#35: Fall Seasonal Foods Episode

We are so excited for Fall! Join us as we talk about our favorite Fall seasonal foods. This episode is jam-packed with recipes and interesting insights into some seasonal produce. Have you heard of a quince? Did you know seasonal eating could help combat allergies? Listen to learn more and find out our stance on pumpkin spice products. Happy Fall!

Connect with Orion Aon:
https://www.foragecolorado.com/
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/foragecolorado/
Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orionaon

Find the recipes Roni and Riley mentioned in this episode:
Quince Jam
Rose Hip Jelly
Rose Hip Tea
Winter Crunch Salad
Brussel Sprouts with Bacon
Pumpkin Bacon Soup
Butternut, Carrot, and Ginger Soup
Butternut Chicken Chili
Beef and Mushroom Carbonara
Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte

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Transcript

[00:00:00] 

I'm Riley and I'm Roni. And this is the plan to eat podcast, where we have conversations about meal planning, food, and wellness. To help you answer the question what's for dinner.

Roni: Hello and welcome to the Plan to Eat podcast. Today. We are on our final episode of our seasonal food series and we are talking about fall seasonal foods.

Riley: I always say I'm so excited. Thanks. But I, uh, fall's my favorite. So, um, I've been looking forward to this one since we started this series.

Roni: Yeah, falls a great month. There's lots of really yummy foods that are in season right now. You know, some of it's like a little bit of a crossover for the end of summer, but, um, just some of those yummy hearty things that we've kind of been waiting to come into season.

Riley: Yeah. It's soup season. It's like warm food season. I don't know. It's just the best. 

I don't think I know anyone who [00:01:00] doesn't like fall.

Roni: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, it just like, it makes me wanna do like warm and cozy things like who doesn't like warm and cozy

Riley: If you don't, you should let us know because I'd just be interested in knowing

Roni: be, yeah. I would be interested in asking you some questions. If this is something you're not into.

Riley: So I think, yeah, I think fall, I think it's probably the, like the number one season probably competes with summer

Roni: In our, in our books, it's the number one season for. Yeah. So Riley why don't you give us a breakdown of what's in season for this season?

Riley: I would love to. All right, here we go. Apples, bananas, beets, bell peppers, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage carrots, cauliflower, celery, collared greens, cranberries grapes, green beans, kale mushrooms, onions parms Pears. He potatoes, pumpkin Quinns radishes, sweet potatoes and yams Swiss, charred turnips and winter [00:02:00] squash.

Roni: Yeah, 

I love that list.

Riley: What's your favorite thing on this list? Roni, if you had to pick one

Roni: That's hard. Um, that's really hard actually.

Riley: know.

Roni: Well, you know, me, I like beats a lot. I'm very excited for beats to be in season. So I'll, I'll choose that as my number one.

Riley: All right.

Roni: What about you? Would you choose?

Riley: Um, I didn't ask, like knowing my own answer to this question, by the way. Um, I think I'm gonna go with brussel sprouts. I really like brussel sprouts, which makes me weird probably to some people, but I'm a big fan.

Roni: You know, brussel sprouts get like a bad rap, but I actually, you know, we didn't eat 'em much growing up and I don't know if it's just cuz my mom, like wasn't sure how to prepare 'em or whatever. But, uh, as an adult, I really like brussel sprouts, but they always are the food that's like, Ooh, vegetables, SEL sprouts. That's.

Riley: Yeah, they are that food. Yeah. I almost picked potatoes, but [00:03:00] I decided to go with brussel sprouts. Those are probably my top two, but potatoes is like universally loved. So.

Roni: Yeah, very true. All right. Well, one thing that's on this list that, um, neither of us really knew anything about is Quince and quince is spelled Q U I N C E. I was gonna pronounce it Quinte. Which is not what it is. Riley did a little Google search and helped us learn how to pronounce it.

Riley: Well, I would've pronounced it, quince

Roni: Quinn. Yeah.

Riley: Um, but then when Quinn, K w I N S is the way that you would pronounce it.

Roni: Yeah. So, um, a quince is distantly related to apples and pears. It's kind of shaped like a fuzzy Nabby Bartlett pair. Um, it's kind of lemony yellow when it's ripe. But unlike apples or pairs, it's not really a fruit that you eat raw. I'm not exactly sure why you don't eat it when it's raw. Maybe it's just like, not as flavorful.

I don't know if it never. Soft like a pair would, [00:04:00] but, mostly you, cook it down and it's really good to make into like jams and jellies. You can also use it in stews. It is native to the. Oh, I looked this up and now I don't remember how you say it. Caucasian region, which is like present day Armenia, Azerbijan, Georgia Southern part of Russia, and also Persia, which is like, now present day Iran.

But through different like cultivation methods and stuff spread into the Eastern European basin. So it was often found in a lot of like European dishes and stuff. So, yeah, if you didn't know, I did a little deep dive on the fruit and we're gonna get into it right now. so because of its native region, it has a very interesting history for a fruit that I knew, literally nothing about.

I find it incredibly interesting. So because of its native region, it is supposed to be the forbidden fruit in the garden of. So they, like, we always talk about it being an apple, but potentially it was a Queens, [00:05:00] also in Greek legend. It is the golden apple that started the Trojan war. So as the legend goes, um, there was this like beauty contest that happened and the Trojan prince of Paris was supposed to judge who was like the most beautiful out of Athena Herra and Aphrodite.

And he piece bestowed the prized golden apple onto Aite, and whatever it was the whole thing that started the Trojan war because of that, because of the beauty contest gone wrong.

Riley: this, uh, this fruit has quite the sort of history

Roni: I know. Like I said, for something I knew nothing about, I'd never heard of.

Riley: right. Is that history or it's legend

Roni: Well that. Okay. So I guess those are both legends. Yeah. They're not, it's not, you can't say it's verifiable history here. Um, but as far as, you know, history goes, it was considered in like medieval times it was considered like a delicacy and it was [00:06:00] something that Nobles enjoyed as like a jelly dessert.

So in France it was called KU in Italy was called KU. And in Spain is called carne de membrillo. And all of those are still things that you can get in those individual countries that are kind of like a jelly dessert. Today you can find quince in subtropical climates, some parts of Mexico and Latin America, mostly places where like the Des deciduous trees of apples don't thrive.

But this one does, the Quinn's tree does thrive there.

Riley: And what is it's flavor profile? What does it taste like?

Roni: So supposedly it has a scent like it's fragrance is pineapple, guava and pear. And as far as the flavor goes, it has like a pretty tart flavor. And it's this, um, like cooking it down aspect that, uh, gives it like a, it like brings its sweetness out. So like I said, it's often used in like jams and jellies and stuff. It has a really high [00:07:00] pectin content. And so you can use it as like a pec in.

Okay. Well, when you make jams, a lot of times you use a pecten substitute to add, to like the jelly.

Riley: Yeah.

Roni: like, uh, consistency. Right. But I'm guessing previous to that people used twins to add pec to their jellies to give them that gelatinous effect. So I don't know how often it's used now in jams and jellies in the United States.

Maybe not a whole lot because it's not native here. So it might be kind of hard to find. Um, but you know, obviously, like I said, like there's still Mediterranean countries that have like a jelly dessert that's used Quinn that Quinn is used in. So, 

Riley: that's really interesting. Um, I didn't know what it was. I'd never heard of it when it was on the list. To be honest, I'm guessing that most people who were listening to our podcast may have never heard of it either. Particularly because it's not native to the us. But I'd be really interested.

I could see a tartness adding a lot to certain jams and jellys and maybe even like mellowing out some of the sweetness cuz [00:08:00] sometimes James and jellies can be so sweet.

Roni: yeah.

Riley: But I could see it being a really adding a really nice element.

Roni: Yeah. So I don't know if this is something that could be found at like a specialty grocery store or maybe found us in like a certain region of the United States. Um, but if anybody has tried it, please let us know because I'm very interested to know what it tastes like.

Riley: Yeah. I mean, we talk so much about eating locally and eating seasonally. But that is one of those things about being able to get food from around the world that allows like, I don't know. I, I dunno what the word is, but like really opens up like what we get to try without leaving, you know, our area. So while there are benefits, certainly high, high benefits eating locally and seasonally, um, that's something I'd be really interesting to try and I bet I'm sure somewhere in the us there there's none available.

Roni: yeah. I would think

Riley: Why? 

Roni: Okay. So on that topic, let's, transition into talking a little bit about why we should eat seasonally.

Riley: [00:09:00] yeah. You know, we always talk about this. There's nutritional benefits. Um, there's natural rhythms and cycles of the earth that you can kind of lean into when you're eating seasonally. For fall in particular, a lot of these foods are foods that you're gonna cook. Like you're not gonna eat most people.

Aren't gonna eat squash raw. Right? Particularly like those hard winter squashes that are in season, they need to be cooked. So they're very warm and comforting in cold months. The nutritional benefits, which I'll go into more in a second, cost is typically lower on in season foods.

And then as I was just saying, like eating seasonally allows you to shop locally, um, and eat things are in season in your region of the world. 

Okay. So I found this amazing quote from a website, um, called Calico and twine. Um, and the author says, especially after a summer full of sun, our skin and hair can use some extra restoration and rejuvenation foods that are in season now, such as pumpkin, pumpkin seeds, grapes, cranberries, charred broccolis, uh, Broccoli broccoli, [00:10:00] apples, and more all contain some nutrients or another that aids in cell repair fighting against dry and bell skin wrinkling and any UV damage lift over from the summer heat.

So that's pretty amazing. So I did a little bit more digging because I wanted to bring to the table like evidence of this, you know, um, cuz I thought it was an amazing quote and very compelling. I didn't wanna, you know, bring you that quote, that beautiful quote without giving you some like real factual data to back it up.

So. Apples, um, are an amazing source of vitamins, B and C fiber and phytonutrients. The combination of vitamin C and phytonutrients helps protect the body from free radicals, which is associated with aging. Um, those things also increase immunity to help fight off infections. And we know that the fall full of those, and then make sure you eat the scan on an apple because the phytonutrients are like three to four times more concentrated in that part of the apple.

Roni: Wow.

Riley: Yeah. Um, good to know. I actually [00:11:00] have thought about this quote since I read or that like information, since I read it, I don't peel my apples, but, um, sometimes I'll peel them for my daughter, cuz she has a little bit harder time with the skin. And so I've been trying to like, no, no we're gonna, we're gonna eat this part.

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: okay. So pumpkin. It's full of beta keratine. Um, it's an antioxidant that gives pumpkin and carrots, their vibrant orange color. Helps delay aging and reduces the risk of asthma heart disease in certain types of cancer. It's also full of fiber and potassium. Uh, winter squash, are full of antioxidants. Vitamin a only sweet potato carrots and green leaf vegetables have more keratinoid, uh, content than winter squash.

Um, so keratinoid is the antioxidant in winter squash. So like pretty compelling information. If you ask me.

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: And then I stumbled upon something else. Roni

Roni: Okay. 

Riley: upon some interesting research that shows that eating seasonally with fall foods can help reduce [00:12:00] fall allergies.

Roni: Oh, okay. So tell me more about this because I have not had allergies before until this season and the last month has been terrible.

Riley: Yeah.

Roni: So tell me what tell, tell me what I can eat to help resolve this issue for me.

Riley: Yep. So there's a website I found, um, from Mather hospital. And it said that broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage are members of the crucifer family. and they are proven to clear out blocked sinuses, pumpkin and collared greens contain keratinoid, which is what I just mentioned that was in winter squash, the form of vitamin a and they have allergy fighting powers, including regulating the immune system.

Roni: Oh, wow. I just bought cabbage. I just bought a cabbage at the farmer's market this weekend. So I'm on. Track.

Riley: you are. Yeah. I mean if it helps somebody out there, that's pretty imp impressive. I would really like it to help somebody who struggled football allergies. I didn't do a ton more digging [00:13:00] as far as like, do they need to be raw? Do they need to be cooked? Um, do you need to not overcook them to like, not kill all these things inside of them?

But it's pretty interesting. It's if you struggle with all allergies and that's something that's interesting to you focus on those vegetables and then maybe do a little bit more research to see, because I mean, , I would personally rather eat a delicious fall meal than like pop alein. So, but if that, if like naturally that could help you feel better. I'd be all about it.

Roni: Yeah, that sounds amazing. I wonder if the same is true. We didn't talk about this in our spring episode, but I wonder if the same is food for seasonal allergies in the spring.

If there are certain, compounds in those vegetables, in the produce and fruit and vegetables that would help you with spring allergies too.

Riley: yeah, well, like I said, I just kind of stumbled upon this, in my research about, um, fall seasonal foods and like the nutritional information and like in like the micronutrients of these vegetables. And so I just kind of stumbled upon it. So yeah, that's what I found. I'll have to look, we'll have to look back and see.

Roni: Yeah, that's awesome. [00:14:00] Okay. Well, we're gonna switch gears here a little bit for a second, because we have a special little addition to this episode. So. Back on episode 27, we interviewed Orion Aon, and he is an expert in foraging for food. And so I reached out to him about a week ago and I asked if he would be interested in sharing a little fall foraging tip for us.

I. Because he had mentioned in that episode, that spring is one of the most popular times for foraging. But, you know, we also know that there's lots of things that are still available in the fall. So we wanted to hear from him about, you know, what could be something that we could forage in the fall. So let's listen to his clip and learn a little bit.

Orion: Orion here with a little fall foraging tip for you. Rose hips. The fruit left behind after the Rose Flowers are common and easy to identify forage for fall and winter. They stay on the plants through winter and are actually best picked after the first frost, which helps concentrate their sugars and makes them taste better.

[00:15:00] Rose hips are loaded with vitamin C and antioxidants. To help you fight off those seasonal illnesses. They're great for tea, jelly and jam. Syrups and other infusions, but be sure not to eat the seeds. They have little hairs on them that can be irritating, happy, fall.

Riley: I loved that.

Roni: I know he's awesome. What a great, like succinct little tip. And he's so right. So after he sent this in, I did a little bit of, investigating a little bit more about rose hips and they do have a lot of vitamin C. They also are very rich in vitamins, E K and B, which are all different kinds of antioxidants.

So. They're used a lot in herbal remedies and they're great to be, eaten and forged in the fall and then used into the winter.

Riley: Yeah, so we have tons of rose hips.

Roni: I bet. I

Riley: cause I mean, we have, so, okay. This makes me feel a little silly right now, but, we have wild roses everywhere in the summer. And I asked my husband, cuz I noticed [00:16:00] rose hips growing on the rosebush. Like where the roses were. And I was like, okay, so rose hips. It's like the same thing.

Like they grow on the Rose Bush and he was like, I actually don't know. And I was like, I guess, I mean, I thought, I thought it was the same Bush. I know I'm sounding really silly right now, but I didn't do any research. So his clip answers that question for me. And we have them everywhere and they've just turned like a bright red.

And we just had our first frost a few days ago. So I'm gonna go harvest some, uh, probably today. probably today. because that makes me really excited, all those benefits, but I'm actually gonna try to do something with them this year.

Roni: Yeah, well, so in my research about this, I found a recipe for rose hip jelly and then wild rose hip tea. So those are in the Plan to Eat podcast recipe account. So if you guys are interested in foraging your own rose hips, and then. Using them somehow, uh, we have a couple recipes in there for you. There's also tons of stuff online.

Like you can just type in rose hips, recipes, and there are all sorts of things. But [00:17:00] we have a lot here too. So, um, for those of you who don't know, Riley lives a little bit more in the mountains compared to me, but even just down by, we have a trail, a river trail right by my house. And there's tons of rose hips right along the river trail.

that I think would be okay to forage, you know, it's they don't like spray for bugs or anything over there, so I think they would be okay to pick. But yeah, I think I'm gonna try it too.

Riley: Yeah, let's do it. That's I, I mean, I need to do some Googling about how to like process them, um, particularly cuz he says not to eat the seed. So I'm guessing the. A rose tip is very small. I mean, if you've never seen one before, I'll try to get some photos of the ones up here and we can put 'em on our Instagram

Roni: oh yeah.

Riley: I mean, they're very small, like dime size. I would say they're a bit of like an oblong kind of O shape I'm doing a bad job of describing them, but like they're very small. And so I could imagine pulling that seed out could be a bit of a process,

Roni: Yeah. Well maybe if you're just like boiling them for tea or something, you don't have to worry as much about that. And, but maybe if you were gonna eat them in a jelly, you [00:18:00] would have to do something different.

Riley: Yeah. And I'm, I made wild raspberry jelly this summer. And one thing I did cuz you know, raspberries are concentrated with seeds is I just strained it. I'm wondering if that's the way I would process a rose hip too.

Roni: Oh, probably we'll have to do some research and, and we'll, we'll put some, some information in the show notes so that if anybody's interested, they can do more about that. But thank you all, Orion, for sending that into us, that was really interesting and fun. And you guys can once, once again, the episode that we interviewed him on was episode 27.

He runs a website called forage Colorado. Um, and then you can find him on his social media channels at forage, Colorado as well. He gives tons of tips about mushrooms and foraging, and, he has a lot of recipes on his, on his, um, social media as well that he uses a lot of his like wild and forged foods in.

So he's a great resource. Go check him. All right. One other thing that I wanted to talk about, you're gonna talk a little bit about recipes here in a second. I know you [00:19:00] have lots of recipes for us. But I wanted to just talk about a little bit of how we can be. Thinking about incorporating some of these seasonal foods into our recipes, particularly if you're somebody who's kind of a, a non-res cook.

So pumpkins, we have talked a little bit about pumpkins so far, but pumpkins are not just for decorating or Jack lanterns. Um, you can roast pumpkins. You can put 'em in soups. You can obviously make sweet things out of them like pies and bars and cookies. Spaghetti squash you can is a great substitute for noodles in any sort of a noodle dish.

Butternut squash is great to make in soups. It's also great roasted, brussel sprouts. Once again, Riley's favorite roasted or shredded into a salad. I have a really great salad that. I think I shared it in the spring, on the podcast. It's like a winter crunch salad, I think is what it's called. And it's like shredded brussel sprouts and cabbage and carrots, and then like cranberries and pepitas

and then you make like your own dressing for it. And it's so good. It's [00:20:00] ridiculously good. And then. Apples, you can make apple cider, you can make pies, caramel, apples, apple sauce. Um, we have an apple tree in my backyard and I'm already getting so many apples that I'm trying to figure out what to make the with

And then finally, this, this time of year makes me think about like slow cooked meats, like roast and whole chickens, pork Tenderloin, that kind of stuff, stuff that like warms up the house and, has like good savory flavors.

Riley: Apples is also a really great topping for, for a salad, like a winter. Salad. You didn't mention it in your winter crunch salad. It'd be great addition to that, but I love it with like a little bit of like, um, like a feta and like a, like a, CIY kind of like salad dressing. You could like make one with olive oil and a little bit of vinegar and stuff like so good.

Roni: Yeah, that sounds yum.

Riley: a sweet crunch. It's kind of like, like a ver version of a croon

Roni: Oh, I don't think that there are apples in the, at least in the written recipe of that winter crunch salad, but yeah, it would be an easy addition and it would be with the, because you have like [00:21:00] cranberries to sweeten it up a little bit too. Like the apples would, it would just be a really nice compliment for the salad.

That would be good. Yeah. All right. And then the last thing that I wanna mention before recipes. We gotta talk about pumpkin spice. Okay. Because it's become, come an obsession. All right. I don't know where, what it's like anywhere outside of the United States, but in the United States, we've gone too far. That's my opinion on it. We, you know, might

Riley: Two too, too, too far

Roni: we might get some shade for saying this, but I just think that we've gone too far with the pumpkin spice. So lemme tell you all the things that you could get that are pumpkin spice, labor. Okay. Obviously you can get your latte. You can get cookies, you can get, um, just like regular, like a bag of ground coffee.

They make tea. They make pumpkin spice, gum, uh, butter cream, cheese syrup, protein powder. You can also get pumpkin spice, Mac and cheese.[00:22:00] 

Riley: Oh, and, uh, Cheerios. Did you say that one

Roni: I haven't said Cheerios. Oh, no, I haven't. Okay. Yep. Uh, You can get pumpkins by sausages and Twinki and

Riley: Oreos?

Roni: oh yeah. And Oreos, um, and Pringles

Riley: I have a big question mark. On my face with that one.

Roni: I know. And hummus and peeps, like the little marshmallow chickens. Uh, you can also get

Riley: I'm marshmallow chicken. Sorry, just laughing about that.

Roni: uh, you can also get pumpkin spice dog treat. Which, like I know pumpkin is like really good for your dog's digestive system, but why does my dog care about a pumpkin spice treat? I dunno,

Riley: your dog was compelled by the marketing. He just saw it and started drooling. She, she started it and started Dr.

Roni: And then you can also get pumpkin spice scented beard oil, like for [00:23:00] your luscious beard, um, and de odor.

Riley: Beer. They also make beer.

Roni: Oh, and beer. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so anyway, I don't, I don't get it personally. I'm not a pumpkin spice person. I like pumpkin. but like, I don't, I don't prefer a pumpkin spice latte.

It's far too sweet for what I normally like. I think I would just prefer like a regular pumpkin flavored thing. It doesn't have to be the pumpkin spice situation. That's like been blown outta proport.

Riley: It, it is feeling a. Well, like one of those things, like, okay, now it's over done. Now we got it. Like, I understand like one pumpkin spice latte, like, you know, like, you know, you have coffee with a friend and you like enjoy one. And I don't mind that. I agree. They tend to be too sweet. I would always go half sweet on that.

But it doesn't like, I don't necessarily wanna be eating pumpkin spices and everything, everything I consume the whole season.

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: I also saw on Instagram, I was being advertised pumpkin [00:24:00] spice, lip gloss.

Roni: Oh,

Riley: I think I sent you a picture didn't I?

Roni: I think you did.

Riley: Yeah.

Roni: Okay, so just a ma let picture this. You're in your home, you light your pumpkin spice candle. You put on your pumpkin spice lip gloss. You get your pumpkin spice latte and you're eating a pumpkin spice cookie. While you give your dog a pumpkin spice dog tree, your husband comes out of the bathroom with pumpkin spice beard oil on, I mean, seriously people

Riley: And he probably washed his pan with pumpkin spice soap. meanwhile, he goes to the kitchen and he, uh, pops open his pumpkin spice Pringles. Okay. All right. I feel like we've gone a little far down this rabbit hole. I, I do understand. The flavors in pumpkin spice, like the num egg, the cinnamon, uh, what else is in the pumpkin spice?

Roni: Yeah. Those

Riley: that's flavor. [00:25:00] I love them. I also like them. I love warming spices. Um, I, I just agree. We've we've just gone down this really long road of pumpkin spice flavored things.

Roni: yeah, it's a cultural phenomenon for sure. I personally would rather just have like a spicy chai or like a apple cider, you know?

Riley: Yeah, I'm a huge chai fan. Like I like it as spicy. Like I like to add more cayenne, like I like it to be so spicy. So I'm with you. I do. I mean, I like those flavors. I love those warming flavors, but it's just a big butt.

Roni: Yeah, I agree.

Riley: Yeah. I did find a recipe though, Roni, for a homemade pumpkin spice latte that actually uses real pumpkin, which I would be very inclined to try.

Roni: yeah. I would be more inclined to try that for sure. Yeah.

Riley: Yeah. I don't have an espresso machine at home, which maybe I can remedy to try the recipe, but just, I'm just kidding. Um, but I would be very inclined to try that.

Roni: home office expense.[00:26:00] 

Riley: Yeah, I'd be inclined to try that. I think that like actually having real pumpkin in it would enhance it and also give it that benefit of it being a seasonal food, um, versus like a syrup, a pumpkin spice syrup.

Roni: Yeah, I agree. All right. Maybe we'll have to try it. I'll get back to you guys for all of you. Pumpkin spice lovers. I'm really sorry that I don't share your love for it, but I just don't. So

Riley: yeah.

Roni: We can move on to the recipe. We can move on to more recipes now 

Riley: All right. So I, again, super excited about this episode, super excited about fall foods. The day it was like 55 at my house. I like put soup on the menu, like two times. I love it. I love those. I love warm soup on a cold day. But I have a list. I have a rustic pumpkin soup while we're talking about pumpkin.

And it's bacon and onions and pumpkin and like chicken stock all mixed together. It is very good. I'm pretty sure that recipe is actually paleo or whole 30 or maybe both. That's where I got it from one of those [00:27:00] seasons of doing that. And I it's one that's on repeat at our house. I love it. It kind of, to me is a bit like a summary tomato basal soup.

Like it its own like eat it with a grilled cheese or something like that. It's kind of like a side soup. Really, really good. I also have one for. It's just butternut squash soup, but you cook it with carrots and ginger and butternut squash, and you kind of boil all of that together until everything is really soft and you blend it up in your blender.

Um, so it's super smooth, but it is really, really good. You finish it with coconut milk. So. The coconut milk really adds this like creaminess, and just really elevates the ginger and carrot flavor of that soup. I love that one. Even talking about it. I'm like, I've gotta go add that to my meal plan. Cuz it's so, so good.

And that's also dairy free. Another one that kind of lives in that like, just like allergen friendly li uh, like stream of recipes. Sweet potatoes and winter squashes make for awesome skillet meals, like one pot dinners or breakfast [00:28:00] hashes. A few episodes ago, we talked about, one of Roni's recipes, as she mentioned at the end of our show, was this breakfast skillet, um, with

Roni: sweet

Riley: SW

Roni: potato and there,

Riley: Rizo, um, it's something that I've made before, too.

It's really delicious, but that doesn't have to just be a breakfast meal that could be in any time of day a meal, any time of day meal. And then last but not least on my list is brussel sprouts. Just like roasted in the oven, um, with bacon alternately, you could do them like in a skillet and like make some kind of like balsamic glaze for them.

I love Brussels sprouts. So any recipe with Brussels sprouts gets me interested. Um, but I definitely like them cooked better than raw. So, yep. What about you? Do you have any recipes?

Roni: I'm really looking forward to, I have this butternut squash chicken chili recipe, um, that I'm really looking forward to. I'm pretty sure the recipe itself just calls for like bell peppers and jalapenos in it. But when I was at the farmer's market, I got some, um, fire roasted [00:29:00] chilis. And so I think when I make it this year, I'm gonna put some fire roasted chilies in it for a little more like green chili kind of flavor.

So, yeah, I'm really excited about that. Just in general. I really like using like squashes and stuff as just like a side dish to accompany a meal. Um, last year, our coworker, Shelby, her and her husband, her husband's a horticulturist and he's written some blog posts for us as well. But planted a delicata squash.

And so they like, by the end of the season, they had like tons of delicata squash. And so he gave us, I think, like three or four and I had never tried it before. And, so I found a couple recipes online that are just like, it's like really simple. You roast it just like you would an acorn or a butternut kind of a squash.

But I found some really yummy recipes that like you make 'em kind of spicy. And they were really good. So I'm looking forward to, I did see some de COTA squash at the farmer's market over the weekend. And so I think next weekend I'm gonna probably pick some up and start incorporating more of that kind of stuff into our meals.

So yeah. I [00:30:00] like, I like in the fall, you know, like aside from like doing soups and stew and chili and that kind of stuff, I do like to just kind of keep it simple and just have like yummy roasted vegetables as a side dish to go along with whatever we're eating.

Riley: Yeah. I also, that makes me think of, like mashed sweet potatoes.

Um, I really like doing a mashed sweet potato. It's like you boil 'em. Like you would a regular white potato and then you mash 'em with like salt and butter and sour cream. Um, really, really good. And that just made me think of that.

Like, it's really simple. But it's a way to use like a sweet potato instead of like a white potato. But kind of give you that like really yummy side dish.

Roni: you can. Even, what I've done before is I've done like half white potatoes, half sweet potatoes. For a mashed potato and that's really yummy. So if like, if you have a family that you're maybe having a hard time convincing to like switch over to mash sweet mashed sweet potatoes, you can do a mix of the two.

And so it adds a little bit of that, like sweet, sweet potato flavor, um, without totally compromising the rest of the mashed potato flavors.

Riley: [00:31:00] Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. Um, I actually recently saw on Instagram, I don't know how often you cook spaghetti squash. I personally really like spaghetti squash as just a replacement for pasta. I know it's not like a one to one. Um, but I really like it. And it's another one that is a great side dish and you don't have to look at it as pasta.

It can be its own thing. It is squash . But I saw on Instagram. I'll see if I can find it. I, I do this all the time. I think of these things that I see on Instagram and then I didn't save them. I don't remember who it was, but she talked about the, the best way that she finds to cook them and that's to cut it in rings.

So normally how I cook it, let me just go ahead and put that out there. I cut the ends off. Cut it in half, take out the middle seeds, put it face down in like. Like a baking dish with a little bit of water in the bottom, sometimes a little oil, even sometimes a little bit of seasoning.

And then I just roast it in the oven for an hour or something like that until I can scrape everything out. Um, and it like comes out really easy, but [00:32:00] let me just put this also out there that spaghetti squash is incredibly hard. It is incredibly hard to cut. You need a very sharp knife and you need to be very careful.

PSA be very careful. you know, they're round. It's not like you're cutting something. That's easy to cut. So, what she did is she took it and she sliced it down in rings and then laid those rings flat on a baking sheet and then roasted them in the oven for substantially less time than I typically cooked them.

And then all the rings, like all the noodles came out of the rings super easy. So I, I haven't tried it, but I would be interested in trying.

Roni: Yeah, that sounds really cool. That makes me think of this recipe that I had for the first time. Last year. It might have even been a recipe that I got from your account you're plan to eat account. Riley? It's a beef and mushroom carbonara. It's a AIP recipe that 

Riley: that's definitely.

Roni: yeah, like instead of using regular noodles, you use spaghetti squash and it was so good.

Even my husband who I. Trepidacious [00:33:00] about having just a meal that was only spaghetti squash noodles with him. He actually really liked it. He said he probably would've preferred it with regular noodles over the spaghetti squash, but I mean, he ate it once. Totally happy with it. So, yeah, that's making me think that I, I got a spaghetti squash.

Once again, I went to the farmer's market. I got all the things, I got a spaghetti squash and so I that's making me think that that's the recipe I should make with it.

Riley: Yeah, I find this spaghetti squash has a, a bit of sweetness to it. Um, which is why I think it's a little bit harder to be that one to one pasta, cuz it's not a really neutral, like it's got a bit of sweetness and

Roni: Well, and if you, like, if you like the like bready flavor, you know, there's, there's a different flavor to pasta for sure. Because it just has that breadiness to it that I don't know that you can replicate without having flour.

Riley: Right. Yeah, totally.

Roni: All right. Well, I think that wraps it up for our fall seasonal foods. Uh, we hope you guys have enjoyed our four different episodes on seasonal cooking. And I certainly [00:34:00] learned a lot in all the research that we've done. So it's been really fun.

Riley: Yep. I agree. It's been great. If you haven't listened to our other episodes, save them. And then when those seasons roll around, uh, you can list, give 'em a listen and, hopefully it makes its way in your plan each season, and enjoy.

Roni: And if you wanna find any other recipes that we talked about in this episode or any other episodes, of the podcast, you can go to plantoeat.com/ptepod. P T E P O D. And we have a Plan to Eat account. That's just dedicated to all of the recipes that we've mentioned on the podcast. We have 'em tagged for seasons.

We have 'em tagged for who mentioned 'em whether it was me or Riley. So if you like one of our taste preferences over the other, you can search by that. So go connect with that account and get all of our recipes there.

Riley: And thanks again. Huge. Thank you to Orion for the awesome clip about rose hips. 

Roni: And we'll talk to you guys next week.