Hot Peanut Soup, Warm Salad, Sage (or Sagacious?) Pesto

Fall Curried Apple Soup (serves about 6)

• Total prep and cooking time: about 45 minutes
• Ingredients we actually used (scaled back for about 6 people):
• 4 Leeks, sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• ½ lb. of potatoes (blue potatoes and yukon golds are great soup potatoes), chopped into bite-sized chunks
• ½ head of cauliflower, chopped into bite-sized chunks (along with stems and leaves)
• ½ cup of roasted butternut squash
• 3 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped into bite-sized chunks
• 2 heaping tbsp. of curry powder (add more to taste — we used a lot!)
• ½ cup of natural peanut butter
• ¼ cup of thai or cinnamon basil, minced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Steps
• Chop potatoes and cauliflower and cover in a large stock pot with about 1” of water
• Saute leeks and garlic in olive oil
• Once leeks and garlic soften, stir them into the pot
• As potatoes soften stir in apples, butternut squash, and curry powder
• As apples begin to soften, add lemon juice and peanut butter
• Add water as needed to cover
• Let everything cook together at a good simmer for about 10 minutes
• Optional: time permitting (it didn’t for us!), puree about half of the stew
• Garnish with basil (we got in a hurry and just mixed it in)
• Almost any brassicas (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, or kale) would make great add-in or substitutions for cauliflower.
• Granny Smiths or other tart apple would do well in this recipe. Almost any good baking apple is fine for the soup.
• We added the butternut squash because we had it. Other hard winter squashes, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, or carrots would also work well (and boost the Vitamin A content).
• Original recipe

Spaghetti Squash Salad with Sage & Garlic Pesto

• Ingredients
• 2 Spaghetti squash, roasted, seeds removed
• 1 cup of cherry tomatoes or small tomato wedges
• 1 cup walnut halves
• 1 cup (approx.) of sage pesto
• Steps
• Separate and fluff the strands of spaghetti squash into a bowl until they begin to resemble a fine (if very wet) pasta (if squash are still hot, be careful not to get burned)
• Stir in cherry tomatoes and pesto
• Top with walnut halves
• Very good served warm or cold.

Sage Pesto

• Ingredients (approximate, I’ve never made this in small amounts, so I tend to measure by handfuls)
• 1 cup of fresh sage leaves, washed
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 3/4 cup of walnuts
• ¼ cup of olive oil
• 1 tsp of sea salt
• Steps
• Mix all ingredients in a food processor until you get a fine paste
• Also makes a great spread for fresh bread or regular pasta.
• Too sagacious? Sub a nut with a stronger flavor: cashews, pecans, or pistachios or add more garlic.

  –Prepared with our help by Richard on Sunday, October 14, 2012