I’ve always associated butternut squash with fall. But Miami’s growing seasons have surprised me once again. Last week’s summer sales from Redland Organics offered fat, fresh butternut squash.

But with temperatures in the 90s and big-hair-inducing humidity, I strayed from my usual winter squash repertoire of risotto, soup and polenta. Instead, I looked to the hot climate of India (and this original recipe from thekitchn.com) for inspiration and made a butternut squash curry with coconut milk and tamarind.

I don’t want my other recipes to feel self-conscious, but this is the most delicious dish I’ve made in a while. Sweet squash, just enough heat and spices, rich coconut milk and tangy tamarind concentrate yielded a thick, complex curry that touched every taste receptor on our happy tongues.

The squash remained firm after 45 minutes of cooking, which made this vegan meal surprisingly hardy. Leftovers only got better and were summarily killed the next day.

We ate this with sauteed spinach and basmati rice, but it also would make a beautiful side dish for an Indian feast. Just don’t tell the main course that the butternut squash is stealing the show.

Butternut Squash Curry with Coconut Milk
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 tablespoons canola oil
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 1/4-inch thick coins of fresh ginger
1 jalapeno, stems and seeds removed, and diced
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
1 cup water
2 teaspoons tamarind concentrate
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Instructions
Heat a small frying pan on medium heat, add coriander, cumin, and fennel seeds, and toast until the spices are fragrant and just begin to darken. Remove spices from heat, and allow them to cool. Pulverize mixture in a spice grinder.

Heat oil in a wide, deep frying pan or wide, shallow pot. Add garlic, ginger, and jalapenos; cook until garlic barely starts to turn pale golden. Stir in toasted spices, turmeric, cayenne, and red pepper flakes, and cook 2 minutes. Add butternut squash, coconut milk, water, tamarind concentrate, and salt. Bring curry to a boil, and reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, for 40 to 45 minutes. Squash should be tender, and sauce should be thick.

Serve, and top with cilantro.

Serves 4 (main courses) and 6 (side dishes)

I’ve loyally prepared my Carrot Soup with Lemon and Ginger since 2006. This is the other carrot soup.

It’s not that I was unhappy with my standby, but I felt a pull to dabble with a chilled version. One that was exotic (curry and coconut milk) and low-maintenance (we didn’t want anything to get messy).

This soup really is as simple as it gets: Saute vegetables and spices, simmer them in broth, puree with silky coconut milk, and squeeze in lime. Then there’s the chilling, of course—six to 24 hours of it. This is definitely a meal to plan in advance, but it will patiently wait for you to return home from work and satisfy you as fast as you can ladle and slurp down a bowl.

I used good-quality, hot curry powder—a must—and served it with warm naan. And other than a few tweaks, I stuck pretty closely to the original epicurious.com recipe.

I did my usual morning prep for this, and I snuck a sip of the soup fresh off the stove. To be honest, it was just as good hot as it was cold—whatever your fancy.

Will it replace my first carrot love? Probably not. But it’s nice to spice it up once in a while. 

Chilled Carrot Soup with Curry and Coconut
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
1 small onion, diced
1-inch piece ginger, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 1/4 pounds carrots
2 1/2 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 teaspoon kosher salt (or less if using salty stock)
Juice of 1 lime

Instructions
Melt butter in a medium pot. Cook scallions, onion, ginger, and curry powder until vegetables are soft and fragrant, about 4 minutes. Add carrots and cook 5 minutes more. Pour in stock, bring to a boil, cover, and cook until carrots are tender, about 20 minutes.

Puree carrot mixture in batches with coconut milk. Transfer puree to a bowl, and stir in salt and lime juice. Refrigerate until cool, 6 hours to overnight.

Serves 4 to 6

My canistel was on the verge of becoming mushy and funky this weekend, and I knew I needed to quickly end its fruity life. I thought of duplicating custards from Miami Dish or Food for Thought, but I just didn’t want to expend that much effort on dessert. Instead, I modified a coconut rice pudding recipe from epicurious.com, using a higher coconut milk to milk ratio and stirring in the last of my canistel.

This pudding is my kind of dessert. Dump ingredients into a pot. Simmer. Stir. Serve. A short ingredient list and little effort yielded a rich and satisfying, yet humble, dessert.

In the photo, you may detect hunks of canistel that just refused to be broken up with a spoon. If lumps offend you, consider whirling the canistel and milks in a blender before you begin cooking the pudding. 

Coconut-Canistel Rice Pudding
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
1 cup whole milk
1 cup mashed canistel
1 1/2 cups cold, cooked long-grain rice, prepared in salted water
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions
Combine coconut milk, milk, and canistel in a medium-sized pot. You may need to blend the mixture or whisk violently if you don’t want canistel clumps in the pudding. Add rice, sugar, and vanilla, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve warm.

Serves 4 to 6

Our fridge is overflowing with avocados. Just one and a half GIANT avocados have produced avocado soup for three, a bowl of guacamole and now a one and a half quarts of avocado-coconut ice cream. 

The avocado flavor in this ice cream subtle. The real star here is the fat the avocado lends to the dessert. Avocado + coconut milk + heavy cream = one luxurious, buttery mouthfeel. 

We ate the first bowls straight from the ice cream maker for a sloppy sweet treat. After sitting overnight, though, the ice cream turned rock solid—but without too many of the annoying ice crystals that plague lots of homemade ice creams. 

With minimal effort and zero stove-top action, all I’ll need is another payload of avocados to convince me churn another batch. 

Avocado-coconut Ice Cream
1 pound avocado, diced
1 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup low-fat milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest and juice of 1 lemon 
3/4 cup sugar

Instructions
Combine avocado, coconut milk, cream, milk, vanilla, lemon zest, and  lemon juice in a blender. Puree until smooth. Stir in sugar, and cool in the refrigerator for at least one hour. 

Pour avocado mixture into an ice cream maker, and churn for 20 to 30 minutes. 

Serve immediately or freeze 1 to 2 hours for firmer ice cream. 

Makes 1 1/2 quarts

Seriously, this is the easiest weeknight meal I’ve made in a while. As much as I loathe “dump” recipes—where you combine a few cans of food and make supposed magic—this truly fits into the “dump” category. I chopped a few vegetables, dug canned goods out of my pantry, and dumped everything together to make a flavorful vegan dinner.

And after a week of stuffing meat down my face, this made me feel a whole lot healthier, too. But healthy doesn’t equal no-fat, low-cal. Just good wholesome food. 

If you can’t tell, I believe all of meals, regardless of their meat content, have to have fat—at least a little. My chefs at Le Cordon Bleu preached that fat (and of course salt) carry flavor and bring a dish to life. Coconut milk fulfills that role here, adding creaminess and luxury that few veggies can match. The coconut milk, along with rice and protein-packed beans, filled us up generously. 

I’d gladly dump and serve this any night. 

Chickpea Soup with Coconut Milk and Curry
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, finely  diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon hot curry powder
2 cups vegetable stock
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
3 tablespoons tomato paste
Kosher salt and pepper
1/4 cup chopped cilantro 
2 to 3 cups cooked rice of your choice 

Instructions
In a 4-quart pot, heat oil over medium. Add onion, red pepper, jalapeno, and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Stir in curry powder, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Pour in vegetable stock and coconut milk. Bring to a boil. Whisk in tomato paste, turn down heat, and simmer for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve over rice, and top with cilantro. 

Serves 4

Since we’ve converted to our almost vegetarian diet, I’ve discovered a true love of  rice and beans. Living in Cuban country probably has influenced our diet in this regard, as well.

I’ve made this Jamaican Red Bean recipe straight from words of Maddur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian cookbook at least twice. But last week, I researched Jamaican “peas and rice” recipes and made a few adjustments.

For this batch, I added grated sweet potato for extra sweetness, color and vitamin A. And I chopped up scotch bonnet peppers (rather than cooking them whole and removing them before serving) for the heat I have come to expect from Jamaican foods.

A big serving of these beans constitutes a meal for me (three this week, in fact), but they would make a mean side dish for jerk chicken or pork. 

Jamaican Red Beans 
1 pound kidney beans
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
1 teaspoon allspice
1 large onion, diced
1 bunch scallions, green and white parts, thinly sliced
2 scotch bonnet peppers, chopped
1 small sweet potato, peeled and grated (or diced if you prefer)
4 sprigs thyme

Instructions
Rinse beans in a colander. In a large bowl, cover beans with water and soak overnight. Drain beans, and pour into a 4-quart pot with 5 cups of water. Bring to a boil, and add salt. Reduce heat, cover, and cook for 45 minutes to an hour. Beans should be tender but not soft.

Stir in coconut milk, allspice, onion, scallions, scotch bonnets, sweet potato, and thyme. Cook beans uncovered for 30 minutes. Remove thyme sprigs. Taste, and adjust salt, if necessary. Serve over white rice. 

Serves 8