The next time you pack a container of applesauce in your child's lunchbox or peel the lid for a quick snack, instead envision a warm bowl of apple and butternut squash creamy soup or a platter of caramelized apple-draped gourmet chicken rolls.

Far from a hallucination, these could be just a few of many new fall favorites once you start thinking outside the applesauce container. Used as a staple of lunch pails and left in the dusty corners in the back of pantries, applesauce is the perfect autumn staple to enhance taste and texture. Spices — like the cinnamon, curry and pumpkin pie spice in the swirled butternut soup, which starts with an easy base of store-bought squash soup — take like gangbusters to applesauce. The convenience product becomes a perfect palette on which to swirl memorable flavors.

Best of all is the timesaving aspect. Cooking with applesauce is virtually indistinguishable from using fresh apples, but eliminates the peeling, coring, dicing and long heating times to soften the apples. Homemade results emerge in a tiny fraction of the time.

For decades, plain applesauce jars filled our supermarkets; however, in recent years it's become a rainbow of flavors and combinations, which could save you even more time since you won't have to add as many of your own spices. Some recent mass-market products include applesauce mixed with:

— Pomegranate

— Raspberries

— Cranberries

— Strawberry

— Kiwi

In addition to full-fledged easy gourmet recipes, like those that follow, a tablespoon of flavored or spiced applesauce can do one-minute wonders to all kinds of dishes. Add a half teaspoon of your favorite spice (or a mixture equaling 1/2 teaspoon) — ground cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, almond extract, vanilla extract, sage, rosemary or cumin — to a cup of plain applesauce, warm it and use as a topping for:

— Oatmeal

— Poultry, pork and lamb

— Soup

— Cheesecake or pound cake

— Ice cream or smoothies

CURRIED APPLE SQUASH SOUP

2 (18.3-ounce-each) boxes (or equivalent canned) butternut squash soup (such as Campbell's Select)

1 cup cinnamon applesauce (such as Mott's, or 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon mixed into 1 cup applesauce)

2 tablespoons ketchup

2 teaspoons curry powder

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Plain yogurt or sour cream, for garnish (optional)

Yields 4 servings.

In a medium saucepan, over medium-high heat, combine all ingredients, except yogurt. Bring to boil.

Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve hot with an optional drizzle of plain yogurt or sour cream.

— "Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade 20-Minute Meals 2: On-the-Double, Busy-Day Dinners That Taste Like They're Made from Scratch" (Meredith, $19.95).

CARAMELIZED APPLE-FILLED CHICKEN ROLLS WITH FRIED NOODLES

Spiced applesauce:

1/2 cup applesauce

1/4 teaspoon grated lemon rind

1 tablespoon dry white wine

1/8 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon white wine vinegar

1 clove, finely crushed

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

Chicken and Noodles:

Mild olive oil, for frying

Very fine dried noodles, to taste

About 3 ounces chicken cutlets, pounded if necessary, to make 1/8 inch thick

Kosher or sea salt, to taste

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon sugar

Yields 6 servings (of 2 rolls each).

Combine in a small bowl all ingredients for the spiced applesauce (first seven ingredients listed). Place 1 tablespoon onto each of six individual plates, reserving the remaining 2 tablespoons.

Heat the oil, preferably in a deep fryer set at 365 F. Otherwise, pour oil to a depth of 1 inch in a skillet, and heat until oil quickly browns a cube of bread. Add noodles and fry just seconds, until golden. Carefully remove with a utensil and drain on paper towels. Break noodles into short pieces and reserve.

Sprinkle cutlets with salt. Place a ribbon of the remaining applesauce (about 4 teaspoons) down the length of each cutlet. Roll lengthwise and secure with toothpicks.

Heat oil in a skillet and brown the cutlets, seam side down, turning once. Lower heat and continue cooking until chicken is cooked through. Cut roll crosswise into 1-inch slices. Stand two slices upright on each dish over applesauce.

Sprinkle each roll with about 1/4 teaspoon sugar. With a propane torch or a red hot salamander, carefully caramelize the sugar. Sprinkle the fried noodles on top and serve.

— "Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain" by Penelope Casas (Knopf, $30).

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." She also writes the Creators News Service "Cooks' Books" column. To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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