Sunday Sides- Roasted Squash with Yoghurt Cilantro Sauce and Pomegranate Molasses

Hi All, 

I’m just letting you know that for the next couple months I’m going to be changing up my Sunday Salad column to a Sunday Sides column. This is to prep for American Thanksgiving (Sorry Canada) and for Christmas. It will be full of veggie side dishes (and sometimes mains) that will hopefully inspire your holiday tables. I’m also doing it because this time of year begs for hot dishes, and as much as I love salads, and I do, I am craving things warm and cozy. And now to begin!

As sad as I am to see the summer go, and I am, there is something comforting about the fall. The cozy sweaters, the thick socks, the covering up your bad hair day with a cozy hat. I have been doing a lot of this lately, largely in my apartment. Why are you wearing so many layers in your apartment you ask? Because, my apartment is heated through radiators, and my landlord, who is essentially a slumlord, turns off our heating at night. Yes, that is correct. He doesn’t turn down the heat at night (from the very low temperature he keeps it at during the day), he turns it off.  Let it be clear that it’s not like I have thick windows to keep out the draft (they are in fact so thin they rattle aggressively when someone playing music with a loud bass drives by) or I have heated flooring or anything like that. 

Friends, it is a high of 3 degrees celsius today (that’s 37 to you crazy non metric people). It is bloody cold. So cold in fact that I started keeping my oven on with the door open during the day to heat my apartment. 

The things we do for cheap rent. 

So, now that the oven is on 8 hours a day I’ve been roasting everything in sight so I don’t feel so wasteful of energy. Chickens, squash, carrots, apples. Nothing is off limit, as long as I can open the door every half hour or so to keep the temperature of my apartment up. No soufflés here, just straight up roasting. 

One of the things I roasted were these lovely acorn squash. And after they were roasted I spooned on some cilantro yoghurt sauce, and then I drizzled them with some pomegranate molasses.  And they were crazy delicious. I recommend you do the same, weather or not you are heating your living room with your oven 

Yoghurt Cilantro Sauce

1 cup Greek Yoghurt

1 bunch Cilantro

1tsp Cumin Seeds, ground

1tsp Coriander Seed, ground

2 tbsp Lemon

2 tbsp Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

2 Acorn Squash

1/4 cup Pomegranate Molasses*

Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil

Preheat your oven to 400F

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Peel your acorn squash. It’s a bit tricky to get into the grooves but try to be meticulous. 

Cut them in half and scoop out the seeds. Reserve the seeds!

Slice the squash into pretty U shaped pieces

Toss them with some salt, pepper, and olive oil and and put them on one of your prepared baking trays.  Roast unit they are cooked through, roughly 45 minutes. 

Meanwhile, put the seeds in a colander and wash to remove the bits of squash flesh. 

Toss them in more salt, pepper and olive oil and put them on the remaining prepared sheet tray. 

Bake until they are crispy- about 15-20 minutes. Open the open half way through cooking and stir. 

Meanwhile make your dressing:

Combine all ingredients except the lemon juice in a food processor and pulse until combined. Add the juice to taste, so that it is zippy but not too sour. If you don’t have a food processor just finely chop the cilantro up and mix it all in a bowl. It will still be delicious. 

When the squash is finished roasting place it in a pretty pattern on your serving dish. Drizzle the pomegranate molasses on top, and dollop the cilantro dressing around. Sprinkle the squash seeds on top!

Sunday Salads- Curly Endive Salad with Bacon, Chanterelles, and a Poached Egg

Friends. I have no been eating enough salad lately.

I came back from visiting a few months ago on a veggie eating mission. I was so excited about vegetables! And lettuce! I was eating so much lettuce.

I am embarrassed to tell you how much cake I’ve eaten in the last week. How many gross sugary candies that have been put near me that I have scarfed down. How much bread I’ve consumed. It hasn’t been good. I’m not going to give you numbers.

So it’s probably time to get jazzed about salad again. It’s already started a little bit, I walked by my favourite green grocer and they had the most beautiful swiss chard out, and something stirred in me. The part of me that loves healthy foods. The part of me that has been pushed down in favour of sour cherries and fuzzy peaches.

I never eat candy. What is up with me lately?

Anyways. Salad.

This salad is a slight twist on a French bistro classic. Slightly bitter frissee lettuce, tossed with a dijon vinegrette, sprinkled with flecks of bacon, and topped with a poached egg. It is the best salad. And you can eat it for any meal of the day. It’s a brilliant thing.

There are two twists on this staple. The first was just that I couldn’t find frissee. So I used curly endive. It’s fabulous, but use frissee if you can. Butter lettuce would also be appropriate here.

The second twist is the addition of some beautiful chanterelle mushrooms. I just added these on because I couldn’t resist buying them. I love chanterelles, and there season is so fleeting. You have to put them on everything while you can.

Of course, you could omit them, or use another kind of mushroom, I wouldn’t judge you for that. But if you can find chanterelles. Do it.

Curly Endive and Bacon Salad with a Poached Egg, and Chanterelles.

3 cups Curly Endive, washed and torn into small pieces.

100 grams Thickly Cut Smoked Bacon, cut into small rectangular pieces.

200 grams Chanterelle Mushrooms

2 Eggs

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 tsp Grainy Dijon

2 tbsp Lemon Juice

Salt and Pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

In a frying pan over medium-low heat slowly render out of the bacon, so it get’s nice and crisp but doesn’t dry out.

Scoop bacon pieces out of the fat and put them on a towel lined plate to cool.

Clean the chanterelles- with a pastry brush, carefully brush out all the dirt. With a paring knife cut the very bottom of the mushroom off, just a tiny bit, and then cut the mushrooms into wuaters or sixths, depending on the size.

In a small frying pan warm up the extra 2 tbsp of olive oil.

Add in the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms are nicely browned. Season generously with salt and pepper and set to the side.

In a small bowl mix together the remaining olive oil, lemon juice and dijon.

Poach your eggs- gently crack your eggs into the pot of gently boiling water.

Let them cook for about 3 minutes, or until, when gently lifted from the water with a slotted spoon, the whites feel hard but the yolk still feels soft.

Mix the endive with the dressing. Divide it into two bowls.

Sprinkle the bacon and chanterelles onto the lettuce, and then place a poached egg onto each bowl.

And done. Get it in you.