Butternut Harvest Stew

For my second soup attempt of the day, I chose Butternut Harvest Stew from the autumn section of Simply in Season. It begins easy enough, melt 2 T butter and saute 1 medium onion, chopped and 2 cloves of minced garlic along with 1.5 lb of cubed pork until the meat is no longer pink. I bought the pork at Byron Center Meats this morning, and was really impressed with the customer service. I asked if they had cubed pork by any chance and they said to use chop suey pork. I ended up getting 2 lbs since it came in 1 lb packages, so the calorie count below is a bit higher than if you were to just use the 1.5 pounds.

So after the meat is brown, drain the fat and add 3 C chicken broth (I really should make my own one of these days, but dang it, Swanson is just so convenient), 3/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp rosemary and sage, and a bay leaf. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Here is where the “fun” begins. Chop two apples. Then peel a butternut squash. That’s right, peel and chop a butternut squash. I had no idea how to do this and kind of approached it as if I were peeling a pineapple. Believe me, it took all of the 20 minutes to get that bad boy peeled. So then you add the apple and squash to the stew and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. When I put it in, I was thinking, is Ruthie from Kentucky on crack? There is no way this squash is going to ever get tender. I’m going to be eating my dinner at midnight.

So I checked it 20 minutes later, I was right – apples and squash are still rock hard. So I crank up the heat and cover it and add a little more broth. Boiled for about 20 more minutes. The squash was still firm (but no longer rock hard) and the other stuff was getting a bit mushy so I called it a day.

The verdict: DH and I decided that apple is DELICIOUS with pork. We really liked this stew, although it smelled like it had more flavor than it had. Still, it tasted great. And a very full bowl is only 550 calories. Will definitely make this again. We served this with Black Star Pinot Noir. Not sure if red wine goes with pork but it was a perfect pairing.

Edit: Just looked on the Black Star website, and they suggest roast pork and herbs as pairing for this wine. Score!