Acorn Squash with Mexican Braised Chicken & Orzo Salad

roasted ACORN SQUASH // MEXICAN braised chicken & ORZO salad

I had a really poignant post in the works about the commercialization of fall and pumpkin spice lattes, etc., but I just deleted it all.  I mean, it was good stuff about objectification that occurs in market-oriented capitalism, the state of "basic" white women, the substitution of things for nuanced emotions, and all that, but figured you probably just wanted the quick stuff about the food.  It's been way over a year that I've been blogging recipes, and still haven't figured out what the hell to write in these little blurbs. 

There's no real inspiration here besides, just, fall.  I had an acorn squash around, because you see them in the store and you just have to buy one.  You're not going to not put that in your cart.  So I had one, I baked it, and I filled it with something hearty.  It was tasty.  It looks pretty, too.  Enjoy.

Three Squash Soup

 

This is officially the easiest recipe I have ever posted on the blog.  It's so easy, that it shouldn't really taste this good, but it does.  It's so easy that I feel a little guilty taking blogger credit for it...like I should be working harder for you, or something.

As you know from last weekend's post, I turned my kitchen into a squash laboratory.  Making careful charts, graphs, and figures that evaluated squash variables like texture and sweetness, I concluded that your standard acorn squash is best for mid-range sweetness and texture integrity (it will hold up well tossed in a salad).  The other three squash under the microscope were gold acorn, white acorn, and butternut.  The remaining three were roasted and put into this soup.  The butternut was by far the sweetest, and the white acorn by far the "breadiest," so those two went in to combine a sweet flavor with a rich and creamy texture.  The gold acorn was pretty bland, but yielded valuable meat to add bulk to the soup.

Combined, the three squashes were really tasty.  Of course, you could work with one squash (and I suppose I'd go with the tried-and-true butternut).  Just that, some stock, and coconut milk will get you some delicious fall soup.  If you want a recipe for spicing and toasting the seeds for garnish, check out the last post for Roasted Acorn Squash and Pomegranate Farro Salad. 

Roasted Squash and Pomegranate Farro Salad

When it comes to squash I'm a real idiot.  It's not an ingredient that I was familiar with growing up, so I just know nothing about them.  Sure, I've eaten squash prepared for me before, but they were more or less Halloween decorations until now (they are real pretty).

I was impressed by the variety and extremely low cost of the squash on display at the grocery store across the street, so I bought four types and went about conducting a taste test.  I sliced and roasted a standard green acorn squash, a white acorn squash, a gold acorn squash, and a butternut squash.  What I was going to do with all this roasted squash was a complete mystery, but I figured it would transform into some sort of soup and some sort of salad.  Mostly, I was curious about how different they would actually taste from one another.

Turns out, they all taste (and smell) like squash.  I know that seems silly, but I don't know how else to put it.  However, they did vary in sweetness.  By far the most important distinction was texture.  The green acorn definitely held its firmness much better than the others, so it's perfect for salads.  The others, in their creaminess or pastiness, made their way into a three-squash soup (coming later this week to the blog).  The green acorn was the mid-range of sweetness, which I also found preferable for a salad with other sweet ingredients (like pomegranate seeds). 

So, despite the lack of alarming or remarkable results, all the squash was quite tasty.  I was particularly pleased that the seeds were easy to flavor, toast, and incorporate into this salad.  It's a very balanced dish when the spices of the squash seeds and sweetness of the pomegranate seeds make their way into the same bite.  The seeds are also a nice textural contrast to the soft farro and squash.  The balance of flavors meant that I didn't have to season the final dish at all, so it stayed low-sodium and low-fat.  It's a rather perfect fall salad, so go grab some squash.