers. And I must confess that pattern has generally continued all these years. 

Rare is the dish I actually cook in a microwave. This is one of those exceptions. It’s an oldie but a goodie adapted from one on the BBC Good Food website, first published there in January of 2008. It’s a handy one to have in your back pocket for Halloween night.

Hubble Bubble Pumpkin Rice Pot

Know that if you have a little more or less pumpkin or squash, it’ll be fine. Below is the weight I used, pictured on the cutting board for reference. Ditto, the onion. I use already cooked smoked bacon crumbles. If you need to fry and crumble bacon first, you’ll need about 12 normal slices. Is it a lot of bacon? Nope, it is the perfect amount. Bacon is life, people. Live a little. This recipe serves four.

Ingredients

1 medium onion, about 6 1/3 oz or 180g

1 cup or 100g smoked bacon crumbles 

550g or 1 lb 3.4 oz pumpkin or butternut squash, weight: peeled and cored

Freshly ground black pepper

Cayenne pepper, optional

2 tablespoons butter

1 ½ chicken stock cubes

1 cup or 200g long grain rice

¼- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, depending on your taste

Vegetarian option: Instead of the bacon, add some grated hard cheese at the end of cooking time, just before the last five minute rest. Parmesan would be good or even a smoked cheddar or provolone. 

Method

Remove the seeds from your pumpkin or butternut squash. Peel it and cut it into small chunks.

Peel and finely chop the onion.

Combine the onion, bacon crumbles and pumpkin together in a large microwaveable bowl. Add a few generous grinds of black pepper and, if desired, a good sprinkle of cayenne. 

Mix well then dot the butter on top and cover the bowl with cling film or a plate. 

Pierce the cling film a couple of times with a pointy knife, if using, and microwave on High for 6 minutes until everything’s hot and starting to cook.

While the vegetables are cooking, bring a kettle or pot of water to the boil and make 3 cups or 700ml stock using the chicken cubes. Carefully remove the hot bowl from the microwave and uncover one corner to allow the hot steam to escape without burning yourself. Remove the cover entirely. 

Add in the rice and season with salt. We try to watch our sodium intake and since the stock cube has so much already, I only put a ¼ teaspoon in my dish. If you like things saltier, by all means, add more.

Stir well to thoroughly mix everything together. Pour in the stock. 

Make sure to push any rice grains under the surface of the stock so they’ll cook well in the liquid.

Cover the bowl with a fresh piece of cling film (don’t forget to pierce it two or three times) or the same plate and microwave on High for 10 minutes. Uncover carefully!

Give it a stir. Then microwave for 5-7 minutes or until the rice is cooked. (Mine only took 5 minutes.) 

Leave to stand, covered with a plate, for 5 minutes before giving everything a final stir. 

Scoop straight into bowls to serve. Or, heck, put it in a pretty covered dish. 

Enjoy!

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are all about recipes with rice! White, brown, black, wild, flat rice, puffed rice or rice flour. Sweet OR savory. Many thanks to our host, Mayuri of Mayuri's Jikoni. Check out the links below.

• Arroz de Pato by Culinary Cam
• Bhuga Chawal by Mayuri's Jikoni
• Cheesy Rice by Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Crab Sushi Bowl by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Crispy Rice Cereal Brittle by A Messy Kitchen
• Fried Rice with Crab and Peas by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Hubble Bubble Pumpkin Rice Pot by Food Lust People Love
• Varicha Bhat by Sneha's Recipe

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Butternut Squash Tian with Herb Topping

Roasted butternut squash and garlicky kale mixed with cheese and eggs are topped with herby breadcrumbs and baked for a great vegetarian main course or side dish I'm calling Butternut Squash Tian.

I am always on the lookout for vegetarian recipes that make a great side but are also hearty enough to be eaten as a main dish. This recipe, adapted from Faith Durand’s post on TheKitchn can do both quite admirably. I decided to pretty it up from the usual casserole by baking it in a spring-form pan and serving it in slices. And before a load of angry French folk wielding Opinels arrive to object to my use of the word “tian,” (Bienvenue!) may I just say that I had never heard of the word before I saved the recipe almost a year ago, despite living for three years in France.

After a little research, I do now understand that the tian itself is the vessel AND the vegetable gratin that is cooked in it, so my pan choice probably means that this no longer qualifies as a tian. What can I say? It’s still delicious! And pretty! How many casseroles can say that?

This week on Sunday Supper, we are celebrating the arrival of Fall with comforting dishes using seasonal ingredients. Butternut squash is one of my favorites. And so is kale. Make sure you scroll to the bottom of this recipe to see all the other seasonal dishes on offer.

Ingredients

For the tian:

About 4lb or 1.9kg whole butternut squash

Olive oil for roasting

1/2 cup or 100g short-grain or arborio rice

1 3/4 oz or 50g freshly grated Grana Padano or Parmesan cheese

7 oz or 200g smoked cheese

2 large cloves garlic

5-6 large stems curly kale

3 large eggs

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the herb topping:

1 cup or 80g dried bread crumbs

1 big handful flat leaf parsley, leaves only

Leaves from 3 to 4 sprigs of thyme and/or rosemary (I used some of each.)

1 3/4 oz or 50g freshly grated Grana Padano or Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons olive oil

Method

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C and prepare your eventual baking pan or casserole dish by greasing it liberally. If you have an actual earthenware tian , more power to you! (My spring-form pan was 8 in or 20cm in diameter and about 3 in or 7 1/2cm deep.)

Peel the butternut squash, scrape the seeds out, and cut it into chunks.

Pile the squash up in a large roasting pan (not the one you’ve already prepared for baking the finished dish!) and drizzle liberally with olive oil. Toss the squash around a little so that it is well coated with the oil and then spread the chunks out into one layer. Sprinkle with flakey sea salt.

Roast for about one hour in your hot oven or until the butternut squash is fork tender and the edges have gone golden. You'll want to stir it around about half way through.

While the squash is roasting, boil your rice in salted water with a drizzle of olive oil, just as you would pasta. Keep a close eye on it. Since Arborio rice has such a high starch content, it tends to want to boil up and over. When the rice is just cooked - test a grain or two occasionally – drain the water out and set the rice aside to cool.

Grate all of your cheeses and make sure to divide the Grana Padano pile in half, some for the tian, some for the herb topping.

Meanwhile, remove the stems from your kale and chop it into small bits.

Mince your garlic then sauté it in a little olive oil being careful not to let it color. Add in the chopped kale and a sprinkle of sea salt. Cook, covered, until the kale is completely wilted. Set aside to cool.

To make your breadcrumb topping, add all of the dry ingredients to your food processor and process until it is completely uniform.

Add in the two tablespoons of olive oil and process again. Depending on the type of baking dish you use, you may have leftover topping. Store this in a bag in the freezer. It can be used for topping baked fish, much like in this delicious Bill Granger recipe .

When the squash is roasted, remove it from the oven and turn the oven down to 350°F or 180°C. Mash the squash with a potato masher and set it aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk your eggs and then add in the butternut squash. Mix well.

Now add in the rest all of your tian ingredients: The wilted, garlicky kale, the cooked rice, all of the smoked cheese and the other half of the Grana Padano cheese that wasn’t used in the topping. Give the whole lot a good couple of grinds of fresh black pepper and then mix well.

Spoon the mixture into your prepared baking pan and smooth it out.

Top liberally with the herby breadcrumbs. As mentioned before, you can bake this in a larger casserole, in which case, you’ll probably use all of the breadcrumbs. For my smaller, deeper pan, I ended up using just about half. Pat the herb topping down so it doesn’t fall off later when serving.

Bake for one-hour, covering the top with foil part way through if the breadcrumb topping is getting too browned. Check that it is cooked through by putting a knife in and leaving it there for about 30 seconds. The knife should be very hot to the touch when it is removed. If you are using a shallower casserole dish, this may not take the full hour.

To remove from the spring-form pan, allow the tian to cool for a few minutes and then run a knife around the sides before releasing the catch.

Run a knife under the tian to loosen it from the base.

Slide to a serving plate, cut into slices and serve warm.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to our Sunday Supper host this week, Soni from Soni's Food. We got news just yesterday that her family has suffered a major loss with the unexpected passing of her father. If you are so inclined, please keep them in your prayers.

Amazing Breakfasts, Brunches, and Breads

• Apple Spice Muffinsfrom Pixie Dust Kitchen
• Apple Spice Waffles from Treats and Trinkets
• Cinnamon Apple Crepes from Juanita’s Cocina
• Maple Apple Bread from The Foodie Army Wife
• Mini Apple Cinnamon Rolls from Peanut Butter and Peppers
• Mini Pumpkin Pancake Kebobs from The Urban Mrs.
• Pumpkin Ale Pretzel Buns from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
• Pumpkin Spice Latte Donuts from Daily Dish Recipes
• Skinny Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Donuts with Maple Cream Cheese Glaze from The Messy Baker

Outstanding Soups, Starters and Sides

• Bacon, Corn and Shrimp Chowder from The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen
• Butternut Squash Tian with Herb Topping from Food Lust People Love
• Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup from Alida’s Kitchen
• Farro Date Salad with Mango and Arugula from Shockingly Delicious
• Parmesan Polenta from That Skinny Chick can Bake
• Pumpkin Tomato Sauce with Andouille Sausage from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks

Comforting Main Dishes

• Autumn Risotto with Chicken & Cranberries from Momma’s Meals
• Bacon Spinach Pasta from Magnolia Days
• Butternut Squash and Lentil Pot Pie from Curious Cuisiniere
• Chicken, Spinach, and Gnocchi Soup from Cookin’ Mimi
• Chili from Casa De Crews
• Creole Shrimp & Cheddar Basil Grits Cake from The Roxx Box
• Mini Meatball and Goat Cheese Risotto from MarocMama
• Mushroom and Sorrel Lasagne from Jane’s Adventures in Dinner
• Onion Tart {Zwiebelkuchen} from The Not So Cheesy Kitchen
• Penne with Spicy Pumpkin and Sausage Sauce from Webicurean
• Roasted Fig & Pancetta Pasta Carbonara from Nik Snacks
• Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili from Neighborfood
• Spicy Korean Monkfish Stew (Agu Jjim) from kimchi MOM
• Stuffed Meatballs in Tomato Alfredo Sauce from Family Foodie
• Vegan Mushroom Pie from Killer Bunnies Inc
• White Pizza with Kale and Meatballs from The Hand That Rocks the Ladle

Decadent Desserts:

• {Gluten-Free} Pumpkin Swirl Pecan Crumb Cake from Cupcakes & Kale Chips
• Apple Cider Five Spice Caramels from girlichef
• Apple Fig and Pomegranate Crisp from Take a Bite Out of Boca
• Buttery Bourbon Ice Cream from NinjaBaking
• Camotes Enmielados (Mexican Candied Yams/Sweet Potatoes) from La Cocina de Leslie
• Caramel Apple Sugar Cookie Pizza from Chocolate Moosey
• Caramel Apples from Pies and Plots
• Chocolate Pumpkin Swiss Roll Cake from Big Bear’s Wife
• Funnel Cakes from The Texan New Yorker
• Hot Apple Pizza from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Italian Apple Torta from La Bella Vita Cucina
• Maple Syrup Pumpkin Bars from What Smells So Good?
• Pear Almond Graham Cracker Tart from Vintage Kitchen Notes
• Pumpkin Bourbon Pie with Walnut Crumble from Gotta Get Baked
• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies from In The Kitchen With KP
• Pumpkin Marshmallows from Home Cooking Memories
• Salted Caramel Apple Crisp Bars from Table for Seven
• Savory & Sweet Coconut Cream Salted Caramel Apples from Sue’s Nutrition Buzz
• Walnut-Stuffed Baked Apples from Foxes Loves Lemons

Tasty Drinks:

• Pumpkin Juice – Harry Potter Style from The Dinner-Mom
• The Best Wines for Fall Foods from ENOFYLZ Wine Blog

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