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Do you have a favorite recipe that includes canned pumpkin or sweet potato or another squash puree?  This is a regular item we have at our Pantry Plus through Food for Lane County. Unfortunately for these home cooks, canned sweet potato was presented as a mystery ingredient in this episode of HSOLC Cook Off.

Share your recipe for us to post on the portal (please email Caroline (cweber@hsolc.org instead of replying all). 

Heidi’s Pumpkin & Sausage Orzo

Ingredients:
Italian Sausage (1/2 package)
Canned Pumpkin (1/2 can)
Orzo (1/2 a box)
Chicken Broth (about 1/2 cup)
Heavy Whipping Cream (1 cup-half the jug)
Salt
Pepper
Italian Seasoning (all to taste)
Steps:
  1. Start by browning the Italian sausage. While that’s going, you can start the salted water to cook the orzo.
  2. Once the sausage has been browned, add the pumpkin, chicken broth, and heavy whipping cream. Add seasonings to taste. (The Italian sausage sometimes has enough salt for people so keep that in mind. I happen to like salt so I added some anyway!)
  3. Stir it all up until it doesn’t have any chunks and then add your al dente pasta.
  4. Let it simmer for a little bit to incorporate and then it’s ready to eat!  The sauce will thicken up as it cools and the orzo absorbs some of the liquid.
I adapted this from a recipe from the NY Times so this is not at all my creation.
One thing that I loved about this is it basically just took half of everything so you can easily double it or freeze the leftover sausage, chicken broth, and pumpkin and have all the ingredients on hand to make another batch. SWEET!

Charleen’s Pumpkin Apple Soup

Ingredients:
2 cups tart apple, diced
½ cup chopped onion
2 Tbs butter
1 Tbs flour
4 cups chicken broth
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp ginger
1 cup apple juice
1 can coconut milk
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
Steps:
  1. In a large pot, sauté apples and onions in butter for 3-5 mins. Stir in flour and blend.
  2. Gradually whisk in broth until thickened.
  3. Stir in pumpkin, spices, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
  4. Using a blender or immersion blender, blend until smooth.
  5. Slowly add coconut milk and apple juice. Heat through
  6. Soups On!