Creamy Butternut Squash Curried Soup

The Dilemma: We received a big, beautiful butternut squash in the organics vegetable box we ordered this week. My husband does not like squash but we have one so it must be eaten as organic food is pricey.

The Solution: Blend it and add it to a spicy soup. My husband had seconds and my son ate it all so it must have been good.

Ingredients:
1/2 a butternut squash (about 2 cups blended)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 yellow pepper, chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped (I used two home grown celery stalks because they are smaller)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp turmeric
1 can coconut milk
2 cups water
small handful of sunflower seed
1/4 cup quinoa
2 tsp red curry paste
pinch of black pepper
salt to taste
1 green onion chopped
1 tomato chopped

What to do:
1. Cut the butternut squash into large pieces, (removing the seeds and goop) arrange on a large plate and microwave on high until cooked. This took my microwave about 10 minutes. When cool enough to handle, remove the skin and blend the squash with a bit of water until smooth.
2. In a large pot on medium heat, add olive oil, pepper and celery and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute.
4. Add squash, coconut milk, water, ground ginger, turmeric, sun flower seeds, quinoa. Bring to boil at higher heat then bring to low heat and simmer until the quinoa is cooked (no longer has white center).
5. This is where I remove my son's portion as he does not like spice.
6. Mix in 2 tsp red curry paste, salt and black pepper to taste. Top with fresh tomato and green onions.

Makes about 3 servings. 

Sinfully Simple Vegan Chocolate Pudding

Every once in a while I need to eat some awesome dessert. This recipe is incredibly easy and does not need a lot of ingredients. As a basic recipe, you can customize it a lot. Cocoa is good for you and the soy milk has protein and B12 if justification is needed. Needless to say, my son likes this recipe a lot.

What you need:

• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 3 tbsp cocoa
• 3 tbsp of sugar
• 2 cups of soymilk
• Optional: Coconut whipped, chocolate shavings, mini Oreos

What to do:

Mix first three ingredients together in a pot. Add about a half a cup of the soymilk and mix well, Add the rest of the milk stirring well to combine. Heat on 4 (medium-low) continuing to mix with a whisk until the pudding thickens. Pour into bowls and put them in the fridge to cool for about an hour. Once cool, top with the chipped cream, chocolate shavings and Oreos.

Makes 3-4 servings.  

Quinoa and Lentil Vegetable Chowder

It was early in the week and we had not had time to do a proper grocery. Fortunately there are vegetables in the house (there almost always is) and a few growing outside. We always have garlic and vegetable bouillon cubes and that is all you need for a soup base. Here is what we created from what we could find. Not the prettiest dish but it tasted good and was filling.

Ingredients:

• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• vegetable bullion cube
• celery, 4 stalks if home grown, 1-2 stalks if from the store (we also chopped up the leaves and added them. 
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 cup of cauliflower,separated into florets
• 1 cup of red lentils (other lentils work fine but take more time to cook)
• 1/4 cup quinoa
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp salt

What to do:

1. Add the 4 cloves of garlic to a large sauce pan with the olive oil. Saute on medium until the garlic is fragrant and beginning to brown slightly. Don't let the garlic brown too much or it will taste burnt. 
2. Once the garlic is cooked, add about 1/2 a cup of water to stop the garlic from frying further. Stir in the bullion cube so that there are no large clumps. Add about 5 cups of waer and set to high heat. 
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and boil until the vegetables, lentils and quinoa are cooked. Remove bay leaf and enjoy :)

Stu (the Impalers) Magnificent BBQ Tofu Kabobs

I post a lot of recipes in this blog which would lead one to believe that I do all the cooking in the house. Fortunately for my sanity, this is not the case. My husband has his own set of recipes and makes dinner rather regularly. This is one of his concoctions and it is quite good. 

Ingredients:

• half a sweet onion, chopped into large pieces
• cherry tomatoes
• pepper, chopped in large pieces
• zucchini, cut into 1 cm thick slices
• a package of firm tofu, cut into cubes about a square inch
• BBQ sauce
• lemon pepper seasoning
• bamboo skewers

What to do

1. Soak 6-8 skewers in water while you are chopping up the veggies and tofu. 

2. Put zucchini in a bowel and sprinkle on some lemon pepper seasoning. Mix until evenly dispersed.

3. Impale the veggies with the skewers by piercing them with the sharpened end. Split up the veggies more or less evenly among each skewer. You can choose to arrange the veggies in a pattern or not, what ever works for you. 

4. Using a kitchen brush, spread the BBQ sauce over all the veggies and tofu except for the zucchini. 

5. Use an aerosol oil to coat a clean grill of the BBQ. Turn the BBQ on to low-medium heat. Place skewers on the grill after it has heated up a few minutes. Flip the skewers every 3-5 minutes until cooked to your liking.  Use BBQ tongs for the flipping. Add more BBQ sauce to exposed side periodically. 

6. Eat!