Autumn Calling Soup

October is such a great month, I know I have said this before but it really is. Not only is there the changing of the leaves, my birthday, Halloween but it’s the perfect time to eat the squashes and pumpkins that come straight from the garden. I unfortunately do not have a garden because my backyard is a) too small b) gets little to no sunlight because of the trees c) my dogs would tear it apart!! So I rely on the wonderful farmers market on River Street. Its not huge but it fits the needs of us Moose Javians very nicely by supplying us with a great assortment of veggies and some fruit. 

The last time I was there (picking out the pumpkin and butternut squash for this soup) it was there final get together because here in Saskatchewan it gets pretty cold in October. This news makes me so sad, because I now have to go back to eating grocery store cucumbers and tomatoes, which just are SO NOT the same. Oh the hurdles I have to face on a day to day basis. *cue in the song Don’t Cry For Me Argentina* its really a horrible day for my taste buds to have to eat the grocery store knock offs, they do not taste anything like the real thing!

But I digress. Back to this amazing soup. It is so earthy, creamy, rich and warm that it just gets down to your bones and makes you feel all good inside. Soup is truly the ultimate way to ward off the winter time chills, because not only does it warm your hands by holding the bowl, but your face, mouth and your tummy. Plus if you are like me it really fills you up because you end up eating half of the pot in one sitting (its that good!!!)

Autumn Calling Soup

1 small pumpkin – I used a sugar Pie pumpkin, if they are out of season you could use a can of pumpkin puree too.

1 butternut squash

2 tbsp coconut oil, melted

7 stalks of celery, diced

3 carrots, diced

1 yellow onion, diced

1 clove garlic, diced

6 cups of water (you can add some vegetable broth if desired)

1 can coconut milk

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp coriander

1 tsp cayenne pepper

Salt pepper to taste

Pre heat oven 450 degrees.

Split the pumpkin and squash in half and de-seed each. Using the melted coconut oil brush on the insides of the squash/pumpkin halves. Place face down on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 25 mins, or until fork tender.

While those are in the oven, dice up your veggies and in a large soup pot fry them in the left over coconut oil on medium/high heat for 15 mins.

Pour in coconut milk and spices and cook for 5 mins, letting the flavours all meld together.

Remove the squash/pumpkin from the oven and using a knife, cut away the skin. Be careful these will be hot!!! You could wait until they cooled but I am impatient so I just used a oven mitt.

Throw the squash/pumpkin and the water into the pot and stir in. cooking for another 5 mins, again letting the flavours all meld together.

Finally blend the soup in a high speed blender until smooth! Serve with roasted pumpkin seeds on top and enjoy!

Thanks for reading 

xoxo -N

Broccoli, Mushroom Coconut Soup

So I just had to share this right away because I love it so much, and it only took me 35 minutes from stove to bowl. Mmmmmmmm. I thought up this recipe last night when I noticed a head of broccoli in the fridge that was close to death and I didn't want to throw it out. Its super easy and few ingredients. Enjoy!

Broccoli, Mushroom Coconut Soup
2 heads of broccoli
3 stalks of celery
5 green onions
1 sm package of mushrooms
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp  of coconut oil
1 cup vegetable broth
2 cups of water
2 young coconuts, or 2.5 cups of canned coconut milk (clearly this is not a low fat soup)
Pepper to taste

Heat up a soup pot and oil on med/high. Chop up all of the veggies into bit sized pieces. I started with the onions and celery and threw those in to the pot to sweat while I chopped up the broccoli and mushrooms. When done chopping, add all of the veggies, the broth and the pepper into pot and cook for 10 minutes. If using young coconuts open them up and scoop out all of the meat and the water from one of the coconuts, drink the rest of the water from the second young coconut while you are cooking! Blend up the meat and water until smooth in a high speed blender. Add the coconut milk and water into the pot and set to simmer. Then your final step is to take half of the soup and puree it in a blender until smooth, add it back into the pot and Viola Done!  I am really impatient so I just let it simmer for 5 minutes, basically making sure all of the veggies are cooked and the coconut milk and broth have blended well. I can only imagine what this will taste like tomorrow, if there is any left. 

Devon suggested I use cooked and blended, cauliflower next time I make this to make the soup thicker. I totally agreed and was actually planning on it, but I guess I was wrong in thinking we had a head of it in our fridge. So next time that is the plan and when I do I will let you know how it goes! 

Hope you enjoy this as much as we did! 

Thanks for reading!
xoxo Nikki

3 Ingredient Vegan Tomato Soup!

So this week I had the most amazing pleasure of getting 3 wisdom teeth out! Yippy Horay! (feel free to picture Mugatu from Zoolander when reading that, I know I do!) I am one of those people who have the hugest fear of the dentist, like crying and looking at all of the exits when I am in there kind of girl. This trip was no exception because this was my first major procedure and I am hoping it was my last. 

Last week I endured 5 days of torture while my bottom left wisdom tooth tried to free itself from my gums. I didn't like this, not one bit. So I finally got the courage to go to the dentist on Thursday to get them checked out, and make sure they were not infected. I was told that there was a month and a half wait to get the tooth pulled but I would be put on the ASAP list and I would be called if something came open. 

Well that didn't last long because on Tuesday I got the call to come in the next day to get it done! Again... Yippy Horay! I told Jessica at work that I was going to puke because I was so nervous, and I'm pretty sure she said 'Ya, I would too!' 

So there we have it, I'm getting it pulled.... tomorrow...... holy crap.

The next morning, in preparation for this awesome event, I went to Super Store to get some supplies, Oranges and Mangos for juicing and tomatoes because I wanted to try this soup that popped into my head the morning of the teeth pulling.

Thats when I get the call from the dentist:

"Would you be able to come in right away so we can take out the other two wisdom teeth?" 

My first thought was:

"F*** NO!'

 More pain!?!?! More teeth to be ripped from my face? They weren't even the ones that were bothering me last week, so I am not mad at those ones (however they have bothered my in the past, I just have forgotten the pain they caused me. Women have that ability, forgetting pain, its our superpower) 

But then my reasoning kicked in and I thought that this was a good thing. Instead of going in three times to get each one pulled separately, I could get it all done at once, and only suffer one panic attack. Win-Win!

Needless to say, I survived. The freezing was the worst part, it always is for some reason. So now I am sitting at home with kleenex in my mouth, because the bleeding just wont stop. Which means its really hard to eat and drink. So of course, I am starving, Luckily though, I bought tomatoes to make my awesome tomato soup! I fell in love with this soup at first sip, its so delicious, frothy, and super tasty for only having 3 ingredients in it! I didn't count the Salt and Pepper because some people don't need it. I added a dash of each to mine though! 

Tomato Soup - 2 servings

3 fresh tomatoes

5 fresh bay leaves

4 tbsp of coconut cream, or coconut milk

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Throw everything in a blender and blend until smooth, pour into a pot and heat until desired temperature. 

OR just eat it cold! 

I hope you enjoy this lovely soup as much as I do! 

 Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N

Butternut Squash Soup with Curry and Roasted Banana

This soup all started at Thanksgiving hosted by our Aunty Michelle and Uncle Shannon. Michelle was talking about the wine night she had just gone to and that she really enjoyed the food. Especially this soup, it was some sort of butternut squash, coconut curry and roasted banana thing. If I could have a picture of my face when she described that soup it would have been priceless. That sounded SO GOOD!! I grabbed my phone and wrote down the key ingredients she just mentioned and could NOT wait to go home and try this. 



My first attempt at this soup was pretty good, , and by good I mean my husband ate it all. I had one bowl of this soup and he had the rest of the pot. I couldn't believe it! I come home from work the next day after making it and was so excited to have a bowl. I go to the fridge and the bowl is gone. GONE?! "Devon where is the soup I made?" ....silence... "Ummm I ate it..." Instead of being angry, which he thought I might be, I was quite proud. I honestly didn't think he was going to like this soup (he isn't a fan of curry) so I was all prepared to bite the bullet and eat most of it. But I guess I was proved wrong, and happily so. 



Another reason why I posted this today is because I had a negative comment thrown my way. I know that these are a daily occurrence in everyday life and they are unavoidable. But I just wanted to put a positive spin on a woman's negative comment, because thats all we can really do when someone puts us down for our life choices. So I really hope you enjoy my soup, its gluten free and vegan so there is a huge group of people that can eat this, so please share this with your friends and family. 

Butternut Squash Soup with Curry and Roasted Banana

1 large Butternut Squash
1 ripe Banana
1 large onion, diced
3 stalks of Celery, diced
4 large carrots, diced
1 tbsp of Coconut Oil
1 clove of Garlic, minced
1 cup of Vegan Broth
6 cups of Water
1/4 cup of Coconut Milk
1 tbsp of Cumin
1 tbsp of Corriander
1 tbsp of Curry
Cilantro, garnish

Cut your squash in half and remove the seeds, place face down on a cooking sheet, along with the banana (still in the peel) and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. While this is baking, chop up all of your veggies and put them in a pre heated pot and saute with the coconut oil and garlic. Once the veggies are almost fully cooked, add in your vegetable broth and the water. Bring to a boil and then add the coconut milk and spices, stir in. Continue to simmer until the squash is done. Once fork tender, remove the squash from the oven and let it cool down so you can handle it. Chop the squash into bite size cubes and add to your soup, let cook for 10 mins. In a blender, add half of the contents of the pot and the roasted banana, blend until smooth. Pour back into the pot and simmer for 15 minutes. Garnish this with cilantro and serve! 

Thanks for reading!

xoxo - Nikki


**I have posted at the bottom of the page my Facebook post I made this morning in regards to the negative comment, just in case you were more curious about it. 

My Facebook Post:
I love the fact that I work everyday with the public. I get to see some of the same people everyday and I get to meet some new ones. Sometimes these people are interested in my new lifestyle and inquire about it. They will ask me what new recipes I have come up with lately and even some tell me how they just made my chili, spring rolls, or my curry soup. That makes me SO HAPPY! For those of you who read my blog and experiment with my recipes, I want to you know that I appreciate the love and support. It means a lot to me that you take interest in what I have to share. Thank you!

Unfortunately, there are some Nay-Sayers out there who just don't understand this way of life. For example the woman who said I lead a boring life because I was vegan, who now today told another woman that she looses her appetite when ever I talk about the food I eat. I didn't comment when I heard her say this, because I didn't feel the need too and I was already talking with a woman who has always been very supportive and interested in the things I am cooking up. 

Now, I fully understand that there are going to be people who don't agree with me and that's totally okay because life would be boring if we all did. I just think its amusing that she probably didn't consider that I loose my appetite over the things she eats too.

So to end on a happy note, I am going to post later today the recipe I was talking about that "made her loose her appetite". Its my Butternut Squash soup with an extra surprise! Keep a look out for it because I think its FANTASTIC!!

Sweet Potato Curry Soup

Brr its cold in here!!

 As the temperatures lower, and the leaves get crunchy, there is one thing I come to realize.... its now soup season! And I like to believe that I make a pretty darn good soup, not a soup whisper per say but maybe a soup fanatic. Last fall and winter I am pretty sure I made soup every week, sometimes even twice. I have made everything from an Indian inspired sweet potato/cauliflower soup, traditional harvest vegetable soup, to my all time favourite Peanut Butter Soup (more on this later). The wonder of soup is that you can pretty much put any vegetable combination into a pot, add broth and your favourite spices and VIOLA! You got Soup! So as you can tell, Soup is one of my favourite meals to make. It’s easy to prepare, easy to freeze, and really easy to eat!

Usually my process starts with me being cold and thinking ‘Man I would do anything for a bowl of soup!” So I go home and search my fridge for ingredients that work well together, grab my largest pot and start chopping! Yesterday marked day one of my soup season and boy did it turn out fricken great. As I said before, I was cold at work and thought "Mmmm soup", so I mentally thought of what I had in my fridge and sweet potatoes popped in my head. PERFECT! They are hearty, sweet, colorful, nutritious, and not as starchy as the regular potato. Then I thought, crap I don’t have celery. For me, I can’t make soup without celery. So I raced into Safeway, grabbed a bunch of organic celery and went home to start this soup.

Ingredients

• 2 medium yellow onions
• 3 mediums carrots
• 5 stalks of celery
• 2 medium sweet potatoes
• ½ head of Broccoli
• 1 tbsp of coconut oil
• 1 cube of dry vegetable broth
• 3 cups of water
• ½ cup of uncooked, strained quinoa
• 1 tsp of curry
• 1 tsp of coriander
• 1 tsp of cumin
• Fresh cilantro

  

My soup starts off like any other vegetable soup... chopped veggies! So I take out onions, carrots, celery, broccoli and the main star – Sweet Potatoes! Chop up all the vegetables into bite size pieces, and place the broccoli aside. Heat up your pot on Medium/High heat, add your oil and sauté the onions, carrots, celery and sweet potatoes for about 10 minutes. Add 2 cups of the water, and continue cooking for another 5 minutes to blend the flavours of the veggies with the water. Reduce heat.

This next step is my secret weapon... my blender!! This is something that will change your soup making days FOREVER!!!! I know it did for me. You take half of the cooked vegetables and broth, throw it in your blender and puree.  While this is blending I add my dry broth and spices to the puree while it’s going.

Next pour the pureed vegetables back into the pot and stir in until well blended. This is when you add the last cup of water, broccoli and quinoa and stir. I like my soup on the chunky side (as you can see in the picture) so I don’t add that much water, but if you like more of a watery consistency, add more water until desired thickness or thinness.  Leave on low heat for another 20 minutes or until broccoli and quinoa are fully cooked. Wait for it to cool off a bit, top with fresh cilantro and ENJOY!!

To quote my wonderful husband tonight, “Wow this is really good” followed by “You could make this every week and I would eat this!” and my favourite “I love how this soup tastes like there is cream or milk in it, but it doesn’t!”

That is the beauty of blending the cooked vegetables to add to your base of your soup. It does make your soup creamy without adding any diary to the mixture. So fewer calories, vegan friendly and less ingredients you need to have on hand. Win-win for everyone! So let me know if you try my recipe, I would love to know how you like it and if you did any other variations to it! 

xoxo -N