Chili-Lime Roasted Squash Salad

Continuing our health kick, we (well, I) picked out some tasty looking salads for us to munch on in the new year, trying to avoid meat and processed carbs where possible.
 

Our first foray into the salad world was this chili roasted squash salad with a cilantro lime dressing.  I had seen it in the November Martha Stewart Everyday Food Magazine (RIP!) and then again on The Bitten Word, so I thought it was worth a try. Squash (we used the readily available (in Jakarta) kabocha squash, or Japanese pumpkin) roasted with chili powder, lime, cilantro and honey dressing, feta cheese, pepitas (we brought some home from Trader Joe's... I cannot explain to you how much I miss TJ's...), your lettuce of choice (we went with a mesclun mix). 

I thought this was a solid and really easy recipe, but nothing spectacular to write home about (and yet here I am, writing home about it).  I'm not sure what it was missing, but perhaps a little bit of spice?  The chili powder I have is a dark chili powder and it's not too spicy.  Maybe I should have jazzed it up with some cayenne powder...?

Moroccan-spiced Stuffed Squash

Using this recipe as a basis, I stuffed some delicata squashes with a ground beef and bulgur wheat mixture seasoned with fresh parsley, cinnamon, nutmeg, smoked paprika, minced apricots and toasted pine nuts. Pretty good!
I ate the leftover stuffing the following day for lunch with some pita chips- yum.

Winter Squash Salad with Couscous, Cranberries and Chickpeas

Yum- this squash and cousous salad with a citrusy dressing is really good. I used delicata squash because that's what I had on hand, but you could use whatever winter squash you have: butternut, kabocha, etc. I bet the couscous could easily be exchanged for quinoa or some other grain, too.

I made two additions to this recipe: chopped cilantro for color and freshness, and a clove of garlic sauteed with the onion, because everything's better with garlic. We ate it warm with the suggested walnuts and goat cheese sprinkled on top.

Kabocha Squash Soup with Limey Corn Relish

I got a kabocha squash from my CSA this week and was looking for a unique way to cook it... I found this recipe on epicurious.com: Calabaza, Corn and Coconut Soup. Good pick!

This is a fun take on squash soup. It's creamy from the coconut milk and sweet from the squash, which is complimented by the limey, bright corn relish you drop in the soup after it's cooked. Yum. Give this a try- I highly recommend it!

I made a couple changes to the recipe: used one Kabocha squash and one delicata squash, two cups of frozen corn, half chicken stock and half water, one can of coconut milk, and a few dashes of Frank's Red Hot to the soup at the end.

I bet it would be even better if I had followed the recipe and used the corn on the cob- the cobs get cooked in the broth with the squash and probably impart some more corn flavor to the soup.

Roasted Delicata Squash Stuffed With Cheese Tortellini

I had some whole wheat cheese tortellini from Costco that needed to be used up, and a bunch of cute little delicata squash fresh from the CSA... Tyler Florence had this recipe for squash stuffed with tortellini in a creamy/Alfredo-esque sauce, so I gave it a try. This is a great fall vegetarian recipe- the creaminess of the Alfredo sauce goes really well with the earthy squash. The little squash bowls are pretty cool, too.