Q&A Wednesday - Pureeing Vegetables and Sneaking Them into Recipes

Based on the following picture of the day posted on my other blog, Rachael asked, "Can you do a post about the puree process and what recipes/meals you can add them to? That is a fantastic idea!"

A couple years ago, I bought Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook, "Deceptively Delicious."  (she since has a new book and there are similar recipes in The Sneaky Chef's books here and here and here.)

The beginning of Deceptively Delicious talks about cooking, pureeing and freezing vegetables to "sneak" into recipes.  When I do this, I crank out a bunch of purees to make the process worth the effort.

I do this with vegetables we get in our produce co-op, or whatever is a loss leader (super low priced items on the front page of the ads) at the grocery store.  If I get too much of something and don't want to let it go bad and waste it, I'll cook it, puree it, bag 1/2 cup portions and freeze them flat.

For instance, last weekend in the co-op, I got 4 butternut squash.  Healthy and delicious, yet my family doesn't eat them.  I baked them for 45 minutes, let them cool, cut off the skin and blended them in my food processor (adding a little water, as needed) until the mixture was smooth and lump-free.

A full food processor is about 3-4 cups of puree, so I know to start by labeling 6 bags.  With a Sharpie, I include the amount (1/2 cup), the item (butternut squash) and the date.  This helps me use the oldest purees first.

I'm in the habit of wrecking my kitchen and going through this ordeal about every other week for an hour or so.  This past weekend, I cooked the butternut squash, an acorn squash and a gazillion sweet potatoes, which took me just under an hour total.  While the squash was in the oven, the sweet potatoes cooked on the stove and I diced celery and onions and put in bags to freeze for soups later.  (all while being interrupted a dozen times by the kids)

The process seemed overwhelming to me at first, but once I got used to rolling up my sleeves and just doing it, it's really not that big of a deal anymore.

The 8-10 bags of each puree that I got out of Saturday's cooking session will last me for months.

To keep everything organized, I repurposed some bins I wasn't using.  This bin is a wire under-the-cabinet bathroom organizer...

...and this was a random tray that came with our cooler.

But if you don't have any bins to spare, sticking the baggies in the door shelves works just fine, too!

In my freezer, I try to keep vegetables that we don't tend to eat raw. I generally have spinach, cauliflower, squashes and sweet potatoes ready to add to meals that don't contain many vegetables.

That leads me to the second part of her question: What recipes/meals you can add them to?

Purees can be added to most sauces, casseroles, chili, meatloaf/meatballs, pasta dishes, pot pies...the ideas are endless.  There are even recipes for squash mixed with shredded cheese for grilled cheese sandwiches, cauliflower in scrambled eggs and banana bread, spinach in blueberry oat bars, avocado in chocolate pudding and black beans in brownies.

Once I had followed a few of Jessica Seinfeld's recipes, I started throwing a puree in just about everything.  I wouldn't recommend spinach in macaroni and cheese (I won't make that St. Patrick's Day mistake again) but as a general rule, I add dark mix-ins with dark sauces, light with light.  You can't taste kale in spaghetti sauce or chili and squash is easy to hide in cream-based recipes.

Last year, when I guest posted on The Happy Housewife's blog about "How to Get Your Kids to Eat Healthier Foods," my suggestion to sneak vegetables into dinner recipes caused an uproar with a few of the readers.  In fact, she tweeted about the topic and wrote a follow up post further discussing the debate. I'm bracing myself for some potential controversy on the subject, so if you leave a comment, please remember to be respectful.  I hope this helps, Rachael!