The holidays would benefit from a playbook, wouldn’t they? We partnered with Braun Household to arm you with resources for cooking like you wrote it yourself, with a little help from their MultiQuick 9 Hand Blender whose ACTIVEblade technology makes intimidating tasks a cinch.
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I recently heard someone recount a story from an episode of Prairie Home Companion that touched on the amount of squash a Midwesterner experiences in the fall. It was about people breaking into friends’ cars not to take things, but to leave them an excess of squash from their own overflowing stashes. A kind gesture, but what are you supposed to do with so much squash when you’ve eaten all you can in a season?
One could argue that’s it’s impossible to get bored of squash: there are so many types of squash, and so many ways to prepare them! You can roast cubes and slices and rounds; whiz them into soups and sauces; even steep them in alcohol to make infused spirits if you’d like. But even with these options, squash fatigue can hit you hard.
One of our favorite ways to use up—and gift—all the glorious winter squash that’s pounding down our door or somehow shoving itself into our hands at the market (or maybe even mysteriously finding its way into our parked cars) is to roast and blend it into a butter of sorts, to spread on everything from biscuits to scones to crackers and any other carb that’s in its path. An oven for roasting and a hand blender for pureeing are the only tools you need; once you choose the flavor you’re going for (sweet? savory? somewhere in the middle?) this whizzes up in seconds. There’s no specific squash to choose for this, and customization? You can’t go wrong. Here’s how to treat your squash butter in savory or sweet (and maybe slightly weird) ways.
Squash butter would take to any amount of spices, so change up the spice blend you’re mixing into it. Think curry powder, red pepper flakes, sumac, Piment d’Espelette, chipotle pepper…I could go on. Fleck it with crushed nuts, add in chopped herbs like cilantro or mint, even mix in other vegetables like parsnips or thinly-sliced caramelized shallots.
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You could roast garlic and/or ginger alongside the squash and smush it in there, too. Mix in any number of aromatics like onion, leek, or fennel with hard herbs like rosemary or thyme, and serve it with a swipe of goat cheese on crostini. Treat it like our favorite squash toast! Shove it in ravioli. Zip it into a hummus or bean dip. It’s a truly blank canvas.
Ok, not exactly pie, but there are oodles of ways to sweeten up squash butter the way you want. Adjust the spice blend to a baking spice blend, and add in all your favorites (or omit flavors you don’t love) like allspice or ginger. Mix in a little cocoa powder. Stir it with a little vanilla yogurt or whip a small portion into whipped cream to add to desserts. Make this gluten-free coconut squash cake. Mix some into a waffle or pancake batter. Instead of the called-for sugar, try scented/spiced or roasted sugar!
And why the heck not make a bit extra, fill a pie shell with it, and bake ’til it sings? Sounds pretty good to me.
We partnered with Braun Household to arm you with resources for cooking during the holidays, from the simple to the complex, with a little help from their MultiQuick 9 Hand Blender. Want to top your squash buttered toast with something herby? Try the mini chopper attachment for a quick pesto or salsa verde!
