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Warm Spiced Sweet Potato Soup

  • March 24, 2023

Whenever I’m in London (where my daughter and her family live), I try to get to one of Yotam Ottolenghi’s restaurants, which are scattered throughout the city. On my most recent visit a few weeks ago, we ate lunch at his Marylebone location — a fun neighborhood not just for eating, but for good shopping too and home to the fabulous Wallace Collection. It was a cold March day and this soup, with warm spices and topped with feta cheese, was the perfect antidote to the chill outside. I tried recreating it at home, but couldn’t find the exact recipe in any of his cookbooks. So I searched a bunch of different ones online and came up with this recipe, which was every bit as delicious as the one I ate in London. It may even have usurped my favorite cold weather soup till now of butternut squash. The two vegetables are very similar in flavor when used in soups, especially after infusing the soup with all the spices. I used about three and a half pounds of potatoes, which made enough soup to serve at least 8-10 people. You can cut it in half if you prefer, or just freeze the leftovers for another day.

I served the soup to company a couple of weeks ago, and included a tray of accompaniments on the table — a small pitcher of warmed cream, some feta cheese, olive oil, and pepitas (pumpkin seeds). The soup is delicious all by itself without any cream or other toppings, but it’s nice to give guests the options, if you have them.

The version at Ottolenghi (photo below) was served with feta, a drizzle of olive oil and chopped chives and it was perfect.

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Spiced Sweet Potato Soup
Serves: makes at least 8-10 servings
 
Ingredients
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 large onion, cut into ½ inch pieces
  • 2 large stalks of celery, diced
  • 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into slices
  • 4 large sweet potatoes (about 3½-4 pounds), peeled and cut into chunks
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 2 T. zatar
  • 1½ teaspoons cumin
  • 2 teaspoons ground coriander
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • pinch of red pepper flakes
  • 4 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth if you want to keep it vegetarian)
  • 2 cups water
  • optional accompaniments:
  • heavy cream, warmed to drizzle on top
  • crumbled feta cheese
  • pepita or sunflower seeds
  • olive oil to drizzle
Instructions
  1. Saute the onions in the olive oil until golden brown.
  2. Add the celery and saute until softened.
  3. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until vegetables are tender, about ½ hour to 45 minutes.
  4. Use a stick blender or a regular blender to homogenize everything and eliminate any lumps.
  5. Add more water if the soup is too thick.
  6. If you have leftover, it will thicken more overnight in the refrigerator, so add more water then too.
  7. Top with optional ingredients
 

 

 

Roasted Carrot Soup

  • January 20, 2022

What could be more warming on a cold day that a bowl of hot soup? Carrots are so ubiquitous and most people use them only as a raw vegetable in salads, or boiled as a cooked vegetable. Sometimes they’re roasted, elevating their flavor a few notches. This soup plays off that theme, with the roasting adding great depth of flavor, and the cumin spice adding a warmth without too much heat. I didn’t add any cream, and you won’t miss it either. To thicken it, I used some leftover cooked brown rice, but if you haven’t got any leftover rice, just add some uncooked rice and simmer the soup until the rice is tender.

A crucial part of the flavor also came from the broth I made using these leftover parmesan cheese rinds. I always have some in my freezer, and I add one or two rinds to nearly every soup or stew I’m making. But this is the first time I made a broth using mostly rinds, with some aromatics thrown in too (carrot, celery, fennel frond, onion, garlic and bay leaf). If you don’t have any rinds, feel free to use a purchased vegetable or chicken broth for this soup instead.

While the broth was simmering, I roasted the carrots, by slicing them in half and placing them on a cookie sheet, tossed with a little olive oil. Roast at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or so. They’ll soften as they roast, so the soup won’t need much cooking. After the carrots are roasted, sauté a shallot in olive oil, then add the roasted carrots, some of the strained parmesan broth, the leftover rice and some seasonings. Cook it for 20 minutes, or slightly longer if using uncooked rice. Pour everything into a blender or Vitamix and purée until smooth. Be careful with hot liquids in a blender. They have a tendency to burst from the top, so pour in a little at a time for blending. Put everything back in the pot and adjust the seasonings, if necessary.

Serve the soup with a smattering of croutons, and a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar to take it over the top. You’ll never look at a humble one-pound bag of carrots in the same way again.

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Roasted Carrot Soup
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • 1 pound of carrots, cut in half and roasted in 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 6 cups parmesan broth (directions below, if not, use vegetable broth or chicken broth)
  • 1 large shallot, minced
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • ½ cup cooked rice (I used brown rice, but white is fine)
  • If you don't have leftover cooked rice, add ¼ cup of uncooked rice to the soup instead
  • salt, pepper to taste
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • aged balsamic vinegar
  • home made croutons
Instructions
  1. Cut the carrots in half and roast them in a pan smeared with 2 tablespoons olive oil.
  2. Roast them at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.
  3. Place the minced shallot in the olive oil in a saucepan and sauté until softened.
  4. Add the roasted carrots, the strained parmesan broth, the rice, and the seasonings.
  5. Cook everything together in a simmer for about 20 minutes.
  6. Remove from heat and using either a blender or a stick blender, puree everything until silky smooth.
  7. Serve with droplets of aged balsamic vinegar and croutons.
  8. TO MAKE THE PARMESAN BROTH:
  9. -12 parmesan rinds
  10. stalk celery
  11. carrot
  12. clove garlic
  13. frond of fennel (optional)
  14. -7-8 cups water
  15. Place everything in a stock pot and let simmer for one hour.
  16. Strain and use as directed above.
  17. FOR THE CROUTONS:
  18. Trim the crust off some sturdy bread and cut into small cubes.
  19. Cook over medium high heat in about 1 tablespoon olive oil until browned and crispy.
 

Summer Minestrone

  • August 4, 2020

It doesn’t matter whether it’s winter or summer, but for me, soup is always welcome at the table. And when you’ve got summer produce like zucchini, beans and corn at their freshest, why not make a minestrone soup and combine them all, adding some carrots and celery along the way? Don’t forget the pasta too, which in this case was some homemade pasta scraps I cut out and left to dry after a ravioli-making session a while ago. If I hadn’t used homemade pasta bits, I would have tossed in some store-bought ditalini or orzo pasta or maybe even elbow macaroni. I normally cook the pasta in a separate pot of water and add it to the soup when I’m doling it out into the bowl. Otherwise, if you’ve got leftover soup and have added too much pasta to start with, you’re likely to end up with hardly any broth. By the way, this soup is even better the second day, when it’s had more time for all the flavors to blend and the starch from the beans is released to make it a bit thicker.

There is no meat in this soup recipe, but feel free to use some chicken or beef broth if you like. But it’s got plenty of flavor without it, especially if you’ve added the corn cobs to the broth and a parmesan rind or two. Don’t forget to take them out before serving though, or someone could be in for a surprise! Also, the amounts and varieties of the vegetables are up to you. If you want more corn, add it. Or if you don’t like beans, leave them out. Mix and match with whatever suits your fancy.

By the way, I was so thrilled to post this soup using this bowl, which brought back memories of my mother and something she used to say quite often at the table when I was growing up.

For those of you who don’t speak Italian, here’s the translation: “Either eat this soup, or jump out the window.” Fortunately my mom was a great cook, hence we had no window jumpers in my family.

Click here to connect with me on Instagram and find out what Ciao Chow Linda is up to in the kitchen (and other places too) each day.

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Summer Minestrone
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 cup minced onion
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3 stalks of celery, minced
  • 1 cup diced carrots
  • 1½ cups chopped green beans
  • 2 cups chopped zucchini
  • 8 cups water
  • a parmesan cheese rind
  • 1 cup pureed plum tomatoes
  • 1 can white beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 can red or black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 2 ears of corn, stripped off the cob, but retain the cob to put in the pot
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
  • fresh basil, thyme and parsley
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley
  • ditalini, elbows or orzo pasta
  • parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top
Instructions
  1. Place the olive oil in a large pot, and sauté the onion, garlic and celery until soft but not browned.
  2. Add the carrots, green beans, zucchini, water, parmesan cheese rind and tomatoes.
  3. Add the salt, pepper and fresh and dried herbs.
  4. Cook everything together at a low simmer for 45 minutes, adding the corn cobs.
  5. Remove the corn cobs from the pot and add the beans and the corn kernels.
  6. Cook for another ½ hour.
  7. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in water in a separate pot.
  8. When the vegetables are cooked, add some of the pasta to the soup and serve in bowls.
  9. If you're not serving all the soup at once, wait to add the pasta, otherwise the pasta will become overcooked and mushy when you reheat it.
 

Vegetable and Swiss Chard Stalk Soup and a Giveaway

  • October 11, 2019

Please don’t tell me you’re one of those people who buys Swiss chard and throws away the stalks. They’re equally as delicious as the leaves, but many people are in a quandry knowing what to do with them. They make great fritters, something my mom made when we were growing up, (recipe here), but another way to use them is in a vegetable soup — perfect for the fall weather that is descending on us here in the Northeastern U.S.

These are the stalks from some multi-colored Swiss chard my father grew in his garden. Just chop them up into small bits, along with the leaves and follow the recipe below.

After you’ve sautéed the onion and garlic, add all the rest of the ingredients to the pot and let it simmer for about a 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. I also added in some fresh corn, since it was summer when I took these photos and corn flavor was at its peak. Add more liquid (water or chicken stock) to the pot if necessary.

Grate some parmesan cheese over the top and serve with some hearty toasted bread that’s been drizzled with olive oil and salt. Enjoy a healthy and delicious bowl of soup.

And while we’re on the subject of healthy, I received this water pitcher from Shantiva and so can you. Aside from serving water in a beautiful, hand-hammered copper pitcher, drinking from a copper vessel has health advantages too, according to Shantiva’s webpage. Water from a copper pitcher can enhance digestion, decrease the risk of bacterial infection, improve cardiovascular and thyroid health and stimulate the brain, among other things. Who wouldn’t want that? Shantiva has graciously agreed to send one of my readers one of these lovely pitchers. All you need to do is leave a comment on this post (NOT in an email) and tell me what healthy food you like to consume after indulging in what you think is bad eating. And don’t forget to leave a way for me to contact you — whether through email or through a blog you may also write.

Click here to connect with me on Instagram and find out what Ciao Chow Linda is up to in the kitchen (and other places too.

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Vegetable and Swiss Chard Stalk Soup and a Giveaway
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • 1 large bunch of Swiss chard, stalks diced and leaves roughly chopped
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 1 cup of fresh tomatoes, diced (or one small can diced tomatoes)
  • 1 small can cannellini beans
  • 1 cup of green beans, cut into small pieces
  • kernels from two ears of corn (optional)
  • 6 cups either water or chicken broth, or a combination of both
  • a parmesan cheese rind
  • a nice handful of parsley, minced
  • salt, pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Pour the olive oil into a large pot and saute the onion and garlic until soft on low temperature. Do not let them brown. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the green beans and the parsley, and let everything cook together for about ½ hour. If you have fresh corn, add the kernels from that too. Add more water or chicken broth if the soup is too thick.
  2. Add the green beans and cook until they are tender, about ten minutes.
  3. Stir the parsley at the last minute before serving, to get a fresher taste.
  4. Remove the parmesan cheese rind, and serve with grated parmesan and Italian bread that's been toasted and smeared with olive oil and salt.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Chilled Cucumber Soup

  • August 7, 2019

Here’s another one of those no-cook recipes when the summer heat has you fleeing your stove. It also is timely for those of you gardeners who have more an abundance of cucumbers. I’m not growing any in my small plot, but my niece Keri gave me a couple from her garden, and I think I put them to good use in this recipe, from Melissa Clark of The New York Times.

You’ll note there are anchovies in the recipe and they are listed as optional. But DON’T leave them out, even if you hate anchovies (are you listening, Marie?) You absolutely cannot taste them in this recipe, but I guarantee you, the soup won’t be as flavorful without them. Cucumbers are so mild that this soup needs the jalapeño, the herbs, the garlic, the vinegar and yes, the anchovies, to give it the umph it needs, lest it turn out as a bland bowl of puréed cucumbers. Trust me on this one, please. And don’t leave out the corn garnish. The extra texture and taste really lends it a nice finishing touch.

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Chilled Cucumber Soup
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • 1 pound cucumbers, peeled, halved lengthwise and seeded
  • 2 cups buttermilk (I USED 1½ cups plain yogurt plus ¼ cup water)
  • 1 large garlic clove, peeled and smashed
  • 2 anchovy fillets (optional)
  • 2 small whole scallions, trimmed
  • ½ jalapeño, seeded, deveined and chopped
  • ½ cup packed mixed fresh herbs (like mint, parsley, dill, tarragon, basil and cilantro - I USED DILL AND PARSLEY)
  • ½ teaspoon sherry or white wine vinegar, more to taste
  • ¾ teaspoon kosher sea salt, plus more to taste
  • 1 ear of corn, shucked, kernels sliced off
  • Fresh dill, for serving
Instructions
  1. In the bowl of a blender or food processor, combine cucumber, buttermilk, garlic, anchovy, scallions, jalapeño, fresh herbs, sherry vinegar and salt.
  2. Blend until smooth and adjust seasoning as needed.
  3. Let the soup sit in the refrigerator for at least two hours to blend all the flavors.
  4. Distribute soup between 4 bowls and garnish with raw corn kernels and a drizzle of olive oil.
 

Mushroom Beef Barley Soup

  • March 29, 2019

Although the calendar says Spring, there’s still a nip in the air most days, and it will be a while before we in the Northeast U.S. can reliably leave the house without wearing a jacket or sweater. So for those days in between seasons, when it can still feel a bit chilly, this mushroom beef barley soup is like a warm hug at the dinner table. You can make this without the beef, but I found it an ideal way to use up a small bit of leftover pot roast I had made a couple of days earlier. It was only a couple of ounces, but when shredded and added to the soup, it added a real depth of flavor.

Use any kind of mushrooms you want – from supermarket white button mushrooms to shiitake. I used baby portobello mushrooms. I also added a parmesan rind to the soup as it was simmering, something I do with many kinds of soups.

It takes only about forty five minutes from start to finish to make this satisfying and delicious soup, and with a side salad and a good loaf of bread, dinner is ready.

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Mushroom Beef Barley Soup
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup minced carrot
  • ¼ cup minced celery
  • ½ cup minced onion
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 T. olive oil
  • 2 T. butter
  • 8 ounces mushrooms, chopped (I used baby portobello mushrooms, but use any mixture you like)
  • 1 cup pearled barley
  • 4 cups chicken broth
  • 2 cups beef broth
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 leftover parmesan cheese rind
  • 1 cup shredded leftover beef stew (optional)
  • salt, pepper
  • minced parsley
Instructions
  1. Sauté the onion, garlic, celery and carrot in the olive oil over low heat, until limp.
  2. Add the butter and mushrooms and sauté a few minutes.
  3. Add the barley, the broths, the water, the parmesan cheese rind, the leftover beef stew plus the salt and pepper.
  4. Cook over low heat for about 30- 45 minutes or until barley is softened and flavors have blended.
  5. Add parsley at the end, and serve with grated pecorino or parmesan cheese.
  6. The barley will swell as the soup cooks and if the soup gets too thick, add more water.
 

 

 

Celery Root Soup with Crispy Shallots

  • March 11, 2019

How many times have you passed the vegetable aisle in your supermarket and walked right by the celeriac, without giving it a second thought? This gnarly, under appreciated root vegetable, also known as celery root, deserves some love.

For those of you on a low carb diet, it makes a fantastic substitute for mashed potatoes. Find a recipe for that here. But it also makes a really delicious, velvety soup, that’s perfect for this time of year, when winter’s chill is still upon us. Use chicken stock, as I did, or vegetable stock if you’re a vegetarian. And skip the cream if you’re counting your calories (although it’s a scant 1/4 cup for about four to six servings) But please don’t skip the crispy shallots on top. They really dress it up and make it company worthy.

Everything gets cooked in a pot, then the bay leaf and thyme get removed and the soup is blended until smooth.

You can make this soup and be sitting down to eat it in a half hour start to finish – less time than it would take to get take out from the store.

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Celery Root Soup with Crispy Shallots
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • 1 large celery root (celeriac), about 1 pound, trimmed and cut into chunks
  • 2 T. butter
  • ½ cup chopped sweet onion
  • 1 apple (I used honey crisp),cored, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 4 cups chicken broth (or water or vegetable broth)
  • ½ cup white wine (you can use dry or sweet, I used Riesling)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • a few sprigs of thyme
  • salt, white pepper
  • ¼ cup heavy cream, optional
  • FOR THE CRISPY SHALLOT:
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 1 large shallot, sliced
Instructions
  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, and add the onions.
  2. Cook the onions until they are translucent, then add the rest of the ingredients, except the cream.
  3. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pot and cook until everything is fork tender.
  4. It should take about a half hour.
  5. Remove the thyme and bay leaf from the pot.
  6. Using a blender or stick blender, puree everything until very smooth.
  7. Adjust seasonings if necessary, and add cream.
  8. If soup is too thick, add some water or broth.
  9. If it's not thick enough, continue to cook until the soup is reduced a little.
  10. TO MAKE THE CRISPY SHALLOTS:
  11. Place the olive oil in a saucepan and add the shallots to the cold olive oil.
  12. Turn up the heat and let the shallots fry until crispy.
  13. DO NOT leave the stove because they can easily burn.
  14. The leftover olive oil, once cool, is fabulous to use in salad dressings.
  15. Pour the soup into bowls, drizzle with some of the olive oil and top with the crispy shallots.
 

Ramps & Asparagus Soup

  • May 2, 2016

 Ramps — “allium tricoccum” – a member of the onion family (sometimes called wild leeks)

 — are available for only a few weeks in Spring. If you live anywhere near woods in the Northeast U.S.,  Canada or as far down as North Carolina — you might try foraging for them, or if not, hopefully you have a farmer’s market near you that carries them. – typically at obscenely high prices.
I was lucky enough to get some for the second year in a row from my neighbor Insung, who has a friend who forages for them in New York’s Catskills Mountains.
Both the broad leaves and the bulbs can be eaten and they’ve got a distinctly pungent taste – somewhere between an onion and garlic. In the photo below, you see the leafy ramps on the left, but they’re missing the bulbous part. That’s because my friend’s friend picked them, leaving the bulbs in the ground in order to allow for more growth for next year. In many areas, ramp mania has gotten so out of control, that local woods have been decimated of the ramps there. So be thoughtful and judicious if you decide to hunt and bring some home.
For this soup, I used a few scallions and asparagus too, adding one potato to help thicken it.
Chop everything into smallish pieces, including the potato.
After I cut off the fibrous ends of the asparagus, I boiled them in some water, to enrich the soup with the vegetable stock. You can make this completely vegetarian, but I added some chicken broth.
There are plenty of other ways to enjoy ramps too, including this ramps pesto I posted a couple of years ago.
They also pair beautifully with eggs, as I found out when making a frittata with mushrooms, ricotta cheese and ramps.

And I loved them on a flatbread too, with mozzarella, ricotta cheese and baby portabello mushrooms. Have you tried ramps yet? What are some of the ways you’ve enjoyed them?

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Ramps and Asparagus Soup
2 T. olive oil
a few scallions, sliced
1 bunch of ramps, sliced
a bunch of asparagus, roughly sliced
one medium potato, cut into small chunks
4 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
a large handful of fresh Italian parsley
salt, pepper to taste
1/4 cup heavy cream, optional
chives or croutons to sprinkle on top
Saute the scallions, asparagus, and ramps in the olive oil until softened. Add the potato chunks and the rest of the ingredients except the parsley and the cream. Bring to a boil and lower to a simmer. Cook for 15 –20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through. Put everything in the blender and puree. (Be careful to cover the lid with a dishtowel or it may splatter.) Add the parsley and whir for a few more seconds. Add heavy cream if desired. Garnish with drops of cream and a sprinkle of chives on top .

Garden’s Last Hurrah Soup

  • November 18, 2014

 By this time of year, if your garden is like mine, you’ve already ripped out the last vestiges of any edible plants. Before putting the garden to rest for the winter however, I harvested the remaining kale and put it to good use in this soup, especially welcome now that cold weather is upon us. It’s got everything you need for supper in one bowl – protein (sausage and white beans); vegetables (kale and tomatoes) and carbohydrates (potatoes). I cooked it all in this brand new Le Creuset pot (more about that at the end.)

 The kale I grow is lacinato kale, sometimes called dinosaur kale or cavolo nero in Italian, where it’s commonly used in ribollita. But you can use any kind of kale you’ve got, or use Swiss chard or spinach, for that matter. It all depends on your taste and what’s available to you.
It’s ready to eat after about 45 minutes of cooking on the stove. Add a couple of slices of bread and sit down to a satisfying, filling and nutritious meal.
Now about that Le Creuset pot. Mine was discolored and more than 40 years old. After reading on Adri Barr Crocetti’s blog about how the company replaced her old, stained pot with a new one, I thought I’d contact them too. I did, and they replaced mine with the beauty you see above. (Merry Christmas!) They aren’t kidding when they say their product has a “lifetime limited warranty.” If you’ve got a discolored, but otherwise non-chipped or damaged Le Creuset pot and want to contact them, call the company’s toll-free number at 1-877-418-5547 or email them at Consumer-Services@LeCreuset.com.

 

Sausage, Bean, Kale and Potato Soup
printable recipe here
2 Italian sausage links (about 1/2 pound)
1/2 cup red onion, minced
2 T. olive oil
3 stalks celery, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup dry white wine
1 parmesan cheese rind
1 cup sliced small potatoes (like fingerling potatoes)
1 15 oz. can small white beans, rinsed (about 2 cups)
1 bunch of lacinato kale (about four cups chopped)
1 cup diced tomatoes
red pepper flakes, to taste
3 or 4 sprigs fresh oregano (or 1 t. dried oregano)
salt, pepper
optional – another cup of water
Sauté the sausage links in a pan smeared with a small bit of olive oil and cook through. Remove the sausage from the pot, add the 2 T. olive oil, the onion, celery and garlic and cook until softened. Slice the sausage and put it back in the pot, adding the wine. Bring to a boil and add the chicken broth and the rest of the ingredients. Let everything come to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for about 45 minutes. Add another cup of water if the soup is too dense for you, or if you want to stretch it a bit. Remove the parmesan rind before serving.

Butternut squash and greens

  • February 4, 2014

If you haven’t already noticed from all the butternut squash recipes I’ve posted lately, it’s one of my favorite vegetables – winter or summer. It makes a great soup, filling for lasagna, or even a delicious base for ice cream. It’s also wonderful just as a vegetable side dish, as pictured here. My friend Dede made this dish a while ago for a luncheon of our Italian chit-chat group, and I wanted to eat the whole plateful. But I played nice and left some for others. Then  I went home and made more just for me. I used kale in my version, since that’s what I had at home, but I much prefer it with swiss chard or spinach, as Dede made it.

You could even add some chick peas or cannellini beans to make this a vegetarian dish with complete proteins, or serve it as a side dish with a piece of grilled meat, as I did.

 

Butternut Squash and Greens
printable recipe here
Note: Dede cooked her squash in a skillet, but I tossed the pieces with olive oil and roasted them in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.
2 T. olive oil
1 3/4 lb. peeled and diced butternut squash, sprinkled with salt and pepper
a couple of large handfuls of greens, chopped – spinach, swiss chard or kale
1/4 cup onions, diced
1/4 cup raisins or dried cranberries
grated parmigiano reggiano sprinkled on top (I omitted it)
pine nuts
Heat 2 T oil in skillet and cook 1 ¾ lb peeled and ¾’ diced squash sprinkled with S & P
Partially cover with lid…heat on med to low and cook until squash begins  to brown…
Add onions and raisins (I used cranberries and raisins)…cook until tender and browned
Add spinach or other greens until wilted.
Remove and add Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, or pine nuts to taste