Cauliflower Soup

My poor roommate had gum surgery last week, so all we've been eating is soup, scrambled eggs, polenta, mashed yams and smoothies. 

Here's a lovely, flexible fall soup that can be made from scratch and served in under an hour.

Ingredients:
1 head cauliflower
2 potatoes
1/2 onion
1 carrot
1 celery stick
2 cups water
21 tbsp soup stock
3 tbsp sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste.

Finely chop onion, cauliflower and celery, and saute in a large stock pot until soft and the onion is clear, about 5 minutes.  While this is cooking, roughly chop up cauliflower and potatoes into small pieces.  Add to vegetables in the pot and add water until cauliflower and potatoes are just covered. 

Bring to a boil and add soup stock.  Let simmer until everything has cooked until soft all the way through, about 20 minutes. Add to blender in three batches, and blend with one tablespoon of sourcream until "liquified".

** An alternative recipe includes adding a tablespoon or two of curry, and/or a can of cream-corn. Also, sometimes I leave some of the potatoes out of the blender and serve it as a chowder. **

I like to serve this with a dollop of sour cream, a sprinkle of parmesean cheese and cracked black pepper.

This makes about 10 cups of soup, at about 100 calories per cup.

Peaches and Nutella

You know how sometimes you do something that makes you feel like a rock-star?  This recipe makes me feel like a rock-star.  Inspired by what I had in my fridge and some summertime magic, it does the impossible:  it makes fresh peaches taste even better.

Ingredients:2 fresh, gorgeous peaches, halved
1 tbsp of butter
1/2 tsp of vanilla
sprinkle of cinnamon
4 tbsp of Nutella
2 scoops of ice cream

Melt butter in frying pan, add vanilla and peaches, cut side down.  Fry at a medium-low heat until heated through, about four minutes.  Flip peach so that it is cut side up, sprinkle with cinnamon, and cook another few minutes until peach is soft all the way through.

Plate, and fill the centre with nutella, serve with vanilla ice cream.

Serves 4... lets be serious.  This serves 2.

Blueberry-Banana Smoothie

When I was little, my dad used to make milkshakes out of milk, ice cream, and canned Empress strawberry jam.  I loved spooning the jam into the blender, and the idea of HOME-MADE MILKSHAKES was just so extravagant!

Smoothies still give me that thrill - I love throwing a bunch of fruit into a blender and pouring out a thick delicious beverage. I still add a bit of ice-cream to mine, which may cross the line into milkshake territory, but I think it makes all the difference.

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen blueberries
1 very ripe banana
1 cup orange juice
1 cup vanilla soy milk
1/2 cup plain, non-fat yogurt
1/2 cup vanilla ice cream
1 tsp vanilla

This makes 2 large cups (pictured above). 326 calories per serving.

Banana, Walnut, Chocolate-Chip Muffins

Im always looking for a way to use up the bananas in my freezer.  This recipe is based on a peanut-butter banana muffin recipe found in my go-to Canadian Living muffin book, and the end result received great feedback from my friends. 

In the spirit of the original recipe, I served the warm muffins with peanut-butter... brilliant!

Ingredients:

1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 cups mashed bananas (about 6 frozen bananas)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Crumble Topping
1/4 cup oats
1/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

in a large bowl, combine dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, beat egg, mix in vanilla, oil, yogurt and mashed bananas, in that order.  Pour over dry mixture and mix just until moistened (do not over-mix, or muffins will be rubbery).  Fold in walnuts and chocolate chips,  spoon into muffin tray.  top with crumble mix.

Bake in oven for about 25 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins at about 250 calories each

Curried Caulflower and Potatoes

I love Aloo Gobi, but I associate it with oily, salty take-out.  This is anything but. 

Incredibly simple to prepare, this flavourful side-dish dresses up even the most routine meal.

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower
1 white potato
1.5 tsp cumin
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Roughly chop up cauliflower into 1 inch florets, and potato into slightly smaller cubes.

Toss everything together and bake in a 9×13 inch glass pan for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and crispy.

This serves about 6 one-cup servings at about 70 calories each.

Curried lentils

In our vegetarian household, we are always looking for tasty and healthy protein sources.  These lentils fit the bill, not only because they are yummy and inexpensive, but because they freeze (and thaw) well.  Just grab them out of the freezer on your way to work in the morning, and dinner will be ready when you get home.

Ingredients:

1 cup dried brown or green lentils, soaked over-night
1/2 onion, chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1/2 orange pepper, chopped
1/2 zucchini
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp ginger, minced
1.5 tsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp curry
1/2 tsp turmeric
1.5 tsp salt
1 small can diced tomatoes
2 cups water

Saute onion, celery, carrots, pepper, zucchini, garlic and ginger in a little oil in the bottom of a 3qt sauce-pot until onion is soft and translucent, about 6 minutes.

Add 1/2 the water, tomato paste, and spices and mix thoroughly.

Add the lentils and diced tomatoes and stir once more.  The idea is for all of the flavours to be dissolved in the liquid like a stock so that the lentils soak them up while cooking.

Add the rest of the water - the lentils and vegetables should now be just covered by the liquid.

Let simmer for approximately 40 minutes until lentils are soft, and everything has formed into a stew-like consistency. Mash if you want a more uniform, daal-like dish. 

Serve on its own, or over basmati rice. 

This makes about 10 one cup servings of lentils at about 110 calories each.  as mentioned, these lentils freeze really well for later use.

Mushrooms on Toast

When I was growing up my mom used to make left-over roast-beef and gravy on toast for a quick meal. When I became vegetarian, I searched for replacements for these homey meals that I remember loving as a kid, and this is how I discovered mushrooms on toast.

This recipe is awesome in the winter as it's earthy and filling, but even better in the summer as there are so many varieties of fresh mushrooms to experiment with. Last week at the farmer's market I grabbed a bag of fresh morel mushrooms, and their texture and flavour are just amazing - perfectly featured in this dish.

Served with a quickly microwaved sweet-potato, dinner is thought to plate in about 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

2 - 3 cups mixed mushrooms
1 tbsp butter
1 splash of oil
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp white wine
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh parmesean cheese

2 slices of bread

1 med sweet potato (optional)

Pre-heat oven to broil.

Finely chop garlic, Rince and roughly chop mushrooms.

Place pan on medium heat, add oil and butter (the oil stops the butter from browning). When butter has melted, add garlic, wait toss, for 45 sec, then add mushrooms. When mushrooms have started to reduce (2 min?) splash white wine and mix, add salt and pepper to taste. (if I just have button mushrooms I often add some basil, or for a change oregano and some halved cherry tomatoes now)

While mushrooms are cooking, the toast will probably pop up. The mushrooms will be done in about 5 minutes, pour over the 2 pieces of toast, shave some parmesean on to the warm mushrooms and place in oven so that the juices soak into the toast.

Poke holes in sweet potato with fork, wrap in a paper towel and place in microwave for 7 min. When sweet potatoes are done, take the mushroom toast out of oven, plate the sweet potatoes and enjoy.