REC: Vegetable soup and stuffed butternut squash

Here's what I had for lunch today. It was a perfect winter meal, and it was easy to do.

When I made the beef stock, I saved the fat from the top of the cooled stock. That's what I mean by "beef fat". This gave a really good taste to the stuffing, and since the stuffing is mostly TVP, I thought as I was eating it that it would make an excellent chicken-turkey stuffing for those of you who are doing the low-carb thing -- it tasted remarkably like sage stuffing.

Vegetable soup and stuffed butternut squash

2-3 T beef fat 2 onions, chopped 3 ribs celery, sliced 2 quarts beef stock, cold 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced 3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed 1 can tomatoes 2-3 T minced parsley salt and pepper to taste

1 whole butternut squash 1 cup reconsbreastuted TVP 1 tsp fines herbs 1 tsp minced parsley

Preheat oven to 375. Halve squash lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Bake cut-side-down for 30-40 minutes.

While the squash is baking, saute the onions and celery (and some salt, if desired) in the beef fat until the onions start to turn translucent. Save out 1-2 cup or so of this mixture for the stuffing. Add stock and carrots and bring to a boil. Add potatoes, tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring back to a boil, simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix together TVP, fines herbs, celery-onion mixture reserved from soup, parsley, and some salt and pepper. Pull squash out of oven, stuff with stuffing, and put it back in until the soup is done and the stuffing is warm, a total of about 40-45 minutes.

serene