Category Archives: Recipe

Quinoa & Lentil Salad Vegan Recipe

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Quinoa & Lentil Salad Vegan Recipe

Recently, I’ve been posting about the important health benefits of fiber in kids’ diets.  I’ve also gone through a top ten list (part 1 & part 2) of the best high fiber foods to try on your kids.  But having a good recipe or two helps, so here’s one I made this week for my family: Quinoa & Lentil Salad!

Sadly, much of the processed food kids eat today is very low in fiber.  Refined carbohydrates, like white flour and white rice, have the fiber-rich outer casing of the grain removed.  And of course, animal products don’t contain any fiber at all.  Meat, poultry, fish, dairy, and eggs, are lacking in fiber.  Kids who eat lots of these foods are likely to not be getting enough fiber and can end up developing other health issues.  Constipation is the health issue most likely to arise first, and should be taken as a major warning sign.  Unfortunately, other more life threatening diseases such as heart disease and cancer are also linked to low fiber intake.  It is very easy to increase fiber intake if you have a few good recipes!

One of my favorite ways to increase fiber intake is to use juice pulp left over from juicing fruits and vegetables.  There are many ways to use this leftover pulp!  One of the most popular ways to use leftover fruit pulp is in muffins or cupcakes.  I also use vegetable pulp to make crunchy crackers we all love to snack on.

But the best way to get more fiber in your kids’ diets is just to give them fiber-rich foods as part of their daily diet.  That’s why I made this Quinoa & Lentil Salad.  My kids are both happy to eat it (my 2 year old likes to pick out all the lentils and eat them first).  It also keeps well in the refrigerator and is easy to pack in a container and take to school.  Unlike leafy salads, it won’t get soggy or gross, so make a big batch and it can easily be lunch for a few days!

This quinoa & lentil salad contains not one, not two, but three high fiber ingredients.  Quinoa, lentils, and artichoke hearts all feature in this delicious salad.  One one-cup serving of quinoa & lentil salad will give your kids more than half their daily fiber requirements! And it’s vegan and gluten free, too!

quinoa salad

Quinoa & Lentil Salad

Ingredients

  • 2 cups uncooked quinoa, rinsed
  • 1 cup uncooked brown lentils, rinsed
  • 8 large artichoke hearts, quartered
  • 1 large English or 2 smaller Lebanese cucumbers, chopped (peeling optional)
  • 2 large or 3 medium tomatoes, chopped (I omitted these because my hubby cannot eat them, but added them into the salad when I served to the kids & myself.)
  • 1/4 cup fresh herbs, finely chopped (I used dill, basil, and tarragon in equal amounts, but use whichever herbs you like best or have on hand.)
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tbsp organic apple cider vinegar
  • pinch himalayan pink salt (optional)

Instructions

  1. Cook the quinoa with 4 cups of water, per package instructions, until all water is absorbed.  Fluff cooked quinoa with a fork.
  2. Boil lentils until soft but not mushy (approx. 25-30 minutes).
  3. If using fresh artichokes (as I did), quarter & steam your artichoke hearts.  If using jarred/preserved hearts that are ready to eat, simply quarter them.
  4. Allow quinoa, lentils, and artichokes to cool.
  5. Combine quinoa, lentils, artichokes, cucumbers, and tomatoes, and mix.
  6. Mix herbs, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and salt to make dressing.
  7. Pour dressing over salad and mix well.  Serve immediately while salad is slightly warm or place in fridge and allow to sit.  Keeps for 3-4 days.

Variations

  • For a non-vegan version, replace the salt with some finely crumbled feta cheese or some finely grated parmesan.
  • For a vegan alternative, omit the salt and add in some finely chopped olives (black, green, or kalamata are all fine).
  • Vary the vegetables!  Consider adding some other veggies or fungi, such as mushrooms, finely diced red onion, capsicum (bell pepper), wilted or fresh baby spinach, or baked pumpkin cubes.
  • Mix up the herbs.  Changing the herb mixture will greatly alter the flavor of the dish.  Quinoa, lentils, and atichokes all have mild flavors, so the flavor of this dish is pretty much controlled by the herbs in it.

This quinoa & lentil salad is pretty much a complete meal in itself.  Most of the major nutrients are featured in it.  Jazz it up by mixing in some baby kale or baby chard and you’ll be certain to have hit all the high points.  It is not only a high fiber dish, but a high protein one, too!  Quinoa is pretty much a complete protein in itself, but lentils are also very high in protein.  Other essential nutrients like iron and vitamin C also play a major role.

I hope you enjoy this salad as much as we have!

Rose Hip Syrup/Cordial & Jelly Recipes

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Rose Hip Syrup/Cordial & Jelly Recipes

In my last post I mentioned rose hip syrup or cordial as a natural remedy for many of the symptoms of gastroenteritis.  I prefer to make my own rather than to purchase it.  I like to know what is going into my food and where it comes from.  Rose hips have a lot of health benefits, so it is great to have some rose hip products on hand at all times.  If you don’t have time to make your own, you can always buy rose hip tea, but if you do have the opportunity to make your own, definitely go for it!

Rose hips

What Are Rose Hips?

Rose hips are the bulbous part of the rose just behind the rose flower.  They contain the seeds of the rose plant.  If you do not pick the rose flowers, they will eventually fall off and the rose hips will develop afterwards.  They can vary a lot in size and coloration, but they are usually red and always bulbous.

Rose hip infusion

Benefits of Rose Hips

Rose hips have a lot of well-documented medicinal benefits.  Rose hips are incredibly potent antioxidants.  Fresh rose hips are very high in vitamin C, which is why rose hip syrup is such a great natural remedy when you are feeling ill.  Rose hips are also good sources of a number of nutrients, including: vitamin A, vitamin B3, vitamin D, vitamin E, flavonoids, carotenoids*, betasitosterol, fructose, malic acid, tannins, lycopenes**, magnesium, zinc, copper, and other phytochemicals (including galactolipids).***  Rose hips help with many different conditions, including having anti-inflammatory properties,**** so they are good for treating diseases like arthritis.*****  There is also evidence that rose hips are useful for weight loss, by reducing fat accumulation.******  They can also help lower cholesterol.*******  They are also a good supplement for diabetics, with animal trials showing hypoglycemic effects.********  Finally, rose hips have been shown to be effective in treating chronic back pain.*********  It is this pain-killing property of rose hips that I find effective with sick kids – combined with the antioxidants and vitamin C, it can really help your kids feel better!

straining rose hips

Collecting Rose Hips

Rose hips should be brightly colored when you collect them and nice and fat.  They are best after the first frost, which sweetens them a bit.  It doesn’t generally frost here, so if you are collecting them in a mild environment or you can’t wait until after the first frost, simply stick them in the freezer when you get home and leave them for a while to get them nice and frosty.   Collect as many as you can because this recipe keeps for a long time and it is worth making extra.

I don’t know what your local rose garden’s policy is on collecting rose hips, but roses abound in the area where I live.  I (with the help of my parents and toddlers) collected mine in the heritage rose garden at our local botanical garden.  They were falling in the thousands on the ground, so we figured they wouldn’t mind us picking some.  As a result, my rose hips came from a wide variety of rose bush varieties, some of which are extremely rare.  They were also beautifully organic!  A second botanical garden nearby also has a huge rose garden and I could probably collect buckets of rose hips from there (I know that botanical garden runs workshops that include collecting fruits and vegetables so they might be open to letting me collect there).  There are also lots of roses planted by the government on public property just to beautiful the streets in the hills near where we live.  I actually didn’t even realize they were rose bushes because to me they look like trees!  When I did a guided tour of the heritage rose garden at the botanical gardens the guide taught me a lot of things about roses I never knew before.

Rose hip infusion reducing

Preparing the Rose Hips

Rose hips look so plump and juicy!  But you’ll soon discover they are not very juicy at all.  They are in fact very hard and the insides are full of tough little seeds.  Not exactly the kind of food you could just bake into a cake!  I was hoping to be lazy and just pass them through my juicer, but that would probably break the juicer!

The first thing you have to do, before you begin, is to chop up the rose hips.  I tried being lazy again and tossing a handful into my food processor, but it didn’t work – they are just really, really hard and mostly bounced wildly around inside it.  So I chopped them with a knife.  Cutting them in half is sufficient, or for really hard varieties, simply cutting halfway through should do the trick.  The goodness of the rose hips is inside, but the skins are so tough that just boiling them whole won’t do the trick.

Some recipes will tell you to peel, quarter, and de-seed rose hips, which is what you will need to do if you want rose hip jam.  I cannot even begin to imagine doing that much work!  As it is, this recipe will probably take about an hour of prep time, and who has time to do more than that?!  Certainly not this busy mom!

This recipe will provide you with both rose hip syrup/cordial and rose hip jelly, or you can make just one or the other.   I don’t really miss having bits of rose hip in my jelly, certainly not enough to spend another hour or two of time prepping the rose hips!

Rose hip jelly

Rose Hip Cordial/Jelly

Ingredients

8-9 cups or 1 kg fresh rose hips
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup agave nectar

Instructions

  1. Chop the rose hips by hand or in a food processor.  They do not need to be finely chopped – cut in half should be sufficient.
  2. Place rose hips in a pot and pour over them 2 liters (8-9 cups) boiling water.
  3. Bring the water back to the boil, then turn off the heat and allow to stand for 20 minutes to allow rose hips to infuse.
  4. Place a jelly bag or a double layer of muslin in a large bowl and pour in.
  5. Squeeze bag well to strain out any remaining liquid from the rose hips.
  6. Reserve rose hip liquid.
  7. Add rose hips back to the pot and pour on another 1.5 liters (6 cups) boiling water.
  8. Bring to the boil, then turn off the heat and allow to stand for an additional 10 minutes to infuse.
  9. Repeat steps 4 & 5 with the new rose hip infusion. (Infusing the rose hips again increases the potency and flavor, as I learned when I tested it with just one infusion, so don’t skip the second infusion!)
  10. Pour both bowls of rose hip infusion into the pot and bring to a rapid boil.
  11. Boil until infusion has reduced to 1 liter (~4 cups), then remove from heat.
  12. Stir in honey and agave nectar.
  13. Pour into sterilized jars and refrigerate until needed.  Will keep for several months!

Variations

  • Turn your cordial into jelly!  Simply take a vegetarian gelling powder, dissolve in cold water, then add to the hot cordial before it cools.  Gelling agents need heat in order to set.  I used 3 packets of Jel-it-in (24 grams, just shy of 1 ounce) to set 2.5 cups of otherwise undiluted cordial.  Pour the hot liquid directly in sterilized jar(s) and place in the fridge.
  • I used a strong local red gum honey when I made this and it gave a distinct honey flavor to the cordial.  You can alter the flavor by using a different honey, by reversing the honey-to-agave ratios, or by using just agave nectar.
  • As you add sweetener, taste and adjust accordingly.  If you like it sweeter, you can always add more.  I did not want mine very sweet because I feel like the sweetness drowns out the flavor of the rose hips.  At the same time, unsweetened rose hips can be somewhat sour, so some sweetener is necessary.
  • Change the flavor of your infusion by infusing other items with your rose hips.  Try hibiscus, lavendar, mint, rhubarb, or apple for a delicious twist.

I hope you enjoy this rose hip recipe as much as I did!  We are still drinking (and eating) the benefits of it.

Rose hip jelly on whole wheat toast

*Machmudah S, Kondo M, Sasaki M, et al. Process optimization and extraction rate analysis of carotenoids extraction from rosehip fruit using supercritical CO2. J Supercrit Fluids 2008;44:308– 14.

**Böhm V, K, Fröhlich K, Bitsch R. Rosehip: a “new” source of lycopene? Mol Aspects Med 2003;24:385–9.

*** Christensen LP. Galactolipids as potential health promoting compounds in vegetable foods. Recent Pat Food Nutr Agric 2009;1:50–8.

****Winther K, Rein E, Kharazmi A. The antiinflammatory properties of rose-hip. Inflammopharmacology 1999;7:63–8.

*****Warholm O, Skaar S, Hedman E, Mølmen HM, Eik L. The effects of a standardized herbal remedy made from a subtype of Rosa canina in patients with osteoarthritis: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Curr Ther Res Clin Exp 2003;64:21–31.

******Ninomiya K, Matsuda H, Kubo M, Morikawa T, Nishida N, Yoshikawa M. Potent anti-obese principle from Rosa canina: atructural requirements and mode of action of trans-tiliroside. Bioorg Med Chem Lett 2007;17:3059–64.

*******Rein E, Kharazmi A, Winther K. A herbal remedy, Hyben Vital (stand. powder of a subspecies of Rosa canina fruits), reduces pain and improves general wellbeing in patients with osteoarthritis: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised trial. Phytomedicine 2004;11:383–91.

********Orhan N, Aslan M, Hosbas S, Deliorman OD. Antidiabetic effect and antioxidant potential of Rosa canina fruits. Pharmacognosy Magazine 2009;5:309–15.

*********Chrubasik C, Wiesner L, Black A, Müller-Ladner, Chrubasik S. A one-year survey on the use of a powder from rosa canina lito in acute exacerbations of chronic pain. Phytother Res 2008;22:1141–8.

Homemade Rice Milk – The Healthy, Cheap Dairy Alternative

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Homemade Rice Milk – The Healthy, Cheap Dairy Alternative

For various reasons, which will be further explored on this blog in the future, I choose not to give my kids much dairy. I certainly never give them cow’s milk (I do give them some dairy products, to help prevent them from developing allergies), but at the same time, I prefer not to give them a lot of commercially purchased milks. My solution is to make my own milk substitute: rice milk!

Using leftover brown rice to make rice milk

There are a lot of concerns about feeding kids too much soy (yet another blog topic for the future – I’m going to be busy!), so I rarely give my kids soymilk. I prefer to limit their soy intake to tofu and tempeh. Almond milk is great, but it does contain nuts, which means it’s not a good ingredient to include in dishes for guests or that must be nut-free to be sent to school (it’s also a bit more difficult to make at home). Even oat milk and rice milk purchased at the store can contain additives, sugars, flavorings, and preservatives. Even if you do find a milk substitute that meets your standards, it becomes incredibly expensive to purchase on a regular basis.

Adding the rice to the blender to make rice milk

What if there was a healthy milk alternative that was both cheap and easy to make? Enter homemade rice milk!

Most people are amazed when I tell them how easy rice milk is to make. It really does take 5 minutes or less to make, per liter.

And how about the cost? Mine comes in at about 30 cents per liter, which is up to a tenth of what it costs to buy it in the store (of course where you live affects your savings, but where else can you get organic brown rice milk for so cheap?!).

Rice milk in blender ready to be made

Because the rice milk I make at home is so easy to make and so cheap, nobody in my family has any qualms about using it in large quantities. I substitute it for milk in almost every recipe.   Sometimes I even substitute it for water in recipes to give some added nutrition to a dish, added creaminess, and added flavor.

Bear in mind that rice is gluten free, so this is a good substitute for people who are allergic to many major allergens like wheat, soy, or nuts.

The best thing about making your own rice milk, which trumps even the time and money factors, is that you can customize it. Want it sweeter or less sweet? Adjust the amount of sweetener you add. Want it flavored? Add your own preferred amount of essence or flavoring – the sky is the limit! Now you don’t have to be limited to just vanilla and chocolate flavorings. Want your rice milk thinner? Add more water. Want it thicker? Add less water.   No matter what you want it for or what your personal preference is, you can make it to be exactly the way you want it to be.

Blending the rice milk

The only downside I find is that no matter how much I blend mine up, it still separates a bit in the fridge. But is this really a downside? After all, even commercially produced rice milks with homogenization equipment available still have to be shaken before use. And how much effort is it to shake up some rice milk before using anyway? But this is actually the only bad thing about homemade rice milk that I could come up with. I’m really grasping at straws here!

My kids love this rice milk and actually… so do I.   I can’t stand the flavor of commercially produced milk substitutes. They just do not have the right kind of texture to compare at all with the cow’s milk I grew up on. But fresh rice milk, straight out of the blender and ever so slightly warm…. Oh, yeah, that’s creamy and delicious, I have to admit!

At the very least, this recipe is worth a try. At best you and your kids will love it and it will revolutionize your cooking. It will help you and your kids to lead healthier lives and consume a healthier diet. And at worst? Well, you have a liter of rice milk that cost you 30 cents – add it to some baking and never worry about it again. But somehow I don’t think that will be the outcome.

Rice milk ready to drink and use, still frothy from the blender

Homemade Rice Milk

Ingredients

1 cup cooked rice (I recommend organic brown rice, but you can use any kind of rice left over from dinner – I have used basmati, jasmine, and other kinds of rice and they all turn out delicious)
1 pinch salt (I recommend pink Himalayan salt)
1 tbsp sweetener (I use agave nectar or honey, depending on whether or not I want the resulting milk to be vegan, but any kind of sweetener will work – I have used date syrup, unrefined molasses sugar, and maple syrup – just be aware these may slightly alter the resulting flavor)
4 cups filtered water

 

Instructions

 

  1. Cook rice if not done already. Whenever I cook rice for a meal, I make extra to use for this purpose. Alternatively, make a big batch and freeze one-cup servings of rice to use for making rice milk. Cooked rice freezes surprisingly well!
  2. Add all ingredients to blender.
  3. Blend on high for 4 minutes in a conventional blender or 2 minutes in a Vitamix/professional catering blender.
  4. Serve, use in cooking, or put in a container in the fridge. Keeps in the fridge for approximately 5 days.
  5. Shake before using if it has been stored in the fridge.

 

Variations

  • Add flavorings to make your rice milk more exciting and varied. Pureed strawberries for strawberry milk (or add whole strawberries when you blend the milk), cacao powder for chocolate milk (you may need additional sweetener), vanilla essence for vanilla milk. But don’t think you need to stop there. Why limit yourself? What about mango milk? Or try adding some interesting essences for different flavors. Almond essence can fool people into thinking they’re drinking almond milk, or better. Mix some mint essence into chocolate rice milk for mint chocolate milk. Any flavor you can imagine can be mixed in to make this drink more palatable for picky kids!

 

A glass of delicious rice milk

I use rice milk for everything. Pancakes, muffins, and bread in baking. I mix it into scrambled eggs, frittatas, and quiches. I use it in smoothies and desserts. And, of course, I use it on its own, for drinking or for cereal. Try using flavored rice milk with plain cereals like Weet Bix, pure shredded wheat, or plain puffed cereals. Adding a flavored milk like chocolate or strawberry will give the cereal the impression of having the fun flavor, too. This can help you cut the heavy artificial sweeteners and flavors out of kids’ diets by enabling you to eliminate heavily flavored and sweetened cereals from their diets.

 

I hope you enjoy this recipe for rice milk as much as we do!

Healthy Sweet Juice Pulp Muffins/Cupcakes

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Healthy Sweet Juice Pulp Muffins/Cupcakes

Fruit Pulp Muffins

My husband has been doing a juice fast recently, leaving me with a massive amount of juice pulp.  Although most of the pulp has been vegetable pulp, he has provided me with some fruit pulp, which I’m excited to use.  There are so many ways to use fruit pulp!  Add it to oatmeal, mix it with yogurt, and even mix it into cookies.  Today, I decided to use some to make some sweet, fruity muffins.

Fruit pulp

What is the difference between a sweet muffin and a cupcake?  I kind of consider them to be very similar, but there are some differences.  Muffins, even sweet ones, are not too sweet, whereas cupcakes tend to be much sweeter.  Muffins are also more dense while cupcakes are a bit more fluffy.  I also tend to think that cupcakes come with icing on top, while muffins do not.  Therefore, this recipe is for muffins but I include instructions how to alter it to make it into cupcakes.

Ingredients in mixing bowl

These muffins are great for breakfast or as a snack.  They are only slightly sweet so they satisfy kids’ desire for a sweet flavor without giving a sugar rush.  (They do not contain processed sugar.)  The size of muffins is inherently a good serving size for sending in a school lunch.  Because they are made with whole wheat flour, they are actually a really healthy (and slightly sneaky) way to get kids to consume whole grains.  Because they are made with fruit pulp, they are not as sweet as if you made them with whole fruit – most of the fruit sugar goes out with the juice.  Yet, they still give the flavor of the fruit.  As a bonus, the fruit pulp is very high in fiber, which too many kids today don’t get enough of.  They don’t have too many ingredients and none of them are too hard to get ahold of (except possibly the juice pulp, if you are not juicing on your own).

Batter for fruit pulp muffins

The fruit used to make the pulp was a mix.  It was at least 50% strawberry, but also included a mix of grape, plum, and nectarine.  Really, any mix of fruit would work.  Of course it will change the flavor of your muffins dramatically, but that’s okay.  It means that every time you make this recipe it will be new and fun.

Sweet Fruity Muffins

This recipe makes approximately 2 dozen mini muffins and 6 regular size muffins.

Ingredients

1 cup fruit pulp (from juicing)
1 cup rice milk
1 free range egg
1 tbsp organic agave nectar (or honey)
1 cup self-raising whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp baking soda

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 175 C/350 F forced fan setting (increase by 10-20 degrees C if not using fan force).
  2. Mix together wet ingredients.
  3. Sift together dry ingredients
  4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well.
  5. Put in greased or lined muffin tins.  You can fill them to the top as these are muffins and don’t rise much.
  6. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Let cool before serving.

Variations

  • To turn these muffins into cupcakes, do three things:
    1) Add 1-2 teaspoons baking powder (to give them the extra lift they need)
    2) Sweeten them extra with an additional 1-2 tbsp agave nectar
    3) Top them with healthy frosting or icing!
  • Add extra flavors for a new dimension.  A few drops of vanilla not only gives a nice vanilla flavor but also gives the sensation of increased sweetness.  Other essences work, too, such as almond extract or even rum extract.
  • Add spices.  Depending on what kind of juice pulp you’re using, you can pair it with certain spices that work well together.  For instance, if you are using pear or apple pulp, consider adding some cinnamon or nutmeg.  Grapes go well together with cinnamon, star anise, and cloves.  Strawberry and banana is surprisingly good with flavors like orange zest and Chinese five spice.

Fruit juice pulp mini muffins ready to go in the oven

These muffins were an absolute hit in our house.  It is almost worth it to make more juice just to get the pulp!  Enjoy – and let me know how yours turn out!

Fruit juice pulp muffin

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

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Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

Roasted root vegetables

Following on my last couple of posts about roasted vegetables, here is an alternate and incredibly easy use for roasted root vegetables: soup!  My husband loves soup and although he prefers chunky soups to purees, I find a hot and hearty pureed soup really comforting.  This is another way to repurpose one meal into another.

Roasted root vegetable soup is so simple to make, I don’t even think I need to post up separate instructions:

  1. Dump roasted root vegetables into a blender.
  2. Add some vegetable stock.
  3. Blend.
  4. Serve.

The thing about making roasted root vegetables is that I find it incredibly easy to make a massive amount at once.  But eating roasted vegetables every night for a week can get a bit boring, so it is worth it to find alternate uses for them.  If it is possible to make a huge amount of something one night so I can do minimal cooking the other nights of the week, I am game.  Who doesn’t love a life hack like that?

Often when we repurpose leftovers, it’s tempting to just change them marginally.  But they still retain the same mouthfeel, even if the flavors change a bit.  By turning the roasted root vegetables into a soup, you completely alter their texture and taste.  Normally when we eat roasted root vegetables, we taste each individual vegetable.  You can close your eyes and tell if you are eating a potato, a carrot, or a beet.  Even if you get a couple of different flavors in one bite, they are only marginally mixed and still identifiable.  But once they are blended into a soup, the flavors meld seamlessly and create a new taste.

Simply adding all these vegetables to a pot, boiling, and blending will not give you the same result as roasting.  Roasting is a process that tends to intensify and concentrate flavors.  The caramelization process that takes place during roasting naturally intensifies the sweetness of even the most bland ingredients.  Boiling and then blending will leave you with a soup that is much more bland and flavorless, whereas blending up roasted vegetables will give your soup all the oomph and power of sweet, concentrated flavors.

Another bonus of turning leftover roasted root vegetables into soup is the freeze factor.  Roasted root vegetables cannot just be frozen as they are because some vegetables just will not maintain the right kind of texture and flavor when later defrosted, plus you’ll lose all the crunchiness that comes from roasting and be left with soggy cubes.  Not appetizing!  But once you blend all the vegetables up into a soup, you can definitely freeze it.  Just remember that if your mixture contains potatoes, you will need to stir well when you reheat it to redistribute the moisture in the soup evenly throughout.

Perhaps the best part about this soup is that it is so easy and fast.  Once you have your roasted root vegetables, you basically just need to spend one minute blending them.  If they’re cool, then just heat and serve.

And of course, it is versatile, too.  You can change the flavor of the soup dramatically depending on what vegetables in what amounts you’ve chosen to roast.  Is it a sweeter soup with lots of things like pumpkin and beets?  Or is it more savory, with flavors like potato and celeriac?

Changing the seasonings on the roasted root vegetables also dramatically changes the flavor profile of the soup.  Make Indian-style curried root vegetables and you’ll have a curried soup.  Italian herbs give you an Italian style soup.  Virtually any flavor combination that works for roasted root vegetables works for roasted root vegetable soup, too.

Finally, jazz it up with different toppings.  A soup heavy in orange colored vegetables, like pumpkin, carrot, and sweet potato, begs for a sprinkle of nutmeg and some toasted pumpkin seeds.  Pine nuts and soaked raisins are the perfect topping for a Moroccan-style blend.  Try sour cream and spring onions (or finely diced jalapenos) on a Mexican-style blend.  A curried soup goes great with some yogurt and chutney on top.  As far as toppings go, they sky’s the limit!

Because roasted root vegetables often include more starchy or high-calorie ingredients, a big bowl of this soup is satisfying enough to constitute an entire meal.  Alternatively, serve it up as a pre-course, or even during the meal itself.  A curried soup can be a nice side during a meal of thali while a Moroccan-style soup could even be poured over a mound of couscous.

Heat it up really hot before school and fill a thermos to send with your child as a healthy school lunch choice – it should still be hot, but not too hot, by the time they are ready to eat it.

To me, roasted root vegetable soup is the ultimate comfort food.  It’s easy and fast and is a great way to repurpose leftovers.  I hope you enjoy!  We enjoyed it so much I completely forgot to take a picture until it was all gone!

Roasted Root Vegetables, Three Ways

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Roasted Root Vegetables, Three Ways

Roasted root vegetables

Yesterday I posted about how to make the perfect roasted vegetables.  It’s one of my go-to dishes when I am unsure of what I ought to make for dinner because it tastes great, it’s incredibly versatile, and it’s perfect leftover food for lunch the next day.  Recently, I had a collection of root vegetables I decided to roast up.  I had too many for just one tray, so I decided to do three trays, three different ways!

I have had people ask me about how to season the veggies when you are roasting them.  The reality is, you can season them with just about any flavor combination you love.  And you can cheat, too, by buying pre-mixed spice combinations like Chinese five spice or Mexican taco seasoning and using those.  Yes, that is a legitimate way to get a good flavor on your roasted vegetables!  Your guests will never need to know how easy it was to mix those spices up.

Just be sure to avoid liquid seasonings like teriyaki, hoisin, duck, or garlic sauce.  Save those for a stir fry or for dipping some tempura vegetables in.  It’s tempting to want to just drizzle on some sauce and stir it around, but often these kinds of sauce thin out when heated.  The result will be a sticky gooey mess on the bottom of your roasting pan.  Your vegetables will not be evenly coated and they will end up soggy.  Seriously, stick with a thin coating of extra virgin olive oil and dry spices and herbs.

Of course, if you are into mixing up your own spices, feel free to do so.  The vast majority of the time, I mix my own flavors and they turn out amazing.  I’ve spent a lot of time testing different flavors and generally have a pretty good idea what they combine well with.  When I come across a flavor I happen not to be comfortable with, I simply leave it out or experiment with it in small batches until I get a good feel for the flavor.  Just two years ago, for example, I was totally unfamiliar with tarragon.  It’s still not a flavor I use all that often, but now I know its uses pretty well (I love it with fish and, perhaps surprisingly, in a German potato salad).  So, rule of thumb, if you’re not 100% certain the spices and herbs you’re planning on using go well A) with the vegetables you’re roasting and B) with one another, just avoid them, OR make a small batch first .  Better safe than sorry!

Now that you know how to make Chinese flavored roasted vegetables (just add a tiny drizzle of Bragg’s seasoning prior to coating with olive oil, then mix in Chinese five spice mixture) and how to make Mexican flavored roasted vegetables (just mix in Mexican taco seasoning mixture), I’m going to move on to the more advanced class: Three ways I love to make my roasted vegetables.

*WARNING* I am NOT going to give amounts for each of the seasonings.  It completely depends on how much you are making and how strong you want the flavor.  Also, I suck at measuring things and didn’t have the patience to make these dishes several times to measure everything until I figured out the perfect amount when I could get the perfect amount the first time just by eyeballing it.  Sorry!

Roasted Root Vegetables, Three Ways

Winter Vegetable Mix for Roasting

These are the vegetables I used:

  • Potatoes
  • Butternut Squash/Pumpkin
  • Sweet Potato
  • Rutabaga/Swede
  • Turnip
  • Parsnip
  • Carrot
  • Daikon Radish
  • Onion

(There is also garlic in these, but I didn’t use it for all of the mixes, only one.)

Preparing a huge batch of roasted vegetables

First you have to chop up your vegetables, then toss them in olive oil.  If you don’t know how to do this, please follow my tutorial on how to make the perfect roasted root vegetables.

The instructions for all of the following spice mixes is the same: Add the spices/herbs to your oil-coated vegetables, mix to coat, then cook (again, according to the tutorial – I’m not going to repeat myself a zillion times here.  I have two whiny kids begging me to take them to the park!).

Italian Style

Serve this one with some white fish poached in wine and some whole wheat garlic bread.

Italian Roasted Vegetables

Fresh garlic cloves (whole or sliced/diced/mashed – up to you)
Basil
Oregano
Rosemary
Thyme
Black Pepper
(Salt – optional)

Indian Style

Serve this one with a pot of dahl and coconut and lime whole grain basmati rice.

Roasted Vegetables Indian Style

Curry Powder
Garam Masala (mild – unless your kids like spicy food)
Garlic Powder
Ginger Powder
Organic Flaked Coconut OR cubed fresh young coconut
(Salt – optional)

Moroccan Style

Serve this one with some eggs cooked in a spicy tomato sauce and couscous with raisins and pine nuts.

Moroccan Style Roasted Vegetables

Cumin
Coriander
(Sweet) Paprika (again, unless you have kids with asbestos mouths)
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Ginger Powder
Diced Preserved Lemon

I hope you enjoy these three suggestions for good roasted root vegetable seasonings!  They make great meals and also make good lunches and fillings for wraps to send to school with your kids.

If you have your own favorite spice combo, please share!

Roasted Vegetables: A Healthy Meal How-To

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Roasted Vegetables: A Healthy Meal How-To

Roasted vegetables sounds like the easiest healthy meal/side dish in the world.  And in some respects, it is.  It is simple to prepare, highly versatile, and is usually very healthy.  But there are a lot of ways to roast vegetables, some better than others.  This is a guide for how to make the very best healthy roasted vegetables.

 Preparing a huge batch of roasted vegetables

What Vegetables?

Before making roasted vegetables, you have to ask yourself what kind of veggies you want to roast.  Do you want it to have a more savory flavor or more sweet? Do you want to do winter/root vegetables or summer vegetables?  You can’t just mix and match any vegetables.  Some cook slower and others faster, plus some flavors just go together better.

Some vegetables can go either way, which I tend to think of as onions (especially yellow/white/brown/Spanish onions for winter vegetable roasts and red onions for summer vegetable roasts) and garlic primarily.  Tomatoes can also be nice in a winter vegetable roast, especially if you’re planning to puree it into soup later.  I find eggplant can also go either way.  If you do want to mix it up a bit, for instance to mix carrots in with “summer” vegetables, put them in to roast for a while before adding your other vegetables.  For the most part, however, I divide vegetables into “summer” and “winter” vegetables, although there may be some crossover as to when the veggies are actually in season.

Winter Vegetable Mix for Roasting

Winter Vegetables
Winter vegetables tend to be hard vegetables that take a bit longer to cook.  The ones in bold below are especially sweet and can be mixed in with a more savory mixture or selected on their own to make a sweet mix that will appeal to kids’ sweet tooth palates.

  • Carrots
  • Parsnip
  • Turnip
  • Rutabaga/Swede
  • Celeriac/Celery Root
  • Potatoes
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Beets
  • Pumpkin/Butternut/Winter Squash
  • Kholrabi
  • Radish/Daikon
  • Yam
  • Cassava/Yuca/Manioc
  • Jerusalem Artichoke/Sunchoke

Summer Vegetables
Summer vegetables tend to be softer, quicker to cook, and more varied in type.

  • String Beans/Green Beans/Wax Beans
  • Asparagus
  • Summer Squash/Button Squash
  • Zucchini
  • Tomatoes/Cherry Tomatoes/Grape Tomatoes/Heirloom Tomatoes
  • Eggplant
  • Corn
  • Capsicum/Bell Pepper
  • Sweet Mini Peppers
  • Spring Onions
  • Cabbage
  • Cauliflower
  • Broccoli
  • Mushrooms
  • Brussels Sprouts

Unusual Additions
Some foods are not “traditional” additions to a tray of roasted vegetables, but can actually complement a tray of roasted vegetables, make it “pop,” or become a great talking point.  If you’re making a savory dish, adding one sweet or tart element, like fruit or berries, creates an added flavor dimension that takes a dish above and beyond.  Who says roasted vegetables have to be simple or boring?!  For instance, adding sliced star fruit into a tray of green and red summer vegetables will be both visually and flavorfully appealing, but will also be a great talking point around the table.

  • Baby Bok Choy
  • Celery
  • Cucumbers (salt first to draw out extra moisture)
  • Olives/Capers
  • Berries (Strawberries, Blackberries, Raspberries)
  • Figs
  • Peaches
  • Pineapple
  • Apple
  • Grapes
  • Tofu
  • Tempeh
  • Seitan

Cut Them Up

Vidalia Chop WizardCutting up veggies to roast sounds simple, but some techniques are better than others.  I used to just roughly chop up vegetables into big bite-sized pieces, but after having kids I realized this was less than ideal.  Not only did it mean I had to cut them up further for my kids, but uneven sized meant some small pieces were overcooked while other big pieces were undercooked.  If you’re just planning to whiz them into soup, this won’t matter, but if you actually want to eat your roast vegetables, you need consistency.  Ideally, you want all pieces about the same size and you want them small enough for your kids.

Vidalia Chop WizardI use a Vidalia Chop Wizard to attain an even dice on all hard vegetables.  The cubes it makes are always the same size and are perfectly bite-sized for babies and toddlers.  Because they are smaller, they cook a faster, but it is so easy to use that you won’t have to spend lots of time chopping your vegetables.  I just slice them and then push them through my Vidalia Chop Wizard.  I have been using this thing for at least 10 years now and it’s still going.  I have tried other brands, but I’m nowhere near as enthusiastic about them.  This one, I would actually buy again.  It’s cheap and it saves me loads of chopping time. And it is apparently indestructible. What’s not to love?

For summer vegetables, I just try my best to get them in bite-size pieces all of approximately the same size.  I might slice beans and asparagus all into one-inch pieces.  Zucchini I will slice lengthwise in quarters and then slice into sticks or chunks depending on how skinny my zucchini are.  (Zucchini are my favorite summer vegetable.  LOVE their versatility!).

Seasoning

I use a huge variety of seasonings and I tend to season winter and summer vegetables differently.  In fact, seasoning roasted vegetables really merits its own post, which I think I’ll save for tomorrow.

Mixing Vegetables for Roasting

The most important part of seasoning roasted vegetables is getting the right amount of oil on.  You want just enough to lightly coat them.  Too little and your veggies will become too dried out.  Too much and you’ll have a disgusting oily layer at the bottom of your pan.  I used to just dump a whole bunch of oil on top of the vegetables in the pan and hope for the best.  The best was never what I got.  No, to get the right result, you really must season first in another bowl where you can thoroughly toss your vegetables.  I always used my hands so I can get a literal feel for how much oil is on my vegetables.  As a rule, I add just a couple of tablespoons, mix, and add more if necessary to coat.  By tossing in a separate bowl, you can make sure oil and seasonings are evenly distributed, but you also avoid gross roasted vegetables if too much oil goes in.  Just leave the extra at the bottom of the bowl when you transfer to a baking tray/pan.  (Don’t just dump the vegetables in – spoon them or scoop them in.)

At their most basic, season your vegetables with sea salt and cracked black pepper.  Roasted vegetables caramelize nicely so they really have amazing flavors on their own, which just need a note of salt to highlight.  As I said above, you can season with all sorts of flavors, herbs, and spices, but that’s for another post…

Now Roast Them!

Roasted Vegetables

For root vegetables chopped small, I will fill a whole tray with them – they shrink as they cook – and I won’t worry about even trying to do a single layer.  I then mix them up during the cooking process so that as the top layer gets a nice caramelized brown color, I mix it to put the bottom layer on top.  This ensures the nice crunchy caramelized bits are distributed throughout and nothing burns.  Summer vegetables, on the other hand, I always try to get in as much of a single layer as I can, because they tend to be more watery types of vegetables and benefit from having more access to the air circulating in the oven.

You want to get the temperature such that it is hot enough to cook the vegetables but not so hot it burns them before they have time to caramelize.  I generally cook mine at 180 C fan forced or 200 C if not (Americans should use 400 F).  Root vegetables take 45-60 minutes to cook through if they are chopped small or 60-75 minutes if chopped large.  Summer vegetables generally take 30-45 minutes.

Serve Them

Roasted vegetables are delicious as a side dish, but I also use them as a main so they can be the star of the show.  Starchy winter vegetables are hearty enough to really fill you up.  Pair them with a less conventional grain dish, like polenta, quinoa, or even couscous.  Roast some marinated tofu or tempeh in the oven at the same time or add cubed tofu or tempeh to your roasted vegetable dish and you’ll have a complete meal.

Roasted vegetables are also good cold.  This makes them an ideal part of a school lunch.  Both winter and summer vegetable roasts are good cold and lend themselves to becoming portions of a school lunch.  You can also send them as filling in a wrap or, rather than using a grain-based wrap, make a flat omelet and wrap that around your roasted vegetables for a high-protein lunch option.  This is where the small dice method really comes in handy – it is just the perfect size and shape for filling wraps and omelets!

So go ahead, enjoy your perfectly roasted vegetables.  Winter or summer, hot or cold, they are a delicious and nutritious addition to your kids’ diet.  Remember, even if your kids are vegetable-averse, you can tempt them by doing a sweet mixture, such as sweet potatoes, carrots, butternut, and beets with apples or peaches mixed in.  Delicious, nutritious, and kid friendly! Yay!

(Raw) Vegan Gluten Free Pizza Crackers

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(Raw) Vegan Gluten Free Pizza Crackers

Maybe it is because I am a child of the 80’s that I remember eating pizza-flavored crackers as I grew up. I’m probably thinking of the Combos Pizzeria Pretzel, pizza flavored bugles crackers, or the inimitable Combos Pepperoni Pizza Cracker, although the thought of pepperoni-flavored anything pretty much freaks me out now.  Still, I love pizza and it is probably one of my favorite foods.  So what could be better than a pizza-flavored snack?  A healthy pizza-flavored snack, of course!

Carrots, beets, and red capsicum/bell pepper cut up and ready to be juiced.

Carrots, beets, and red capsicum/bell pepper cut up and ready to be juiced.

So here it is, the ultimate snack of goodness that your kids will love because it tastes like pizza and that you will love because there is nothing that could even remotely be construed as unhealthy in it.  That’s right, they are vegan, gluten-free, raw (if you keep the temperature on your oven below 115 F/46 C), fat-free, and they are even kosher enough for the strictest of Passover-keeping Jews (and there is no diet more strict than that – they make gluten free and paleo look like wimps).  I am honestly convinced that this recipe is the snack recipe to end all snack recipes.  Because it is made of amazing.

Add spices to juice pulp to flavor it. When the pulp is dehydrated, the flavor concentrates and makes these crackers FULL of flavor!

Add spices to juice pulp to flavor it. When the pulp is dehydrated, the flavor concentrates and makes these crackers FULL of flavor!

The key ingredient in this recipe is juice pulp, so you actually kind of get a two-for-one deal in this recipe.  Sure, you get a crunchy snack cracker that tastes like pizza, but you also get some super healthy (and yummy) juice to drink.  It really is an all-around winner.

Juice pulp and spice mix spread on a baking tray, ready to be dehydrated into crackers

Juice pulp and spice mix spread on a baking tray, ready to be dehydrated into crackers

Vegan Gluten-Free Pizza Crackers

Ingredients

4-5 packed cups juice pulp from red/orange veggies (I used carrots, beets, and red capsicum/bell pepper)
1 heaping tbsp tomato paste
1 heaping tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
1 tsp rubbed oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp salt (I use pink himalayan salt)

Instructions

  1. Juice your vegetables and discard the juice.  Just kidding! Drink the juice and keep the pulp to make these crackers.
  2. Mix all ingredients.  I recommend using your hands to ensure all ingredients are evenly distributed and to break up any clumps of pulp.
  3. Using the flat of your palm, press pulp mixture evenly onto 2 cookie trays lined with baking/wax paper.  Depending on how thick you want your crackers to be, this will fill 2 medium or 2 medium-large trays (or 1 giant tray).  Alternately, press into the trays provided with your dehydrator.
  4. If you are making thicker crackers, score the pulp with a knife so you can break the crackers apart easily later.
  5. Optionally sprinkle top of crackers with sea salt.
  6. Place the trays in your oven on the lowest setting.  I use 50 C fan forced, but keep it below 46 C if you are going for a raw option.  (Although this designation makes me confused, as it definitely gets above 46C in the Aussie outback on a regular basis, so I suppose nothing grown there could be considered raw… but I digress.)  Bake until crispy.  Times vary depending on your oven, settings, and thickness of the crackers.  I make mine quite thin and with fan force on it takes only 3 hours to fully dehydrate these crackers.  If you are doing thicker crackers, do not have fan force, or use a centrifugal juicer that does not get out as much juice as a masticating juicer, it may well take 5 hours to complete this.
  7. Break apart crackers and test.  If you made thicker crackers, break on the lines you scored.  If you made thinner crackers like I do, you will find they have shrunk and cracked on their own during the dehydrating process.  They won’t be perfect little squares, but who cares when they taste so good?!  If crackers are not crunchy and brittle, return to the oven and check again in 30-60 minutes.
  8. Enjoy crackers on their own or with toppings that pair well with pizza, like sliced olives, sun dried tomatoes, etc.  Store extra crackers in an airtight plastic container or ziplock bag.

Variations

  • Finely chop up “pizza” toppings and mix them in.  My favorite is olives but other toppings such as sun dried tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, roasted red bell peppers/capsicum, crumbled tofu, mushrooms, tempeh, or vegetarian meat substitutes.  Be sure not to overdo it with the “toppings” as you still want your crackers to be crackers!
  • Change the spices added.  These crackers really smell and taste like actual Italian pizza, but mixing in other flavors like basil won’t hurt.  Or change the spice mixture completely, swapping for instance with Mexican spice mix to make “taco” crackers.
The final juice pulp crackers have a nice reddish-orange color that suits their pizza flavor. They're very high in fiber and also have lots of great nutrition. Because they are so highly concentrated, they also have a delicious flavor - you will be really surprised!

The final juice pulp crackers have a nice reddish-orange color that suits their pizza flavor. They’re very high in fiber and also have lots of great nutrition. Because they are so highly concentrated, they also have a delicious flavor – you will be really surprised!

I hope your kids love these crackers as much as mine do!  I’ve actually had to restrict my older toddler from eating too many or he’ll eat the whole lot of them.  Of course, if you have a child who suffers from constipation, eating the whole lot of crackers might be a good move – these snacks will keep your kids very regular!  But given that most kids today do not enough enough fiber, these crunchy crackers are a really healthy addition to your kids’ diets.  In fact, even my “big kid” had been sneaking crackers from their box constantly – and he’s the one who’s supposed to be doing a juice fast!

Easy Fat-Free Vegan Tomato Soup

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Easy Fat-Free Vegan Tomato Soup

Given the recent study that was released, showing a low-fat vegan diet is the best way to reduce heart disease risk factors in children, I thought it is a great time to showcase one of my family’s staple meals: tomato soup.  If you’re like me, you grew up with tomato soup as the ultimate comfort food.  When I was a kid, I would have a can of Campbell’s tomato soup with a buttery grilled cheese sandwich and it would warm up my whole world.  Today, I make my own, homemade tomato soup, which takes just about the same amount of effort as the canned version, but is much, much healthier.  Instead of an unhealthy sandwich of refined white bread holding together a clump of gooey animal fats, I ladle my homemade comfort soup over brown rice and voila! I have instant, healthy, completely fat-free vegan comfort food for the whole family.

Before making this soup, I toss all the tomatoes I need to use up in a big tub of water and wash them as I go.

Before making this soup, I toss all the tomatoes I need to use up in a big tub of water and wash them as I go.  You can use up any type of tomatoes you have around, and can even use up tomatoes that are older, going mushy, or have bad spots (just cut them out).

One of the biggest complaints in the heart disease study I examined yesterday was that vegan foods with no added fat were more expensive and difficult to find.  I believe that if people only knew how easy it is to replicate traditional unhealthy processed foods at home they would no longer rely on the processed versions.   Tomato soup is amazing and it is also amazingly easy to make a delicious version to rival anything you can get in a can.

Begin by adding onion (then garlic) to the bottom of your soup maker or pot. Normally I add a tablespoon or two of extra virgin olive oil but for this no added fat version I simply omit that step. Because the entire soup cooks together in broth, rather than sauteeing the onion and garlic in oil first, the oil is purely optional.

Begin by adding onion (then garlic) to the bottom of your soup maker or pot. Normally I add a tablespoon or two of extra virgin olive oil but for this no added fat version I simply omit that step. Because the entire soup cooks together in broth, rather than sauteeing the onion and garlic in oil first, the oil is purely optional.

I guess I have become a bit of a tomato soup connoisseur.  I have tried and tested dozens of tomato soup recipes.  Some I like better, some less. My all-time favorite tomato soup recipe is one I picked up from the cookbook “Market Vegetarian: Easy Organic Recipes for Every Occasion” by Ross Dobson.  It’s a bit more time consuming, however, with the added step of roasting the vegetables prior to turning them into soup.  When I was single, I was happy to take that extra step, but as a busy mom… who has time for that?!  I want tomato soup, I want it now, and I don’t want to spend more than 5 minutes of active time making it!

I add fresh tomatoes to my soup maker up to the fill line before adding broth.

I add fresh tomatoes to my soup maker up to the fill line before adding broth.

I will admit this is a bit of a cheat recipe for me.  One day nearly two years ago, my husband came home with a masticating slow juicer and a surprise – a soup maker!  At the time we joked that it was a “wife replacer” because my husband is obsessed with soup, so we have soup as a meal almost every day of the week, especially when the weather is cool, but even frequently when the weather is hot.  I asked him why I would need such an item when I make so much soup on the stove.  But I have since changed my tune.  While I still make a lot of my soups on the stove or in my trusty crock pot, the soup maker has become my go-to for quick soups.  This recipe is one example of a recipe I love to just toss in and let go, but if you don’t have a soup maker, don’t worry.  I’ll provide easy instructions.  It might take an extra couple of minutes of time, but it still won’t be much more involvement than making a can of soup would be!

The finished tomato soup in the soup maker, still frothy from being blended just 1 minutes ago, but a bright red color and smelling great! My mouth is watering!

The finished tomato soup in the soup maker, still frothy from being blended just 1 minutes ago, but a bright red color and smelling great! My mouth is watering!

One thing I love about this recipe is that you can use up whatever tomatoes are around.  If I end up with a lot of tomatoes that are just too ripe to make salad with, into this soup they go.  If I have a few tomatoes with spots, I cut them out and toss the good parts in the pot.  If I have too many tomatoes or if they are in season and I can pick up a case for cheap, I make a massive quantity of this soup and into the freezer it goes for future consumption on a lazy day.  My baby is obsessed with tomatoes, so anything that tastes like tomatoes is an instant winner with him.

Are you saying I need to give up my tomato for the paleo diet?!

I love tomatoes, in any form!

Another great thing about this recipe is that it is really versatile.  You can mix it up and add in all sorts of different flavors and even different ingredients.  You can make it thicker or thinner.  You can add fat or not. You can add dairy or not.  Or you can just make it as is.  After all, it only calls for four ingredients!  What’s not to love?!

Easy Vegan Tomato Soup

Ingredients

10-12 tomatoes (depending on size)
1/2 medium onion, preferably red
2 large cloves garlic
~2 cups vegetable broth
(pinch salt, if your broth is a low-sodium version)

Instructions

  1. (Optional) Put 2 cups of brown rice and 4 cups of water in a rice cooker and set to cook.
  2. Quarter your onion half, peel your garlic, and add them to your pot (or soup maker).
  3. Quarter your tomatoes – approximately 12 roma tomatoes, 9 vine ripened, or 6 beef tomatoes.  If using giant beef tomatoes, you should cut them in eights instead of quarters.
  4. Add tomatoes to the pot and add broth to just below the tomatoes (not too much unless you want a very watery soup).  If your broth is low sodium, you should add a pinch of salt here.  Salt helps bring out the flavor of tomatoes.
  5. Plug in soup maker, set on “smooth” setting, and go relax until it beeps.
  6. Put on the stovetop on medium-high and cook for approximately 30 minutes.  Watch to be sure it does not boil over – if it begins to boil reduce to a simmer.  Stir at 20 and 25 minute marks.
  7. Pour soup into a blender and blend until smooth, approximately 1 minute.
  8. Place a mound of brown rice in a bowl, pour soup over, and serve.

Variations

  • If you’re not going for the fat-free version, I find a small amount of oil can help make this soup taste a bit more creamy.  Add 1-2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to the bottom of the pot before adding all your other ingredients.
  • Try a red pepper and tomato soup.  I know this is a flavor of soup I’ve seen in the organic brands at places like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.  Just substitute a red capsicum/bell pepper for a couple of the tomatoes.  You don’t need more than one really big one or two smaller ones to get a good flavor.
  • Add fresh herbs.  Almost any fresh herbs will work – tomatoes are so versatile and seem to work in pretty much any cuisine I’ve ever found.  Toss in some leaves of fresh basil just before blending.  Fresh oregano, rosemary, and thyme are great.  Add a nice big sprig of rosemary or thyme and remove just before blending, or sprinkle just a bit on top and blend it in. Or try dried herb blends, like an Italian herb blend.
  • Add spices.  Spice mixes give a fantastic foreign dimension to this all too traditional American soup.  Add some curry powder, moroccan spice mix, or even Mexican taco seasoning for an all-new experience.
  • Add some dairy.  Keep it vegan by topping your bowl of soup with some cashew sour cream, or splurge and go for the real thing.  Or sprinkle some cheddar or shredded pepper jack cheese on top.  Mix cream or whole (full cream) milk throughout before serving to turn it into a cream of tomato soup.
  • Double, triple, quadruple this recipe… it freezes well and doesn’t take much effort to double.  You will need to extend the cooking time before blending so the increased amount of liquid and vegetables come to the right temperature.  Once it comes to a boil, reduce and simmer for another 20 minutes, stirring 10 and 15 minutes into the simmering.

I hope you can see that this soup is soup-er easy (I couldn’t resist).  It is also incredibly versatile.  I think it tastes just as good as the tinned kind – no, better!  Because it’s made with fresh tomatoes, it has that mouthwatering fresh flavor no tinned version ever could.  And with all the possible variations your family will never get bored.  You can play with the flavor variations endlessly!

For families with kids in school, consider making this in the morning and sending it for lunch in a thermos.  In a good thermos it should still be hot enough to eat at lunchtime.  Send it with a container of brown rice on the side your child can spoon in as they go.  In other parts of the world, soup for lunch is a standard, but in western society it is much less common.  Your child will no doubt really enjoy the change!

I hope you enjoy this easy and tasty recipe.  Please let me know what variations you have tried and how you like them!

The Healthiest Hamantaschen Filling: Plum Butter!

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The Healthiest Hamantaschen Filling: Plum Butter!

A spoonful of plum butter prune hamantaschen filling

Hamantaschen, those triangular cookies that are the most delicious and traditional of Purim foods, can be filled with all sorts of things.  Usually I buy a jar of jam and just spoon it in.  This works just fine if you don’t care about how healthy it is – I have yet to find a store-bought jam that meets my high standards regarding processed sugar.  Of course, there is always the option to make your own jam, without using processed sweeteners, but golly that’s a lot of work! Who has time for that?  I need something healthy, easy, and fast.  Enter: prunes!

Prunes?! Yes, I know it doesn’t sound very romantic, but it is my husband’s favorite hamantaschen filling.  There’s a reason it’s such a traditional hamantaschen filling.  Cooking the prunes enhances their natural sweetness, giving you a filling that is sweet and gooey.  It’s just plain YUM.

Normally I turn to The Shiksa in the Kitchen for all my hamantaschen needs.  In my experience, she’s just got it right.  She even has an amazing recipe for plum filling.  Perfect!

Except… not so perfect. Her recipe calls for things like orange zest, which I generally can’t be bothered with, and brown sugar, which is basically just white processed sugar with a bit of molasses added back in.  Her recipe calls for sugar because it helps bind the filling together and acts as a preservative.  What I wanted to know was, ‘Is it possible to find a healthier alternative?’

So I did some experimenting.  I made a couple batches of plum butter.  I made over 4 dozen hamantaschen.  And I think I’ve figured it out.  It’s vegan, gluten free, and free of processed sugar.  And it’s even easier than Tori’s version.  Win!

Plum butter prune hamantaschen filling before cooking

Plum Butter (Prune Jam)

Ingredients

2 cups pitted prunes
1 cup water
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup organic pure Canadian maple syrup

Instructions

  1. Mix all ingredients except maple syrup in a small saucepan.
  2. Bring to a boil and let boil for one minute.
  3. Lower heat so pot is at a constant simmer when covered (for me this is low heat, but depending on your stove and pot it could be medium-low).
  4. Simmer 20 minutes, stirring every few minutes. (I used this time to de-clutter and just stirred every time I walked past the pot on my way to put something away – by the time I finished making this sweet treat my tables were all clutter-free and I really deserved a big test taste!)
  5. Simmer uncovered for another 3-5 minutes, stirring almost constantly to ensure prunes don’t burn, until liquid reduces and only approximately 3 tablespoons of liquid are left.
  6. Add the maple syrup and mix it through.
  7. Simmer uncovered another 2-3 minutes to allow liquid to reduce again. (This is a very important final step in the cooking process, as failing to reduce the liquid sufficiently will render your plum butter runny and not good for filling hamantaschen!)
  8. Use a potato masher to break up the prunes.  You may want to use a fork to smush up any pieces that remain too big.  If you like your fillings more smooth, you can whiz it a few times with an immersion blender.  (Just using the potato masher worked for me – I like nice big chunks of fruit in all of my jams and fruit spreads!)
  9. Cool to room temperature, but preferably refrigerate before using.  (Refrigeration will allow the mixture to congeal fully and will give you best results when making hamantaschen.)

Variations

  • Try adding some orange zest, as in Tori Avey’s version of this recipe.
  • If maple syrup is not your thing, substitute a mix of agave nectar and molasses (treacle).  Agave nectar on its own is probably too thin to get the desired consistency but molasses on its own is going to give over too much flavor and not enough sweetness.  Try mixing 2/3 agave and 1/3 molasses to get the right consistency and flavor.
  • Increase the amount of orange juice and reduce the amount of water.  I haven’t tried this, so if you do and it doesn’t work out, you’ll have only yourself to blame.  That said, this is the next alteration I’ll experiment with because I think the only thing better than plum butter might possibly be plum and orange butter.
  • Add some spices.  Cinnamon is my number one recommendation – the combination of cinnamon and orange with the cooked prunes is just heavenly!
  • Substitute the orange juice with apple juice.  Then cinnamon would really be amazing!
  • Give a hint of Indian comfort by substituting black tea for the water and orange juice, and then using chai spice to add extra flavor.

Finished plum butter prune filling for hamantaschen

This amount of Plum Butter is enough to comfortably fill about 8 dozen hamantaschen if you use just one teaspoon per cookie, although if you sample some it won’t go so far.

Not making that many?  No problem!  Extra plum butter can be used as a filling for other cookies and can even be used as a secret filling in something like cupcakes or sweet muffins.  But best of all, it is a perfect topping for toast and an amazing filling for peanut butter and jelly.  Or you can do what I did this morning – make some healthy pancakes and use plum butter as a filling to make a sandwich your kids can hold in their hands and eat.  Who needs butter and syrup?!

I hope you enjoy this yummy holiday recipe and please do share with me your feedback and if you’ve tried any of the recommended variations, or if you have any additional variations to share.