Monday, December 20, 2010

Harvest Monday - 20 December 2010

This week I harvested absolutely nothing. I did however use up some of my stores. I made chili with my tomato sauce and tomato paste. It also had the last of the shelly beans that I froze a while back. But there was one can of "not my kidney beans" that was also used. I really hope I can grow enough in my huge garden next year. Though I'll be playing around with how much grows in what bed for a few years I'm guessing.

But the big news. I used the one and only butternut squash that my neighborhood groundhogs didn't eat. It was really pretty to cut open. I cut it into cubes and tossed it with olive oil, cumin, and paprika. Then it was roasted. I used them in a black lentil salad.

I wasn't greatly in love with the salad. But it wasn't the recipe's fault. It was the lentils. The lentils were bought from a local Indian store. They have really cheap beans, lentils, and such, but the quality is really poor. I don't mind picking out the little rocks and washing well, but quite a few on the lentils didn't hydrate at all. I had to cook them to death just to get them soft enough too. They were very old lentils. I think I'll stick to the more expensive ones from now on. I also used the squash in a -- hmm not sure what to call it. Maybe an open face burrito. It featured, my squash, my salsa, and "not my refried beans". I do have some dried beans sitting on my cabinet. But they look so pretty and there are so few of them, that I'm waiting to use them up.

No tally today as nothing has changed since last time.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

14 comments:

  1. Too bad that salad didn't turn out, it looks delicious. I think I'm going to experiment...

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  2. Raisins, that's what my subconscious was thinking when it looked at those lentils. Roasted squash, onions, and raisins...

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  3. I have been meaning to try that recipe as well. I like Karen Anne's suggestion of adding raisins to it and I will be sure to use a good quality lentil based on your experience.

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  4. It does look like raisins. I still havent' used the 2 tiny little butternuts I got this year. Soon.

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  5. For some reason, I've never been a fan of butternut squash (winter squash in general). I think it's because we never ate it growing up. I need to be better at buying certain unfamiliar vegetables at the grocery store and experimenting. It's so easy to stay within your comfort zone.

    Sorry about your lentils (yet another thing I don't buy).

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  6. Karen Anne, The rest of it was fine. Though I found I liked it with cheddar better. But then I love cheddar cheese and goat cheese is just ok to me. And I think you are right. It needs raisins and onions. Yum.

    kitsapFG, the freshness of the beans means so much to how a recipe turns out. Though I've used some cheap seeds before to sprout. Hmm I wonder if these will. I guess it never hurts to try.

    The Mom, I was saving it and then I had a craving for squash. I miss the look of it over my mantle.

    Thomas, I used to hate squash (except in pies). But now I like it. I've found that I can expand my tastes fairly well if I try. Still can't get myself to like eggplant a lot. Its OK though. And good in certain things. Arugula is just awful to me and I can't make myself like that one. But there are plenty of other greens to grow so I'm not too upset about that one.

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  7. The lentil salad sounds great, I like the idea of adding raisins to it. I would be tempted to add some of my ground mild chile peppers as well. Too bad about the old lentils, it's so frustrating when that happens.

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  8. Your butternut looks beautiful! What a great recipe even if the lentils weren't so good. I bought several varieties of lentil and garbanzo seeds to trial this winter - I'll have to try this recipe.

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  9. Your creation looks very tasty to me. I have some small butternut squash that I was thinking about using in some homemade vegetable soup. I wonder if I should blanch it or something first since it is so hard. I love the flavor of butternut squash with melted butter on it! Mmmm!

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  10. I didn't like any kind of squash until I grow my own, well I have to eat what I grow like it or not, but I learn to enjoy them, next year I'm growing more winter squashes, we just ate our last kabocha, I'll have to buy from FM until next year's crop comes in.

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  11. Oh, butternut, how I love thee.

    I'm sorry about the old lentils, what a bummer. Next year, when you go to make this again, I'm sure it will turn out 100 times better for you.

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  12. Squash is one thing I have a hard time using. It seems they just sit in the kitchen for ages.

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  13. michelle, it is. Sometimes I've gotten dried beans from the grocery store that won't hydrate well either. Old beans are disgusting. And I'm such a bean lover.

    Jane, I do love lentils. I don't cook them much but I'd like to do more. I probably shouldn't though as I'm not growing them. I should stick to regular beans.

    Veggie PAK, As long as you cook it long enough in the soup it won't matter. It will probably give the soup a wonderful flavor if you cook the squash in the soup. Though roasting it does add a different flavor too. I guess you have to choose.

    mac, I wish we had a local winter market. The closest here requires a car to get to, which I don't have any more. They were going to open one up close, but that never happened.

    Christina, I'm sure it will.

    Dan, lol I have a hard time using them because they are so pretty. I hate taking away my dining room decoration.

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  14. There are different kinds of lentils in the Indian cuisine. Some of them need to be soaked for 12 hours before cooking. I think maybe you encountered that. From the picture of the lentil salad, I see that you used whole urid dal which definitely needs soaking. It's not that the lentils are bad...it's a variety u need to soak. The same does not hold true for red lentils(also called masoor dal in hindi). They cook up in 20 minutes or less when sold in split form and cook up in 30-40 minutes when whole.

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