Guest Blogger: Squash Soup

For my European readers, I've got a European guest blogger today. Her name is Ella Moss and I hope it's helpful. She starts off with an admonition not to throw away food. How could I resist? For all you American's, know that a pound is about $1.72.

Food waste accounts for 13.9% of our overall waste, second only to paper (28.4%). It’s therefore imperative that we find a way to stop throwing away food. Buying local produce, such as organic vegetables, is healthier, better for the environment and better for the local economy. Buy these in small batches several times a week, rather than doing one large weekly shop so that they stay fresh and you don’t have to throw them away.

If you’re looking to overhaul your diet in order to make it more eco-friendly without spending a huge amount of cash, this guide has advice on how to do this, including where you should buy your food and how you can cut down on waste.

The following recipe utilises vegetables you can find at your local market and can feed the whole family. It’s suitable for vegetarians as well as tasty. The whole batch costs under £5 and could last at least four or five meals – more if you keep adding stock. Also, because of the high water content, it will freeze well and last even longer. Put half in a large Tupperware container and pop in the freezer to eat at a later date when your cupboards are bare instead of opting for a takeaway.

Squash Soup:

Ingredients

·         1 butternut squash (£1.30)

·         3 sweet potato (£1.25)

·         1 red onion (18p)

·         2 cloves garlic (30p for whole bulb)

·         1L Vegetable stock (50p for pack)

·         50g Butter (20p)

·         Sage (75p for whole pot of dried sage)

·         Double cream (optional) (85p for whole pot)

1 – Chop the onions finely and brown with the butter in a frying pan. Grate the garlic to make a pulp and add when the onions are almost cooked. This works better if you keep the heat medium to low, rather than high, as this will slowly soften them without the butter or garlic burning and adding a bitter taste to the soup. Take this off the heat and add the sage to gently cook it with the residual heat. Put this to one side.

2 – Bring the vegetable stock to a boil in a large, deep saucepan.

3 – Chop the squash and sweet potato into small chunks and add to the boiling stock. Boil for 20 minutes until both are soft and easy to break up with a fork.

4 – Add the onions, garlic and sage to the stock and squash and stir together.

5 – If you have a blender, this is where you can blend the mixture together to make a thick soup. Of course, this is optional. If you like chunky soup, blending isn’t mandatory. Blend to the consistency you prefer.

6 – Add salt and pepper to taste – if it needs it.

7 – Serve with a swirl of double cream or crème fraiche for a healthier option.  Why not try baking some homemade crusty bread to accompany it?

Easy Cheesy Bean Dip

There is nothing I love quite so much as a stupid easy recipe. Except a stupid easy recipe that is also super delicious.

Lately I've tried several bean dips--they're super cheap and a quick dinner or fun party food. They've all been decent, but none has been worthy of this blog. This one is. It's just delicious. I must admit that the beans in this dip are sort of a vehicle for cheese. I'm okay with that.

This recipe can be made in the crock pot. But if you lack four hours of foresight as I always seem to, you can throw it in the oven for 20-30 minutes and you're good.

Easy Cheesy Bean Dip
adapted from Recipes that Crock
serves 10-ish
Prep time: 5-10 minutes
Cook time: 20-30 minutes in oven; 4 hours in crock pot
Cost: $5.00 (or $.50/serving)
cream cheese: 1.00, sour cream: .70, beans: .50, seasonings: .20, cheese: 1.50, chips: 1.00

8 oz cream cheese--softened
1 C sour cream or Greek yogurt
16 oz can refried beans
2 Tbsp taco seasoning
1 1/2 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
8 oz shredded sharp cheddar--divided
tortilla chips

Blend everything, but cheese and tortilla chips.

Spoon half cream cheese/bean mixture into 9x13 inch pan. Layer with half the cheese.

Add remaining cream cheese/bean mixture. Add remaining cheese.

Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbling at edges. Or cook in crock pot on low for four hours.

Eat with tortilla chips. (And maybe a veggie thereby if you're one of those righteous types.)

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Sour Patch Grapes

You ready for a dumb easy recipe that will change every bag of horrible grapes forever?

Surely I'm not the only person who occasionally ends up with a whole 2-pound bag of crappy grapes. And what do you do with them? I don't feel like grapes work well in smoothies, you can't make sweet bread out of them, I suppose you could juice them if you have a juicer, but many people don't and the juice is okay, but comes out kind of thin and sometimes chalky tasting if your grapes are particularly awful. So you either do the cheapskate thing and eat the nasty things. Or you do the non-cheapskate thing and throw them away. Neither is highly appealing to me.

But now... now I have the perfect solution for you. I recently got some awful grapes. Two whole bags--four pounds total. My kids wouldn't touch them. Every grape came home from the school lunches. And then I read about these candied grapes on Pinterest (good old Pinterest). The writer claimed they tasted just like sour patch candies. Also, they were dumb easy. And cheap. And super beautiful. In fact, I thought they would be perfect for a baby shower or party (you could coat them in pink or blue pretty easily).

I'm not going to pretend that these things are super healthy. They're not. But they're healthier than, say, cookies. Or fruit snacks. Or Sour Patch candies. Which is what they most remind me of. They are more along the lines of dessert that has some nutritional value. I can live with that.

I can especially live with that when my kids come home from school and snarf down an entire bunch of grapes they would not touch one day before. These babies really are a lot like candy--in flavor and even a bit in texture. If you are a lover of sour candy, you MUST try these grapes.

Here's what you do:

You coat grapes in dry Jello powder.

Now I know what you're thinking: Jello is Satan's dessert. Oh, wait, maybe that's what I was thinking. But you may be thinking it too, since it is true. Jello by itself is the most disgusting dessert I can think of. Why not just harvest boogers and sweeten them--that is how I feel about Jello. But in this recipe it worked PERFECTLY. They sweet and soured the grapes and the gelatin gave the grapes a little coating that kind of set (which you wouldn't get if you just rolled damp grapes in sugar). Jello is also cheap.

I tried three kinds--Tropical Fusion (Jello brand), Watermelon (Jolly Rancher brand--no, I didn't know that existed either, but if we've got it in Evansville, you probably have it too), Green Apple (Jolly Rancher brand). My favorite was watermelon, followed by Green Apple, but my kids loved them all and consumed them before I could get a cute picture so I had to make them again.

tropical fusion far left, green apple back, watermelon front

Sour Patch Grapes
Makes 2 pounds
Prep time: 5 minutes
Set time: 1 hour
Cost: $2.64
grapes: $2 (Aldi prices), Jello: .64

Note: I made less than this and just saved the rest of my Jello powder by folding up the bag tight.

2 lb grapes
1 package flavored (and sugared) Jello

Remove grapes from stems. Rinse and let strain in a strainer. You do not want your grapes dripping, but you do not want them completely dry either. A damp grape is perfect.

Put Jello powder onto a plate or stretch of waxed paper. Put grapes on the plate (if you're doing 2 pounds, you're going to have to do this in batches) and shake the plate so the grapes roll around and get coated.

Let the grapes sit for an hour (you can eat them right after you make them, but if they set they're better and the texture is amazing and surprisingly candy-like).