Roasted Carrot Soup with Leeks and Thyme

With this cooler weather upon us, thick hearty steaming bowls of homemade soup can warm your insides better than a cozy blanket by the fireplace. Soup is one of my favourite fall meals, its like a warm inside out hug.
This one takes a bit of time to prep, but you can always roast the veggies when you have your oven on for something else and refrigerate them until you were ready to make soup. Saving that roasting step would have this soup on the table in 20 minutes flat.

The carrots in my garden this year are lovely and this soup is a wonderful showcase for their delicious flavour. It is creamy and smooth without the need for dairy (although a swirl of sour cream would be lovely on top…!) I don't peel my

carrots for this recipe, but you may want to for store bought carrots.

As with most of my soups I prefer to use my homemade bone broth as the base. Nutrient dense and made from what would typically be waste; bone broth is both frugal and delicious! If you choose to use a store bought stock, be sure to read the ingredients first and avoid any with ingredients you cannot pronounce (and therefore should not eat!!)

this handy tool strips
the tender thyme leaves
 from the woody stem,
easy as pie!

Roasted Carrot Soup with Leeks and Thyme

Approx. 2 lbs of carrots, peeled if necessary and chopped

5 cups chopped leeks, (rinsed, white part only-see ***below)

2 Tbsp avocado oil (or coconut)

2 Tbsp fresh thyme, woody stems removed

1 tsp herbamare or sea salt of choice

5 stalks celery, chopped

2 Tbsp butter

8 cups bone broth or broth of choice.

Preheat oven to 400F.

On a large parchment lined baking sheet, toss chopped carrots and leeks with the avocado oil, thyme and herbamare.

Pictured without the thyme, I forgot to add it
before I took the picture :(

Roast in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Stir on the pan and roast for another 20 minutes.

When veggies are done, remove from oven and set aside.

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat until it starts to bubble. Add celery, and stir frequently until it starts to soften, approx 8-10 minutes. Add the roasted veggies and your broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, and puree til smooth with an immersion blender (or whiz in a blender, in batches if necessary, being careful as hot soup in a  blender can be dangerous!!)

Check for seasoning and serve hot!

***Prepping your Leeks!

Cut leeks where they just start to turn colour. Using a bit of the green is ok! Trim off the root ends.

Cut the trimmed leek pieces in half lengthwise. 

Rinse well under running water, leeks are often sandy in between their layers. 

Chop and use as directed :) 

Grain Free Pumpkin Cream Cheese Streusel Muffins

It seems everything is coming up pumpkin right now. Pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin spice cheesecakes, pumpkin spice smoothies, pumpkin spice cookies and muffins…I could go on….and on…and on…!!! But, I guess it is the season, and... so as not to be left out, I came up with these beautiful muffins on the weekend. They are the perfect melding of warming spices, mixed with the smooth cream cheese and the delicious pumpkin, you will be tempted to eat more than one!

Don’t let the long list of ingredients deter you from giving these muffins a try!   I believe, of all the muffins I have made over the last few decades, these might now be my personal favourites!

For the pumpkin puree, you can either cook a pie pumpkin (see my easy Crockpot cooking method at the bottom of my Pumpkin Bar Recipe) and use one cup of that,(freeze the rest!) or purchase a good quality organic puree (not a pie filling!)

Grain Free Pumpkin Cream Cheese Streusel Muffins

Cream Cheese Filling:

1 cup cream cheese, room temp

1 tbsp honey

1 egg

---------

Muffin Batter:

½ cup coconut flour

1/3 cup arrowroot flour/starch

2 tbsp chickpea flour

½ cup coconut sugar

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp cloves

1/8 tsp allspice

½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg

¾ tsp freshly grated ginger (use a kitchen rasp) or ½ tsp dried ginger

3 eggs

2 Tbsp coconut oil

1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumkin pie filling!)

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

------------

Streusel Topping:

½ cup chopped pecans

3 Tbsp coconut sugar

2 tsp arrowroot flour/starch

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375F

Line a 12 section muffin tin with muffin papers or grease well.

Combine Cream Cheese filling ingredients together in your stand mixer or electric beaters until nice and smooth. Set aside.

Measure all muffin ingredients into a large mixing bowl and blend well with an immersion blender. Set aside.

In a small mixing bowl, measure the streusel topping ingredients and mix well. Set aside.

Divide batter evenly between the 12 sections of the muffin tray.  Using a Tbsp, nestle a scoop of the cream cheese mixture down into the center of each muffin, and continue, using up all of the cream cheese.

Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the tops of all of the muffins.

Bake in preheated oven for 23-25 minutes or until the cream cheese filing looks to be set.

Remove from oven, and let stand in the muffin tin for 5 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool the rest of the way.

Refrigerate any  leftover muffins for up to 3 days.

Roasted Pears

Fall is pear season (and apple season, and squash season, and anything pumpkin season…!!) but I think the lovely pear too often takes a back seat in the whole fall harvest line up. Pears are delicious! They are high in fibre (more so than apples!) chock full of flavenoids, they are easily digested and low on the allergen scale. What’s not to love?!

There are a myriad of ways to enjoy this virtuous fruit.  Raw pears are lovely chopped or sliced into a salad with slivers of a nice sharp cheese and some toasted nuts (dip slices in a weak lemon water solution to mitigate the browning).  And, of course, who could forget this Honeyed Pear Upside Down Skillet Cake? These brilliant roasted beauties are also lovely chopped onto a salad too, adding a nice balance to a feta and greens combo. They also go well in chia puddings, (another post I am working on!) Pears really are the unsung hero's of autumn!

You will notice this recipe is rather large, and is perfect for a crowd. But with how tasty they are,  I am sure you will agree that more is better and leftovers are always used up in our house! If you do want to cut it down, reduce your ingredients accordingly except the liquid, only take it down to ¾ of the amount. The juices that accumulate in the bottom of the pan make a lovely drizzle, you won't want them to roast dry. 

Roasted Pears

9 Pears (Bosc, Bartlett or Red Bartlett all work well)

3 Tbsp butter, cold if possible, cut into 18 small pieces

1 tsp vanilla or vanilla powder

2 Tbsp coconut sugar (or other sweetener of choice, maple syrup and honey both work well, just drizzle instead of sprinkling)

1 cup liquid (you can get creative here! I usually use water, but have recently also used a nice hard apple ginger cider, but regular cider or apple juice would be lovely too)

Preheat oven to 400F

Cut pears in half lengthwise, and remove core and stem. A melon baller works wonderfully for the core, but I have used a teaspoon in a pinch.

Place pears cut side up in a 10x15 glass pan (or two smaller pans if necessary).  Sprinkle with the vanilla and the coconut sugar. 

Place a small piece of butter into each cavity. Add the liquid to the pan (if using two smaller pans, increase the liquid by ¼ cup for each pan)

Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, and carefully flip the pears so the cut side is now down. Bake for another 20 minutes (at this point check to make sure the pears are soft thru…if your pears are on the firmer side you may need to add 5-10 minutes to the cooking time to cook them thru, you want them to be fork tender.)

Remove from oven and let cool slightly before serving with topping of choice. (we have topped them with whipped coconut cream, vanilla ice cream, this maple custard, or just on their own. )

 

Pears pictured here topped with
a lovely vanilla ice cream and
a drizzle of pan juices 

These pears were roasted with a hard cider,
in a cottage on Lake Seneca for
 a friends birthday. We topped them with
whipped coconut cream and served with a
really fast ginger espresso  meringue-like
 cookie that I winged!

Grain Free Apple Nutmeg Custard Cake

With autumn upon us here in our corner of Ontario, it is only fitting that my first post of the season would showcase the delightful fall apple.

As much as I love the alluring pairing of apples and cinnamon, I was going for something different here, using freshly grated nutmeg as the showcased spice. It lends a warming flavor that marries beautifully with the custardy texture of this cake. I always keep a few nutmegs in a jar with my spices, and use my kitchen rasp to grate them. Fresh nutmeg has a stronger flavor and aroma than its pre-ground counterpart, and with the help of the rasp, just as convenient. Kept in an airtight container, it will store indefinitely, giving you aromatic fresh nutmeg in a few quick slides on a rasp.  

This cake bakes up moist and lovely, and is the perfect dessert for your thanksgiving feast or any cool fall evening where a slice of comfort is in order. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a warm cup of chai J

Grain Free Apple Nutmeg Custard Cake

7 cups peeled and sliced apples (mine were not large, I used 9 altogether, a combo of Sunrise and Galas…but any cooking apple would do)

Softened Butter for greasing pan

4 eggs

¼ cup coconut flour

½ cup almond flour

¼ cup arrowroot

1/3 cup coconut sugar

½ cup milk or alternative of choice

¼ cup softened coconut oil

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp Apple cider vinegar

½ tsp vanilla powder (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

¾ tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Grease a 9” spring-form pan and fill with peeled and sliced apples. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Measure all other ingredients into a medium mixing bowl and mix well with an immersion blender. Scrape sides as necessary to incorporate all ingredients. Batter should be just a tiny bit thinner than a pancake batter.

Pour batter evenly over prepared apples in pan. Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until cake feels firm to the touch in the center and it is nice and evenly browned.

Remove from oven, run a knife around the edge and release the spring-form outer pan. Let cool on wire rack until room temperature. Serve as is or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

Creamy Broccoli Salad with Bacon

I had a craving for broccoli salad, and decided to make a batch for lunch one day last week. The particular salad I was hankering for uses mayonnaise. But being Thursday, I didn’t want to make a whole jar of mayo because of its short shelf life. (My recipe uses a whole raw egg, and it only lasts in the fridge for about 5 days. We don’t go thru enough mayonnaise to use it up quickly, especially on the weekends when we are not packing lunches for the household).  I did have a jar of cashew butter in the fridge though, so I came up with this scrumptious dressing to top the crunchy broccoli. I added some chopped carrots, leftover bacon (I know, leftover bacon???) and some dried cranberries, and this little bit of deliciousness was born. The sriracha in the sauce adds flavor, but not a lot of heat. Adjust if you want it more or less spicy.

Creamy Broccoli Salad with Bacon

Optional: lightly toast your cashews

Dressing:

½ cup cashew butter

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp avocado oil

1 tsp sea salt

1 clove garlic

1/3 cup water

½-1 tsp sriracha sauce (optional, increase or decrease for desired heat!)

Salad:

1 head broccoli, chopped (peel stems, chop and use too)

2 carrots, peeled and chopped small

1 cup chopped cooked bacon

1 cup chopped cashews (I toasted mine J )

½ cup dried cranberries (fruit juice sweetened)

----------

2 tbsp black sesame seeds (optional)

Handy chopper is great for
chopping the carrots

Measure dressing ingredients into a blender. Blend until well mixed and creamy.  Set aside.

(Alternatively, measure into a wide mouth mason jar, and blend with a stick blender)

Toss all of the ingredients together in a large bowl. Top with dressing and mix well. Sprinkle with black sesame seeds if using and serve immediately. Store leftovers in fridge for 2-3 days.

Shown without black sesame  seeds,
I realized after I took the pictures
that I hadn't added them!

Grain Free Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Some tastes are a very nostalgic thing for me, and Rhubarb pie is at the top of the list. I know I have waxed poetic about my Grandma's Rhubarb pie before (this Rhubarb custard post was one such occasion) but it really was that awesome. When I perfected my grain free pastry recipe, and my rhubarb was at that perfect spring readiness, I figured it was time to honour my grandma and her pie, pastry and all.

My favourite pie plate is quite large, if yours is smaller, use the extra crust and filling to make some lovely little tarts!


Grain Free Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

1 prepared Grain Free Pie Crust,(baked for 8 minutes as per directions in recipe)

3 cups chopped rhubarb (I used fresh but frozen would work too!)

2 cups sliced strawberries (hulls removed) (or sub 2 additional cups chopped rhubarb and omit strawberries)

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 cup coconut sugar

4 Tbsp arrowroot starch

Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350F

Mix fruit together in a large bowl and set aside.

Measure the remaining ingredients into a medium mixing bowl and mix thoroughly with an immersion blender. Pour over the prepared fruit and mix gently to coat.

Pour into prepared pie shell.

Bake in preheated oven for 50-55 minutes or until the pie is set in the middle. Check 1/2 way thru and place a foil shield around the edge if it is already starting to brown. 

Carefully remove from oven and let cool thoroughly before serving. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

Easy Dairy Free Ice Cream

This ice cream is so many things all at once, I don't know where to start! It is refined-sugar-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, its easy, it stores wonderfully in your freezer, and, most importantly, it tastes divine. Wait... did I mention it's really easy?

With three simple ingredients and a food processor, you have everything you need to make this lovely summer treat! Customize the fruit to your taste buds! We have used frozen strawberries and oranges as well as the mango version below, but any type of frozen fruit would be delish!

(Yes, I know, the picture kind of looks like cupcakes...but it freezes beautifully in little parchment paper liners. When frozen, simply take it out of the pan and freeze in an airtight container in the freezer, or even a zip-lock freezer bag until you want to eat it. Then it is ready, in a perfect serving sized portion!

Chilling the coconut milk prior to starting this recipe is VERY important. (I actually keep a spare can in the fridge for just such occasions!). Between whipped coconut cream and this recipe, I have one ready whenever I need it!



Easy Dairy Free Ice Cream

1 can coconut milk, chilled overnight (very important, do not skip this step!)

3 cups frozen fruit

2 tbsp maple syrup or raw honey

Open your can of coconut milk upside down. 

Drain off liquid and set aside. 

Place solid coconut milk into the bowl of your food processor. Add frozen fruit; attach lid and pulse to start combining. 

Add maple syrup or honey while pulsing.

 If necessary, add the drained liquid from your can 1 tbsp at a time to loosen the ice cream enough to blend. You may need it all, you may not. (Mango seems to require the whole amount; it takes more to blend because they are very dense when frozen. Softer fruit like cherries, raspberries or blueberries will blend easier. )

You may need to stop the processor and scrape down the sides if your fruit is dense like the frozen mango's were. The more you process, the more the fruit will melt, do not over process or you will loose that necessary frozen texture.

As soon as it is smooth, turn off the food processor and scoop into desired containers to freeze.

Freeze for 2-3 hours minimum.  Store in airtight containers in freezer.  Remove from freezer and let stand 10-15 minutes before serving to soften slightly. 

We found this set of 4 little melamine bowls at one of the PC Superstores, and they work wonderfully  for keeping a batch of ice cream ready to go in the freezer! We bought two sets, which are perfect for the 8ish servings that this recipe makes! Pictured here is a strawberry version!