Raw Kale Salad with Creamy Tahini Dressing

Eat more kale!!!

My home garden is at an "in between" stage for kale. I have tons and tons of kale plants but they are either worn out, kind of picked over, or baby plants hoping for enough rain and light.  I found myself buying 3 huge bunches of kale at the Farmer's Market on Wednesday.  I bought a big bunch of dino kale which I juiced and two big bunches of curly kale.  One of the bunches was this spectacular purple red colored kale.  I figure things just have to be really really really good for you when they are that kind of vibrant color.

I took a photo of the purple red kale but this photo does not do the poor thing any justice!

 

I am a fan of raw kale salads but I seldom make them.  I'm committing to making more of them and here's how I started... with a creamy tahini dressing topped kale salad.  I looked online and in a few cookbooks and decided to put my recipe together in the following way:

 

Creamy Tahini Dressing

1/2 - 3/4 cup water

1/2 cup tahini

2 tablespoons flax seed oil

2 cloves garlic

Juice of 1 1/2 lemons

salt

pepper

 

I blended all of these together in my vitamix and got a frothy yummy garlicky creamy dressing.

 

For the kale salad I used:

 

2 heads of curly kale washed and torn into bite sized pieces

4 - 6 carrots shredded

1 red bell pepper sliced thinly

1 cup of pomegranate seeds

a couple handfuls of hemp seed

 

 

The difference between these two bowls is that one has only shredded carrot and one has the sliced bell pepper.

Steps for putting this all together:

1.  Wash and rip the kale and spin it dry
2.  Make the dressing
3.  Add the dressing to the kale.  Spend a couple minutes massaging the dressing into the kale. See the photo below.  That's right... just dig your clean hands into that bowl and massage away!  I have to say that I didn't massage long enough and our kale was a little hearty tasting - lots of chewing.  Still delicious but chewy. Massage that kale!

4.  Add the shredded carrots, bell peppers, hemp seeds, pomegranate seeds and mix.  Cover and let sit for a bit before eating.

What I would do differently next time?

-----I might roast the garlic before I put it in the dressing because raw garlic can be intense

-----I might use the flax seed oil on the kale before adding the dressing.  Massage the flax oil and a bit of salt into the kale first so it breaks down better. I'd massage the heck out of the kale, too.  I really didn't do the massage job justice and the kale was awfully chewy.

-----Add more lemon to the dressing.

-----Add avocado chunks to the salad when serving.

-----Add the hemp seed into the dressing.


Remember.... EAT MORE KALE!!  It's so good for you.

Creamy Broccoli Soup and Beans, Greens, and Grain

Before I begin to write about the soup and bean dish I made, can I just share with you these amazing little bowls????  Aren't they the cutest little things you've ever seen?

 

There are actually 6 colors of these bowls at the store but I held myself back and bought only 4.  I think I may have to go back and get the last two colors!  I will drink chai out of these, eat soup out of these, serve dips and olives out of these and gee whiz I can just look at them and smile!  I need a 12 step program for bowl hoarders.  I love bowls and can't help myself from buying them. 

OK, the soup.....  I attended a vegan cookie exchange party last weekend and my friend, Amey (veganeatsandtreats.blogspot.com/) made this really delicious creamy broccoli soup for us.  I am not a huge fan of broccoli (give me a break, ok, I eat tons of kale and I will eat broccoli when it is served to me or I make it for my husband) but I loved this soup.  It was so warming and delicious.  She served it with a yellow bell pepper "creme".  I begged for the recipe and she gave me the link to this soup.  It came from what looks to be the PETA web site.  I was really excited because this means I can eat pounds and pounds of broccoli now in soup form and I love soup .... soup goes in bowls and you know how I feel about bowls, right?

The soup has 3 pounds of broccoli in it!

 

And 3 - 4 cups of fresh spinach!

 

And you serve it with a bell pepper creme - I used fresh bell peppers that I roasted (see the last blog post) and the whole thing was easy peasy to make and oh so delicious to eat.

 

Creamy Broccoli Soup with Red Pepper Creme

 

For the soup:

2 tbsp canola oil

2 onions chopped

4 stalks of celery, chopped

3 lbs of broccoli, stems trimmed and coarsely chopped/florets cut into bite sized pieces

8 cups of vegetable broth or water

1 tsp sea salt, plus more for seasoning

fresh ground black pepper

3 or more cups of fresh spinach leaves

 

1.  Heat the oil in a large cooking pot and add onions and celery.  Saute for about 5 minutes or until onions are translucent.

 

2. Add the broccoli stems and all but 4 cups of the florets and saute until crisp tender - maybe 10 - 15 minutes.  Stir occasionally to mix it all together and get things off the bottom of the pan.

 

3.  Add the stock, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the stems are really tender.

 

4.  Stir in the spinach and then let sit for a bit until spinach is really wilty.

 

5.  Use a hand held immersion blender or carefully blend in batches until the soup is thick and creamy.

 

6.  Add the reserved broccoli florets and cook over medium high heat until the florets are crisp tender (I overcooked them and they are mushy - not as good as Amey's!)

 

For the pepper creme:

1 red bell pepper, roasted

1/4 cup raw cashews

2 tbsp soy milk

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp sea salt

 

1.  Combine everything in a blender and blend until creamy smooth!

 

Ladle the soup into bowls and drizzle the red bell pepper creme on top.

 

 

 

With our soup, we ate a rice, beans, and greens dish topped with delicious Reed avocado from the Farmer's Market.

 

 

 

We eat a lot of beans - beans in soup, beans with rice, beans in tortillas, beans with sauteed vegetables.  I try to soak and cook beans every week so that we always have a pot in the frig waiting for eating.  I also freeze beans in quart baggies - usually 2 cups per baggy so that I have them on hand for easy access and I don't have to buy cans and cans of beans.

 

I found http://www.vegancoach.com/ and spent some time reading the blog.  She has a fantastic section on how to cook beans.  I took her advice and made the following concoction and our bean and grain dishes are now transformed.  I had this for dinner twice this week and brunch after a work out!

 

Beans, Greens, and Grain

 

1/2 cup grain of choice (cooked)

1 cup of beans of choice (cooked)

2 tbsp Bragg's Amino Acids

Water

2 tbsp tomato sauce

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

2 tbsp "seedalicious" (recipe to follow)

pinch of chili pepper

salt and pepper to taste

3 - 4 cups of greens (chard, kale, spinach, bok choy, beet greens, etc)

 

1.  Put the cooked grain and beans in a large saute pan with the Bragg's amino acids and a bit of water.  Heat thoroughly and stir once in awhile.

 

2.  Add the other ingredients without the greens and heat and stir.

 

3.  Add the greens on top, turn down the heat, cover with a lid and let the greens steam.

 

4.  Mix it all up and put it on a plate or in bowls and enjoy the heck out of it!

 

"Seedalicious"

2 tbsp flax seed

2 tbsp sunflower seed

2 tbsp pumpkin seed

2 tbsp sesame seed

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

 

Blend this all together.  Use this on top of salads, soups and stews, vegetables, beans, oatmeal, grains. Store in the refrigerator.

 

 

Here's the dinner - big bowl of creamy broccoli soup with a large side of beans, greens, and rice covered with avocado chunks.  I used very little added oil to any of the cooking.  The entire vat of soup has only 2 tbsp of oil and the bean dish has no oil.  The fat comes from whole foods like flax, nuts and seeds, and avocado - couldn't get your fat from better sources than that!

Wednesday Night Dinner - Vegan Pizza and Salad

Wednesday's are Farmer's Market afternoons for me!  Sometimes I am lucky and my friend, Laurie (yes, that's right, another Laurie!) and I go to lunch after yoga class and then hit the Farmer's Market.  We came upon this display on Wednesday.  Look at the beautiful colors of the winter FM - all kinds of squash, baking pumpkins, weird broccoli, and apples.  Sooo pretty.  Just looking at it made me happy so I took a photo. (directions to Laurie's blog are http://laurieslittlekitchen.blogspot.com/)

When I got home from the market I had two overflowing bags filled with spinach, butternut squash, carrots, oranges, collard leaves, red bell peppers, avocados, 3 pounds of broccoli, grapes, pea pods, parsley, celery, lettuce, limes, bok choy, and other delicious vegetables.  The first thing I did was wash and prep the vegetables for fresh juice. Oh, and the second thing I did was take an entire bunch of bok choy out of Lilly's mouth - black dog strikes again and helps herself to produce out of my bag!  Silly bad dog.


Dino kale from our garden, apples from our trees, parsley, carrots, celery, and ginger!

 

 

I made a big jug of fresh juice.  My husband and I swear that we can feel the goodness of fresh juice flowing into our veins within seconds after drinking it.  I'm not sure what really happens but we both believe that the fresh juice we drink has something to do with our glowing good health! I try to make us fresh juice every other day.  It's a lot of cleaning vegetables, pressing the juice through the Green Star juicer and then cleaning everything up afterwards.  Well worth the time and energy.

 

 

 

The next thing I prepared was a vegan romesco sauce from Dreena Burton's cookbook, "Let Them Eat Vegan".  This was a repeat performance of the same recipe I made for a vegan potluck on Sunday.  The recipe follows the photo:

 

 

This romesco sauce uses toasted oats instead of bread.  It is delicious as a dip with bread and crackers.  I actually made it to be the base of our vegan pizza meal and I imagine it could be used on pasta or vegetables, as well.

 

Romesc-oat Sauce

makes about 1 1/2 cups

 

1/2 cup toasted oats

1 1/4 cups roasted red bell pepper (I typically use a bit more)

1 medium to large clove of garlic

1/2 cup toasted almonds

1/2 teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

  2 - 4 tablespoons water

 

In a food processor, combine all ingredients starting with 2 tablespoons of water, and puree until smooth, adding more water as desired.

 

Toast the oats and almonds in an oven heated to 425degrees for 5 - 7 minutes.  Watch them carefully and toss them once or twice.  I ended up burning my first attempt and almonds are not cheap!

 

 

This photo is crazy and looks upside down.  Not sure what happened but please don't get dizzy looking at it, it's just the oats and almonds on the baking sheet!

 

I bought a bunch of red bell peppers at the Farmer's Market  so I could roast them at home, use them for this sauce, and then freeze the rest for use over the winter months.

 

 

 

I always wash my bell peppers with vegetable wash and then rinse them very very well.

 

 

I placed the bell peppers on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and put them in the oven to roast at 450degrees.  I turned them once during the process.  I am not sure how long it took but I watched them carefully and took them out when they began to blacken.

 

 



I let them sit in their own blackened goodness for about 20 minutes and then rinsed them under cold running water to remove the skin and seeds.

What I didn't use for the sauce I put on lined baking sheets and froze overnight.  Stack the  flattened frozen roasted bell peppers in a gallon size plastic bag and store in the freezer for future use.

I used the romesc-oat sauce in place of tomato sauce on the pizza.  It was delicious!  Here is a photo of our whole wheat crust romesco sauce, spinach, green olive and fake pepperoni pizza.  Yum.

Here is my dinner plate.  We really had a salad dinner with a side of pizza.  Our salad consisted of baby lettuces from my fall/winter garden, carrots, cucumber, jicama, fresh pea pods, sunflower seeds, sprouts and an amazing avocado from the FM. (check out the photo of the avo near the end of the blog)  I dress our dinner salads with flax seed oil, balsamic vinegar, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and usually one flavored salt.  We eat a big green salad for dinner at least 4 times a week - maybe more.

And here's the prize winning Reed avocado.  OMG!  This was the most delicious smooth avo.  I used most of the second half on my rice and bean brunch today.  Do not fear the fat in avocado... it is sooooo good for you.

 

I ran into someone at the Farmer's Market who asked me whether I felt like I could "recover" from the weight training and metabolic work outs I participate in regularly.  He asked whether my body could recover without "primary" protein.  I took this to mean animal products.  I explained that I had not eaten meat for over 25 years and had been eating an almost 100% plant based diet for nearly 2.  He asked me if I didn't miss eating animal foods in my diet.  I explained that I eat mainly vegetables, fruit, grains, nuts and seeds.  There is tons of protein in what I eat and my body is nourished with multitudes of phytonutrients on a daily basis.  My body is fueled beautifully by my daily intake of flax seed, chia seed, almonds, cashews, walnuts, sunflower seeds, berries, beans, rice, quinoa, whole wheat bread, tons and tons of green vegetables, fruit, kale, kale, kale, kale, and the rest.  It is a complete myth that these foods do not contain protein.  I have never felt better in my life.  He said, "You've got this dialed in."  I think that's a great way to think about it.  Yes, I've got this dialed in. I'm learning not to roll my eyes when folks ask me about protein.  Instead I explain patiently how it works for me and I am really happy for what works for each of you, too!

Sunday Morning Rice Bowl and Smoothie

Sierra my brown mama dog says, "GOOD MORNING!!!!"


Today I am excited to be attending a 3 hour vinyasa yoga class with Elise Miller at Yoga Center Santa Cruz.  In order to prepare, I need to think about my food intake and eat enough now so that I am not too full from 1 - 4pm this afternoon. 

I decided a brown rice bowl and a big green smoothie were the perfect filling breakfast food - not too heavy, lots of protein, lots of fiber, and lots of fruit and vegetables to start my day off right.

I always try to keep cooked brown rice or quinoa in the frig so that we can add it to meals quickly.  This bowl is about a cup of cooked brown rice, 2 - 3 cups of sauteed spinach, a big scoop of Annie's cashew and pimento spread, and a generous sprinkle of gomazio.

We drink a green smoothie at least 5 or 6 times a week.  This particular smoothie has a very long list of ingredients - read the following list if you are interested!

3 cups water
1 scoop of raw vegan protein powder
1 tsp maca powder
1 tablespoon of Vitamineral Green
1 tablespoon flax seed
1 tablespoon chia seed
generous handful of raw cashews
1 frozen banana
dozen strawberries
handful of frozen blueberries
1 - 2 cups of frozen grapes
1 small orange
an entire bunch of lacinto (dino) kale
1/2 bunch of parsley
1 golden beet
1 big carrot
2 stalks of celery
big piece of fresh ginger
1 heaping teaspoon of turmeric

Our smoothies are always different but I tend to always use frozen grapes, banana, and a bunch of green - beet greens, collards, spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, lettuce mix from the Farmer's Market, chard, parsley,or any strange weird green I buy from one particular farmer at the market who always has interesting small bunches in these darling little baskets!

A note about parsley:

Parsley is rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber.  These help to control blood cholesterol, prevent constipation, and give our body protection from free radicals. 

Parsley is full of potassium, manganese, iron, and magnesium. Potassium is the chief component of cell and body fluids that helps control heart rate and blood pressure by countering the effects of sodium. Iron is essential for the production of heme, which is an important oxygen-carrying component inside the red blood cells. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase.

Parsley can be used in salads, in stir fry, and in smoothies. 

To saute the spinach, I sprayed a pan with a bit of oil and then dumped the washed spinach into the pan and essentially allowed it to wilt.  You could also steam your greens. It's super fast and super easy with very little clean up time and very little chopping/preparation time.

Here are the two prepared ingredients I used for my meal.  The Annie's is the bomb and I seem to never grow tired of it.  Someday I should really try to make my own.  The Gomasio is delicious - sesame seeds mixed with some salt and garlic.  Yum!

A note about brown rice:

A cup of cooked brown rice has about 216 calories, 5 grams of protein, and 4 grams of fiber.  I worry when people tell me they won't eat rice because it is a carbohydrate.  I think we all need to remember that the "problem" carbohydrates most of America is eating (or drinking, thank you very much) is added sugar in processed foods  and drinks like soda, "sports" drinks, ice teas, and energy drinks.  Eating whole food carbohydrates is essential for our health!

A cup of cooked brown rice topped with vegetables, nut spreads, seeds, nuts, or even fresh fruit is a delicious way to fill yourself up and give you amazing nutritional fiber, protein, and phytonutrients!  Long live brown rice!

From Taco Bar Saturday night to Black Bean Monday night! Eat Beans!

 

 

Saturday night we hosted a big birthday bash for my daughter who turned 18!  She requested a taco bar.  I made three kinds of beans - whole pintos, "refried" without the fry part , and whole black beans.  We chopped tons of vegetables, made guacamole, had hard taco shells, corn tortillas, and flour tortillas, and many other yummy yummy taco filling goodies.

Lately I have committed myself to using the food I have on hand.  This habit of returning to the market over and over must be broken!  So today when I was thinking about tonight's dinner I had the brillant idea to make a black bean soup with left overs.. because, really, how many tacos can we eat? We're about taco'ed out.  Kind of like tuckered out on tacos... hard to believe, I know.

I pulled chopped red onion, tomato, cilantro, and bell peppers out of the frig.  I took out the huge bowl of whole black beans.  I added some garlic, carrots, celery, and spices to the list and began making soup.

In the little dish to the right is Mexican oregano (can someone explain to me what makes it Mexican?), cumin and green chile powder.  Oh, and there is a darling little bowl of small round yellow potatoes that I didn't end up using, but aren't they cute?

Here's a close up of the red onions, orange and red bell peppers sauteeing prior to adding all the other stuff.  All that color has got to be absolutely wonderful for your body!

Here's a list of ingredients I used for this soup:

1 red onion chopped
1 - 2 cups of chopped red and orange bell pepper
 1 - 2 tablespoons coconut oil for saute
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp Mexican oregano
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp green chile powder (has a little kick to it!)
3 carrots chopped
3 stalks of celery diced
2 cups chopped tomatoes
5  - 8 cups black beans (I am not really sure how many there were)
2 or more cups of corn - I used frozen roasted corn
6 - 8 cups chopped kale (put kale into everything - it is a wonder food!)
3/4 bunch of chopped cilantro
1/2 lemon
salt to taste

1.  Heat soup pan and add oil
2. Saute red onion, bell peppers, and garlic
3.  When onions look translucent, add the carrots and celery
4.  Add the spices and stir everything well while continuing to saute
5.  I added 8 cups water and about 3/4 of my cooked black beans (probably 4 or 5 cups?) and the chopped tomatoes
6.  I brought it all to a boil and then simmered for 30 minutes or so and went to practice piano while it cooked
7.  I used a handheld immersion blender in the pot and mixed it all up to a smooth texture - always be careful of the hot soup when blending
8.  I added the rest of the black beans (maybe 2 - 4 cups?), the cilantro, corn,and the chopped kale and cooked for a bit longer
9.  Lastly I added the lemon juice from 1/2 lemon and salt to taste

We served the soup over left over brown rice (yup, from the taco party).  It was really pretty good.  Next time I would use more salt and a little more chile or maybe some fresh jalapeno.  I would also chop some avocado into the soup for flavor and extra good fat.  (I had already eaten my share of avocado for the day - maybe tomorrow?)

I served a big salad next to the soup.  The salad had fresh baby lettuce from the Farmer's Market,  pea pods, chopped carrots, chopped apple, pepitas, chopped cabbage from the taco bar party and hemp seed.  I dressed it right in the bowl with balsamic vinegar, flax seed oil, a squirt of mustard, nutritional yeast, onion and garlic powder, and some flavored salt.  Lots of crunchy goodness in this salad.

Soup can take a lot of chopping but it's worth it.  We now have a delicious pot full of protein, fiber, and nutrients that will feed us for the next few days.  Did you know that 1 cup of black beans has close to 15 grams of protein?  I bet this serving of soup had close to a cup of black beans in it.  1 cup of black beans is only about 218 calories and those are nutrient dense filling calories!  I say... eat beans!

Simple Saturday Lunch!

I've just begun to teach a new yoga class on Saturday mornings.  I rise early, drink my lemon and water and then practice yoga before I head out the door. It's one of my favorite times during the week because my family is still tucked away in bed and while I practice the sun rises and comes through the windows.  It's a stellar way to start a Saturday.

 

 I take one of the three beasties with me in the car to work.  After teaching my class I  land in Delaveaga Park and the beastie of the day and I do our run/jog for the week.  It's a lovely lovely morning ritual and I am always happy when I come home.  I am also STARVING when I get home.

 

 Here are two of my beasties - Sierra and Harry.  Sierra is my much older Mama dog, adopted 10 years ago and Harry is her big boy son - we had a weak moment and took both dogs from the shelter.  Who could blame us?  Little did we know Harry would turn into a big 80 pound lug.

 

Last Saturday I decided to whip together a simple stir fry with brown rice. 

This is the yummy bowl of goodness!


I got the brown rice in the rice cooker and then gave myself a bit of time at the computer so the rice could get a head start. (HINT --- I always make way more rice than I am going to need at that particular meal so that we have a stock of it in the frig for eating throughout the next few days)  When I checked the rice cooker about 20 minutes later I saw that we were having an epic rice cooker failure!  The darn thing heated up the water and then seemed to stop.  So, the husband went out to the garage with rice cooker in hand. I moved to plan B - a package of "Chinese" noodles, the kind you use in Lo Mein or Ramen.  These are lovely "comfort food" kind of noodles and oh so delicious, but not nearly the nutritional value of a big batch of brown rice!

Here they are waiting for the glorious vegetable and tofu topping!

 

 

The Stir Fry of the day consisted of toasted sesame oil, brown mustard seeds, raw sesame seeds, carrots and yellow peppers from the Farmer's Market, lots and lots of bok choy, and prepared tofu. I also added in about a cup of cooked brown rice that was sitting in the frig from a couple days ago.  We served it on top of the white noodles (I love white noodles but rarely eat them - lots of comfort but little nutritional value :) ) YUM!

Totally blurry photo of the vegetables in the big wok cooking away.

 

Most of the ingredients of this simple stir fry lunch.

Black mustard and sesame seeds, prepared tofu, yellow onion, orange bell pepper, carrots.

SIMPLE STIR FRY DIRECTIONS 

1.  Wash and chop all the vegetables. Put the rice on to cook.
2. Heat the wok first and then add the toasted sesame oil, 1 to 2 tablespoons
3. Once the oil is heating, toss in the chopped onion.  I used a half white onion. 
4. After a minute or so, add about a tablespoon of black mustard seeds.  Then add the chopped bell pepper.  I used about 1/2 orange pepper.
5. Add the carrots.  Let this cook for a bit until carrots are just tender and onions are translucent.  Add the sliced/chopped bok choy and use lots and lots of bok choy, the more the better, the more the merrier, the more the better health!  Greens are the goodness of our planet filled with nutrition and dense with fiber.
6. Add 2 - 3 tablespoons of raw sesame seeds and cook until everything looks super yummy.
7. I add the prepared tofu chopped into small pieces at the last moment so it heats up.

Serve up and if it's a lovely day, eat outside in the sunlight.  Enjoy.



Bowl of Sunshine with a side of Pumpkin Cranberry Muffin and Sauteed Kale with Yellow Pepper

 

 

 

Last night I really wanted to make pumpkin muffins with cranberries and walnuts.  Ok, ok, I am a spiritless spook who had no intention of going anywhere near downtown Santa Cruz on Halloween.  So... what better place to be than in my kitchen up here in the hills making some amazing soul satisfying food?

 

 

One of my lovely yoga students turned me on to an amazing web site http://grandmadave.com/

 

This guy who is an amazing chef, unicycle rider, and life liver does a lot of work with cancer patients and has devised some outstanding recipes. I like his stuff even though it's not all vegan - oh well! Watch his videos to catch a glimpse of his totally bad ass knife skills ! Awesome skill. Simply awesome. I could watch him chop vegetables all day long.

 

I decided to try his "Bowl of Sunshine" which is basically a 6 ingredient recipe!  I bought two small just picked butternut squash at the Farmer's market for the soup.  I was thrilled to see the vibrant orange color of the squash flesh.  It seemed so different than when I buy a butternut at the grocery store where it probably was stored for a long period of time and then sat out awaiting purchase.  The squash I purchased was FRESH, FRESH, FRESH!  I am lucky.

 

 

 

You will need to chop a bit to make this soup.  1 yellow onion, 2 - 4 cloves of garlic, and 1/4 cup sliced fresh ginger.

 

 

1/4 cup of fresh ginger may seem like a lot but this soup can handle it and ginger has amazing anti-inflammatory properties!

 

 

Because I am totally food nerdy enough to watch a 16 minute video, I learned that it is actually pretty easy to slice the skin off a butternut squash and then pare it away from the seedy center rather than cut it in half and scoop the seeds and guts out.  Way easy, folks!

 

 

This is a photo of the squash added to the soup pot after sauteing the onion, garlic, and ginger and then doing a "deglazing" with rice wine vinegar.

 

Here's the recipe:

 

1 - 2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 - 4 cloves of garlic sliced

1/4 cup fresh ginger sliced and chopped

1 large butternut squash (I used 2 small), skinned and chopped

1 cup rice wine vinegar or mirin

2 or more quarts of water (I bet you could use vegetable broth too)

 

1. Heat a soup pot until hot and then add the oil
2. Saute the onion, garlic, and fresh ginger until translucent (maybe 4 or 5 minutes)
3. Add the rice wine vinegar to deglaze and scrap up all the bits from the bottom (maybe another 5 minutes)
4. Add the skinned and chopped squash and cook for another minute or so
5. Add about 2 quarts of water or broth and bring the soup to a boil.
6. I think this soup cooked for at least 90 minutes on a slow boil.
7. Pull the chunky stuff out with a slotted spoon and place in the blender with some of the liquid.  Blend carefully because this stuff is hot.  I always fill the blender about 1/2 way and then hold a kitchen towel over the lid of my vitamix. Blend in batches and add water to desired consistency.
8. I added about 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the soup at the end
9. You can garnish the soup with chopped chives, cilantro, or orange or lemon zest

 

Isn't that BEAUTIFUL!  And it is delicious.

 

The husband and I had this vibrant soup with a side of sauteed kale and fresh yellow peppers and a pumpkin cranberry walnut muffin.  Would you like that recipe too?  Next blog post, I promise!

 

 

I have a thing for my red Le Creseut wok and my red knock off Le Creseut soup pan!  Look at them hard at work on my double burner Wolf island stove! (gifts of red dishware and pots and pans are highly appreciated - hint, hint!)

 

 

A close up of the side dishes to the sunny bowl of soup.  A good Halloween dinner was eaten by all up here!