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#meatlessmonday Meets the 2009 Nude & Eco-Cheap Cooking Initiative Recipe 15: Pumpkin Bechamel

Chris Perrin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:13:06 +0000

Shawna Coronado's Pumpkin Harvest

Also, happy World Pasta Day! Good grief, so much going on. We better get right into

Penne with Basil and Pumpkin Bechamel

Wow…so let’s see… This recipe is my #meatlessmonday post for Meatless Monday.

It’s also the last of the 2009 Nude & Eco-Cheap Cooking recipes for this year (boo! I know, I’m bummed.) I’d team up with the awesome Shawna Coronado for any cooking challenge anywhere and I am going to miss all her delicious veggies. Still, as winter touches the Midwest, all her nude (no chemicals) eco-friendly veggies are going away and without the veggies, it’s hard to feed a family of four for less then $10.50!

But, if she’s up for it, I’m would love to see a 2010 Nude & Eco-Cheap Cooking Initiative!

Oh, and before I forget, it’s also World Pasta Day, which can only be celebrated by eating pasta. Which is how we get to this crazy recipe I dreamed up.

Making Penne with Basil and Pumpkin Bechamel

This recipe is going to be a tiny bit time consuming since we’re going to make our own pumpkin puree with fresh out-of-the-garden pumpkin. You can substitute canned, but it won’t be as good or as cheap! After that, it’s merely a case of making the bechamel and eating.

You will need:

1 Sugar Pie Pumpkin (free from Shawna’s garden)
2 tablespoons olive oil (free for the challenge)
Salt and pepper (free for the challenge)
1 package penne ($3.00)
2 tablespoons butter (50 cents)
2 tablespoons flour (free for the challenge)
3 cups heavy cream at room temperature ($5.00)
Pinch of nutmeg (25 cents)
4-6 leaves basil, sliced thinly (free from Shawna’s garden)

That’s a total of $8.75! Another successful challenge.

Preheat your oven to 350.

Cut the pumpkin in half, remove the seeds and coat with olive oil. Then sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Put the pumpkin on a cookie sheet cut side down and roast for 45 minutes or until fork tender. Then remove from the oven.

Once it’s cool enough, peel the pumpkin, cut it into chunks and puree in the food processor. If the puree is too thick, you can loosen it with a little water, broth, or cream. Add a little extra salt and taste for flavor. It’s not going to taste like pie or anything because it’s not seasoned for that. It should have a mild, earthly flavor instead.

Next, prepare the pasta to package directions in well salted water. Remove while al dente.

When the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a skillet over a medium flame. When the butter is melted, mix in the two tablespoons of flour to form a paste. Continue to cook for about 30-60 seconds or until you get a nutty aroma. Then pour in the room temperature cream and let it get warm. Finally, add the pumpkin and let the sauce thicken.

Serve the sauce on the penne. Top with basil.

And enjoy this final 2009 Nude & Eco-Cheap Cooking recipe!

#meatlessmonday Meets the 2009 Nude & Eco-Cheap Cooking Initiative Recipe 14: Pumpkin Soup[caption id="attachment_706" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Shawna Coronado's Pumpkin Harvest"][/caption] Yep, that’s...
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#meatlessmonday Meets the 2009 Nude & Eco-Cheap Cooking Initiative Recipe 14: Pumpkin Soup

Chris Perrin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:04:13 +0000

Shawna Coronado's Pumpkin Harvest

Yep, that’s right. It’s another #meatlessmonday and another installment of the 2009 Nude & Echo-Cheap Cooking Initiative. Today we’re making

Pumpkin Soup

If you’re not familiar with the 2009 Nude & Eco-Cheap Cooking Initiative, that’s where I take the delicious veggies grown by the always awesome Shawna Coronado and turn them into a meal for a family of four that costs less than $11.50. Can I do it?

Yes I can with this easy, but delicious pumpkin soup.

I actually love pumpkin season. I think it’s kind of a shame that it only seems to be popular for about two months. Still, every year people go NUTS for pumpkins: pumpkin desserts, pumpkin soups, pumpkin coffee drinks, pumpkin pizza, and so on. Then even before the Thanksgiving leftovers are done…BOOM… everyone’s on to peppermint or sugar cookies or some other Christmas phase. Anyway, I’m ranting.

The good news is that for the next month or so we can continue to enjoy pumpkin recipes like this one.

Making Pumpkin Soup

This recipe is so easy, but it takes a little while to make because you want to cook the pumpkin before you put it into the soup. Boiled pumpkin sounds ridiculously unappetizing and the stuff would take forever to boil anyway. So, instead, you need to bake it first. Once it’s ready, the rest of the soup is a breeze.

You will need:

1 pumpkin, halved and seeded (free from Shawna’s garden)
8 tablespoons olive oil, divided (free as part of the challenge)
1 loaf bread ($2.00)
1 clove of garlic (5 cents)
1 medium yellow (non-sweet) onion, 1/4 inch dice (free from Shawna’s garden)
16 ounces of mushrooms, cleaned and sliced ($3.50)
2 teaspoons black pepper
6 cups broth ($1.50)
2 cups heavy cream ($3.50)
4 leaves basil, thinly sliced (free from Shawna’s garden)

Total: $10.55 (cream is expensive, but still made it!!)

Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Cover both halves of the pumpkin in about two tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with a bit of salt. Bake for forty-five minutes cut side down or until the pumpkin is fork tender.

When the pumpkin is finished, let it cool and then cut into a small dice and set aside.

Next, cut the loaf of bread in half and then cut into 2 inch wide pieces. Rub with the cut clove of garlic and drizzle with olive oil.

In a soup pot, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil then saute the onions until they start to turn translucent. Then add the mushrooms and cook them until the are brown and shriveled. Add the black pepper and the broth and bring to a boil. (At this point, put the bread in the oven and keep an eye on it. You will want to remove it when it gets brown.)

When the broth is boiling, add the cream and bring the soup back to a boil.

Finally, add the pumpkin and let it get warm.

Serve with the basil on top of the soup and enjoy!

#meatlessmonday Meets the 2009 Nude & Eco-Cheap Cooking Initiative Recipe 15: Pumpkin Bechamel[caption id="attachment_706" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Shawna Coronado's Pumpkin Harvest"][/caption] Also, happy...
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2009 Nude & Eco-Cheap Cooking Initiative Recipe 12: Baked Rice in a Pumpkin[caption id="attachment_647" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Shawna Coronado's Fall Harvest"][/caption] When Shawna...