ladies' night

i had some ladies over for dinner tonight and given how beautiful the day was i wanted to make something relatively light ... a "one foot in winter, one foot in the spring" type of meal. i made some soup - acorn squash adzuki with shitake garnish soup from veganomicon (see vegan with a vengeance link for some great recipes), and two nice salads - a belgian endive-pear-date salad with crumbled goats cheese and toasted almonds and an arugula, roasted red pepper and caramelized onion salad. for dessert, we had some chocolate dipped strawberries. it was a fine meal!

the soup:

as usual, i changed the recipe a little to conform to what i did or did not have in my fridge and pantry. instead of all acorn squash, i used one acorn and one small butternut. i also switched the chinese-five spice for some curry powder. it was still delicious. here is what you will need:

1 butternut squash (small), diced

1 acorn squash (small), diced

1 bartlett pear, sliced thinly

1 red bell pepper, diced

1/2 red onion or cooking onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 inches fresh ginger root, chopped

1T curry powder

1t salt

4 cups water

1 veggie-herb bullion cube

4-5 shitakes

1t sesame oil

1T tamari

in a heated pot, saute the onion and pepper for 5mins, add ginger, garlic and spices - cook for another 1 min. add squash and pear, mix and saute for a further 5 mins mixing frequently. add the stock (from 4 cups boiling water and 1 bullion cube). bring to simmer, lower the heat and cook covered for 20-25 mins. take half of the veggies out and blend in a food processor, blender or with a hand blender, add to the remaining "chunky" part. stir around and cook for another 10 mins. garnish with sauteed shitakes and pea shoots: saute the mushrooms in 1t oil for 5mins, add tamari and let absorb.

the salads:

the names explains the ingredients, so no need for the list here. i separated the belgian endive leaves and sprinkled the remaining ingredients over it - the leaves then served as little vessels for all the goodness on top. i drizzled a simple vinaigrette over - lemon, olive oil, a little sesame oil, dijon and maple syrup. since i had some vinaigrette left over, i decided to use it as a base for the dressing on my arugula salad. but to shake things up and change the flavours slightly, i added a little tamari. a little change but a completely different flavour - and it worked!