Vegan Autumnal Soup

OR: Acorn squash - sweet potato - coconut - cashew soup with a maple - lime - balsamic - cashew cream.

Good title? While I do blog about food, nutrition, and cooking, I am hardly a top notch food blogger. While I once had romantic visions of snapping away photos of beautiful beets, those dreams quickly dissipated when I realized that: 1) I am not even close to being a top notch food photographer (but I try!) and 2) I have an almost one year which gives me about half a second to even remember to take a photo of meals before they are demolished by tiny hands or the camera/phone is ripped out of my hands.

But I digress.

This soup is delicious, comforting, creamy, filling, and vegan! We are not vegans but we do eat a lot of vegan meals and I am always looking for ways to substitute cream without compromising flavor and texture. Enter: cashews. It's amazing how the consistency of blended cashews makes for a silky and think soup. If you haven't tried this yet to "cream" soups, go for it! It's super easy and adds protein to your meal without sacrificing richness. It is also such a neutral taste that it won't taste "nutty."

So do you want to know the secret to this marvelous "cream?" You soak the nuts. That's it! You soak them for a few hours, until they are soft enough to blend up.

On a side note, Phoenix is still sensitive to cow's dairy so while we do eat goat cheese and he can tolerate cow's milk yogurt, he and I try to avoid milk and cream. But he is happy to eat dairy less meals.

Anyway, here is a loose recipe. Loose because I didn't plan on posting it so I didn't take any measurements. This was literally a "what's-in-the-fridge" kind of meal. The only thing I did in advance was soak the cashews because I knew I wanted soup earlier in the day so by dinner time they were ready. With the rest of the ingredients more or less ready to go, all I had to do was blend it all together and warm it up. Easy!

The quantities are based on how much squash or potato you have on hand. You can play around with the cashews also, depending on how creamy you like your soup. I also added coconut milk because I wanted the flavor but you don't need to.

1 steamed or roasted sweet potato (I had leftovers in the fridge)
1 small roasted acorn squash (can also sub butternut or kabocha)
1/2 cup soaked cashews
1/4-1/2 cup coconut milk (depending on how loose you want the soup)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (you can really season it however you like)
salt to taste
water to loosen soup

Blend. Done. Top with maple - lime - balsamic - cashew cream. Yum.

The cream is equally as easy. I had extra soaked cashews left over so I just made this little sauce up and it was delicious.

1/2 cup soaked cashews
Juice from half a lime/whole lime depending on the size
Splash of balsamic
About 3 tablespoons maple syrup. (Taste as you go, this depends on your desired level of sweetness)
Pour some water in your blender as you blend. You will know whether or not you need more depending on how thick it is. You want to be able to use it as a sauce on your soup.

The left overs of this sauce are also delicious spread on bread or tossed with vegetables, spread on meat/fish, or mixed into a grain salad.

Run, don't walk, to make this soup.

Gluten Free Coconut Lime Tea Loaf

I bring you this delicious summery tea loaf today. I adapted the recipe from one of my favorite baking books Cakes: River Cottage Handbook No.8. I made a few changes to the already lovely recipe.

It's gluten free because I have a bunch of rice flour in my freezer that Scott keeps complaining about. Must use it up. It's coconut lime because I had both coconut milk and limes that also needed using up. Serendipitously for me, all of these "clean-out-the-fridge" items made a fantastic treat. It is also very low in fat since I didn't use any oil or butter. Just light coconut milk. Another bonus! I can't be expected to eat an entire tea loaf and still put on my bikini this weekend, can I? Well, yes, now I can. I have been enjoying slices of this bread with jam in the morning, toasted along with milky tea in the morning, and even as a base for another favorite of mine, Trader Joe's Frozen Yogurt, in the evening.

I'm sure this recipe would work with regular flour and would equally be good with orange or lemon juice also. And if you happen to have pineapple juice, I would definitely try that combo and then bring me a slice. Let me know if you make it!

Gluten Free Coconut Lime Tea Loaf
(adapted from Cakes: River Cottage Handbook No.8)
For the cake:

Serves 10-12

1 cup rice flour

2 tsp gluten-free baking powder

1 tsp xanthan gum (To prevent sinking. I recommend it for gluten free baking.)

3/4 cup light coconut milk (You can also use full fat if you have it.)

Finely grated zest of 3–4 small limes

1/2 cup caster sugar

3 eggs

1/4 cup desiccated coconut

For the drizzle

1/2 cup coconut milk

the juice of about  3-4 freshly squeezed limes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

Sift together the rice flour, baking powder and xanthan gum, if using, into a bowl. 

In a mixing bowl, combine the coconut milk and lime zest. Add the sugar until the mixture is light and creamy.

Add the eggs, one at a time.

Carefully fold in the remaining flour, then fold in the desiccated coconut. 

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, lightly smoothing over the surface with the back of a spoon.

Bake in the oven for 40–45 minutes or until the surface is nicely golden and the cake feels springy to the touch. 

Shortly before the cake will be ready, prepare the drizzle by combining the coconut milk and lime juice. 

When the cake comes out of the oven, prick the surface deeply, but not to the bottom, all over with a skewer.

Spoon half the syrup over the surface and leave to cool for 10 minutes before spooning the remainder over the top and down the sides. Leave until cool before turning out. 

This cake will keep for 5 days in an airtight tin.

Sakura Bloom Sling Diaries: Communication + A Recipe

Cooking is how I communicate. Feeding them wholesome food is how I take care of my family and friends...how I show my love. Almost every day I find myself wrapping Phoenix in the sling and explaining to him what we are making that day. He likes tasting things along the way or helping me rinse vegetables. They say children become readers on the laps of their parents. I believe the same is true for food education. We learn to appreciate healthy and well prepared food if we are exposed to it throughout our lives. 

On this day, Phoenix and I were making a garlic scape pesto. He chomped on a garlic scape as we prepared it and then munched on some fresh basil. I prefer to blanch the garlic and basil as it makes the flavor a bit milder and also keeps the pesto a beautiful green color instead of turning brown. You can, of course, make pesto with regular garlic but we happened to receive these in our CSA this week and I thought it would make a delicious alternative.

Enjoy!

Garlic Scape Pesto

10 large garlic scapes

1/3 cup walnuts

1/3 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

salt

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

After wasting and blanching the garlic scapes and basil, puree with walnuts and Parmesan in a food processor until very finely chopped. With the motor running, slowly pour the oil through the opening. Season the pesto with salt to taste. (The pesto keeps in the fridge, covered, for 1 week or frozen for a month.)

Pumpkin Green Smoothie

In light of my last post, I wanted to offer a nice cleansing smoothie to jump start your clean eating and your week, if you choose to do so. Now, don't be discouraged. A lot of people are scared of anything green. Especially a green smoothie. I assure you, this smoothie is the cat's pajamas.

I don't have green smoothies every day. But drink a LOT of smoothies at any time of the day, especially while pregnant. In the beginning of my pregnancy, it was challenging to eat anything. Smoothies were the perfect meal to get me through those first few weeks of constant nausea and an easy way to eat the fruits and vegetables that I couldn't look at otherwise. Ugh.

And then, during the heat of summer, smoothies are always a quick way to have a substantial "meal" without any cooking!

Anyway, I do love them. And here is my current smoothie in rotation. It has spinach. It has pumpkin. It has tons of vitamins and is a tasty way to start your day with a lot of energy.

Pumpkin Green Smoothie


Into blender toss:

• a handful of spinach or kale
• 1/4 c of pumpkin puree
• half of a banana
• 1 c of milk or non dairy milk
• 1 T ground flax
• 2 T almond or peanut butter
• 2 t pumpkin spice mix
• 1 date

Blend, Drink, Enjoy!

Pumpkins & Things

Well, I'm officially one month from my due date. What does this mean? I'm freaking out. And when I'm freaking out, I cook. A lot.

So that's what I've been doing. Cooking a lot. Specifically with pumpkin, squash, and the like. Is this too obvious? Sorry, I like pumpkin things. They are delicious.

So among some of the other delights I have dreamed up during my marathon freak out cooking sessions, a few are Pumpkin Mac & Cheese (Whoa! What?!!), Pumpkin Protein Pancakes (NOM NOM), and Pumpkin Green Smoothies (Yes!).

I'll start with the obvious. Pumpkin + Cheese. Yes, I went there. And it rocked! I dreamed up this little number last night after (ahem) we had a perfectly healthy dinner. Oops. Mama needed more than kale, fish, and rice. I have some pumpkin puree in the fridge and have been adding it to everything all week. So when I saw a quick glimpse of mac and cheese on my Pinterest, I knew what needed to be done.

Now, on a side note, I have a love/hate relationship with brown rice pasta. Do you like it? I don't really care for it so much from a textural and flavor stand point. But I do appreciate that it's wheat free and more nutritious than regular pasta. Which leads me to be extremely picky about when I will actually use it. When the pasta is the shining star of the dish, I definitely go with fresh pasta or a great dried (regular) pasta. But I've discovered that if it's a baked pasta dish, such as lasagna, or if the pasta is secondary to cheese or sauce, such as mac and cheese, I'm usually okay with a brown rice or gluten free pasta because the structural (texture) integrity of the pasta isn't compromised. In fact, it's generally okay if it's on the mushier side in these cases.

Anyway, I digress.

Back to the good stuff. This pumpkin mac and cheese rocks because not only is it made with brown rice pasta, it is half the fat of the regular stuff. WHAT?! I know. You're mind is blown right now. Well, since you are adding enough pumpkin puree to the cheese sauce, you eliminate half the cheese and therefore fat. Yeaaaah!! And of course, it's super creamy, cheesy, and rich while providing you with plenty of fiber, anti-oxidants, mineral, vitamins, and virtually NO calories. Good stuff.

Lastly, you could make this dish vegan by replacing the milk with non dairy milk, butter with canola oil, and replacing the cheese with your favorite non dairy melting cheese (like Daiya) and nutritional yeast.

So here we go:

Pumpkin Mac & Cheese 

1. Cook 2 cups of your desired pasta (brown rice or whole wheat, etc) to package specifications. Drain.
2. Melt 1.5 T butter over low heat.
3. Whisk in 1.5 T All Purpose Flour until it's incorporated. 
4. Add 1 cup of your favorite milk (whole, skim, etc.) while whisking. This will turn into a base sauce for your mac and cheese or "roux."
5. Mix in 1/2 cup of cheese (I used sharp cheddar) until melted.
6. Mix in 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree. Yum!
7. Let all the flavors come together over a few minutes. The sauce should be thickening up.
8. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg. You won't regret it. 
9. Taste. WOW! Amazing right?
10. If the sauce is too thick, add a little milk. If too thin, let it cook down for a few minutes. 
11. *You can stop at this point, mix your pasta in and go to town. Or you can do as I did and put in a baking dish with bread crumbs, broil, and have an amazing crunch crust.
12. If you're still here, you're looking for the real thing. Baked mac. You won't be sorry. After mixing in your pasta, spread your mac and cheese in a lightly creased baking dish, top with bread crumbs, (maybe a light spray of oil) and broil for a few minutes.
13. After cooking for as long as you can possibly wait (let's be real) devour and let people praise you for being such an amazing cook.

I hope you enjoy this as much as S and I did last night. I'll be posting my other pumpkin recipes too. since I know you can't get enough. I obviously can't. I'm making pumpkin, goat cheese, and spinach "hot pockets" tonight for dinner. 

My Favorite Veggie Burgers

We are not full time vegetarians at the P house but we do eat a lot of vegetarian meals. We choose to eat less meat most of the time because:
- we are really picky about the quality of our meat and where it comes from
- it helps us get more vegetables in our daily diets
- it makes us feel better
- it saves money!

Now trust me when I tell you I can get down with some beef burgers, turkey burgers, and I have even been know to eat a tuna burger. But there is another patty in my life friends, and that patty is named Veggie. I make a huge batch of these burgers every few months and we keep them in the freezer for whenever the mood may strike us, or when the fridge is bare (oops). This recipe is adaptable for so many flavors! I have made it with basil pesto to make it more Italian, more curry to make it more Indian, and even added coconut to give it a Thai spin. Play around with the base to make wholesome, nutritious, home made veggie burgers that are vegan and gluten free too! You'll feel much better knowing they don't have any soy, preservatives, or artificial ingredients (as most commercial brands do). These burgers are full of protein, fiber, and vegetables. I have made anywhere from a dozen to two dozen patties with this recipe. The seasonings are, of course, interchangeable but I have found that these work nicely to balance the flavors. You can also switch the black beans for others, such as garbanzo or pinto. You can eat it on a whole grain bun, like a burger with all your favorite toppings. Or you can even use this mixture crumbled in a tortilla, like a burrito. I have even used it to make vegan sloppy joes!

1 can black beans
1 c rolled oats
1/4 c ground flax
1 c shredded carrots
1/2 c frozen peas
1 T crushed garlic
1/2 c chopped onion
2 t curry
2 t cayenne
 2 t cumin
salt
pepper

Mash all of these ingredients together and form patties of your preferred size. Bake patties for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Or sautee in a medium hot pan for 5 minutes. Enjoy!

Organic Country Bread

Crispy fall weather makes me want to do nothing more than bake. And bake I did! Last night i finally cleaned off the counters and made room to prepare a hearty whole wheat country bread. It wasn't ready cooling till about midnight but that didn't stop S and I from tearing into it and having a few slices to sample before bed! What made baking it even more fun was that I baked it in my Le Creuset dutch oven! I enjoy baking my own bread because it gives me more control over my ingredients. This way I know I am only using organic flour and honey and no artificial fillers or preservatives. Yummy!

Here is the simple and delicious recipe I used for whole wheat country bread:

3 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 t salt

1/2 oz yeast

1 t honey

1 - 2 cups tepid water

Combine bread and salt in bowl.

Create well in center.

Add yeast, honey, and 1/2 cup of water. Sprinkle with flour and leave covered, in a warm place, for 15 minutes.

After yeast has started, slowly mix in enough or the rest of the water until you have a sticky, but firm, dough.

Turn out and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth.

Put the dough in a clean bowl, cover, and leave in a warm place until it doubles in size, or about an hour.

Turn the dough one one more time and put into oiled bread tin or dutch oven.

Cover once more and leave for about half an hour.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Put the bread in the oven for about 40 minutes.

Let sit and cool for about half an hour before slicing into, so that the crumb holds together.

Top with butter/honey/jam/cheese/topping of choice and enjoy!

After you master this simple recipe you can alter it hundreds of different ways. You can add dried fruit and nuts, sweeten it with honey or molasses, as well as make it a savory bread with different cheeses, chilies, or cured meats such as pepperoni.

Summer lovin'

As summer is slowly passing us by, I realize I haven't had the time to cook even half the things I wanted to. With that said, these next few weeks will be filled with chopping, baking, eating, and full bellies for family and friends. Stay tuned for lovely summer recipes and stories of my tiny New York City kitchen. Hoping to plan a lovely rooftop end of summer soiree! What are some of your favorite summer recipes?

Hope you're having a happy weekend!

Image via Decorative Country Living

Wedding dessert idea or summer treat!

From the beginning of our planning S and I decided we didn't want a standard wedding. We don't do many things standard so why should that be any different for our wedding? Since our wedding was a bit unconventional anyway, it wasn't difficult to change or omit certain things. The first thing to go was the wedding cake. I'm not a big fan of cake and S isn't too keen on towers of dessert so we agreed! We had decided on a summer bbq theme so it was easy to choose fun desserts that our guests would love just as much (or more!) than wedding cake. Anyway, who wants to worry about melting frosting in mid June?! Not me. If you are someone who also prefers something delicious over a mouthful of buttercream frosting, here's an easy and tasty dessert idea for your wedding or for right now!

Grilled Peaches with Goat Cheese & Honey Drizzle

1. Wash peach, cut in half, and remove pit.

2. Drizzle with lemon juice and a bit of honey (depending on your sweetness preference).

3. At this point you could either grill the peaches (delicious!) or pop them in the toaster oven/oven.

4. After about 10 minutes the peaches should be soft and just releasing their juices.

5. Put a scoop of your favorite goat cheese in the center and return to the grill/oven for 1 minute.

6. Plate peach and drizzle with honey.

7. Garnish with a mint leave serve.

8. Enjoy!

Another delicious way to prepare this is with fresh summer herbs like lavender, rosemary, and thyme. Herbs work beautifully with stone fruits like peaches. Just sprinkle some in step two before grilling/toasting. Yum!