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

Print me!

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).

A Check in WIth You and Blondie Bites: A Sweet Treat for Your Weekend

Good morning! I'm so excited for the weekend ahead because I have almost NO plans. That means lots of time in the kitchen and behind the camera, which is total fun for me.

Last weekend we had four families over to our house for a pot luck. I wanted to make sure that there was one "alternative" dessert that was "relatively" healthy. And who doesn't love a blondie? So I decided to go out on a limb and adapt a dessert recipe that had beans in it. My track record with beans in baked goods has been pretty hit or miss. Sometimes I like the results, other times, not so much. But the recipe was so intriguing, I had to at least give it a try.

I also decided to keep the portions bite sized (well, maybe 2 or three bites), because even though I eliminated the oil and used the least processed form of sugar on the market (sucanat), I find it's easier to manage my own sweet tooth when portions are small and predetermined.


Blondie Bites
makes 48 "bites"
adapted from a recipe at Chocolate Covered Katie

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1 cup quick oats
2 cans canellini or garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups organic sucanat (it sounds like a lot, but it's only 1/2 Tbsp per "bite")
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup vegan chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 2 (or 4 if you have that many) 12 cup mini muffin pans by lightly spraying with nonstick cooking spray. If you don't have mini muffin pans, use a 9"x13" baking pan.

Place all ingredients into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the "s" blade and process until "smooth." (It may not get totally smooth, but the ingredients should be well blended.) Right into the food processor bowl, stir in the chocolate chips.

Spoon 1 Tbsp of batter into each cup. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Remove bites from pan (they will be gooey on the inside), spray pan with non-stick spray and refill muffin cups with second half of batter. Bake for 20 minutes.

If you don't have mini muffin pans, spread batter into a greased 9"x13" baking pan and bake for at least 25 minutes (I haven't done this method myself, so I don't know an exact baking time, but it will be significantly longer).

The results were a success! Everyone liked these blondie bites (kids and adults), but not in a way where you would just want to keep eating one after another (if you know what I mean). I'd say they are a safe way to go if you want to bake a sweet treat.

One thing that I have found over the past many months experimenting with healthier baking has been that I can eliminate all of the oil or butter or Earth Balance in any baked good with no ill effect. I simply substitute all of the oil in a 1:1 ratio with unsweetened apple sauce, even if there is already apple sauce in the recipe. This has never failed me. I keep individual unsweetened apple sauce containers in stock in my kitchen (my kids love them) and each one is 1/2 cup. I never have a half-eaten jar hanging around my refrigerator growing mold.

My next experiments are going to revolve around eliminating the sugar in baked goods. The nice people over at NuNaturals sent me the most generous box of their products to test and try and I just can't wait. There's a virgin donut pan in my baking drawer just calling my name!

But what is going on with you? Where are you on this journey?What is coming easy to you? What are you struggling with? 

No matter what is going on with you and your food, I hope you are not beating yourself up over it.

Sweet Curried Rice with Carrots and Chick Peas

We're safely back in the Cleve just in time for this winter's first big snowstorm, but I wanted to share with you the last of Lindsay S. Nixon's recipes that I adapted over the holiday.

This dish came about as I was trying to use up the last of the ingredients that I had purchased while staying in the condo--dates, chick peas, carrots, onion and brown rice. The inspiration came from Lindsay's recipe in Everyday Happy Herbivore called "Curried Rice," but I took it to a whole new level and again, everyone who tried it loved it. This unusual rice dish would be great served with a big salad to complete a meal.

Sweet Curried Rice with Carrots and Chick Peas

serves a crowd

Printable Recipe

3 cups brown rice

6 cups low sodium vegetable broth, plus more for sauteing

3 Tbsp mild/sweet curry powder

1 Tbsp onion powder

1 � tsp chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

� tsp paprika

� tsp cinnamon

1 large yellow onion, medium chop

1 � cups carrot, medium chop

� cup pitted, chopped dates, or less, depending upon how sweet you want this

1 15 ounce can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

Juice of � of a large lemon

Salt, to taste, or not

Place brown rice through cinnamon into a rice cooker or pot. If using a rice cooker, turn cooker on and let rice cook. If using the stove top method, bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to low and simmer until rice is cooked, 35-45 minutes.

While rice is cooking, chop onion and carrot. Place a skillet over medium high heat and coat the bottom of the skillet with vegetable broth. When broth is bubbling, add onion and stir. Cook for 5 minutes. Add carrot and stir. Cook carrots and onions, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent and begin to turn brown. You will need to lower heat to prevent burning as the onions and carrots cook. Add dates and stir.

Once rice is done cooking, stir in carrot/onion mixture, garbanzo beans and lemon juice. Taste. Season with salt, or not.

I also want to share with you some big news. My thoughts on what to think about when you want to eat something were featured in an article in Cleveland's Plain Dealer. It was a big surprise to me, so thank you to PD writer Evelyn Theiss for mentioning this important idea. You can check that out here if you've got a moment. My quotes are at the end of the article.

And in other big news, I used my pressure cooker to make something other than beans for dinner tonight! I made this soup recipe from Lani Muelrath. I altered the seasoning a lot for my palate (I like things highly seasoned). I'm slowly working into a more comfortable relationship with the appliance and I'm going to start making recipes from Lorna J. Sass' Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure and see how it goes. Wish me luck.

A votre sante!

Curry in a Hurry?

Have you ever attempted to make one of Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals?

Did it take you 30 minutes?

Not me. It never took me less than an hour.

That's why I have a bit of a pet peeve developing for cookbook authors and recipes that deceive readers in that way. I don't know if they do it intentionally or not, but it seems like it would sure sell cookbooks if you advertised this 30 minute concept.

But I'm calling bull&#!+ on it right now. The following recipe was based on a recipe that was supposed to take less than 30 minutes to cook. Sure, I adapted the recipe to my taste, adding potatoes, and that upped the cooking time 10 minutes. But under no circumstances would the original recipe have been cooked in 30. Sorry.

That said, it's still worth making. Both my 12 (yes 12! had a birthday this week) year old daughter and husband loved it and I'm guinea pigging my business partner today at lunch. I'll let you know what she thinks.

Easy, But Not Quick, Cauliflower Coconut Curry

serves 8

Printable Recipe

2 cups vegetable broth, plus more for sauteing

1 large yellow onion, diced

1 cup carrots, diced

1/4 cup curry powder (sweet or hot, to taste)

4 cups medium diced boiling potatoes

2 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes, fire roasted if possible

1 cauliflower head, cut into small florets (approx. 8 cups of florets)

2 cups frozen peas

2 15 ounce cans garbanzo beans, washed and drained

3 cups unsweetened almond or soy milk

1 Tbsp coconut extract

Coat the bottom of a dutch oven with vegetable broth and bring broth to a boil over medium heat. Add onions and carrots and saute, stirring frequently, until onions just begin to turn translucent. Add curry powder, stir, and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add potatoes and 2 cups vegetable broth, stir and cover pot. Let simmer for 10 minutes.

Add tomatoes and cauliflower, stir, cover and let simmer for 20 minutes.

Add almond milk, coconut extract, peas and garbanzo beans. Stir and simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes.

What's your experience with recipes that are promoted as taking 30 minutes or less. Is this real? Is it possible?

Jill's Roasted Chick Peas with Swiss Chard

Gotta love those greens and beans! And also your friends who provide you with plant-strong inspiration.

In this case, it's my friend Jill. Her husband, who was in excellent health and phenomenal shape at the time, went to hear Dr. Eselstyn speak about his passion, preventing and reversing heart disease. From that moment on, they changed the way they cooked. By anyone's standards, you would say that they were healthy eaters before. But now, with the elimination of processed oils and animal products, they have gone from healthy to inspiring!

Jill adapted this recipe and shared it with all of us. Thanks Jill!

Roasted Chickpeas with Swiss Chard and Garlic

4-6 servings

Printable Recipe

Chickpeas

 2 15 ounce cans chickpeas, drained

10 garlic cloves, peeled left whole

2 shallots, chopped

3 small bay leaves

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

salt (or not)

pepper

Swiss chard

6 garlic cloves, minced

3 bay leaves

2 shallots, chopped

2 big bunches Swiss chard

1 can vegetable broth

� of a fresh lemon

  

Roast Chickpeas:

Preheat oven to 400. Lay out drained chick peas on a paper towel and pat to dry.  Lightly spray a cookie sheet with oil.  Put chickpeas on the cookie tray in a single layer.  Top evenly with shallots, red pepper, fennel, kosher salt and pepper. Add bay leaves and whole garlic cloves. Shake the pan occasionally. Roast 45 minutes. These make a great stand-alone snack. Not possible to eat just one. Go ahead and try, I dare you.  Can be made 1 day ahead.

Chard:

Separate the chard leaves from the stem.  Coarsely chop the leaves. Slice the stems into �- � pieces.

In a large pot over medium-high heat, saut� shallots in a little vegetable broth until soft about 5-6 minutes. Add chard stems and saut� another 2-3 minutes.  Add garlic and bay leaves. Cook for another minute.  Working in batches, add half of the chard, stirring gently until the leaves begin to wilt. Add the remaining chard.  Add broth. Cover and simmer on low until chard is tender, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain the liquid.

Discard all the bay leaves. Mix the roasted chickpeas into the chard. Squeeze the fresh lemon into the mixture. Toss lightly.

Do you consciously try to eat greens every day?

Do you have a favorite way of eating your greens?

Utopea

NEWSFLASH: T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study, will be on the HBO TV show Real Time with Bill Maher, live, Friday July 15th with repeat episodes throughout the week.

Have you ever walked around a grocery store looking for a "healthy" convenience snack that wasn't overly caloric, overly fatty, overly salty and/or overly sugary and that fulfilled your desire for something crunchy and salty or sweet? I know that I have, and I walked away from the experience empty handed. Even at Whole Foods, this magic snack does not exist as far as I can tell.

That's why I was so intrigued when my friend, Ilana Wolfson, brought me a bag of goodies on Tuesday night. It seems she has been hard at work for the past year perfecting recipes for Roasted Chick Peas in a variety of flavors that are shelf stable with excellent nutritional profiles. Really high in fiber and protein, while low in fat, chick peas may very well be the perfect food.

"Utopea, The New Chick in Town." I love that name!

Yeah! Little packages of yumminess.

My favorite flavor so far was a cluster of roasted chick peas, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds with a touch of agave. I'm hoping that Ilana will test a recipe with maple syrup real soon--you know my feelings on agave! My 6 year old and 3 year old gobbled these up, which is shocking. Can't wait to get more for them!

The most decadent was also a winner-chick peas and dried fruit held together by very good chocolate. Yum.

There are also savory flavors like Smokin' Hot, Asian Sesame and Indian which would be great thrown over a salad.

Contact Ilana directly if you would like more information on her products.

Have you found a snack food that you can feel good about?

How much do you want to try Utopea's Roasted Chick Peas?

Have you ever roasted your own chick peas? I know that it's on my to do list. What has your experience been?

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For the Love of Garlic: Scapes

This morning at the local farmer's market I picked up one bunch of garlic scapes. I had been hearing about them for years as a favorite ingredient of big time chefs on The Food Network, and I finally got up the guts to bring some home. I figured I'd have no trouble finding recipes for scapes once I got home, and I was right. Creative cooking is so easy these days, don't you think?

Scapes are the stem and beginning of the flower of the garlic plant. Farmers prune them from the garlic plants so that the plants do not put energy into growing their flower, but rather into their bulb, hence bigger garlic bulbs for sale at the grocery store or farmer's market. Scapes are generally only available in early spring, but I was lucky enough to catch them today.

I decided to go with a scape hummus recipe and do a little doctoring up myself. What resulted was an intensely garlicy and delicious hummus, but NOT suitable for the person that doesn't like the taste of raw garlic. As for my husband and I, well, we both like garlic and, well, we'll only be kissing each other tonight!

Garlic Scape Hummus

Printable Recipe

1 15 ounce can of garbanzo beans, drained (reserve liquid) and rinsed
4 Tbsp reserved garbanzo bean liquid
of 1/2 of a lemon
juice of 1 lemon
4 garlic scapes, chopped
3 tbsp tahini
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
paprika (to garnish)

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until creamy, stopping to scrape down sides as necessary.

I served the garlic scape hummus on some yummy bread from Lucy's Sweet Surrender, a local bakery that sells every week at the farmer's market. It was a real treat.

Garlic scape hummus. This is not for the faint of heart!