Curried Butternut Squash Soup with Millet Muffins

When we were going through our recipe testing for the cookbook, this soup, courtesy of Brittany, got so many rave reviews.  It is spectacular. Next time you're in the market and you see a butternut squash on sale, pick. it. up. and make this soup.  The flavors meld so nicely and go so well with either a simple sandwich at lunch, or to complete a nicer dinner.  I've played around with the recipe just a little, and my favorite version is to omit the nut-butter and add in some apple.  Both versions are simply amazing, so you can't go wrong either way.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Serves 8 (makes about 8 cups)

Active time: 35 minutes

Simmer time: 25 minutes

Total time: 1 hour

Serving Suggestions: Eat with Moroccan Spiced Peas, serve over chopped kale, or with a leafy green salad.  

What you'll need:

• 1 TBLS olive oil
• 1 cup coarsely chopped onion
• 1 TBLS minced garlic
• 1 tsp curry powder, up to 1/2 tsp more, to taste
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 6 cups peeled and cubed (1/2 in) butternut squash (2 lbs)
• 5 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup almond butter OR natural peanut butter
• 1 TBLS lemon juice
• opt: omit nut butter and add in 1 1/2 cups peeled and chopped red apple

What you'll do:

• Heat olive oil in large saucepan over medium heat, add onion and sauté until tender.  
• Add garlic, curry, and pepper, cook an additional 30 seconds.  
• Add squash, and apples if using, stir to coat  and cook an additional 2 minutes.
• Pour in vegetable broth, increase heat and bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 20-25 minutes.
• Add almond butter, and carefully puree soup in batches or with an immersion blender.   Add lemon juice and stir well.  Serve immediately or reheat.

These little muffins are great for breakfast or just a snack. We serve them with simple soup at lunch. They are slightly sweet and amazingly light considering the whole wheat flour and millet used.  They are versatile and the only warning is to let them cool completely before you try them!

Millet Muffins

Serves 12 muffins

Active time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes

Serving Suggestions:  With some fresh fruit, eggs, and tea or coffee. Use next to a nice soup, too!

What you'll need:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup raw millet
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 egg OR 2 TBLS flaxseed meal in with the dry ingredients
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup raisins OR craisins OR chocolate chips

What you'll do:

• Preheat oven to 350 and pull out your 12-cup muffin tin
• Combine all dry ingredients (except raisins) in a medium sized mixing bowl.
• Whisk together all the wet ingredients in a smaller mixing bowl.
• Slowly add wet to dry, stirring constantly to avoid large clumps.  Stir until smooth.
• Stir in raisins until incorporated
• Lightly grease the muffin tins and fill with the batter (you'll fill these almost all the way up)
• Bake for 20 minutes, until lightly brown on top and until they pass the toothpick test

Mini-Quiches & Creamy Red Lentil Soup

These little guys were Ah. May. Zing.  Amazing, I say.  I was skeptical.  How could some simple Chickpea flour and water, plus some spices and add-ins taste anything like a quiche?!  Well -- I'll spoil the surprise.

They do!

They have a little bit of a different texture.  Thicker and more dense than a muffin, but nice and creamy in the middle.  And depending on what you put in them, they are just fabulous.

I got the recipe over here and many thanks to the gal who did all the work to figure out the correct proportions.  Many many thanks.

I've done some experimenting with different combos:

• 1 tsp Herbs de Provence + 3 mini-bell peppers + 1 scallion, sliced
• 1 tsp basil + 1/3 cup chopped mushrooms + 1 scallion, sliced + 1/4 cup finely chopped spinach
• 1 tsp Herb de Provence + 1/3 cup very finely chopped broccoli + 1 scallion, sliced

I have tried anything with tomatoes yet, but I think it would be good.  I also want to try some chopped green chiles, but I don't think the boys would eat them, so I've stayed away.

I halved the recipe to just make 6 at a time (a pan of 6 fits nicely into my toaster oven!), and omitted the oil and used applesauce instead.  Totally a preference thing.  Olive oil is good fat, I say go for it and enjoy, but the husband likes it when I cut the oil as much as possible so I gave it a try and it worked. 

Eat these for breakfast with some fruit, along side a nice bowl of tomato soup at lunch, or on top of chili for dinner.

Mini-Quiches [Plant-based]

makes 6 regular

• 1 1/4 cup garbanzo flour (Bob's Red Mill)
• 1 1/2 cups cold water
• 1 1/2 TBLS olive oil or applesauce
• 1 tsp salt
• add-ins: herbs, mushrooms, peppers, etc, all chopped fine

-- Mix the first four ingredients together in a 4 cup measuring cup until all the clumps are out and the mixture is smooth.  Add in herbs, if using, and stir.

-- Pour into greased muffin tins and sprinkle in your add-ins.

-- Bake for 15 minutes at 450 and then crack the oven door open and cook another 12 minutes until the edges have just started to brown.  Remove and cool 10 minutes before popping out of the tins.

These are GREAT to freeze (especially if you double it).  Once you pop them out, let them cool completely and then put into freezer bags and label.

Supposedly, you can make a fritata if you double this recipe.  I'm interested to see how that turns out!

And now, for a soup that these are equally as amazing with!!

This is a super simple and easy soup.  Due to the use of the wonderfully quick-cooking red lentils, this is the soup I go to when I need a light, and yet protein-filled, soup to go with a protein-light main dish.  It's flavorful and perfect for a quick lunch, too, with a chunk of bread, or one of the mini-quiche muffins!

Creamy Red Lentil Soup
serves 4-6

• 1 TBLS crushed garlic
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup dry red lentils
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• salt and pepper to taste
• lemon wedges for serving

-- Saute the garlic, onion, carrots, and celery until tender.  7-9 minutes.

-- Add the lentils, water, broth, spices, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 15 minutes until the lentils are very soft.

-- Puree with an immersion blender and season with salt and pepper.

-- Serve each bowl with a wedge of lemon to brighten the soup, if desired. 

Stuffed Corn Muffins

Oh wow and oh my goodness.  I may never make regular plain ol' corn muffins again.  Ever. 

These little muffins were so tasty it was hard to only eat one.  We could have eaten more, but I was trying to save the other half of the batch for the next night's dinner!  In retrospect, I should have just made another batch.  Sigh.  Such is life, right?  Live and learn.  Well, I'll tell you what -- I lived and learned.

Make these often.

I found the recipe over here and tweaked it a little according to what I had on hand and our personal tastes. (Read: spice wimps)   They are stuffed with corn, onion, and spinach, and are delicious.  They are also incredibly healthy.  Packing no oil (except to saute) and being half whole wheat, half corn meal!  Amazing!

The next time you have soup, or chili, that needs a little help from their favorite cornbread to make the meal a real meal....turn to this recipe and enjoy!

Stuffed Corn Muffins

• 1 cup corn meal
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 1 t minced garlic
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 2 cups loosely packed chopped spinach (a packed 2 cups unchopped)

-- Combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.

-- In a smaller bowl (or a 2-cup measuring container) combine the milk and applesauce.

-- In a skillet, heat a little olive oil and saute the onion until transparent.  Add in the garlic, saute for 2-3 minutes.  Finally add in the spinach and saute 3-4 minutes until wilted.

-- Add the milk mixture tot he dry ingredients and mix until all wet.

-- Add in the sauted mixture and mix well.

-- Evenly distribute batter between 12 lightly greased muffin cups and bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

Savory Cornbread

We had a delicious kitchen "flop" the other night.

It was technically a flop because it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.  Like bread.  Like the pictures from the original recipe looked.  It was less like bread and more of a patty.

But it was one amazing patty.  Scot couldn't get enough and we polished the entire pan off with dinner.  But since I served it with soup, I was wanting bread, so I was a little disappointed.

Later that same week, I combined my traditional cornbread recipe with the other recipe and got a delicious savory cornbread.  Score.

Since both recipes were great, here they both are.  I did tweak the original recipe, but I don't think it was the tweaking that make the bread more patty-like.

Ok. Try 1.

Savory Patty

• 2 T flaxmeal + 1/4 c warm water.  Mix and set aside.
• 1/4 c cornmeal
• 1/4 c flour
• 3/4t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 c pumpkin puree
• 2 T canola oil
• 1 t herbs de provence
• 1/4 t mustard powder
• 1 T nutritional yeast (opt)
• 1/2 c loosely packed finely chopped spinach
• 1 small red onion, diced

-- Saute red onion until very well sauteed.

-- Combine all dry ingredients

-- Combine all wet ingredients with the flaxmeal mixture.

-- Add wet to dry and mix well.

-- Add in onions and spinach

-- Spread into greased an 8x8 baking dish and bake for 40 minutes at 350

And now, try 2.

Savory Cornbread

• 1 c cornmeal
• 1 c flour
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 1/2 t herbs de provence
• 1/2 t dry mustard
• 1 T nutritional yeast (opt)
• 1 large red onion
• 1/2 c milk
• 1/2 c pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• 2 T canola oil
• 2 T honey
• 1 cup loosely packed finely chopped spinach

-- Saute red onion until very well sauteed.

-- Combine all dry ingredients

-- Combine all wet ingredients.

-- Add wet to dry and mix well.

-- Add in onions and spinach.

-- Spread into greased an 8x8 baking dish and bake for 30 minutes at 350

Oatmeal Whole Wheat Quick Bread

I am extremely chagrined that I did not try this recipe earlier.  It's going to change my dinner-making life.  No bread to go with that soup I'm making?  As long as I have 30 minutes, I don't have to worry about it anymore.

Don't make the same mistake I did!  You most likely have all these ingredients in your kitchen right now.  It really is simple and it tastes amazing.

You go from this:

To this (in 20 minutes):

Oatmeal Whole Wheat Quick Bread

• 1 cup rolled oats - ground
• 1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 1/2 T honey
• 1 T veg oil
• 1 c milk (I used almond milk, and used 3/4 c milk, and 1/4 c water to get the right "2% milk" consistency)

-- Combine all dry.  Combine all wet.  Add dry to wet and form into ball.  You may need to add a little more flour to get it just past the sticky point.
-- Place ball on a lightly oiled cookie sheet, or use a silpat!, and bake for 20-25 minutes at 450.  

Pizza Dough (Bread Maker)

Almost every single Friday night when it's not too hot out, we make our own pizza.  Over the years I've experimented with no-rise crusts, making my own from scratch without the help of a bread machine, and now that I have a bread machine, I've played around with different types of pizza doughs.  Whole wheat, half and half, with cornmeal and without, with honey and without.

After going without our pizza nights for most of the summer, I've made pizza the last 2 Fridays and with the dough recipe that I think will be our stand-by from now on.  I don't know how many of you have a bread maker or would even be interested in this, but I thought I'd share.

Pizza Dough (for the bread maker)
Makes a 1.5lb ball of dough

• 1 c + 3 T water
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 c whole wheat flour
• 1 cup white flour
• 1 T sugar
• 2 t active dry yeast
• 1/2 t salt
• to taste: shake in some garlic powder, basil and oregano

To bake, roll it on out, top with sauce and whatever lovin's you want and bake at 400 for 18-20 minutes.  

No-Knead Bread

I think I've mentioned before that I don't bake.  Ever.  That's why I have a bread maker.  And why I use said bread maker to make the dough I use for pizza.  It's why the closest I come to baking is pushing the "start" button.

But a friend posted about this no-knead bread, and I had to give it a try.  Even though there is the tiniest bit of yeast involved.

It looked a little intimidating at first, but once I read through the directions, I was good to go.  Essentially, you start it at night, and then a few hours before you want it the next day you do about 5 minutes of "work" and 15 minutes of waiting, and then you wait another 2 hours and then you pop it in the oven for 40 minutes.  Voila.  Wonderful and delicious crusty bread.  From your oven.  Not the amazing bread place down the street or even the market.  But your very own oven.

I love it.  This is a definite repeat.

Detailed directions with pictures, here.

Pumpkin Muffins

It seems like Fall and pumpkin-themed dishes go hand-in-hand.   I'm seeing all sorts of yummy dishes all over with the orange pulp either hidden in the dish or front and center.  It's just that time of year when those of us who love pumpkin can fully revel and delight in the goodness without getting looked at funny.

Some of the recipes I'm dying to try:

(never home) maker's Pumpkin Chili
with
the edible perspective's Pumpkin Cornbread
and maybe for dessert to finish off a pumpkin themed dinner?
Oh She Glows' Pumpkin Gingerbread Smoothie

I'll let you know how they turn out. 

I hope the theme carries into Winter, because I'm not nearly as far along in my pumpkin experimentation as I'd like to be and Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away! Eeek!

This morning I was hankerin' for some pumpkin muffins, though.  Dense and chewy with some sweet raisins tucked inside.  I went off an old recipe and tweaked it quite a bit, but I really enjoyed the outcome.  They were just what I was looking for and the boys and I loved every crumb.  You could add chopped nuts, craisins, or even chocolate chips instead of the raisins.

Pumpkin Muffins
Makes 12 regular sized muffins

• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1/4 c unsweetened apple sauce
• 2 eggs (I didn't try it, but I'm sure you can use flaxseed eggs for this)
• 3/4 c canned pumpkin
• 1/4 water
• 1 1/2 c flour
• 3/4 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t allspice
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 - 1 c raisins, craisins, or chocolate chips

-- Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 12-cup muffin tin with PAM or other cooking spray
-- Mix sugar with apple sauce, eggs, and pumpkin.  Mixing until all creamy.  Add water.
-- In a smaller bowl, combine all dry ingredients (except "filler").  Once mixed...
-- Add dry ingredients to wet, and stor until all wet.
-- Add which ever filler you chose
-- Fill muffin tins 2/3rds of the way full and bake for 20 minutes until nice and brown and toothpick comes out clean

Pumpkin Apple Bread

Get your biggest mixing bowl out and a bag of flour and sugar and get ready to have your house smell a-ma-zing! I got this recipe from a friend and she did the loaves as mini-loaves, and if I had enough mini-loaf pans I would have done that, too. As it was, I only had 3 normal loaf pans and they did fine, but I think it would have been better if I had had 4 pans. Seriously, though, this bread is quick and easy to make, it requires a little elbow grease if you don't have a mixer, but it's totally worth it! YUM.


Pumpkin Apple Bread

• 7 cups flour
• 7 t baking soda
• 2 t salt
• 5 t cinnamon
• 2 t nutmeg
• 1 t cloves
• 6 cups sugar
• 2 cups oil
• 8 eggs (beaten)
  
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 can pumpkin (30 oz)
• 1 can apple pie filling

--Mix it all together (wet first and then add dry) and pour into greased/floured loaf pans.
--Bake for 65 minutes at 350 (35 minutes for mini-loaves)

Amish Bread

I am so scared of yeast it's not funny. If a recipe calls for yeast I'll usually just stop looking. If it has to rise and be kneaded and rise again...there are just so many steps where you have to do things just so and I'm so afraid of messing up. Well, no more! Now this is not a hard recipe at all to follow. And it seems pretty fool-proof it I can do it. It's not fancy or complicated, but it's good yummy bread to have with soup on a cold fall or winter night. It doesn't take too long and it's slightly sweet. It gives you 2 wonderful loaves and it makes the house smell amazing. If I'm brave enough to try it, you can, too!!

Amish Bread

• 2 cups warm water (110 F)
• 2/3 c sugar
• 1 1/2 T active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 vegetable oil
• 6 cups flour (the original says bread flour, but I used all-purpose and it turned out fine)

--In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in the water and then stir in the yeast. Wait a few minutes for it to get foamy and smelly-good.
--Mix salt and oil into the bowl and then the flour one cup at a time.
--Knead onto a lightly floured surface until smooth.
--Place in a well-oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise 1 hour or until double in size (My trick for this is I put it in the microwave so there's no draft getting to it -- I turn the microwave on for a couple minutes with some water in there to warm/moisten the atmosphere before i put the bread in)
--Punch down and knead a few minutes. Divide in half and shape into loaves. Put them in 9x5 loaf pans and allow to rise 30 minutes or until they are 1 inch higher than the edge of the pan.
--Bake for 30 minutes at 350.