What The Fork?

Roasted veggies

For me, autumn and roasted vegetables go hand-in-hand. There's something really comforting about eating a bunch of roasted, starchy food from right out of the oven when the weather starts to get cold. And it's the easiest thing you can do with all those root veggies (turnips, beets, potatoes, parsnips, carrots) that are piling up these days. You can just chop them up and put them in the oven with a bit of olive oil and the herbs of your choice. I'm partial to rosemary.

Then there's this recipe I adapted from the most recent Air Miles magazine, of all places, from Chatelaine food editor Monda Rosenberg. The twist is the maple-ginger glaze added at the end.

Autumn vegetables with maple-ginger dressing

The recipe calls for 5 large carrots, 4 large parsnips, 2 red peppers, 1 yellow pepper and 1 large sweet onion, but the exact veggies and proportions can easily be altered

Olive oil
Salt and pepper
4 tsp maple syrup
1 tbsp red wine vinegar (I used balsalmic)
1 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 450F. Spread sliced vegetables on baking sheet, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast on the top rack in oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until tender and slightly charred around the edges.

As veggies roast, whisk maple syrup with vinegar, ginger, garlic and pinches of salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in oil. When veggies are cooked, turn into bowl and toss with dressing.

Squash season

I get excited about squash. Not only is it tasty, it's easy to handle. Baked on its own with a little butter, thrown in a soup, whatever you want to do with it.

If you get a smaller variety, like the tasty and esthetically-pleasing acorn squash, it can also be microwaved if you want to keep things really easy, or speed up one part of the cooking process for your recipe. Just cut them in half lengthwise, put them in a little bit of water, cover and microwave for about five to seven minutes per squash.

This stuffed squash recipe is adapted from The Vegetarian Five-Ingredient Gourmet by Nava Atlas, and it's perfect because it looks really fancy but it's surprisingly simple to make. Which will give you bonus points for Thanksgiving gatherings.

Red Onion and Almond-Stuffed Winter Squash

4 small winter squashes (acorn, golden acorn, etc.)
1 tbsp nonhydrogenated margarine (can also be made with butter or other substitute)
1 large red onion, chopped,
1/4 cup finely chopped toasted almonds
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1. Bake the squashes in an oven set to 375 F in a foil-covered dish, or microwave as above.

2. Let the squashes cool. Scoop out the pulp and transfer to a mixing bowl, leaving a sturdy shell of about 1-2 cm thick all around.

3. Heat the margarine in a medium skillet. Sautee the onion until golden. Add the almonds and continue to sautee until they give off a toasty aroma.

4. Combine the onion mixture with the squash pulp. Add the ginger and stir together. Stuff into the squash shells. Reheat in the microwave or oven until heated through.

Rosemary-orange carrots

My adventures in local eating have had another unexpected benefit: bringing me back to the phenomenon of eating in with friends. Sure, I'd cook for myself on a pretty regular basis, but when it came to getting together with other people, we'd almost always go out for food. But as I started getting loads of fresh produce from my CSA box, I was more eager to try to use it -- especially given that it was already paid for.

So that's resulted in lovely evenings like the one I had last week, when a bunch of us got together in the kitchen with a couple glasses of wine and prepared an entire meal, most of which incorporated local food. This might sound a little hokey, but there is really a sense of satisfaction and togetherness that comes with preparing a meal with people you love, then sitting down to eat it. And it's way less expensive than eating at a restaurant.

The menu included a green salad with beans, tomatoes and carrots; chick pea salad with mustard dressing; quiche with broccoli and corn; tomatoes and mushrooms in thyme; and this amazing carrot dish.

There's not really a strict recipe. You just simmer carrots in a sauce made from orange juice, tamari sauce (or soy sauce, if you prefer) and rosemary in a covered pan until the carrots are tender and the sauce has thickened.

Beet and goat cheese salad

I got plenty of good beet suggestions this week -- seems like everyone has a block-rockin' beet recipe up their sleeves -- but I decided on this one, sent from my cousin Katie:

1. Take your beets and wrap them in tin foil with salt, pepper, and olive oil. If they are different sizes you might want to cut the big ones in half so that they cook in the same time. You can wrap them individually or in one big package, probably doesn't matter

2. put your foil packages in a 400 oven on a baking sheet for around an hour (depends on the size of your beets but basically your fork needs to go in and come out really easily)

3. let them cool a bit and then peel off the skins

4. cut into chunks and put into a bowl with some crumbled goat cheese (mmm)

5. drizzle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. I also like to put parsley on it if i have some around but it's not really necessary.

6. eat :) It's good if the beats are still warm or if they're cold. I've also seen the same thing made, but with greens added. Seems like a delicious variation and good way to tone down the "beety-ness" of it.

I heard very good things about this recipe before I tried it, and it more than lived up to the hype. Because I am a moron, I accidentally bought goat brie instead of regular goat cheese (all that goaty flavour, in brie form), which probably didn't work as well. On the plus side, mixing it in with the warm beets made it nice and melty. I also opted to use beet greens in the salad, but I'm sure it would have been just as fabulous without greens.

Broccoli zucchini soup

This post is dedicated to my friends Sonia and Matt, who made it possible by giving me their blender. We were having coffee this weekend when I mentioned my blender went belly-up and I needed to buy a new one so I could make soup. Turns out they had three -- one each from before they moved in together and a third they got as a wedding gift -- and were more than happy to unload one. It was a win-win: they got rid of a surplus kitchen appliance, and I got to make soup. (Note to my engaged friends: I will try this again.)

So, the soup. I know it's not actually a summer dish, but this weekend didn't actually feel like summer, did it? The recipe was adapted from this broccoli soup recipe from the Seasonal Ontario Food blog, which in turn was adapted from Gordon Ramsay. I added a zucchini because I didn't have quite enough broccoli, and garlic because I didn't find there was enough flavour.

I was shocked how quick and easy this was -- I guess because broccoli and zucchini both cook up so quickly. And it was tasty. Very tasty. This will probably make its way into the regular rotation.

Because I still had basil on the brain from last week, I took Pesto's advice and served it with baked potatoes with basil, along with yellow beans -- just boiled, because I don't think they need anything else.

Broccoli zucchini soup

- 1 large head broccoli
- 1 medium-sized zucchini
- 2 tbsp walnut pieces
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 tbsp parmesan cheese
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste

Wash and chop the broccoli and zucchini. (The original recipe calls for florets only, but I threw some stem pieces in.) Cook in boiling water until tender, about 5 minutes. Lift the vegetables into blender with a slotted spoon. Add about 1 cup of cooking water, nuts, garlic and parmesan. Puree until smooth, and adjust water and seasonings to taste. Garnish with cheese, nuts and/or olive oil.

A bunch of basil

This is what I love about getting food straight from the farm -- there's never any doubt that it's actually fresh. It might be messy, but the roots and dirt remind you that this stuff was actually growing out of the ground a couple days ago.

So this is basil. A lot of basil. (For context, that's a regular-sized dinner plate it's sitting on.) It's probably my favourite herb. Normally my first move in this case is to whip out the hand-blender and turn it into pesto, and keep a steady supply on hand in the fridge. But the basil I'm growing in the backyard is growing like mad, which should keep me going till the end of the season, so I think most of this stuff is headed for the freezer.

My pesto recipe is pretty basic -- about 2 cups basil, 1/2 cup olive oil, 3 cloves garlic, and pine nuts if I have them (which I usually don't). I've seen variations with spinach and parm, as well. Any other suggestions or substitutions out there? What can I use instead of pine nuts?