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| Fall Recipes You'll Fall For By: Mai Eldib The leaves change colors. The crops rotate. We seek warm soups and bundle up under scarves and mittens; it’s this feeling that conjures us to change our eating habits. To accommodate for the gusty wind and the little heat from the sun, here are some recipes below that are quintessentially associated with the Fall Season and are some of my friends' and my favorites. Butternut Squash and roasted chestnut soup This soup became my absolute favorite soup when I moved to New York. Whenever I can get it at a restaurant, or at a grocery store, or find the time to make some – I don’t even blink with hesitation. My friend Janelle was the first person to start the butternut squash routine this fall. Ingredients: - 1 butternut squash peeled, if you have the time to roasted it in the oven for 30 minutes sprinkled with salt that would even be tastier - Nutmeg - 1 ½ tablespoons of unsalted butter - 1 cup of cream - Salt and pepper - 1 onion - Chicken stock – approximately 5 to 6 cups - 6 roasted chestnuts – roasted in the oven prior to cooking – ALSO CUT UP FINELY Directions If squash is roasted or not, cut the vegetable into cubes (also if you find another form of squash, it’s tasty to make combinations). In a large pot, place the all the butter and allow it to melt on a low heat. Gradually start adding in the onions and allow them to cook for a while. Following that, add in the squash and the chicken stock and allow the vegetable to cook and become tender. If roasted this should take less time. Remove all the contents of the soup into a blender and puree until it is smooth and not to water. Then, place all the purees content into your pot. Add your one cup of cream and season it with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Test it for taste. Finally add you roasted chestnuts, either as a decoratively while serving, or a handful into each serving for some extra CRUNCH! A colorful salad This salad is inspired by my dear friend Julia Marino. When one night while munching down our dinner, she introduced me to this wonderfully colorful and leafy salad. Ingredients: - 1 head of romaine - 1 head of Bibb lettuce - 1 head of endive - 1 head of radicchio - Olive oil - Balsamic vinegar - Salt and pepper - Dried cranberries - 4 spoonfuls of goat cheese Directions Finely chop all the leaves to your discretion. Have a variety of cuts, finely chopped, slice them diagonally or horizontally, or maybe even into small sizes. It depends on how you want the dish to look. Add a handful and a half of dried cranberries and mix into the colorful leaves and add some goat cheese but slowly and mix into the leaves. Finally if you like dressing, plenty or little, add some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And go ahead and crunch some fresh ground pepper for a wonderful aroma and some salt for some zest. Pink Pasta This dish is an absolute favorite of mine and my sisters. My youngest sister especially, Doda, always wanted her sauce to be a light pink. Not too red, so we either added cream to our pasta or yogurt, so depending on heavy or light you want the dish, use yogurt or cream! Ingredients: - 1 packet of pasta – whatever your choice is, rigatoni, farfelle, elbow or penne - 1 packet of Greek yogurt - 1 jar of store bought or homemade (if you can, I always manage to fail) tomato sauce - 6 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese - Basil - Salt and pepper - 1 ½ knobs of butter - Water Directions Add water to fill up approximately ¾ of the pot. Then allow it to boil, with around 2 tablespoons of salt and 1 knob of butter. When the water comes to a boil, simmer the heat down and add in your packet of pasta. Allow the pasta 30 minutes to boil – either al dente (with a bit of a bite to it) or very well cooked. Check the instructions on your pasta packet, it might take less time. Then empty the water out of the pasta into the sink. Allow the pasta to sit ½ a minute on the heat with an additional ½ knob of butter. Add in the jar of tomato sauce and stir. Followed by the 1 packet of Greek yogurt and stir well. Finally season with fresh ground pepper, salt and basil and for the absolute finale, sprinkle over your pinkish pasta some parmesan cheese – if you like!!!! |
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