Today's vegetarian entrée recipe: Another idea for a vegetarian (and in fact, vegan) main dish for Thanksgiving but will have everyone, I'm willing to bet, coming back for seconds. The recipe blends four fall flavors: nutty Italian farro, butternut squash, mushrooms and sage. Very pretty on a plate. So this is fun! I'm having a great time testing recipes suitable for vegetarian Thanksgiving entrées for the 2009 collection of Thanksgiving vegetable recipes (FYI, link updated in 2010). With this one, it took great restraint to not gobble (tee hee) it up all by myself. The recipe starts with an idea borrowed from Cook's Illustrated, using the skins and seeds and all the 'gunk' inside a butternut squash to make a vegetarian broth, so very thrifty! The broth is gently flavored with a lovely orange tinge. From there, the squash is pan-roasted but you could also roast the squash cubes in the oven if preferred. I also added mushrooms for bulk and texture contrast,

How to safely peel, cut and cube a butternut squash, one of those unwieldy-looking winter squashes. A step-by-step illustrated guide to cutting up a butternut squash, so easy the squash almost cuts itself up. If you want to cut a big squash into pretty cubes, safely, this is how to do it! Okay, I admit it. There was a time when my eyes glazed over recipes for butternut squash. My Inner Knife Phobia whispered, "How in the world would you cut one of those things safely, without losing a finger? A butternut squash is door-stop dense." It tempted, "Just go buy squash cubes at Trader Joe's. No cutting, no peeling. Who cares if they're all dry and unappetizing?" You too? Well, you are in luck! This post illustrates, step by step, how to cut up a butternut squash. It's so easy, the squash will practically cut up itself – SAFELY. Just think of all that squash we've been missing ... WHAT YOU'LL NEED A cutting board A silicone mat, if you have one

Who says bread pudding is always sweet and always for dessert? Not me! Instead, this is a savory bread pudding, absolutely delicious, a layer of hearty greens sandwiched between layers of good whole-grain bread studded with cubes of butternut squash and cheddar cheese. This rustic bread pudding (vegetarian casserole?) can be made ahead, much like a breakfast strata. Whole Food, Fresh & Seasonal, Holiday Special & Worthy of an Occasion. Budget Friendly. Vegetarian. Rave Reviews. One of My Very Favorite Vegetarian Casseroles. But this recipe has moved to a new location, please see Savory Bread Pudding with Butternut Squash, Chard & Cheddar at Kitchen Parade, my food column. Looking for healthy new ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of super-organized quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Asparagus-to-Zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables . Join " veggie evangelist " Alanna Kellogg to explore the exciting worl

Thin slices of green tomatoes dipped in a seasoned cornmeal breading, then baked at high heat. Virtually no fat, thus 'healthy fried green tomatoes' (and baked, of course, not fried) but still full of flavor. Weight Watchers 2 points. Fried green tomatoes have been a long time reaching A Veggie Venture, though not for lack of trying. Three years running, I tried new techniques. For a recipe that is so homely and humble -- heavens, we're just trying to use up upripe tomatoes just before or just after frost -- fried green tomatoes take a trick or two. The breading needs to be light in texture but big on flavor. The tomatoes need to be sliced thin, so they'll cook clear through. Most of all, the fried green tomatoes need to be baked , not fried, giving the tomatoes more time to cook but also to eliminate all that gobby fat that the breading will soak up if you let it. Is any of this heresy to southerners? I hope not, these are mighty good! RECIPE for (UN) FRIED GREEN TOM

How to roast whole heads of garlic to a deep, dark and luscious creamy paste. Plus, a reminder that October 15th is when we plant garlic in the fall! When roasting vegetables, or baking a casserole, or simmering a big pot of soup, I love to throw something else into the oven, too, making efficient use of the energy. More times than not, that 'something else' is a dish of garlic heads. Then for a week, I tuck roasted garlic into everything I cook. No more vampires, garlic breath be **mned! And did you know that fall -- yes, fall -- is when we plant garlic? If you grow nothing else, it's ever so easy to plant a small garlic crop. It's a start! Check out my How and Why Guide to Growing Garlic . It's an especially fun project with kids, carrying through on the lessons from the summer's herb pots, tomato plants and vegetable gardens. HOW to ROAST GARLIC Hands-on time: 5 minutes Time to table: 1 hour Aluminum foil Olive oil Kosher salt & pepper Whole heads of garl

Today's pumpkin recipe: Stuff a whole pumpkin with custard, bake it, and what do you get? A fun fall dessert! Finally, pumpkins! For a year now, I've been waiting-waiting for pumpkin season. You see, two recipes had tucked themselves into the back of my brain and refused to let go. One cooked meat and vegetables into a stew, right in a whole pumpkin settled into the coals of a campfire -- sorry, I can't recommend that one yet, perhaps ever. The other cooked custard right inside a whole pumpkin. Yes, custard cooked inside a whole pumpkin, that one I happily recommend! The stuffed pumpkin and custard recipe comes from "The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American" by Jeff Smith, an uneven but often fascinating look at 'American ethnic cooking'. The recipe's headnotes say that custard baked in a pumpkin was a favorite of George Washington. It's kind of a cozy fall dessert, definitely dramatic in appearance and meant to be shared. 2010 UPDATE Turns out, the fasc

A one-dish casserole supper, meat cooked with on-hand vegetables and flavored with green chile salsa. The cornbread topping repeats the green chile flavor and adds pumpkin for color, moisture and nourishment. Who else has noticed? When winter turns to spring, we long for the first bites of spring, waiting with much anticipation for the first asparagus, the first artichokes, the first strawberries. But fall? Not so much. As soon as fall 'happens' -- it hit here in St. Louis on Monday -- we can immediately start cooking our fall favorites. You see, they've been around for a few weeks, we've just been ignoring them to get our last fill of tomatoes and peppers and okra and and and. For me, cornbread is one of the siren calls of autumn and the cold-weather months, baked first, baked last, baked often in between. It was a welcome welcome to autumn. I pulled this Supper Casserole out of the pantry, you can too by using what meat ( Note to Vegetarians ) and vegetables you have