Butternut Squash is the Bomb

I love butternut squash. It tastes great, it’s incredibly nutritious, it’s fairly easy to cook with and it stores for months. I grew a bunch last summer and just finished using all of it. Here are my four favorite recipes for butternut squash.


Squash and Greens
1 butternut squash
2 bunches of greens, about 2 dozen stems, I prefer Kale or Chard
½ onion
Toasted walnuts – 10-15 minutes at 300 usually toasts them nicely
Feta, blue or other tangy, crumbly cheese
2-3 Tablespoons Olive oil
Cube the squash and put it in the oven at 400 degrees, until tender (20-30 minutes.) Chop the onion and saute it in a large pan over medium low heat. While both are cooking prepare the greens by washing and removing the stems then coarsely chopping into several pieces per leaf. Turn up the heat on the onions and add the greens and a cup of water to the big pan. Steam/saute the greens until nice a tender, add more water if necessary. When the greens and the squash is done prepare the plate by first arranging a pile of the greens. Put a big scoop of squash on top and then sprinkle a generous amount of walnuts and cheese over that.


Squash and Quinoa
3 cups quinoa, cooked.
3 cups butternut squash, cubed (1 large squash)
1 onion, chopped.
1 Tablespoon thyme
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 cup toasted walnuts
Toss the squash cubes with the onion, thyme, olive oil, and vinegar. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet and back for 20-30 minutes at 400 degrees until the squash is done. Cook the quinoa as the package instructs while the squash is in the oven. Mix the cooked squash and the cooked quinoa together and enjoy.


Harvest Chili
1 onion
2 cups broth, chicken or vegetable.
1 large butternut squash cubed
1 cup corn, canned, frozen or fresh
1 cup or 1 can cooked white beans, actually any bean will do,
Tomatoes – I use tomato sauce, about 2 cups, but the recipe this started with used chopped fresh tomatoes
Peppers – this time of year I use dried hot red peppers saved from my garden
2 Tablespoons chili powder
Saute the onion in a tablespoon of olive oil, add broth and turn up the heat til it starts to boil then turn it down to a brisk simmer and add all the other stuff. Add broth and tomato sauce if there isn’t enough liquid. Let it cook for 30 minutes or until the squash is cooked through. Salt to taste.


Stuffed Squash
1 clove garlic
1 large squash
1 T olive oil
½ cup walnuts
¼ cup blue cheese
2 tsp thyme
1 T honey
Cut the squash in half the long way, take out the seeds and stringy stuff and bake for 1 hour at 375 degrees. Mix the other ingredients together, enlarge the hole in the squash by scrapping bits of the flesh into the hole, pile the other ingredients in the hole and bake it until the cheese melts a bit, 5 to 10 minutes.


Where to get it local
Squash: all over the place, Midway Farms, Roths, EZ Orchards
Walnuts: EZ Orchards
Onions, Kale and Chard: Midway Farms, also likely at the Salem Public Market and certainly at the Corvallis Indoor Market.
Cheese: EZ Orchards, Roth’s, Lifesource, Fitts Seafood and check out www.oregoncheeseguild.org
Olive Oil: Victoria Estates of Keizer is available at EZ Orchards
Corn: check out the processors section for brands of corn canned and frozen in Oregon, get them in most grocery stores here.
Tomato Sauce: check for the Oregon brands but not a lot of tomatoes are processed here since our cool summers make commercial production of tomatoes somewhat challenging. A few of the farm stands have home canned sauce and Buona Terra near Monmouth is one of them.
White Beans: I’m not sure who has these locally grown here. If you know somewhere, let me know.

Christmas Cherry Chutney

The land I live on had an acre of old cherry trees when I bought it 22 years ago. Now after clearing for a garden and a driveway, I have about a dozen tress left. This last summer they had cherries by the bushel. I invited friends and family to pick all they wanted, they did, and still an embarrassing amount was wasted. I’ve always thought that Royal Anne cherries were just good fresh. I tried canning them years ago and didn’t really like the result. This year Robert and Dee, who raise 60 kinds of apples, told me about cherry chutney. I looked up some recipes, made a couple of alterations to the one I had the ingredients for, and the result blew me away.

When you see fresh Royal Anne cherries at the fruit stand or the grocery store you can be fairly certain they’re local. These delicate things bruise when touched and brown where bruised. Most of the trees that grow these were planted, like my nearly 50 year old trees, when fruit wasn’t chosen for its shipping qualities but for its flavor. You can get them fresh during the summer but if you want to save a bundle keep your eyes open for what looks like old orchards. South and west of Salem I noticed a number of small orchards that, like mine, aren’t commercially harvested. If you happen upon one of these next summer, stop and ask at the nearest home and you may end up picking a bunch for very little. In the meantime, canned, frozen and dried cherries can be had from numerous local processors. Check the list after the recipe.

Jeannie’s Christmas Cherry Chutney

5 cups frozen, fresh or canned sweet cherries. If making this with tart cherries add ½ cup of sugar. If using canned cherries leave out some of the sugar.
1 cup chopped dried tart cherries.
1 cup walnuts
1 cup sugar
¾ cup vinegar, I use white but you can probably use others.
2 tablespoons finely chopped candied ginger.
½ teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, ginger, cayenne pepper and salt.
¼ teaspoon of ground cloves.

Bring it all to a boil and then cook over medium heat for 30 minutes.

I serve this with crackers and cream cheese. I’m sure it would be great over baked brie or with pork, turkey, duck or chicken.

Cherries and Walnuts Locally Grown

Cherry Country has dried tart cherries – check the link on the right.
Willamette Valley Fruit has frozen tart cherries and Roth’s, EZ Orchards and Aspinwalls carry them.
Oregon Fruit has canned Royal Anne cherries and Roth’s has them.
Bauman Farms has frozen cherries as well.
Truitt Brothers also cans sweet cherries.
Walnuts – check the previous post. EZ orchards, Asplinwall’s and New Seasons in Portland all have local walnuts.