Squash is almost the perfect vegetable for soup: it’s flavorful and has a divinely smooth texture when cooked and puréed. Serve this lightly curried squash soup to people who think they don’t like squash or curry, and you’ll change some minds. You can substitute any winter squash for the butternut; I just like butternut because it’s faster to peel and chop than its many cousins, and often has fewer seeds in the middle so you get more delicious flesh.
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This is a bit of a riff on the chana dal recipe in my first cookbook, From Scratch. Chana dal is one of my favorite meals of all time. But the lentils you use for chana dal are large and can take up to 2 hours to cook so I rarely take the time to make it. This version of curried red lentil and spinach stew is much faster and a little lighter without the cream. So this is as the easy, fast, summery version of chana dal for when you don’t feel like tending a pot for a couple of hours. This makes a pretty big batch, but you could easily double it and keep it for meals throughout the week or freeze leftovers.
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Oh man, the good fresh salsa potential is at its peak right now guys. You can get crazy good tomatoes, chilies, all kinds of stone fruit, baby onions, herbs like crazy. It’s pretty much a sin NOT to make salsa right now. Have it on everything.
With chips, (duh) on tacos, (double duh) in scrambled eggs, on grilled chicken or fish, as a salad dressing or with cold noodles.
If you don’t make it too spicy you can even just eat it with a spoon like a cross between a salad and chilled soup.
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