Dinner for Slackers

Not only did I spend more money than I had planned at the grocery this week, but I also spent more time. After being cart-blocked at every turn by the Oldsters of South Pasadena, I was in no mood to roast tomatillos and slice onions, peppers, and steak for the tacos. I defaulted to the butternut squash soup.

Most of my recipes are hybrids, and this is no exception: I combine the technique from America’s Test Kitchen with part of a recipe from somewhere on Epicurious, then I tweak based on the Degree of Slack I require from my dinner at the particular moment. Here’s what I did tonight:


--halve a giant squash lengthwise; reserve gross stuff
--in multi-pot, saute gross stuff in butter 
--add onion, 3 star anise, sliced ginger, garlic; brown
--add an inch of water
--put squash face-down in steamer basket; cover
--steam until soft (20 min?)
--strain out gross stuff; pour liquid back into pot
--scoop out and add nuclear squash pulp
--add 4-5 cups liquid(1)
--puree with stick blender until smooth
--simmer for 20 minutes(2)


Sometimes I add a bit of cream, but not tonight.(3)

I also made turkey sandwiches, because soup and sandwich are still together after All These Years. But I knew I was going to blog about it later, so I gussied up the deli turkey with some thinly sliced apple, farmhouse cheddar, and avocado. I briefly considered grilling them, because that’s extra delicious, but then I realized I’d have to come up with a new title for the post and I was just way too apathetic. Deal.


It wasn’t bad, considering all the hands-off time. Family consensus is that it would have been better if I’d actually done the ATK-steaming method, because it really is delicious. But I didn’t want to do the straining or the dishes, so I just diced the squash, dumped it all in a Dutch oven, set the heat to medium, and fell asleep. In 20 minutes, I had soup. Result!

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(1) I used mostly water ‘cuz I’m cheap, and a little broth

(2) Or 40 if, like me, you fall asleep on the couch

(3) I’ll pretend that I did it to help Dorian out with that high cholesterol business, but actually I would have sneaked it in there if we’d had any.