Gluten Free Fridays: New Mexican Stew

This week's Gluten Free Fridays is brought to you by Karina's Kitchen Recipes, a fabulous gluten-free blog. Karina's blog used to be called "The Gluten Free Goddess", which really, she is. I know this picture does not do this recipe justice. I usually like to actually cook a recipe before I post it on GFF. This picture was kind of an after thought, and is a picture I took at work today of leftovers from last night's dinner. Go over to Karina's blog if you want a more tantalizing picture of this recipe.

Of course, we must have a little story before we delve into the recipe. This past fall, I was on a quest to get the cheapest winter squash I could find. Our local Farmer's Market has gotten pretty pricey in the last few years. I was hoping the last one of the season would have some deals, but I ended up working that Saturday. The next day, November 2nd, I went to one local farmer's stand to see if they had any squash left. They were packing up all the squash they had left to sell off to Whole Paycheck Foods, and I asked if I could still get some. They said, sure, $30 for a box. Now this was a pretty big box. I loaded it up with butternut squash, spaghetti squash, carnival squash, sweet dumpling squash, one big banana squash that I still don't know what I'm going to do with, and one buttercup squash that I found hiding among some other funky looking squashes. I got help loading my ginormous box into my car, and the man said, "you got a good deal there. That box weighs at least 70 pounds." I though, "yeah, right." When I got home, I weighed the box. I almost threw my back out. Sure enough, it weighed 70 pounds. I probably have at least half or more of it left. If you have never seen 70 pounds of squash, let me assure you that it's a lot of squash!! I'm always looking for good squash recipes to whittle down my 70 pounds, and this is one is a keeper.

New Mexican Stew
by Karina Allrich at glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

This is verbatum from Katrina's blog, with a few edits from me in italics. You can get a nice printable copy if you go over there. Just scroll down to the bottom of the post, and it will give you an option for a printer friendly version.

I used ground turkey in this green chile stew recipe but you could also use chicken, pork, or black beans.

Turn on your slow cooker to high or low as you prefer. You can also cook this recipe on the stove top.

You'll need:

1 lb. fresh ground turkey, chicken or pork (or use 1 15-oz can organic black beans for vegan)
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder- hot or mild, to taste
1 1/2 cups peeled butternut squash, diced
2 large or white gold potatoes, peeled, diced
3 medium carrots, chopped
1 cup roasted chopped green chiles- mild or hot, to taste
1 quart chicken broth- or vegan broth
Sea salt and ground pepper, to taste

Before serving:

Juice from 1 large juicy lime
2-3 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
1-2 teaspoons raw sugar or agave nectar, as needed

First- brown the ground turkey in a skillet and pour off the fat, if any. Add the turkey to the slow cooker/Crock Pot and add the remaining ingredients- through sea salt and ground pepper. Stir to combine. Cover and cook- on high or low- according to manufacturer's instructions until done.

To cook on the stove top:

1. Saute the onions and garlic until translucent.
2. Add the squash, potatoes, carrots, and spices and give a stir.
3. Add the broth, chilis and optional black beans. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.
4. While the soup is cooking, brown the ground turkey and add to the soup.
5. I cook the soup until the squash and potatoes get so mushy, they breakdown when you stir the soup hard. This way, they thicken the soup and you don't have to add anything else to do so. This will take a minimum of 45 minutes. If you don't want the soup thick, you can cook it until the the squash and potatoes are soft, at least 20 minutes.

About 20 minutes before serving (about 10 minutes on the stove top), stir in the lime juice and cilantro; taste test (editor's note: I skipped this part, and it was fine, but probably tastes better with a little lime juice and cilantro topping. If you don't have time for this step, leave it out as optional). Add a dab of sweetener, if needed, to balance the spice. If you need a tad more liquid, add more broth. Heat through. Serve with warm gluten-free tortillas, blue corn muffins or yeasted cornbread. Serves 4.