Fry Bread with Squash and Chile

A Recipe from Sara Calvosa Olson of Mill Valley and the Hoopa Valley Reservation

I was so, so thrilled to finally get Sara Calvosa Olson’s cookbook, Chími Nu’am: Native California Foodways for the Contemporary Kitchen (Heyday) just a couple of weeks ago. The book is a phenomenal resource for understanding California’s native foods and offers delicious ways of using them. I’ll dive into the book—and share another recipe from it—in future weeks, but for now, I wanted to resurface this recipe for fry bread made with squash puree that Sara shared with us when I interviewed her last year.

Fry Bread with Squash and Chile

This twist on traditional fry bread comes from Sara’s cookbook. Here, she replaces some of the traditional flour with squash puree. She prefers to use squash with thin skin, so she can puree the entire thing for extra flavor and fiber, but she notes that you can use any squash puree. She serves it with elk chili beans, which is a mix of elk meat and beans cooked with dried chiles, tomatoes, and lots of herbs and spices. That recipe is also in her book, but any beans or meat will be great here.

Serves 4-6

1 small red kuri squash
1-2 tablespoons red chile powder
1-2 tablespoons maple sugar or syrup
2 ½ cups flour, plus additional ¼ cup flour for shaping
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons yeast
½ cup milk
½ cup water
2 cups sunflower oil
Beans (or elk chili beans), lettuce, tomato, avocado, cheese, salsa, sour cream, baby kale, pickled jalapeños, seaweed flakes, fermented hot sauce, or other toppings, for serving

1. Set the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Sprinkle the halves with chile powder and maple sugar and roast until tender, approximately 45 minutes. Remove the squash from the oven, put it in a food processor and puree it, skin and all.

3. In a large mixing bowl mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and yeast, whisking thoroughly.

4. In a heat-proof liquid measuring cup, heat the water and milk together in a microwave until slightly warmer than room temperature.

5. Mix the water-milk combo and 1 cup of squash puree with the flour mix. The dough should be a little bit sticky, but if it’s so wet that you can’t form it into a ball and then pat it and pull it into a flat disk, add more flour, ¼ cup at a time. If it’s too dry and doesn’t stick at all, add a little more warm water, 1 tbsp at a time. Cover bowl with a towel and set aside for an hour.

6. Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Test the oil’s readiness by tossing in a little flour to see if it sizzles.

7. Coating your hands in flour, pull off golf-ball-sized pieces of dough and pat it back and forth in your hands until you’ve got about a 6 inch disc (or whatever size you like.) Place it carefully in the hot oil and fry for about two minutes on each side. Your frybread should be fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Repeat with the remaining dough.

8. To serve, top with any ingredients you like.

Photo: Courtesy Sara Calvosa Olson