Potato and Squash Mash

In my search for what to do with all the beets from our Fresh Option box I happened upon this post on livejournal. I wasn't down with the raw part, but I followed a series of links that brought me to some other recipes that had pan fried versions. That sounded more up my alley so I ran with inspiration.


Beautiful. This was my first opportunity to use the shredder disk on my food processor and it was so easy. I shredded 3 small beets and 1/2 a small sweet potato - a cheese grater would work fine to shred the beets, just a little slower*. I combined that with an onion, a can of chickpeas and some flour and spices. I don't have an exact recipe to post yet because I feel like it still needs to be perfected. I used a little too much flour but otherwise these tasted divine. I didn't have any good gluten free sandwich bread around so I just had a breadless sandwich with some mayo, mustard, spinach, and cheese plus green beans, butter and garlic. Once I've played with this a bit more I'll be sure to post exact measurements. This recipe ended up making about 10 patties and I put a bunch in the freezer so I can just fry or bake them when I want to.

When we stopped at The Carver's Knife last week we picked up a small free range frozen chicken. I haven't cooked a whole chicken before but I looked up a few recipes and threw together one delicious, juicy roast chicken. I also made gravy for the first time too. I wanted to take pictures of the rest of our meal but the camera battery died in the process.

Ryan made the salad in the background and I put together a delicious veggie mash. The chicken was your run of the mill roast chicken with some balsamic vinegar broiled on top. The mash was fantastic so I've decided to share that recipe for today. It was a good way to use a nice variety of veggies too - we got only half an acorn squash in the box because the other half was rotten and they substituted extra potatoes. Plus it went great with the gravy.

Potato Squash Mash
*Note: 3-4 servings - you may want to increase the amounts for larger portions*

• 1/2 a sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 2 small russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 yukon gold potato, peeled and cubed
• 1/2 acorn squash
• 2 tsp salt (or more to taste)
• 1 tsp pepper (or more to taste)
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup of milk
  

Preheat your oven to 350. Put 1 tbsp of oil on a cookie sheet and place acorn squash cut side down. Put in oven for 30-40 minutes or until tender. Remove when finished and let cool.

Meanwhile, place the potatoes and sweet potato in a pot of water with 1 tsp of salt. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Once squash is cool enough to handle take a large spoon and scoop out the flesh straight into the potatoes. Add the milk, butter, nutmeg, salt, and pepper and start mashing. Adjust seasonings to your taste.

Ryan is apprehensive when it comes to squash and when I thought of making this last night he didn't seem too keen but he loved it. It had such a fresh, slightly sweet taste. I can't figure out why people don't have squash mash or puree more.

This week's Fresh Option Box gave us some great variety of food. I've noticed that sometimes we don't get exactly what the website tells us we'll be getting but I think it's because certain deliveries aren't up to par so they substitute in with something else. We weren't expecting red pears, an extra lettuce, spinach or a yellow pepper but we got all of them. So far we've used up some spinach, lettuce, radishes, and a granny smith apple in tonight's salad plus the acorn squash, potatoes, and one of the carrots. I think we're eating even better because it's like a challenge to finish everything before it goes bad and before our next pick up. It's a lot of fun experimenting with the foods I wouldn't necessarily buy if I was shopping for myself.