The bounties of Fall are plentiful and delicious and with the summer’s end so close at hand, we thought it would be a great idea to share some of our favorite recipes for the season. We want to show you dishes that are easy to make but yield delicious, complex, and deep flavors, and we’re pretty sure that we hit the nail on the head!
Both of these recipes are also perfect for when you have guests over, and if you want to focus exclusively on cooking instead of sprucing up the house, we can totally help you with that.
Let’s get to the kitchen!
Butternut Squash, Lentil, and Wild Rice Stew
This is a great recipe if you just want to turn on the slow cooker and stop worrying about complex preparations. Still, in the end, you will get a delicious, wholesome, and very autumn-like soup that works great as a main dish. It’s one of the best easy fall recipes for a crowd as well. Here’s what you need:
Ingredients
- 2 pounds of butternut squash
- 2 sliced celery stalks (about 1 cup)
- 1 chopped large onion (about 1 cup)
- 1 cup of rinsed, drained lentils (dry)
- 4 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 cans condensed French onion soup (10 ½ oz. each)
- ⅔ cups of wild rice, rinsed and drained
- 1 ½ cups of water
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme (crushed)
- 3 tablespoons dry sherry or vermouth
- ¼ of snipped flat-leaf parsley
- ¾ teaspoon pepper (black or white)
That sounds like a lot of ingredients! But the preparation is incredibly simple:
- Peel your squash lengthwise, removing and discarding the seeds. Cut it into ¾-inch pieces and throw them into a 5 or 6-quart slow cooker along with onion, celery, lentils, and wild rice.
- Stir in the chicken broth, onion soup, water, thyme, and pepper.
- Cover the slow cooker and set it on low heat for 8 hours (or on high for 3 1/2 to 4 hours).
- Once ready, stir in parsley and a little sherry or vermouth into the mix. Serves six.
Apple Pumpkin Muffins
You can’t have dinner without dessert! At least, you shouldn’t when it’s the middle of fall and the chilly weather calls for something warm and fragrant. These apple and pumpkin muffins are perfect for breakfast, a mid-afternoon snack, school lunches, and anything you want!
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups of sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 cups of chopped apples (the tartest you can get)
- ½ cup of vegetable oil
- 1 cup canned pumpkin
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
You will be surprised at how easy these are to make compared to their taste and versatility:
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl, then set aside.
- In a small bowl, gently combine the eggs, canned pumpkin, and oil until uniform. Combine that mixture into the dry ingredient bowl until a moist dough forms.
- Fold in your apples into the dough. Make sure the pieces aren’t too big.
- Grease or line your muffin cups with paper and fill them with the dough about two-thirds full.
- Bake at 350° for 30 to 35 minutes or until center is done. Let them cool for about 10 minutes before removing from pan.
Roasted salmon with herbed mayo and lemon sauce
This delicious salmon recipe brings a little twist to the traditional autumn beef roast, and it just might be a little healthier! It’s also elegant, easy to prepare, and a nice way to surprise an unexpected guest. Don’t be put off by the use of mayo, you’ll barely notice it in the end!
Ingredients:
- ⅔ cups of mayonnaise
- 1 ½ teaspoon of lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 minced clove of garlic
- 2 tablespoons of minced fresh chives
- 2 teaspoons of chopped fresh tarragon
- 2 teaspoons of chopped parsley
- ¼ teaspoon sugar
- 2 ½ lbs of salmon fillet, center cut with the skin on
- Lemon sliced thin
- Parsley leaves
- Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
The sauce is very rich and adds a whole new dimension to the already tasty salmon meat, and you can change the consistency to suit your taste.
- Preheat your over to 450 degrees. In a bowl, mix the mayo, lemon juice and zest, garlic, chives, parsley, sugar, and tarragon. Season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place the salmon on it, right at the center. Season with salt and pepper as well, and spread ¼ cup of your mayo and herb sauce on top of the salmon fillet. Roast for about 5 or 6 minutes per ½-inch thickness of the fish. When the fillet flakes when tested with a fork, take it out and let it rest for 5 minutes.
- Adding a teaspoon of water each time, thin the sauce in the bowl, then serve the salmon with that sauce on the side. Garnish with lemon slices and parsley leaves.
You are done! Enjoy these fall recipes for dinner and share them with your friends. Remember that you can riff on them as you see fit.
