Archives: fall recipes

It smells like fall in my apartment! I’m making my Fall orange soup and it smells delicious! This is my favorite time of year because the vegetables that I love the most are in season! Squash! They are grounding, earthy and they absolutely soothe my soul.

Here is the recipe for deliciousness in a bowl.

1 medium yellow onion

1 butternut squash

1 medium size sweet potato

4 carrots depending on size – if very large only use 2

pinch of ground cinnamon

pinch of ground nutmeg – this is very floral tasting so go easy on it and only use a very small amount. You can always add more if needed.

sea salt to taste

Add ghee or olive oil into a soup pot and let it warm up. Slice onion and add into pot. Turn the flame to low and let the onions get soft and clear.

Chop butternut squash, peel and remove seeds. This is the hardest part of the whole recipe! Be careful! You can always cheat and buy chopped squash at the store.

Peel and chop sweet potato. Wash the carrots well, remove ends and chop the carrots into rounds.

Once onions are soft and clear, add the chopped veggies.

Add 5-6 cups of water – you want the veggies to be covered.

Place lid on the pot halfway so air is seeping in. Turn flame to medium-low and let cook until all the veggies are soft. Should take about one hour. Puree with your immersion blender, Vitamix or regular blender. Enjoy!

This will make quite a lot of soup, so plan to have it for the rest of the week. You can also freeze some to eat later.

Have you ever been walking through the supermarket asking yourself what you can possibly make that will be easy, quick, delicious and healthy for dinner?? I’m sure there have been times where your stumped to come up with a good meal and you either end up buying something frozen, ready made or simply ordering in from a local restaurant.

Well, I know exactly how you feel. Recently I’ve been struggling with what to have/make for dinner! I like to shop at the farmers market so I usually have some veggies lying around – but veggies are just boring if you aren’t creative in how you prepare them. When I’m not in the mood for animal protein and don’t want to load up on soy I usually find my way eating veggie protein.

Last night was one of those instances and I found myself scrounging up any and all veggies that were in the fridge. I came up with a squash bowl with quinoa and root vegetables and it was YUMMY. The point I’m making here is that even if you look in your fridge and think there isn’t anything good in there, look again and try to be creative with what you already have. I really hate wasting food and was so happy to use up my delicious organic veggies. I saved money doing it and had a delicious dinner filled with plenty of protein.

Squash Bowl Deliciousness

Squash Bowl Deliciousness

Acorn squash with quinoa and root veggies

Acorn squash with quinoa and root veggies

Here’s the simple recipe of my squash bowl with quinoa and root veggies:

½ cup quiona

2 cups water

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 acorn squash – or other squash of your choice preferably one that is round and easy to make into a bowl

1 parsnip

2 white turnips or you can use fennel

2 small yellow beets

1 lemon

Tamari soy sauce

First start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees

Cut your squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Put a cup of water in the bottom of your baking dish and then place the squash face down and roast for half hour. Test the squash by inserting a fork, it should be soft. Rinse and wash the quinoa and cook as instructed by the package you use.

Next place your pan on the stove and heat up the oil. Slice the root veggies and place them into the pan. Add a small amount of water to the pan so the veggies can cook evenly. Squeeze one whole lemon over the veggies and sprinkle with tamari soy sauce and stir. Cover the pan and cook for about 20 minutes until veggies are soft.

Mix the veggies with quinoa and fill the squash bowl with this delicious mixture and serve. Enjoy!

With this cold weather marching through Manhattan we’ve decided to make a yummy, comforting meal for dinner tonight.

Brisket! Yes it really is delicious and I highly recommend trying it.

This dish works really well in a slow cooker. You can prepare it in the morning before work, leave it on all day (8 hours) then your cooker should automatically turn to warm and your all set for din din.

For a side dish to go along with it we haven’t decided if we’re making a bean dish or sweet potatoes. Tough call… You can also make a grain of your choice. Be creative.

Here’s the recipe.

1 package of grass fed beef brisket from your local farmers market, or supermarket

1 yellow onion

1 clove of garlic

2 carrots

2 celery stalks

4-5 tomatoes depending on their size (if very large then only 1-2 tomatoes)

½ cup tomato sauce of your choice (I like Cucina Antica because there’s no added junk)

2 cups red wine (Anything that you’ve got lying around BUT it should be something that you would drink in a glass)(If you don’t have enough wine you can add 1 cup vegetable broth instead – that’s what I had to do – still yummy!)

10 olives (I like the Greek olives but you can use any that you like)

Start by cutting any fat off your meat. Wash it off and then lightly coat both sides with olive oil. Place the meat in the bottom of the slow cooker.

Finely slice the onion and put that in the cooker. Grate the garlic clove right over the cooker. Peel and chop the carrots, then place them in the cooker as well. Wash your celery and then chop in small pieces then add to the cooker. Cut the tomatoes in small pieces and add them as well as the juice from them into the cooker. Then add the tomato sauce, red wine and place the olives on top.

Turn your cooker on low for 8 hours and enjoy a delicious meal when it’s all done.

I’ll post a picture when mine is finished cooking. Enjoy!

Orange soup

Orange Soup - a mix of the orange veggies

I’m pretty lucky enough to live really close to where I work and have no problem going home for lunch. Today on my lunch break, besides making myself a sandwich I made something else… Orange soup and no it wasn’t the citrus orange that you’re thinking of, but a mélange of the orange veggies. I threw in butternut squash, sweet potato, and carrots and oh man is it delicious!

I made quite a bit so that we can have two bowls for dinner and then save the rest for the week.

I will list the recipe below and fyi it doesn’t take long to chop everything up and throw it into the pot – I had plenty of time to make my sandwich and eat my lunch all in one hour!

1 butternut squash

1 sweet potato

3 carrots (depending on their size – you don’t want them too large)

1 yellow onion

4 cups vegetable broth

4 cups water

1 teaspoon nutmeg to taste

1 teaspoon salt to taste

Start by chopping up the onion and letting it sauté in the bottom of the pot with some olive oil until it becomes clear. While that is sautéing peel the squash, sweet potato and carrots. Then chop up each vegetable into chunks. When the onions are clear and are beginning to brown pour the vegetable broth and water into the pot. Add the veggies and cover on high heat until it boils. Once boiling turn the flame to low and simmer. It should take about 20 minutes for the veggies to soften completely. Use your hand blender to puree the soup – If you don’t have one then you can use a blender but be careful since your dealing with hot liquid. Once pureed add the nutmeg and taste to make sure you love it!

This past weekend I did something completely out of character… I baked a pie! Yep, you heard it here – I baked a sweet potato pie out of scratch. I was so proud of this pie that I barely ate any myself because I was too busy giving everyone else a piece to see how they liked it. Let me tell you something, it isn’t even hard to do and I’ll explain all the steps below. First I want to tell you that the hardest part wasn’t even making the pie, it was figuring out which pan I needed to bake it in – there were non-stick options, ceramic and all sorts of different pans.

Finally I chose a non-stick pan but have decided that I will buy a ceramic one as well so that I can have a choice as to how the pie will look in the end.

I also want to express how much I love sweet potato pie but haven’t been able to eat it with my new eating habits. Here is a much healthier version of the pie AND it still tastes SO delicious.

Sweet Potato Pie adapted from the Clean Food by Terry Walters cookbook.

Scrumptious sweet potato pie

Scrumptious sweet potato pie

CRUST:

1 ½ cup pecans

¼ cup chickpea flour

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 tablespoons maple syrup

pinch of salt

FILLING:

3 medium sweet potatoes

¼ cup maple syrup (or a little bit less – depending on how sweet you like it)

¼ cup rice milk or almond milk

¼ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon arrowroot (found in the health food store near the gluten free flour)

1 teaspoon agar powder (found in the health food store)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Setup your steamer with water and cut up the sweet potatoes so they fit nicely in the pot. Steam potatoes until they are soft all the way through – may take about 15 to 20 minutes given the size of the potato. While they are steaming start preparing the crust.

Chop pecans in food processor until they resemble fine meal. Add chickpea flour and process briefly to combine ingredients. Add oil, syrup and salt and process until it forms dough. Lightly grease pie pan, add dough and press to form even crust – about ¼ in. thick. Pierce several times with a fork and bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

When the sweet potatoes are soft and have cooled down begin to remove the skins. Place in cleaned food processor and add maple syrup, rice milk (or almond milk), vanilla, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, arrowroot and agar powder. Process until smooth.

Pour filling into the cooled pie crust for about 50 minutes to 1 hour depending on your oven. The top should be lightly browned but be careful not to burn the crust! Remove from oven and cool completely on wire rack and serve at room temperature.

If you follow these directions you will definitely have an amazing pie. I wish you luck and please write any comments if you have any.