Savor the season with hand-picked festive recipes.
I try to make time to bake all year round, but there’s something about in season produce, a chill in the air and the essence of the autumn months that makes it seem like less of a chore. Dishes piling up in the sink, flour streaks on clothes and taking over my small, off-campus apartment kitchen for a few hours is almost therapeutic this time of year. As someone who has been vegetarian for around eight years, I have been forced to learn to cook for myself. Accordingly, the following dishes are meatless.
Embrace the mess with some of my favorite fall recipes I’ve made so far.
Butternut Squash Feta Pasta
A festive twist on the popular TikTok baked feta pasta with cherry tomatoes, but with a more seasonal vegetable. This dinner dish has savory tinges in the heartyness of the squash and feta, marrying beautifully with the sweet honey in the recipe.
Ingredients:
One butternut squash, peeled and cut into cubes
One block of feta cheese
One pound of pasta, cooked — I used Cavatappi. Save 1 cup of pasta water
½ cup olive oil
Three cloves of garlic
One tablespoon of honey (or sub hot honey!)
One tablespoon ground sage
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and after tossing your butternut squash in olive oil, salt and pepper, combine it with the feta and some red pepper flakes (if desired) in a large baking dish. Bake for 35 minutes, or until your squash is tender.
Mash the squash with a fork, mixing in with the browned feta and combining it with the honey, sage, garlic and pasta water.
I served my dish with roasted potatoes, making it a delightfully rich and earthy meal perfect for serving after a long day of carving pumpkins or decorating for Halloween.
Homemade Apple Cider
I recently made a trip to Davis Orchard, about a 30-minute drive from Columbia, MO. For an astonishing $6, you can take home enough apples to fill a 5-gallon bucket, plus the added bonus of farm cats and dogs following you around as you pick them. This was weeks ago — yet I’m still working my way through my surplus of apples taking over my fridge. So far, my favorite is apple cider.
Ingredients:
10 medium unpeeled apples, quartered and seeded
One orange, quartered
Four cinnamon sticks (or 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon)
½ cup brown sugar
Combine all ingredients in a large pot, filling it with enough water to cover the fruit when pushed down (apples and oranges will float). Boil for one hour, followed by simmering for an hour and a half to two hours; for a sweeter drink, let it sit in a simmer for longer.
After your apples enjoy a lengthy bath, their skins will begin to peel and the ‘meat’ will soften and break away. After letting your cider cool, scoop out all solid ingredients and strain the remaining liquid through a cheesecloth.
No cheesecloth? No problem! (Because who has a cheesecloth just lying around?) I opted for blending my cider to break up the smaller bits of apples, which worked just as fine.
Bottle your cider and shake before drinking! Serve hot or iced (or spiked) for a simple, pleasant beverage that will impress your guests: “Yes! This cider is homemade.”
Tip: Save the boiled apples and blend those to make applesauce!
Spaghetti Squash
The perfect grocery list item for a broke college student is exactly this— cheap, easy to prepare and is usually enough food for a few meals. Spaghetti squash is not only the simplest of meals, it’s fun to make! It always felt a bit like magic watching my Mom when I was younger, scraping the sides of a vegetable and turning it into noodles!? It’s a culinary miracle.
Below is how to prepare and cook the squash, but the possibilities are endless when it comes to ways to serve it!
Ingredients:
One medium spaghetti squash (two to three pounds)
Two tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice the squash in half-lengthwise, then scoop out the seeds in the middle. Drizzle the olive oil on top and season with salt and pepper. Place the squash on a greased baking sheet cut-side down and roast for 40 minutes.
Now comes the fun part— after cooling, flip the squash over and scrape the insides with a fork, creating spaghetti-like strands.
Transfer the shredded squash into a dish and serve in a variety of different ways, but here are a few of my favorites:
Tomato sauce and parmesan cheese, like typical spaghetti!
Butter, garlic, herbs and spices; simple and delicious.
Loaded with cheese, like a healthier mac n’ cheese!
I always end up with an extra tupperware container full of leftovers when I make this dish, perfect for students in dorms who share a kitchen and hate to cook too often, or just anyone with a busy schedule.
Fall Fruit Salad
Grapes, apples and pomegranates are all thriving this season. Chop ‘em up, add some nuts and a sweet dressing and you have an easy, autumnal fruit salad.
Ingredients:
Two cups red seedless grapes
One pomegranate, seeded
Two large apples, cubed
One cup chopped pecans
One orange
Two tbsp maple syrup
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
In a large bowl, add the zest and juice of your orange along with the maple syrup and cinnamon for a fragrant vinaigrette. Then, add your grapes, pomegranate seeds, cubed apples and pecans. Toss to coat all ingredients and enjoy!
This simple side dish is refreshing, tangy and comforting, like a chill autumn evening.
Pumpkin Cream Chai Latte
The drink of the season.
Following the drop of the fall Starbucks menu, lines start to go out the door as customers become fiends for this ultimate flavor combination to start off their morning. Let’s make one at home to save some cash and enrich our creative minds.
First, you are going to make your own chai concentrate. If you decide to opt out of this step, I recommend Oregon Chai’s liquid concentrate.
Ingredients:
Four cups water
10 chai tea bags.
Two cinnamon sticks (or 1 tsp ground cinnamon)
¼ cup sugar (or less, depending on how sweet you like your coffee).
½ tsp vanilla extract
Combine your cinnamon sticks and water to a boil in a medium-sized pot, turn off the heat and add your teabags. Steep for five minutes. Remove tea bags and press them, stir in sugar and vanilla.
Now we can work on the rest of our drink.
Ingredients:
Pumpkin Cold Foam:
Two tablespoons heavy whipping cream
One tablespoon whole milk
One tablespoon canned pumpkin puree.
Chai Latte:
½ cup chai concentrate
½ cup milk of your choice
Combine all the cold foam ingredients in a glass and froth using a milk frother for 10-20 seconds. Set aside.
In a separate glass, combine your equal parts of milk and chai, ice, then top with your pumpkin foam! Your morning is now a bit sweeter, spicier and budget-friendlier!
Tip: Make it a dirty pumpkin chai with a shot of espresso if you have a Keurig or Nespresso!
This season, I plan to fill my fridge with a bountiful amount of leftovers with dashes of cinnamon, a tinge of nutmeg and the coziness that a home-cooked meal or treat brings. As the holiday season approaches, the warmth of both food and company are needed more than ever. Employ these dishes as the centerpiece of your gatherings in the next few months.
Edited by Alyssa Royston | aroyston@themaneater.com
Copyedited by Maggie Atkinson and Hannah Taylor | htaylor@themaneater.com
Edited by Emily Skidmore | eskidmore@themaneater.com