Teczcape-An Escape to Food

Forget about slicing through those hard-shelled pumpkins, have Delicata Squash on-board and breeze through pumpkin season. As it is a relatively smaller squash, you do not have to think hard about storing unused portions. Buy it fresh, use it up, then buy it again.

Though Kabocha Squash remains my favorite squash in terms of versatility and flavor (check these recipes: Kabocha Squash Pumpkin Rice, Kabocha Squash, Okra, Green Beans Stew, Kabocha Squash Millet Congee), Delicata Squash is a convenient choice when preparing one or two servings meals.

With vegetables and roasted pumpkin squash (Pumpkin Squash Veggie Salad Bowl) as the base, I have prepared similar veggie bowls to pair with chicken Pumpkin Squash Veggie Bowl with Chicken and roasted salmon (below) - choice of Pesto Salmon or Dijon Mustard Salmon.

Delicata Squash Veggie Bowl with Roasted Salmon

In the past few months of preparing veggie-salad meals and grain bowls, I have realized that nothing is impossible. In the standard culinary world of wonton soups, have you ever thought that wonton salads might also work?


With the arrival of autumn, this veggie bowl meal can be customized using what's in season. Pumpkin! And here today, we have butternut squash.

Good morning to a healthy 2019!

Hearty breakfasts like this Broccoli, Kale, Winter Squash with Egg should be done more often. Truth is, there is hardly any time to prepare so many ingredients (kitchen war zone evidenced below) before 7am.

But the breakfast spirit should live on, regardless of time. So I prepared THAT many ingredients and made breakfast-style lunch!


The trick to this dish is not to over-do the greens, yet give a little more to the potatoes and hard winter squash.

For those who prefer grains in place or potatoes/squashes, try Broccoli, Kale, Quinoa with Egg.

With its bright orange flesh, kabocha squash is an excellent source of beta-carotene that can be converted to vitamin A in the body. Vitamin A is important for healthy white blood cells, good immunity and for vibrant, healthy eyes, skin and hair. To boost fiber content, you can cook them with their edible green skins. I bought a whole kabocha squash (Japanese pumpkin) with a plan to cook Pumpkin Rice 南瓜饭.

This Pumpkin Rice a pumped-up version of this Garlic Pumpkin Rice and fits a one-pot one-dish meal perfectly.

If there is any fancy pumpkin squash to try this pumpkin season, let it be the Delicata. It is also a budget-friendly produce item to add to your autumn/fall grocery list.

Thinned-skin, Delicata Squash is also much easier to handle and slice, and cooks relatively quickly (compared to the other bigger thicker-skin pumpkins), in about 20 minutes roasting time.

Steamed Kale, Yellow and Purple Cauliflower, Cooked Beets, Roasted Squash, Shredded Chicken

During autumn/fall season, this pumpkin squash has become the fiber-boosting, nutrient-dense "carb" in place of sweet potatoes or potatoes or corn on the cob in these healthy and nutritious salad grain bowls.

As much as I want to capture drool-worthy moments with my camera (or should I say, cellphone?), making/cooking healthy nutritious flavorsome meals with the simplest cooking method (e.g. steaming, roasting) has taken its priority in the past months.


With bountiful autumn harvest of squash in the grocery stores right now, pick any variety, roast it and use it for a warm salad like this one I am featuring today.

Happy 2017 everyone! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and love here at my website throughout all these wonderful years. I wish everyone many healthy and happy years ahead.

Nothing fancy for the first post of 2017, just as my approach to home-cooked meals - simple and fuss-free; "simple" does not mean "done without deliberate thought". On the other hand, you have to put your heart and thoughts into preparing healthy and nutritionally-balanced meals, really.

The last time I made this ratatouille-inspired oven-roasted dish, I enjoyed it and wanted to make it again. This time, it is a vegetarian heartier lot with autumn/winter squash, heirloom carrots, green and red bell peppers, eggplant and Tokyo Negi (similar to leeks - leeks have flat green tops rather than the tubular tops of Negi). Tokyo Negi may be sharp pungent onion/leek but similar to leek, it mellows down to sweetness when slow-roasted or cooked.

Roasting packed the vegetables and squashes with natural sweetness, imparting full-bodied flavors to the entire dish.


Do not be afraid to load up the oven. It saves energy (your energy + the utilities bill of course!) and is a brilliant way to incorporate a variety of vegetables, a huge batch of vegetables; let alone the roasted vegetables coming together in an awesome medley of flavors, deliciously sweet in a savory way.

Kabocha squash aside, today is the stage for the fancy squash spaghetti, or spaghetti squash. Compared to kabocha squash or butternut squash, spaghetti squash is relatively quite a bland squash.

Personally, I think this squash can be a great alternative to a root vegetable such as turnip or jicama for texture when called for in recipes. In addition, the best thing about roasted spaghetti squash is, when roasted or cooked, you practically (and instantly) have "julienned vegetables" just by scraping the squash using a fork.

Pumpkin Noodle, or specially Pumpkin Rice Vermicelli is as familiar as Pumpkin Rice to many of us. However, you may have noticed that I have used pasta, in replacement of rice vermicelli in this recipe; well, not just any pasta but Angel Hair pasta. That is the only pasta, that in my opinion, comes closest to rice vermicelli.

The intended big and round Pajeon Korean-style pancake was a failure. It did not turn out as crispy as it should. Once again, this is telling me...I can't handle F-L-O-U-R !


Did I use the wrong flour? Was it because too little oil was used for frying? Was the oil not hot enough?


It was such a waste to discard the squash pancake, so to "save" the pancake, it was made to smaller pieces and fried like fritters. By doing this, the flour gets "cooked" thoroughly and becomes crispy.

Quite often in the winter months, I go for roasted vegetables - carrots, cauliflower, eggplants etc. The hearty and very flavorful roasted vegetables not only can be quickly and easily tossed into pasta (in fact, any choice of carbs) for a meal, the roasted vegetables can also be added to a tomato-based spiced curry - just like this Roasted Vegetable Curry.

The toasty buttery flavors and sweetness of vegetables, melding into a spiced curry, making a 30-minute curry which some may think may have been slowly cooked for an hour because the flavors are so deep and layered. Roasting makes the difference by pulling the flavors from the vegetables and concentrating them for the curry.


Did I forget to tell you how the oven heat warm up the house during the chilly nights of winter? Feel the warmth by enjoying a hearty vegetarian curry.

Roasting concentrates the sugars in squash, and many root vegetables e.g carrots, sweet potatoes. Do you know that the glycemic index (GI) changes, when a vegetable (or root vegetable) is roasted vs steamed (or boiled)? For example, if you roast sweet potatoes, the GI is doubled. Now I am not sure about squash, or specifically kabocha squash.

If you need to control your blood sugar levels, do make the conscious effort to choose the right kind of cooking method. For today's Steamed Kabocha Squash, it was not for health reasons but to showcase the versatility of my favorite squash in the way it is cooked.


Stir-Fry Kabocha Squash, Kabocha Squash Stew, Roasted Kabocha Squash, Kabocha Squash Sauce, and even Miso Squash Soup - but I have not even tried it steamed!? I should.

Of the fall/autumn squashes, kabocha squash is my favorite. When cooked, this Japanese pumpkin with deep green skin and vibrant orange flesh taste more like sweet potato and is less buttery than the other edible pumpkin varieties. Like most fall/winter squash, kabocha squash can be roasted, steamed, stir-fried, pureed as soup, cooked in stews or curries, or even cooked with rice or rice congee.

A quick and delicious recipe is Stir-Fry Kabocha Squash, with garlic, and green onions - a dish with moist and fluffy squash, its sweetness well-complimented with fragrant sauteed garlic. If you are looking for a bowl of warm winter comfort, this Kabocha Squash Rice Congee/Porridge will soothe you on a chilly evening.



I came up with this simple and basic squash-and-rice recipe when rice was running low in the pantry, so the squash cubes can bulk up as the "carbs"; at the same time, skin-on squash constitutes more fiber, and offers Vitamin A (nutrition and health) and flavor (taste) to the otherwise plain (boring) rice.

A tray of green beans, mushrooms and onions was sent into the oven while roasting the butternut squash; and the cooking pan holding all the Swiss chard was to serve "two purposes"  - Roasted Squash with Sauteed Swiss Chard; and this dish - Roasted Green Beans, Mushrooms and Sauteed Chard with Pasta.

So...now...why do I have to involve two steps - roast and saute?


In short, the oven could accommodate more than the cooking pan at the instant, so "equipment" utilization is flexed around in order to achieve two dishes (the other dish here) within the shortest time.

Sometimes, a dish can be "discovered" in unexpected ways: when the fridge is almost cleared of perishables such as milk and leafy greens before going on a short vacation; then just after you have returned and have not even get the time to stock up on some fresh produce/groceries to replenish the fridge, you suddenly realized you need to start cooking!

So here comes this dairy-free Creamy Roasted Butternut Squash Soup made using soft tofu and miso.


Miso being fermented soy beans contains good bacteria so it is best not to boil them in soups as the beneficial bacteria would be killed. What I usually do is to dissolve the miso in boiled hot water, and stir into simmering soups at the last few minutes, as a flavor enhancer to soup.

This recipe was developed due to a relatively empty fridge with （1） frozen squash cubes in the freezer, （2） a pack of about-to-expire soft tofu and （3） organic red miso.

I did not intentionally avoid using heavy cream in this soup. Hey, I have not even replenished the whole milk in the fridge!

No cream to use, not even milk?! But there was some good-quality soft tofu, so I thought...why not pulse the soft tofu into the squash soup for the "creamy" texture? And it worked really well. So those of you who are lactose-intolerant and wants your creamy soup dairy-free, simply try this way of pureeing your soup.

What? The organic butternut squash is cheaper than the conventional butternut squash in the grocery store?!?!

Take home message: it pays to take a good look at the price tags/labels, every time. Don't make assumptions that organic is always more expensive than conventional.

Kabocha squash thickens up sauces really well, especially after the squash has been cooked through and thorough. All you need is to scoop the "flesh" (cooked squash) into the sauce, simmer with the sauce and literally witness the squash melting into the sauce like a puree. This makes a savory sauce - better, sweeter, and creamier - creating that perfect balance.


The basic sauce was made from onions, garlic, tomatoes; but with the squash simmered into it, makes all the difference.  The flavors are upped and texture makes a twist and turn for the better. What a creamy golden delicious sauce!

Kabocha squash is really one of my favorites squashes but like all the other squashes, I do not enjoy the chopping/slicing process due to the raw squash's hard-skin, flesh, and core. Is there any easier effortless way to chop/slice?

This definitely looks like baby food!!! Well, but it should also ease into an adult's palate, especially when one is under the weather or simply yearn for a one-pot hot "something" on a cold winter night. Congee it is!

A quick, soothing and warm one-pot millet congee with baby spinach, kabocha squash and some ground chicken (optional if vegetarian).


Millet is highly nutritious. It contains B-complex vitamins such as niacin, thiamin, and riboflavin; also high in iron, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, and potassium. This millet congee is flavorful, warm and soothing and the entire dish can be accomplished in less than 30 minutes from prep. to finish.

Not that I am into any low-carb diet and looking to substitute wheat or rice noodles with low-carb noodles (e.g spaghetti squash, Shirataki noodles) but this can serve as a alternative "noodle" dish if you wish to - using spaghetti squash as the "noodle".


This is how it looks like at the start...


...then cook it down till it looks like  - just being slightly caramelized when the vegetables have released their natural "juice" of sweetness in the process of "dry" frying. Note: No water/stock was added in the entire process of cooking.
 

Not only as alternative "noodle", such a vegetable combo is perfect as filling for your spring rolls!

This is a double-duty dish depending on what you want to use it for. Have it as noodles one day and save the leftover for making some spring rolls the next day!