Like most of my kitchen creations, recipes start with random ingredients. I love grocery shopping and often fill my basket without an end game in mind. Cleaning off the top of the fridge I found an acorn squash and 3 sweet potatoes. In the cupboard a can of coconut milk and fire roasted tomatoes. In the fridge, mushrooms, onion, and an apple. I did not use any spices other than salt and pepper, so I'm sure this has plenty of options to enhance flavors. I like the simplicity of the veggies showing off their individual flavors.
The cooking process took a little longer than my belly hoped, and my final goal of pureeing the whole thing failed as I ended up eating the chunky stew. The stew evolved the next day to include protein, moose meat (thanks MONICA!), veggie broth & sriracha to make it a bit heartier and feed a few guests.
Making it was pretty easy. There is just a bit of prep time.
Preheat oven to 400-425degrees F.
1 acorn squash - cut in half and seeded. Cut side down on a cookie sheet. Fill the bottom of the cookie sheet with water.
3 sweet potatoes - cut into 1/2-1 inch chunks. Spread the pieces on to a different cookie sheet (I needed 2) and drizzle with olive oil.
Put the above items in the oven at 400-425degrees F until cooked through (about 35 minutes). Flip the potatoes at about 20 minutes.
Sautee:
1 onion - sliced and diced
3-6 cloves of garlic, either pressed or sliced and diced
with olive oil, salt and pepper. Then add
1 dozen (or more) sliced Crimini mushrooms
1-2 medium apples, cored and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
In a large stock pot on medium-low heat add:
1 can coconut milk
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
Combine:
Add the sautéed veggies to the stock pot when they are cooked, but still crunchy (I don't like over cooked veggies.) Add the potatoes from the oven when they are cooked through. You might want to cut them into smaller pieces. To add the squash, scoop out tablespoon size portions from the peel and add. Stir everything and simmer on low until ready to serve.
Possible Additions:
1-2 cans of beans (kidney, pinto, black, garbanzo)
1 lb of sautéed protein (I did moose meat hamburger)
1 box of veggie broth
Serve with sriracha or other hot sauce so people can adjust to their own taste. If you like sour cream or other stew toppers (cheese, chives, seeds) I'm sure they would go well with this.