In this episode of the Feed Your Fire podcast, we talk turkey about gratitude as we prepare a butternut squash galette as a vegetarian Thanksgiving side-dish for your exclusive enjoyment. Contrary to the world of social comparison, we help bring gratitute closer to reach. Together, we create a pathway to happiness befitting of the holiday tradition. Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving!
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Feed Your Fire Podcast Episode Transcript:
Hello, and welcome to Feed Your Fire, I'm your host, Kim Baker. We're coming up upon the biggest food celebration of the year, where leftover pie with your Friday morning coffee is completely acceptable. And as we all know, Thanksgiving is grounded in the sentiment of gratitude.
And in our society, with so much noise of social comparison and fear of scarcity, gratitude can at times feel hard to reach, requiring an intentional practice to cultivate. But what if I told you there was another pathway to gratitude? A sister emotion that sits just on the other side of that coin.
And in today's episode, we're going to have a conversation that brings us that much closer to it. We're going to talk turkey without having any of it. While we make a vegetarian side dish, prepared with the singular objective of your enjoyment.
When I was younger, we would have the sort of big Thanksgiving celebrations. Our cousins were close in age to us, and so it was always so much fun. I remember there was this one Thanksgiving where my uncle spilled the turkey gravy all over my poor cousin's head. I can't even tell the story without laughing. She was such a good sport about it.
There was another year where my family drove from New York to Virginia, and then my refrigerator broke that very day. Not exactly ideal for the host of a Thanksgiving feast. We've done the New York Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, roasted oysters on the beach with friends. One year, I fried chicken for friends while the kids popped in and out of an inflatable hot tub.
The through line seems to be that every year has been an adventure. We definitely keep it fresh around here. In each one of those adventures or misadventures, we have always found things to celebrate. And just as entitlement and expectation are the buzzkill to gratitude, finding things to celebrate is the prescription.
And I was thinking about how at Thanksgiving, we spend time recognizing and appreciating all that we have and all that we're given, which is absolutely essential. But the part that kept coming back to me about that sentiment was that it was still about receiving. We spend so much of our lives chasing things, the stuff we want to buy, the places we want to go, the friends we want to make, the status we want to achieve. But what I've come to see is that the inverse of that is the shortest pathway to happiness. It's called mudita, and it's a sympathetic joy. It's one of the four divine virtues in Buddhist philosophy. An unselfish sense of delight for somebody else's well-being, where there's nothing to get but the feeling that you receive being a part of their journey.
The first time I ever heard this word was at the Lenox Hill Neurosurgery Gala this past summer. Dr. Langer had mentioned it in his speech. It's the foundation for the work that they do every day. And when I think about it, the times when I have had the opportunity to partake in someone else's positive experience blows almost everything else out of the water.
I remember the first time I ever cried from joy. A feeling so intense that our bodies hit a release switch and the tears swell.
The first time was when my son was born. And after the anguish of birth and labor, this baby comes into your arms. The most pure, perfect being.
And I didn't think I'd ever have a feeling like that ever again. Until recently, when I had the opportunity to work alongside people I love in a pursuit that was only for them. And seeing them reach a milestone that came about through a web of support that you were a part of. It's the most unbelievably humbling path to gratitude.
And as we look at the pleasure of delighting in someone else's enjoyment, we're going to prepare a Thanksgiving dish that's an absolutely beautiful display of the holiday flavors. It's a galette with roasted butternut squash and leeks. It's got feta in there and honey. We're going to drizzle it with tahini and sprinkle on some pomegranate seeds and pistachios. It feels like a dish worthy of ancient gods.
Now, what I love about this recipe is that it's done in phases. Day one, we're going to make a pie crust. If you choose not to partake in that, you can absolutely use puff pastry.
Day two, we're going to roast the filling, that butternut squash and leeks. Now, the final day is the day you're going to eat it and that's when we assemble and bake it.
Now, to make the pie crust, if you so choose, grab a cup and a half of flour and put it in a mixing bowl on a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add in about a quarter teaspoon of salt and about a tablespoon of sugar. Then grab a stick of really cold butter. I like to use a bench scraper to cut it into small cubes. Pop that butter into the flour mixture and throw that mixer on. In culinary school, this would be called the flaky dough mixing method. Once that butter is broken up into the flour, add a quarter cup of ice cold water. Let that just come together and then form it into a ball with your hands. Wrap it in some plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge. Days one work is over.
The next day, we come back into the kitchen, and we're going to roast that butternut squash. Cut off the top and bottom of that squash so that it kind of stands flat. And very carefully with a knife, cut off the skin. Then cut it in half lengthwise, and scoop out those seeds. Cut it into quarter inch slices. Place it onto a baking sheet. Drizzle it with some olive oil. Season it with some salt and pepper. And then just set it aside for a sec.
Grab two leeks. Cut the green tops away, leaving you with just the bottom. Trim off that bottom end where the leek was rooted. And then cut the white part of the leek in half lengthwise. You want to be able to see all the layers of the leek. Keep them intact, but rinse them under water. You'll find that some dirt may be in between in some of those layers.
Place the leeks onto that baking sheet with the butternut squash, and pop it into an oven heated to about 375 to 400 degrees, and bake it for about 20 minutes. The butternut squash should just be tender.
When it's cooled down, remove it from the sheet pan, place it in a container, and pop it in the fridge. We want it to get cold before we put it onto the pie crust. So, that closes out our work for day two.
Now, day three is really easy. The hardest part is rolling out the dough, which I promise you is not hard. The dough will be cold, so you might need to pound on it a bit with a rolling pin.
And then get it to a point where you can roll back and forth, moving the dough every so often on a floured surface, so that it doesn't stick. Get it to about an eighth of an inch in thickness, and in a circular shape. Place that on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Grab your butternut squash and leeks. Slice the leeks up, so that they're in small pieces. And then spread that mixture on top of the pie crust, leaving about two inches around the perimeter.
Then fold those edges in, and brush them with an egg wash, which is one egg beaten with about a teaspoon of water. I like to sprinkle the crust with a little bit of sesame seed. That's totally optional.
Pop it in the oven, preheated to 375 degrees for about 40 minutes. Remove it from the oven, sprinkle some feta cheese and crumbles. Drizzle it with some honey, and then pop it back into the oven for about 10 more minutes.
Add some chopped pistachios. Drizzle a little bit of tahini on it. Add some thinly sliced basil, and sprinkle it with salt.
You can serve this hot or at room temperature, making it the perfect dish to take with you somewhere. Before you serve it, sprinkle on some pomegranate seeds and share the joy. Mudita is not just about empathy.
It's not about being able to relate to what another person is feeling. It's about genuinely wanting what's good for them, without comparison, without jealousy, without coveting, regardless of our own circumstance. There's nothing to receive from it other than the feelings from the altruism itself.
And while mudita is a Sanskrit word, it's an idea that's also acknowledged in other traditions. And it's one that belongs at the Thanksgiving table. So as we give thanks this year for what we have, let's let that feeling pour into the cup of another.
Not just being thankful for what's on our plate, but being happy for what's on theirs. Until our next episode, I say so long.
Feed your fire, where food nourishes growth.