Fall Orange Soup

Orange Soup - a mix of the orange veggies

I’m pretty lucky enough to live really close to where I work and have no problem going home for lunch. Today on my lunch break, besides making myself a sandwich I made something else… Orange soup and no it wasn’t the citrus orange that you’re thinking of, but a mélange of the orange veggies. I threw in butternut squash, sweet potato, and carrots and oh man is it delicious!

I made quite a bit so that we can have two bowls for dinner and then save the rest for the week.

I will list the recipe below and fyi it doesn’t take long to chop everything up and throw it into the pot – I had plenty of time to make my sandwich and eat my lunch all in one hour!

1 butternut squash

1 sweet potato

3 carrots (depending on their size – you don’t want them too large)

1 yellow onion

4 cups vegetable broth

4 cups water

1 teaspoon nutmeg to taste

1 teaspoon salt to taste

Start by chopping up the onion and letting it sauté in the bottom of the pot with some olive oil until it becomes clear. While that is sautéing peel the squash, sweet potato and carrots. Then chop up each vegetable into chunks. When the onions are clear and are beginning to brown pour the vegetable broth and water into the pot. Add the veggies and cover on high heat until it boils. Once boiling turn the flame to low and simmer. It should take about 20 minutes for the veggies to soften completely. Use your hand blender to puree the soup – If you don’t have one then you can use a blender but be careful since your dealing with hot liquid. Once pureed add the nutmeg and taste to make sure you love it!

Scrumptious Sweet Potato Pie

This past weekend I did something completely out of character… I baked a pie! Yep, you heard it here – I baked a sweet potato pie out of scratch. I was so proud of this pie that I barely ate any myself because I was too busy giving everyone else a piece to see how they liked it. Let me tell you something, it isn’t even hard to do and I’ll explain all the steps below. First I want to tell you that the hardest part wasn’t even making the pie, it was figuring out which pan I needed to bake it in – there were non-stick options, ceramic and all sorts of different pans.

Finally I chose a non-stick pan but have decided that I will buy a ceramic one as well so that I can have a choice as to how the pie will look in the end.

I also want to express how much I love sweet potato pie but haven’t been able to eat it with my new eating habits. Here is a much healthier version of the pie AND it still tastes SO delicious.

Sweet Potato Pie adapted from the Clean Food by Terry Walters cookbook.

Scrumptious sweet potato pie

CRUST:

1 ½ cup pecans

¼ cup chickpea flour

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 tablespoons maple syrup

pinch of salt

FILLING:

3 medium sweet potatoes

¼ cup maple syrup (or a little bit less – depending on how sweet you like it)

¼ cup rice milk or almond milk

¼ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon arrowroot (found in the health food store near the gluten free flour)

1 teaspoon agar powder (found in the health food store)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Setup your steamer with water and cut up the sweet potatoes so they fit nicely in the pot. Steam potatoes until they are soft all the way through – may take about 15 to 20 minutes given the size of the potato. While they are steaming start preparing the crust.

Chop pecans in food processor until they resemble fine meal. Add chickpea flour and process briefly to combine ingredients. Add oil, syrup and salt and process until it forms dough. Lightly grease pie pan, add dough and press to form even crust – about ¼ in. thick. Pierce several times with a fork and bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

When the sweet potatoes are soft and have cooled down begin to remove the skins. Place in cleaned food processor and add maple syrup, rice milk (or almond milk), vanilla, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, arrowroot and agar powder. Process until smooth.

Pour filling into the cooled pie crust for about 50 minutes to 1 hour depending on your oven. The top should be lightly browned but be careful not to burn the crust! Remove from oven and cool completely on wire rack and serve at room temperature.

If you follow these directions you will definitely have an amazing pie. I wish you luck and please write any comments if you have any.