Showing posts with label soup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soup. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup (Vegan)

I really feel like this should be called "ingredient" soup.  It's so flexible (most soups are) - so if you don't have the exact veggies or amounts, just give it a try with what you DO have.  
This soup is the hilariously distant cousin to a soup my sister makes, the recipe she shared with me was the starting point for this recipe.  

Absolutely no enhancements necessary!  This is the vibrant colour of the finished soup!  So beautiful to look at, it does NOT disappoint when it hits your lips.

*Before you start*
You will need to roast or otherwise cook your veggies before making this soup.  I roasted veggies while the stove was on making pizza this weekend.  If you know me, you know I HATE turning the stove on for only one thing, so will pre-cook things for later or make other batches of things for the week.  I left the roasted veggies and garlic in my fridge for 4 days before finally making the soup.

Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup

Preheat oven to 425

2-3 Sweet Potatoes
5 Large Carrots
1 Head of Garlic

Cut sweet potato into even sized pieces and place on parchment paper lined cookie tray.  I left the skin on my potatoes while baking and took them off once cool - they peel right off with your fingers. Slice carrots in half lengthwise and place on the parchment lined cookie tray as well.  Using a small, oven safe baking dish (something for creme brûlée ideally) place your head of garlic and drizzle olive oil over it.  Bake your veggies for 20-40 minutes depending on how large you cut your pieces and how large the vegetables were to begin with!  The garlic shouldn't need more than the first 20 minutes to be soft, smell like heaven and be slightly brown.  Once garlic is cooled, peel off the "paper" and squeeze the garlic out.  

Here's what my veggies and garlic looked like after days in the fridge!

I love letting sweet vegetables get a little too dark on the edges.   When pulsed into something like a soup it adds a wonderful deep caramel flavour!  

I blended my carrots, sweet potato and garlic in my blender, but you could use a food processor OR use a potato masher (that's what my sister does).   I added to the blender:

1 can of coconut milk (accidentally bought light, but you could use either)
900 ml Vegetable stock

If you buy vegetable stock, good for you - I buy it a lot of the time too!  If you want to make your own, simply save scraps of veg - celery, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, etc.  Fill your biggest pot with water and all your vegetable scraps and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover the pot and let simmer for 3-4 hours.  This is a great way to control the flavour of your vegetable stock, and if you're concerned about sodium intake you can leave out the salt altogether!  

This is all I needed to make soup for 4 adult servings.  I forgot to move the vegetable stock over in to the pick, so imagine it off to the left.  :)

Once all your carrots, sweet potato, garlic, coconut milk and vegetable stock are blended, add:

1-2 tsp Curry Powder
1 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/2 tsp Salt

Transfer soup to a large pot to warm up.  Once the soup is warm, add 3/4 cup of natural nut butter.  I used almond butter, but you can use peanut butter or any other nut butter you have in the house.

That's it!  You're done and ready to dig in!  
Bon Appetit!


3 of my "Littles" fighting over the last bites of my soup I couldn't finish.  I guess they weren't fighting, they were actually sharing really nicely.  


My hubby and I are on different dinner schedules so when I was done blending I put in straight in the fridge in a tupperware container.  We each warmed up our own portions when it was our meal times and added a tbsp of almond butter once the soup was warmed.  




Wednesday, October 9, 2013

ButterNut Squash Soup (Vegan)

ButterNut Squash Soup

That's not a typo - this is butternut squash and nut soup.  So delicious and almost impossible to mess up.   Local squash is plentiful and readily available so get creative and add some squash to your life!


I had my soup on it's own, and a tiny bowl really did the trick.  My hubby mixed his with an organic sprouted rice & quinoa mix from TruRoots.  This is so thick, it would be amazing on pasta as well.  

ButterNut Squash Soup

1 medium butternut squash
Coconut Oil
Vegetable stock (roughly 4 cups)
1 onion (you could use 4-5 shallots)
Garlic (I used 3 big cloves)
Almond (or any nut) butter
Seasonings to taste

The chickens loved the seeds I scooped out of the squash!  


Peel and cube butternut squash, and brown in 2tbsp coconut oil.  You will need the pan to be quite hot. Once there is a beautiful caramel colour on a few sides of each cube add 1-2 cups vegetable stock, lower the heat to low/medium and put a lid on pan to steam squash.  While squash is cooking sweat your onions in a tsp coconut oil.  When the squash is cooked (soft) remove it from the heat, and place cooked onions on it.  Use the onion pan to caramelize your garlic adding a tsp more coconut oil if needed.  Just squish each clove a little before putting in hot pan to brown each side.  Put a lid on and turn heat off after brown to soften the garlic up a bit.  Once the garlic is done put it on the squash and onions and leave pan to cool completely.  

Once everything is cool, put everything in a blender with enough vegetable stock to get it moving.  I put the blender on and did the dishes to let it really blend like crazy.  If you blend the squash hot, you will blow the lid off your blender and have squash on your ceiling.  Just wait until it's cooled.  

When I was transferring the mixture to a soup pot I thought to myself... oh crap, I just made baby food. Have no fear, you will have delicious soup - not baby food.  That being said, if you hate cooking - just start with a dozen jars of baby food and mix in some onions and garlic.  

Turn the pot of squash mixture to low and when it's warmed up add 1/2 cup of nut butter.  I used almond, but I'm sure any nut butter would do.  This is when you can decide how thick you'd like the soup to be.  I like soup that the spoon can stand up in, so I only added a cup of veggie stock.  When it's at your desired consistency - have a taste.  You might like it as is.   

I added, a pinch of salt and pepper.  Tasted it.  Added 2tbsp nutritional yeast.  Tasted it.  Added a teaspoon of cumin.  Tasted it.  Added 2 tsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice.  Tasted it.  Perfecto!  You could add all sorts of fresh herbs and spices depending on what you have on hand and what you plan to serve it with.  If you're going to use it to top pasta, consider pan browning fresh rosemary and mixing it in.  

I knew I wanted soup and my hubby wanted squash so I spent a few minutes putting this together and now we both have a lovely, healthy soup in the fridge for the next few lunches and dinners.  I didn't have a recipe, I just went with what I had on hand and ended up with something delightful!  Get creative with cooking, trust your tastebuds and make something fresh and tasty for dinner tonight.  

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