VeganMOFO: Simple Roasted Squash Soup

It's soup season, friends! Food made in the blender is one of my favorites. Super-simple and yummy. This takes a bit of prep time, wrestling the squash, but it makes a ton of leftovers to make your tummy happy for the next few days. I get a million squash and sweet potatoes this time of year from my CSA, so I make this a lot. Sometimes I add some curry spice and a bit of hot sauce in to give it a kick. But I'm a spice-wuss, so not too much. 

Ingredients:

4 Small Squash, cut in half

2 Medium Sweet Potatoes, sliced thin

1 Head Garlic, with ends cut off

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

1 can of Coconut Milk (I used low-fat) 

Vegetable broth or water to thin

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F

2. Brush the squash, sweet potatoes, and garlic with olive oil and salt/pepper. 

3. Roast until tender (approx. 30 minutes.)

4. Puree in batches, with added coconut milk and veg. broth/water. I try to keep it as thick as possible to go through blender, and then thin it further in saucepan.

5. In a large saucepan, stir until heated through. Taste for salt/pepper and thin to your desired consistency.

6. Devour.

VeganMoFo: It's Soup time!

Meet Acorn, the floppy bunny.  She's a sweetie with a streak of mischief in her.  Watch your garden closely!

Acorn is for sale here

Medium: Watercolor on heavy Arches paper
Size: Approximately 5"x7" (image size is 4"x6")
Will fit in 5"x7" frame! Signed on back.

Note: I am doing a painting-a-day challenge for VeganMoFo, and will be creating a new painting of rescue animals or vegan food throughout the month of October, and placing them for sale. All proceeds (minus shipping) will be donated to For the Animals Sanctuary, because they are a pretty super-great non-profit animal rescue and sanctuary, in Blairstown NJ, and are vegan owned and operated. Feeding, housing, and taking care of these animals costs a lot of money, and as a non-profit organization, they rely entirely on donations. Hopefully (with your help!), I'll be able to make a size-able donation at the end of the month!

This was one of those use-up-old-veggies kind of soups.  I had some carrots, an acorn squash, a bunch of cloves of garlic, and an onion that I chopped up, drizzled in olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roasted in the oven for about 30 minutes on 400F or until tender.  I then threw them all in my blender with a can of coconut milk, and heated it up on the stove top until hot.  More salt/pepper to taste and a little bit of sriracha hot sauce for a kick and voila!  I liked the creaminess and thickness of this, but you could add some veggie broth or water to it thin out.

VeganMofo 2010: Creamy Portabello Mushroom Soup

Super-happy rainbow mushroom family!

It's soup season here!  I had this Portabello Mushroom soup once, at a restaurant, and have been dying to recreate it.  It was really simple, thick, and had a pure mushroom taste to it. Total yummers.  I like to thicken soups up with cashews, to make them super-creamy without detracting too much from the main flavor. This came pretty close to the restaurant version!  I have a vague recipe, because that's usually how I am when I'm making something in the kitchen...vague.  You know what I mean. Anyways, it's easy and makes a quick weekday meal!

Vague recipe (sorry!) for Creamy Portabello Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:
4 medium sized portabello mushrooms, sliced and diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 TBS Earth Balance Margarine
1/3 cup raw cashews

veggie broth
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Saute onion in pan with Earth Balance until soft. Add mushrooms and cook until tender.
Add cashews, mushrooms, and onions to blender and add enough veggie broth to just cover. Blend to desired thickness and add more veggie broth for thinner soup.  Heat up in sauce pan and season with salt/pepper.

Snowglobe day

I made a pita puff!! So exciting! Only half the batch puffed, but still! Better than last time! There was no rhyme or reason to the puffs either. Some happened on the top shelf on a baking sheet and some happened on the bottom shelf of the oven on the pizza stone. Happy nonetheless! They were super-strong too, not like the whimpy dry pitas that you buy in the store that break if you put anything saucy in them. I made some homemade lemon hummus (with dried beans! I'm trying to be good about not buying canned.) and homemade falafel! Everything took way long to make, but it was way worth it. I made up a quick dill-veganaise dressing and a red cabbage/carrot/scallion/olive oil/apple cider vinegar/spices salad to go alongside and in. I used the non-puffed pita's the next day as leftovers and made a mini falafel-hummus-olive pizza.



Tonight, I made Joni's BLT and Avocado Burger. Stuffing avocados into things is brilliant.


I'm not gonna lie. I was disappointed when I started peeling my Tie-Dye potatoes, that I scored at the farmer's market, and they weren't tie-dyed inside.

Baked potato and greens soup with french fry crouton! From Veganomicon and SOOO YUMMY. It was 50 degrees out yesterday, but was a snowglobe outside all day today. Soup was welcomed.


I had a sudden sweet-tooth urge at 11:30pm the other night, so I made mini-muffins. Chocolate-chocolate-chip-walnut. mmmm. I cooked them a bit too long, so they are a little crispy, but still yum! I used AmyArgh's blueberry muffin base, and just added in some cocoa, choc. chips, and walnuts. Bite-sized!




And lastly, I got a treasury tonight!

Phew.

I'm so glad the holidays are over with!! I can eat normal again! I seriously think this headache that I have had for the past two days is a result of sweets withdrawl too.

AAAAANNNNNNNNND...I got a Vitamix!

*happy dance* It was love at first sight.

So far, I have only experimented with smoothies, hummus, and soup (it really comes out steaming hot! Watch the video on their website!) I'm going to the Co-op tomorrow to buy some bulk nuts to make some nut butters. Ohhhh Nutella, here I come!

This is a soup not made in the Vitamix (I made a creamy potato-carrot soup yesterday in it, and while it was super-yummy, it wasn't so pretty). I used homemade veggie broth (yeaaaah), tempeh sausage crumbles, a bit of leftover lentils, potatoes, carrots, and onions. It was a mega-flavor soup. Yum!

I couldn't NOT play around with the Vitamix tonight, so I made edamame hummus! I took one can of cici beans, one whole lemon minus peel (I get a kick out of throwing the whole thing in. Take THAT old blender!), maybe 1/2 cup of edamame beans, and a bunch of olive oil, salt, and white pepper. Smooth and creamy in a minute. Amazing. Served it with toasted pita bread!

Annnd a detox-gimme-raw-fruits-and-veggies salad, with a slice of whole wheat bread, from the other night.