Pumpkin Spice, Butternut Squash, and Other Seasonal Tastes

Autumn is the time of harvest, so celebrate with a feast of fall flavors. We’ve found a cornucopia of great recipes for you to try, featuring iconic flavors that are sure to get you into the swing of the season. Of course, this is only a taste of what’s available, but we’d be here all day trying to list them all. There’s a lot to cover as it is, so let’s get started!

Apples are a fundamental kind of food, with plenty of history and a worldwide presence. They’re available in stores all year, but autumn is when you can get an abundance of fresh-picked fruit directly from the orchards. It’s the perfect time to put apples on the menu, since you can do a lot more with them than giving them to teachers.

• Care for a drink? This Homemade Apple Cider Recipe from Wellness Mama is made in a slow cooker and can be served hot or cold. Delicious!
• Another easy recipe is Midwest Living’s Slow Cooker Apple Butter, which can sweeten your morning toast or enhance savory foods like turkey or ham sandwiches.
• For another savory dish, there’s Thick-Cut Pork Chops with Apples and Onion from Serious Eats. The apple adds sweetness for a rich sauce that goes wonderfully with the meat.
• And for dessert…well, there are a lot of apple desserts out there, so we’re not going to suggest recipes for them all. But this Baked Apple Cheesecake sounds absolutely divine!

Butternut squash is a winter squash with a thick skin, which means that it keeps well for long periods of time. Though technically a fruit, it’s often treated as a vegetable, and has a sweet, nutty taste similar to pumpkin. Check out Tori Avey’s All About Butternut Squash for a little more background, as well as instructions on how to peel, prep, and roast both the squash and the seeds.

• This squash is very popular in soup. With the intense flavors of Serious Eats’ Classic Butternut Squash Soup recipe, it’s not hard to see why.
• For a more solid side dish, try these fluffy Mashed Potatoes with Butternut Squash from Food & Wine.
• With plenty of sweet and spicy flavor, this Chorizo Hash recipe is a healthy and delicious meal for two.
• Another great main dish is this Bacon Butternut Squash Pasta from Delish. It’s rich and creamy with a fontina cheese sauce, and it doesn’t take long to make.
• We’re bringing back apples for dessert with Edible Perspective’s Butternut Squash, Apple + Pear Crisp. Gluten free and vegan, it incorporates a variety of nuts and spices for a fall dessert that will bring you through to winter.

When autumn turns maple leaves those beautiful shades of red and gold, how can we not crave maple syrup? It’s a natural sweetener that adds unique flavor to more than just your morning pancakes, a wonderful ingredient in both sweet and savory dishes. Maple is so popular, it might even become the new favorite when it comes to fall flavors.

• We looked for maple recipes to recommend and we found Pure Canada Maple. Their page of Maple Syrup Recipes tells you how to make almost a hundred different dishes, from maple roasted turkey to maple gingerbread cookies to various maple cocktails and smoothies. Go wild!

And finally, you can’t talk fall flavors without bringing up pumpkin spice. This seasonal trend is a combination of sweeter spices traditionally used in pumpkin pie, which is why it’s also known as pumpkin pie spice. It can be bought premixed in stores, but if you don’t need a full jar, this recipe from Kitchn shows you How to Make Pumpkin Pie Spice in smaller amounts. For those who prefer a particular spice, you can easily tweak the proportions to make your own personal blend.

• Let’s start with some easy pumpkin recipes from Food Network. This Pumpkin Bread uses freshly grated squash and pumpkin seeds, and can be easily adapted into pumpkin muffins. You can also save a few bucks by making your own Pumpkin Spice Latte at home.
• For a less traditional pumpkin drink, this Pumpkin Spiced White Russian by Food.com is an interesting choice.
• If you’re looking for healthy desserts, One Green Planet’s Raw Pumpkin Mini Cheesecakes are vegan, gluten-free, and packed with naturally nutritious ingredients.
• This Pumpkin Spice Popcorn from A Blossoming Life is perfect for a quick snack or watching movies as the weather gets colder. It doesn’t actually include any pumpkin, but the spice blend itself has plenty of fall flavor.

P.S. You might have noticed a lack of pies in this collection. We didn’t forget, but this dessert is so classic you probably already have a favorite recipe, whether you prefer apple, pumpkin, or anything in between. You can still step up your game and get inspired by BuzzFeed’s 23 Ways To Make Your Pies More Beautiful.

Love these recipes? We’re cooking up plenty of other fun ideas on the Zak recipe blog – Enjoy!