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Rainbow Kitchen

Thankful for Orange for the Holidays

By Allison St. Claire
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Holiday tables offer all sorts of delicious orange-colored goodies. Let's focus today on pumpkins and sweet potatoes and pile on those oranges as well as an ingredient and sweet dessert on their own  —  all three inexpensive, delicious, nutritious powerhouses.

Remember the days when getting an orange for Christmas was a Big Deal? Now they're commonplace and abundant at this time of year. Think vitamin C! While most people know that vitamin C is important to help ward off cold and flu viruses, this crucial vitamin also plays an important role in bone and tooth formation, digestion, and blood cell formation. It helps accelerate wound healing, produces collagen which helps maintain skin's youthful elasticity, and is essential to helping us cope with stress. It even appears to help protect our body against toxins that may be linked to cancer.

Holiday tables offer all sorts of delicious orange-colored goodies. Let's focus today on pumpkins and sweet potatoes and pile on those oranges as well as an ingredient and sweet dessert on their own  —  all three inexpensive, delicious, nutritious powerhouses.

Canned pumpkin is available year round. But fresh whole pumpkins are cheap and offer the added bonus of pumpkin seeds to toast and probably some leftovers to add to your pet's food. (Depending on the size and weight of your cat or dog, adding a small amount of pumpkin pulp to their meals will help keep their bowels regular.)

For humans, think vitamin A which is used to maintain skin, vision, immune function, healing, bone health, plus vitamins B, C, E and K, which helps with blood coagulation and provides protection against osteoporosis. And then there's fabulous fiber, antioxidants, and minerals — one cup of pumpkin provides more potassium than you get from a banana. The body uses potassium to regulate fluids and control blood pressure and heart rhythm. Pumpkins also supply calcium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, phosphorus and magnesium.

So, moving beyond standard pumpkin pie...

 

Cinderella Pumpkin Soup

(By Julia and Michelle, mariquita.com)

4 cups cooked pumpkin

2 cups chopped onions

4 tablespoons olive oil

4 cloves garlic

4 cups chicken broth

2 cups white wine

freshly ground pepper

kosher or sea salt

1 cup heavy cream or milk

 

Optional garnishes: grated nutmeg, chopped crystallized ginger, croutons or freshly popped popcorn.

Lightly brown onions in olive oil in a thick-bottomed soup pot. Add garlic and cook until it softens but doesn't brown, about 1-2 minutes. Add the pumpkin, broth, and wine, stirring to blend. Add salt and pepper. Cook for 30 minutes or so over medium heat. Taste and adjust seasoning. Puree soup. Serve hot with 2-3 T cream in each bowl. Garnish as desired. Serves 8, or 4 with yummy leftovers.

 

Stuffed Pumpkin with Cheese, Bacon and Chiles

(4 servings. Adapted from recipes by Dorie Greenspan, Ian Knauer and homesicktexan.com).

Use your favorite cheese and chiles you've got on hand. No need for a special trip to the store -- eat down your fridge and pantry to save money. This recipe is very forgiving.

One 3-to-4 pound pumpkin

Salt and black pepper to taste

4 ounces day-old bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 cup each Gruyere and cheddar cheese (or cheeses of your choice)

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 or 2 chipotle chiles en adobo (or chiles of your choice)

1/4 pound cooked bacon, crumbled

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

Small pinch of nutmeg

1/2 cup heavy cream or half and half

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13 casserole pan or baking pan with foil or parchment paper. Cut a circle around the pumpkin stem about 1 inch away from the stem. Remove the top and clean out the seeds and stringy bits from inside the pumpkin. Lightly salt and pepper the inside of the pumpkin.

Toss together the bread cubes, shredded cheeses, garlic, diced chipotle chiles and cooked bacon, and stuff into the pumpkin. Stir the cumin and nutmeg into the cream, adding a bit of salt and pepper to taste. Pour cream mixture into pumpkin.

Replace the top and put pumpkin into the baking pan. Bake for 1-1/2 hour to 2 hours or until filling is brown and bubbling. To serve, remove the top and spoon out portions of the filling along with bits of the cooked pumpkin. Use the foil or parchment paper to help lift the pumpkin from the pan onto a platter. Serve warm.

Moving on to sweet potatoes – think vitamin D in addition to all the vitamins and minerals offered by pumpkins and other yellow winter squashes.  Plus sweet potatoes’ natural sugars are slowly released into the bloodstream, helping to ensure a balanced and regular source of energy, without the blood sugar spikes linked to fatigue and weight gain.

 

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

(Serves 2)

Bake unpeeled sweet potatoes until soft. Split in half lengthwise, scoop out pulp, place in bowl and add 2 tsp. orange juice and 1/4 tsp. cinnamon. Melt 2-3 teaspoons of butter in a pan, add 1/4 cup chopped onion and cook a couple of minutes until tender. Stir in 2 cups chopped fresh spinach or chard leaves and cook until wilted. Add 1 clove finely chopped garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add to seasoned pulp and fill the potato shells with mixture. Bake 15 minutes at 425. Enjoy a nutritious staple elevated beyond the ordinary.

 


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Allison St. Claire loves to dream about, study, grow, play with, prepare and ultimately enjoy eating great food.

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