Side dish suggestions for roasted butternut squash and poblano gratin?

I’m making this http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/squash-gratin-with-poblanos-and-cream
and am trying to think of something to serve with it that does NOT involve a trip to the market. I would love a spinach salad with hot bacon vinaigrette but have no fresh spinach. Soup doesn’t seem to go with it but I’m open to a soup.

I have the basic staples: eggs, butter, oil, canned tomatoes etc - out of milk but have barely 1/2 c heavy cream
and also have:
bell peppers, onions, garlic, cucumbers, celery, carrots, parsley, thyme, sage, green cabbage, corn, frozen spinach, bacon, salmon filets, lots of different dried beans, lots of grains and pastas.

I’m perplexed. Any ideas?

I’d say greens and grains. A cucumber salad?

A bed of spinach sauteed in bacon fat under it and a couple of fried or poached eggs on top- sprinkled with the crispy bacon.

Thanks for the suggestions! I ended up going with a celery salad with blue cheese, toasted pecans and a French style vinaigrette. Also made Christmas lima beans. Didn’t really go together but it was what was in the house.

The gratin was disappointing. :confused:

that gratin looks heavy and bland. :frowning: might be better with chipolte peppers? something spicy, for sure.

as a side, i would have made a carrot/celery/parsley salad with a very sharp vinaigrette to cut all the richness from the gratin.

That’s exactly what I was thinking. I’d double the poblanos and add a touch of chipotle. The choice of Monterey Jack cheese is odd. I could think of plenty others that would help this dish out.

Now I’m trying to figure out what to do with a whole casserole dish worth of the stuff. I’m so glad I only made half the recipe! It would probably make a pretty decent ravioli stuffing but I don’t intend to make ravioli.

I’ve only see it get rave reviews. Whahhhhh???

I haven’t made that specific recipe, but I’ve made squash/poblano gratins before, with different cheeses - I don’t think the MonterreyJack is that big a problem, but the poblano flavor should be pronounced. Sometimes you will get an overly mild batch of them and then they just taste like bell peppers - in which case even doubling the amount wouldn’t help. If those kind of poblanos were all I had and I were trying to up the heat and stay within the same type of flavor I’d go with additional serranos. Chipotles would be nice too, but that’s really a different flavor, too sweet, and would end up making a different dish.

probably too late, but fry up a SPICY batch of ground meat and mix together with your gratin. it won’t look as pretty but should taste better.

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