Cauliflower Cilantro Soup

It was pretty chilly here today and soup seemed like the perfect dinner. Look out for more soup recipes as fall approaches. Sorry there is no picture, It really won't photograph very well, I mean its white and well uh white!

~Now I must say that a really great tasting and good quality stock is what makes this soup. I use Rapunzel's vegan vegetable bouillon cubes and I have NEVER tasted anything better.

Cauliflower Cilantro Soup
1/2 onion, chopped (I just use one small one)
3 or 4 garlic cloves
1 tsp coriander
1 small head of cauliflower
4 cups stock
1 - 2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 TBL cilantro

Saute onion, garlic and coriander in your soup pot with a bit of oil. Chop up the cauliflower and add it to the pot followed by the stock. Bring to a boil then simmer for 20 minutes. Add mustard and cilantro. Then put in the blender what percentage of the soup you don't want chunky, I usually do about half. But you could do all if you wanted, your choice. We love this with cheese on top, but then again we just really love cheese.

Cream of...

I am so sorry that it has been so long since I have shared a recipe with you. We have just moved and life has been up, down and all around for the past few months. Now that my family is back together in one household I am much more motivated for trying new recipes so I have lots of them on my mind... be ready!

Here is a recipe I ran across. In my opinion is is bland when eaten plain but once you add a bit of honey and a dollop of whatever butter you deem healthy....wow delicious.
You can make this recipe with barley, wheat berries, rice, millet, whatever you choose. We've tried them all but the rice. The accompanying picture is of cream of Barley so that is what I'll write in the recipe.

Cream of Barley
1 cup barley
pinch of salt
5 cups water

Toast the grain in a skillet for about 5 minutes. Cool. Grind into powder (or mostly powder or whatever you can accomplish) with a food processor or blender. Whisk the grain into the water and boil uncovered for 20 minutes.

Product Placement

So sorry it has been a long while since last posting. Our family is traveling alot this summer and I haven't been keeping up with new recipes... much less posting about them! I'm working with some new recipes this week and a couple I want to try. But for now I'd like to tell you about a couple of things that I have found as replacements for foods that periodically pop up in my recipes.

Soy sauce:
First of all, this is the most amazing tasting soy sauce I have ever had!
Commercial soy sauce is full of preservatives and as most commercially produced products are, it's lacking in nutrients. I have read that it's basically colored water and tons of salt... and smidgen of soybeans that have been defatted using chemicals... blah. I really haven't thoroughly researched it but I do know that this tastes alot better!

Salt:
Salt has become something that people really stress out over. Salt is actually very good for you. With tons of minerals that come with sea salt (calcium, potassium, sulphur, magnesium, iron...) you can't afford to ditch it from your diet. That bleached nutrient stripped table salt stuff is what you need to get rid of. With this stuff I never ever feel guilty about putting salt in my food, but truthfully you won't need much of it.



Mayonnaise: Now I have little use for mayo, especially since plain yogurt will do the trick. But I do have a husband who does like sandwiches and not always with avocado as its moistener! So I thought I'd venture to the fake stuff aisle at the natural food store. I'm not terribly fond of making or using fake stuff but occasionally I like it. It turns out that I really really love this stuff. Which has led me to dolloping a bit in my guacamole... don't tell anyone ;) Anyway, I love the ingredients in this, good fats and no eggs. Let me explain. I love eggs, I am an egg advocate. We eat eggs all the time, but I'm not so sure about such a large amount of processed eggs swirled into one jar topped with some soybean oil...frown. Regardless of what you believe about mayo, this still tastes better!

Sweetener:
Honey and agave nectar are my go-to sweeteners. But I do love to keep and occasionally use molasses. Molasses is the only form of sugar (besides malt) that has significant nutrients in it. Click here to see a chart. You've got manganese, copper, iron, calcium, potassium, B6 and Selenium. There are a whole slew of other benifits but you can research that on your own, that website its helpful for that too. Here is another one.

Stuffed Zucchini

There are a million great ways to stuff a zucchini. Here is one on the healthier side. First let me explain the pictures. We were visiting family in Oklahoma and one of my Aunt-in-laws gave me the biggest zucchini I have ever seen, we are talking 1st place in my made up county fair. So, no I don't normally cook this dish with insanely huge zucchinis and no I also don't normally put so much cheese on it. At home we use the block of cheese and since grating isn't as fun as it was when I was a kid, minimal cheese is the key. On vacation we had a bag of shredded cheese and I went crazy.

Olive, Tomato and Millet Stuffed Zucchini

1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 TBL olive oil
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup millet
4 medium zucchini
1/2 tsp each: rosemary, thyme, marjoram, basil and salt
pepper to taste
1 tsp paprika
1 22 ounce can whole tomatoes (I use about 4 fresh Roma tomatoes)
2 cups broth
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives

The recipe needs you to steam up your zucchinis, so I'd figure out how you intend to do that and get it going while you do the rest of this. In the case of the giant zuc, I did it in the oven covered with water in the bottom. You can do the same in the microwave I've heard, I use the steamer. You can boil them if none of those options appeal to you!
Saute the onions for 5-7 minutes, add the garlic for a few minutes. Add millet, herbs and spices, saute 3 more minutes. Add the tomatoes, crushing them as you put them in, throw in the broth (and tomato juice if you used canned ones). Cover and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. In the meantime, cut the zuccs in half lengthwise: steam or boil them until soft. Remove the pulp making a little boat and add it to the millet mixture with olives. Simmer about 5 more minutes. Place the zucchinis in a casserole dish and stuff them with mixture. (I top it with cheese). Bake for about 20 minutes at 350.

Pictures

A couple blogs back I posted a recipe for whole wheat pizza dough. (Click here to see the recipe) I wanted to add a couple pictures because I think pizzas are one of the most beautiful dishes to make and serve! My two year old is the best at rolling out the dough and pushing in the crust - it is really fun to make pizza with him. This pizza is one of our typical combos. Onions, peppers, garlic, mushrooms and spinach... oh yes and add the cheese.

Basil

I planned to post a great picture of the basil in my garden but searching through my garden pictures I find no basil cameos... poor herb. I'm sure there are 100 ways to use fresh basil in the kitchen but my top choice and the number one place all my grown basil goes to is pesto. Freezing it is awesome for winter (I have frozen it both with and without the cheese). If you were only going to grow one herb I vote basil! Pesto usually calls for pine nuts, but those little guys are pricey so I just ditch them, still tastes great to me. I have also heard of vegans axing the cheese, I haven't tried that though. Once I put one clove too many garlic... wowee that hurt, so I added about a cup or so of spinach and that really helped. My point is: mess around and see what you like.

Pesto

1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups fresh basil leaves (okay I have never measured this, really its like a heaping handful)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 garlic cloves
salt
pepper

I'd say cut about 3 inch tall pieces off your basil plant and gather as much as you can fit into your hand.
Wash them and pat dry.
Pick the leaves off the stems.
Mix all together in a food processor or blender and pulse until smooth.

After these messages...

I haven't forgotten my fellow eaters out there! I will be back soon with another great new recipe. I've been on somewhat of a vacation for the past week or so but we are headed home in a couple days. Keep on working your magic in the kitchen!