Mes amis,

Yesterday, the citoyens of the French Republic would have celebrated strawflower day. Today, in our experiment to embrace the cult of reason and cook the French Republican Calendar, we celebrate the winter squash. Winter squash is an umbrella term for basically all the usual squashes we tend to cook. Acorn, butternut, spaghetti, delicata – all winter squashes.

Here at Eat the Revolution, we are following along with the Jacobin inspired calendar – a rejection of the traditional Gregorian calendar. Rather than seven-day weeks and four-week months, the Jacobins did away with all traditional notions of the yearly calendar. A week (or decade) was now ten days long and the day of rest was no longer sunday, but the tenth day, Décadi. Each month was composed of three ten-day weeks. Each month celebrated a seasonal occurrence. We are currently in Grape Harvest month. Each day celebrated a flora or fauna specific to that time of year. I am attempting to cook the French Republican calendar for a year in the hopes that I will cook seasonally and also stretch myself to embrace ingredients I would have ignored otherwise. This is how we arrive at the delicata squash. The excellent vegetarian blog, 101 Cookbooks, serves not just to sate our desire to view white marble countertops, but also brings us this dish using delicata squash. This is a squash that can be eaten unpeeled – a great benefit in the winter squash realm.

Miso Harissa Delicata Squash Salad (via 101 Cookbooks)

1/2 lb fingerling potatoes

3/4 lb delicata squash

1/4 cup white miso

1 tbs harissa paste

3 tbs lemon juice

2 cups slivered kale

4 radishes

Wash and cut the potatoes into two-inch pieces. Slice the squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Then, cut into half-inch slices. Whisk together 1/4 cup of olive oil, the miso and the harissa. Toss the potatoes and squash with 1/3 cup of the miso/harissa mixture. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees until golden brown.

With the remaining miso/harissa mixture, add the freshly squeezed lemon juice. Toss the kale in the mixture as well as the radishes. Once the baked vegetables are golden brown, toss those into the kale mixture. Enjoy!