Today I’m posting two vegetable dishes that are a bit different from the standard Thanksgiving sides. The Squash and Apples recipe is rustic, and the souffléd potatoes are the complete opposite. Whatever kind of Thanksgiving you’re planning, one of these recipes will fit your menu.
This recipe comes from a blog called “Old Farmhouse Cooking,” which claims this squash dish was served at the first White House dinner. I have no information about that, but it sounded like a good combination of apples and squash for a Thanksgiving table, so I gave it a whirl. It turns out that this veggie dish is not only very tasty, but also works well as a vegetarian main dish. I’ve been eating the leftovers for lunch these last two days, and I will continue to make it throughout the winter because it’s that delicious. The apples sweeten the squash naturally, and the fiber in both makes it a very filling dish. I would use a firm but sweet apple for this.
Serves: 6
Prep time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 butternut squash, sliced into bite-sized pieces
- 4 apples, unpeeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 3 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ cup of pecans, broken into pieces
Directions
- Sauté the squash and apples in the melted butter in a large skillet at medium until juices start to flow.
- Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on top and mix in.
- Lower heat, cover, and cook until squash is tender, about 25 minutes.
- Allow some of the juice to cook down.
- Add pecans before serving.
This can be baked in the oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
If you want to do something different than the usual mashed potato side dish for Thanksgiving, a potato soufflé is an eye-catching and impressive dish. It’s very smooth and rich, because of the gruyere cheese, and though it’s spectacular presentation only lasts for a short time, the leftovers are still delicious (if not six inches high!) This has a delicate potato flavor (read: can be bland), so make sure you use enough chives, parsley, salt and pepper.
Serves: 6
Ingredients
- Prep time: 1 ½ hours
- 2 tablespoons butter, plus more for buttering the soufflé dish
- Flour for dusting the soufflé dish
- 1 ½ pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters (about 3 large potatoes)
- ¾ cup half and half
- ½ pound gruyere cheese, shredded
- 1 tablespoon of parsley, finely minced
- ½ teaspoon thyme, minced
- 1 tablespoon chives, finely minced
- salt and pepper to taste
- 5 eggs, separated
- 2 egg whites
- pinch of cream of tartar
Directions
- Butter and flour a large soufflé dish.
- In a medium pot, cook potatoes until tender, 20 – 25 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- Drain potatoes and return to pan, allowing them to dry out at medium heat for just a minute.
- Do not allow them to start to brown.
- Add butter and mash the potatoes, stirring in the half and half.
- Let potatoes cool a bit before stirring in the gruyere, parsley, thyme, chives and salt and pepper.
- Add the egg yolks and transfer entire mixture to a large bowl.
- Using a mixer, in a separate bowl beat 7 egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff.
- Stir in one-third of the beaten egg whites into the potato mixture, folding the two mixtures together gently.
- Add the rest of the egg whites and combine until egg whites cannot be seen. Put mixture into a soufflé dish.
- Bake for 45 minutes, until is it puffy and golden brown serve immediately.
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