A Curry Pumpkin Stoup Dr. Fuhrman Would Love

Greens, onions, mushrooms and beans are a big part of Dr. Fuhrman's magical G.O.M.B.B.S. list and I try to be aware of eating these foods every single day. So when I saw that this soup recipe from Kitchen of Health had G.O.M.B.B.S. ingredients that are commonly found in my kitchen, I though it might be an easy, and hopefully fast, weeknight dinner.

It was.

And delicious too.

Not quite a soup but not totally a stew, this hearty and flavorful stoup (to borrow a phrase from Rachel Ray) just might become a regular weeknight thing for us.

Curry Pumpkin Superfood Stoup
serves 6

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1 large onion, chopped (approx. 2 cups chopped onion)
1 box (4 cups) low sodium vegetable broth
2 Tbsp curry powder (I prefer sweet curry powder, so if your curry powder is  hot/spicy, you may want to use only 1 tbsp)
1 large can (29 ounces) pumpkin puree
2 cups unsweetened almond or soy milk
2 tsp coconut extract
2 Tbsp natural creamy peanut butter
1 15 ounce can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
4 cups swiss chard (or other green you have on hand), chiffonaided
2 cups very thinly sliced mushrooms
hot sauce to taste (I used Sriracha)
salt (or not)

Coat the bottom of a large dutch oven or soup pot with vegetable broth. Turn heat to medium. When broth is bubbling, add chopped onion. Stir frequently. After 5 minutes, add curry powder and stir. Turn heat a touch lower and stirring frequently, saute onions and curry powder until onions are very soft (about 15 minutes).

Add vegetable broth, pumpkin puree, nut milk, coconut extract and peanut butter. Stir to combine.

When mixture is simmering, add garbanzo beans, swiss chard and mushrooms. Stir.

Let simmer for 20 minutes. Taste. Season with hot sauce (to taste) and salt (or not).

Lemon Coconut Chia Seed Muffins

Lately I've been really into making muffins. For one thing, I feel like they are a no-so-bad-in-the-scheme-of-things treat for my kids. They work really well in a lunch box, and I am filling up three of those every morning. And they provide a way of satisfying my sweet tooth without going overboard.

I'm a big fan of the Lemon Poppyseed muffin from way back. You know, those big over sized muffins that we thought were healthy when we were really eating the equivalent of a big hunk of birthday cake?

So when a recipe for Lemon Chia Seed muffins came to my attention while I was on vacation at the end of last year, I immediately put it on my list of must-makes. Plus I'm on a chia seed mission these days. Inspiration came in the form of this recipe from the blog Peas and Thank You (thanks Sarah for recommending them!). I have become a master at eliminating the added fat in my baked goods, so I knew I could give this one a shot.

The last remaining no-no in my baked goods is the sugar. These muffins have a scant tsp and a third of maple syrup per muffin. Not bad! I didn't have any lemon extract in the house, but no biggie! I used my trusty coconut extract instead for a more tropical effect. This one's a keeper!

Lemon Coconut Chia Seed Muffins
makes 12 muffins
adapted from this recipe from Peas and Thank You

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dry ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup barley flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup chia seeds

wet ingredients:
1/2 cup unsweetened almond or soy milk
1 1/2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
2/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp coconut extract
1 Tbsp lemon zest (or zest of 1 small lemon)

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

In a large bowl, place all dry ingredients and stir to combine well.

In a medium bowl, place all wet ingredients and whisk to combine well.

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Fill each well of a muffin tin that has been lined with cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until slightly golden in color and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Want more muffin recipes? Check out these HGK muffin recipes:

Pumpkin Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Zucchini Muffins

Pumpkin Spiced Cornbread Muffins

I love muffins! What varieties am I missing? Let me know and I will make 'em!

Rich and Creamy Butternut Squash Soup with Spinach and It's Official! Binge Eating Disorder Recognized by the APA

This year is the first year that I haven't stopped going to our local farmer's market as soon as the weather turned cold. A few weeks ago I picked up a gigantic butternut squash not sure what I was going to do with it.

A lot of ideas came together to inspire the soup that resulted. A butternut squash soup recipe from Thrive Foods by Brendan Brazier, The Healthy Librarian's faux coconut milk, the spinach in my fridge that I wanted to use up, and my sheer love of anything with curry powder.

The results were fantastic. So rich and creamy and soul satisfying for such an easy recipe.

HGK's Rich and Creamy Butternut Squash Soup with Spinach

serves 8

Printable Recipe

5 pounds whole butternut squash

6 cups unsweetened almond milk

2 Tbsp coconut extract

1 tsp curry powder

2 cups vegetable broth

fresh baby spinach

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.

Cut off the ends of the squash and discard. Cut squash in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Place halved squash, cut side down, on lined tray. Roast squash in oven for about 1 hour until largest squash is soft throughout.

Let squash cool so that you can handle it. Remove  all of the flesh from the squash and place it into a large dutch oven or soup pot. Add almond milk, coconut extract, vegetable broth and curry powder. Over medium-high heat, bring mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally until heated through.

Turn heat to low. Using an immersion blender, process soup until smooth.

Add handfuls of fresh baby spinach and stir. Add more spinach until soup reaches the proportion of soup to spinach that you like.

Taste. Add salt (or not) and more curry powder (to taste). Thin with vegetable broth if consistency us to thick for your taste.

Next up on my winter squash to experiment with list? Delicata. Got some at the Farmer's Market this week and wondering what to do with it. Do you have any ideas?

I also want to point out this very interesting article on binge eating disorder. It brings up a lot of excellent points like the linkage between "dieting" (not to be confused with healthy eating) and binge eating, which is an idea that completely rings true for me. It also points out that "The APA [American Psychiatric Association] will include BED [binge eating disorder] as a separate disorder in the fifth edition of its �Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,� referred to as the DSM-V.

Oh great, dieting made me crazy. Certifiably so.

Thoughts?