The Color Orange, From Purée to Soufflé

Combine your favorite winter squash with carrots and ginger to make a versatile, beta-carotene-packed puree. (zarzamora/Shutterstock)

Orange foods taste good together. Maybe it’s my imagination, or just a coincidence. Or maybe it’s the beta-carotene pigment that’s found in all orange foods. But probably not, since beta-carotene has no flavor. It is, however, a precursor to vitamin A, which is good for vision—which will help you see that orange foods look good together. It’s the color of autumn, what’s left in the foliage after the green recedes.

All orange foods contain beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A. (Daxiao Productions/Shutterstock)

Ginger, meanwhile, is an honorary orange food. It may not look overly orange, but ginger is a term often used to describe red-headed people. Ginger has a feisty and expansive flavor, like the purported personalities of redheads. And ginger does, for the record, contain beta-carotene. And if that’s not proof enough to affirm ginger’s red reputation, I have a recipe that will.

This all-orange dish includes carrots, squash, egg yolks, red chile, and even orange the fruit. You can’t get much more orange than that. And it’s even better with ginger.

The recipe is for a savory soufflé that puffs up like a cracked balloon in the oven. This is not your typical dessert soufflé, but one for the main course. I serve it drizzled with a tangy orange sauce.

This beta-carotene soufflé is actually several recipes in one. The first step is to make a beta-carotene purée, which doubles as a great soup. And the orange sauce I serve it with is useful in many ways. In addition to drizzling the orange sauce on the soufflé, you can use it to orange up the soup, or drizzle it on roasted vegetables, fried chicken, and anything else that could benefit from a sharp and overtly orange zing.

Use your favorite winter squash to make this versatile purée. (Ari LeVaux)

Beta-Carotene Purée

This purée is the first step in making Ginger Souffle, and also makes a lovely autumn soup. Most any winter squash will work here. My favorites are butternut, kabocha, sunshine, and red kuri.

Makes 3 quarts

• 1 winter squash (2 to 3 pounds)
• 4 medium carrots, peeled (about 12 ounces)
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 5 leaves fresh sage
• 2 quarts chicken stock
• 1 piece ginger, about an inch on a side, grated
• 1 tablespoon paprika or chile flakes

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cut the squash in half from tip to stem and scoop out the seeds and membranes. Peel the squash with a knife or a peeler. Then, lay the cut sides down and cut 1/2-inch slices from pole to pole, making the slices as uniform as possible so they cook evenly. Cut the carrots into rounds as thick as the squash slices.

Toss the squash and carrot slices in 2 tablespoons olive oil and cook until they are thoroughly tender, about 30 minutes. (If using thin, edible-skinned squash like kabocha or sunshine, you can toss the peels with salt and olive oil and then bake them, too. The skins bake quickly, about 7 minutes, into a crispy treat that’s as addictive as potato chips but with more carotene. I also bake the seeds, for about 15 minutes.)

While the squash and carrots are baking, sauté the onions, garlic, and sage in the butter and the remainder of the olive oil, on medium heat. When the onions are translucent, add the chicken stock, the squash, and the carrots. Bring to a simmer and then turn it off, and let it cool.

When it’s cooled to the point where you can work with it, add the ginger and paprika, then purée it all together.

To serve it as a soup, add a splash of heavy cream and garnish it with roasted seeds and or peels.

Whatever you don’t use for soup or soufflé can be frozen.

Drizzle this savory souffle with a tangy-sweet orange sauce for the ultimate orange meal. (Ari LeVaux)

Ginger Soufflé

This dish is an adaptation of a butternut squash soufflé recipe created by John McDonald, who writes about wine in the Cape Gazette of Lewes, Delaware.

Makes 4 pint-sized soufflés (or 2-pint-sized when puffed)

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons white flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup of beta-carotene purée
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed omelet pan or saucepan on medium heat. Add the flour, and whisk it together until completely combined. Then, add the milk and cream and whisk it together. Finally, add the purée and salt, and whisk it again.

Separate the eggs. When the contents of the pan have cooled for 10 minutes, whisk a tablespoon of the mixture into the egg yolks. Add a second tablespoon and whisk it in, then a third. This tempers the yolks so they don’t cook when you mix it all together. Then, add the rest of the mixture to the yolks, and thoroughly mix.

Beat the egg whites in a medium-sized bowl until peaks form. Gently fold the stiff whites into the batter.

Divide the batter among four buttered pint-sized ramekins and bake until golden and well-risen, about 15 minutes. Drizzle with orange sauce (recipe follows), if using, and serve immediately. They will probably collapse, like soufflés often do. But that won’t impact the flavor.

Orange Sauce

This orange sauce is based on what’s on the orange chicken found on the menu of your favorite Chinese restaurant.

• 1/2 ounce garlic, minced or grated finely
• 1/2 ounce ginger, peeled and minced or grated finely
• Juice and zest of 2 juicy oranges
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 4 tablespoons white sugar (or brown sugar, for a darker sauce)
• 1 teaspoon of salt (or 2 tablespoons soy sauce, for a darker sauce)

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and purée. Pour it through a strainer into a saucepan.

On medium heat, cook the sauce down to about half the original volume. Then, it’s ready to drizzle on chicken or your course of choice.