Butternut Squash Soup

This is the soup I ended up using the Indian Inspired Vegetable Broth for, and I was pleased that the bitterness I was worried about did not come forth in this soup. However, if I had to do it again I would use less butternut squash. The grocery store had smaller squash than what I was hoping for, so I ended up using two. One and a half squash or one large squash would have been perfect, I feel. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose.

This is a wonderfully hearty soup, and is very filling. It does take a little more prep work with roasting the squash beforehand, but if you don't you risk having a watery, much less flavourful meal. I also find that roasting the squash softens it enough to make it infinitely easier to work with.

Butternut Squash Soup
Author: Amanda
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 8+

Ingredients

• 2 medium butternut squash (or one large)
• vegetable oil, for roasting squash
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 jalapeno pepper, deseeded
• 2 inches fresh ginger
• 1 recipe Indian Inspired Vegetable Broth
• 1.5 cups heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

Split the squash lengthwise and scoop out the insides. Brush with vegetable oil and roast in the over at 350F for approximately 1 hour, or until easily pierced with a fork. Allow to cool, then peel and cube the squash. Dice the onion and jalapeno and mince the garlic and ginger. Saute in butter over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, until the onions are soft and translucent. Add the cinnamon and combine well. Add the cubed butternut squash and broth, bring to a boil, and simmer partially covered for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat to puree the soup, add the cream and heat through. Serve. Leftovers may be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Step-by-Step Photos

Split the squash and use a sturdy spoon to scoop out the seeds and goop (I believe that is the technical term). I think this is the hardest part of the recipe, so once this is down you are good to go.

Brush all exposed squash flesh with vegetable oil and roast at 350F for about an hour. The squash will soften and turn a lovely golden colour and be super delicious.

While the squash is roasting, you can prepare everything else. Deseed and dice the jalapano (though you could leave the seeds in if you wanted a pretty spicy soup), dice the onion, mince the garlic, and ginger. Typically I put the ginger through a microplane, but since the entire soup is about to be pureed, it is not really necessary.

Once the squash is cool enough to handle, peel and cube it up. I used a knife and wasn't too picky on keeping the peel as thin as it could have been, but there was still (way more than) enough squash for the soup. Roasting also makes peeling the squash a dream in comparison to working with it raw.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a large pot.

Saute the vegetables and aromatics in the butter until the onion is soft and translucent, about 5-7 minutes.

Add the cinnamon. You'll want to stir it together pretty well so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot. As a side note, I absolutely love the smells of butter + onions + cinnamon. It doesn't get better than that.

Add the cubed butternut squash and vegetable broth.

Bring the soup to a boil, then turn down the heat to maintain a simmer for 20 minutes with the lid cracked open to allow steam out. Now the soup is ready for pureeing.

Turn off the heat and either blend with an immersion blender or a regular blender carefully to avoid splatter.

Add the heavy cream, salt, pepper, and heat through. I ended up using 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Serve. As you can see, I unfortunately had lost the good natural lighting at this point (curse you, winter months!) so the soup appears more brown than it actually is. That's okay though, the picture-taking is always a work in progress for me. Enjoy!

Indian Inspired Vegetable Broth

The idea for this broth came to me as I was just about to fall asleep, but I managed to mostly write it out as a note for myself. I've mentioned before that I keep a baggie int he freezer to save my vegetable scraps for vegetable stock making, and at this point my bag was 100% onion scraps. I thought it would work perfectly with Indian spices to make a great base for a future soup. I also had a couple tomatoes I had diced up and thrown in the freezer, but a small can of diced tomatoes (or half a large 28oz can) would work just fine.

In hindsight, there were probably too many onion skins in this broth for my liking. I would probably limit the recipe to 3 cups of onion scraps in the future, and add a whole onion to the mix to help offset some of the bitterness I found in the final product. If nothing else, the broth smells amazing while it simmers, which is probably why I was so surprised at the bitter taste. Luckily the bitterness did not make it into the soup I ended up using the broth for, but there is always room for improvement.

Indian Inspired Vegetable Broth
Author: Amanda
Yield: approximately 1.5L broth
Difficulty: easy

Ingredients

• 6 cups onion scraps and skins
• 3 diced tomatoes, or half a large can of diced tomatoes in juice
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 inches fresh ginger
• 2 whole cloves garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 6 cups water
• salt to taste

Directions
Heat butter in a medium sized pot on medium heat until foamy. Add onion scraps and saute until softened. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes, strain broth into mason jars or other heat-proof containers, and allow to cool. Store in the fridge for up to 5 days or keep in the freezer for up to 6 months until ready to use.

Step-by-Step Photos

Heat butter in a medium sized pot until foamy.

Add onion scraps to the butter, and saute until softened (and in my case, thawed).

Throw everything else in the pot and bring it up to a simmer.

Simmer uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, then turn off the heat. I didn't take pictures of me straining out the vegetables. Mostly because it was pitiful and terribly messy. Forgive me. Sometimes I wonder how I am an adult.

Transfer broth to alternative containers until ready to use. I didn't salt the broth until this stage, and I found it took less than I thought - maybe 3/4 teaspoon altogether.

Mango Salsa

This was a delicious joint effort between Paige and I. I had recently gotten into canning this fall, after realizing that canning doesn't have to mean making a bajillion cans of something at once. Small scale canning exists, and it is perfect for both of us. We enjoy making an afternoon out of canning, so this is something we are trying to get together to accomplish on a somewhat regular basis. This mango salsa isn't too spicy, and is great with tortilla chips, or thrown onto some chicken or fish before being baked in the oven.

Canning is one of those things I found incredibly intimidating until I did it myself, and realized there's not too much to it. It's fun! There's nothing quite like that satisfying pop! of the canning lids sealing after all of your hard work. The only unfortunate aspect of canning is that it does require some extra equipment - canning pot, jar holder, probably a wide mouth funnel, and well, mason jars of course. But once you get started it's easy to want to can everything in sight. (For me, anyways.)

Note: the written instructions are tailored to our altitude, which is an important factor in canning. You can find a handy reference for your altitude and canning times here.

Mango Salsa

Author: adapted from Food in Jars
Difficulty: easy
Makes approximately 6 500mL jars

Ingredients

• 6 cups chopped mango
• 1 red onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1.5 cups white vinegar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3 Thai chilies
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 1 lime
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

Directions
Fill canning pot with enough water to cover jars, place empty jars without lids or rings into the pot, and bring to a boil. Place jar lids in a small pot or saucepan and simmer on low heat. Ensure mango is diced small, and dice the red onion and bell pepper. Mince the garlic, chilies, and cilantro, discarding cilantro stems. Zest and juice the lime, and bring all ingredients to a boil in a large pot. Lower heat to a simmer for approximately 10 minutes. Remove jars from the hot water bath, and quickly work to ladle hot salsa into the hot jars, leaving approximately 1/2 inch headspace in the jars. Wipe the rims, apple the lids and rings, and boil in the hot water bath for 10 minutes + 10 minutes for altitude. After the processing time is complete, remove the pot from the heat and remove the lid, allowing the jars to sit for an additional 5 minutes before removing, to prevent salsa from bubbling out of the jars (reacting to a rapid temperature change). Remove the jars from the pot and place on kitchen towels until cool.

Step-by-Step Photos

Place canning jars into a canning pot and bring to a boil, and simmer lids on low heat. Dice the mango, onion, and bell pepper. Zest the lime. Mince the garlic, cilantro leaves, and Thai chilies. We used a large bag of frozen mango chunks that we allowed to thaw and then diced a little smaller. Initially we thought we would need more bell pepper and onion, but it turns out one of each was sufficient.

Throw all of those ingredients into a large pot and add the sugar, lime juice, and vinegar. Also add the cumin.

Bring the salsa to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 10 minutes. It should look relatively thick and not watery. You can also adjust the spice and vinegar here if desired.

Remove the jars from the water bath (dumping the water in the jars out, of course), and place on two layers of kitchen towel to mutually protect the jars and the counter top. Working quickly, add the hot salsa to the jars, leaving about 1/2 inch of room so that the jars don't crack.

Add the lids from their simmer and seal until "finger tight" with the rings.

Return the jars to the boiling water bath.

Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes (we boiled for 20 because of our altitude) with the pot covered.

When the processing time is complete, remove the pot from the heat and remove the lid. Wait five minutes, and then remove the jars from the pot.

Allow to cool on the double-layer of kitchen towels. As they cool, you should start to hear the pop! I love so much.

Store until ready to use. The salsa will keep for at least six months.

Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Bisque

Soup season has hit with full force. And if it weren't for the snow and the miserable cold winds that take your breath away, I would be totally fine with that. I love soup. If I am not sure what I want to eat, I will usually throw together a soup of sorts and it ends up being exactly what I wanted after all. I think part of the reason I love soups are because they are easy to make, are perfect for a one-container-lunch, and it's a handy way to sneak in leftovers that you may have sitting around. For this recipe, my boyfriend had bought too many tomatoes and I needed a quick way to use them up before they became unusable. Soup to the rescue!

Broiling the red pepper and fresh tomatoes adds an extra depth of flavour that just can't be replicated if you skip it. I added a can of diced tomatoes to help bulk out the soup and help the cost factor, but you could easily double the fresh tomatoes and roast them as well for an even more pronounced roasted flavour that I am sure would be amazing. Heck, if you've got an extra bell pepper hanging around, throw that in too! The roasting itself a little fussy and requires a little more prep time, but I promise the end result is worth it.

I also keep a medium sized freezer bag in my freezer for vegetable scraps I collect as I cook. Every few weeks it is full enough for a new batch of vegetable stock. I made my own stock for this recipe using onion, carrot, and celery scraps simmered with bay leaves and peppercorns for around 45 minutes. It's a fantastic way to make something useful out of what was just going to go into compost/trash, since it's virtually free. You can make vegetable stock with just about any leftover vegetable scraps, but I tend to steer away from stronger flavours such as peppers, kale, broccoli, and the like. And you can't go wrong with the classic triad of celery, onion, and carrot. However, in lieu of fresh vegetable stock for this recipe, you can easily substitute prepared vegetable or chicken stock.

Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Bisque
Author: Amanda
Serves 6+
Difficulty: easy

Ingredients

• 5 tomatoes on the vine
• 1 red bell pepper
• vegetable oil, for broiling
• 1 28oz/796mL can diced tomatoes
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3.5 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions
Wash the bell pepper and tomatoes, slice in half and place sliced-side-down onto a baking sheet lined with foil. Brush the exposed skins with vegetable oil, and broil on high until skins are blackened and bubbly. Remove vegetables from tray when cool, peel, and roughly chop. Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat and saute onions and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes. Add peeled peppers, tomatoes, can of diced tomatoes, and vegetable broth. Simmer for 15 minutes and use an immersion blender to puree soup. If not using an immersion blender, blend in small batches with a towel over the blender and return to pot on low heat. Add heavy cream, salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. Turn off heat when heated through and serve.

Step-by-Step Photos

Wash your produce and slice the pepper and tomatoes in half, place face down on a foiled baking sheet, and brush with vegetable oil. The oil helps to ensure a more even roasting and also helps speed up the process. If the pepper membranes (white part) are easy to pull out, you can do that here too. Otherwise, you can do it after they are roasted.

Broil on high in the oven. Every oven is different, so you will have to keep a fairly close eye on the vegetables. I ended up broiling mine for about 10 minutes.

Once blackened and starting to bubble, remove the vegetables from the broiler and allow to cool. I probably could have left mine in the broiler for a couple more minutes, but I am impatient. It's a character flaw that often finds its way into my cooking escapades.

While the peppers and tomatoes are broiling and cooling, dice the onion and mince the garlic.

Once the tomatoes and peppers have cooled, you can peel them. I found the tomato skins peeled off like a dream compared to the peppers, so just do the best you can. Discard the skins and give the flesh a rough chop.

Melt the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, and add the onions and garlic once the butter is foamy.

After the onions and garlic have softened and are fragrant, add the skinned and chopped peppers and tomatoes to the pot, as well as the can of diced tomatoes in their juices.

Add the vegetable stock, and bring to a simmer (small bubbles breaking the surface).

Simmer, partially covered, for about 15 minutes. Remember to stir occasionally.

After the soup has simmered, remove the cover and turn off the heat prior to blending.

Blend soup until no large chunks remain. I adore my immersion blender and use it often, but if you only have a regular blender, here's a guide from America's Test Kitchen on how to blend your soup safely.

Stir in the heavy cream. I used full-blown whipping cream for this soup, but I had it leftover from a previous recipe. I wouldn't use anything less than 18% cream (coffee cream) in the soup, because the acidity of the tomatoes can make it curdle. I have tried making tomato soups before with half-and-half, and it always curdles. It still tastes really good, but it will look grainy. The fat content prevents the curdling even when reheating the leftovers. It's worth it.

Add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. I put cayenne or crushed red pepper in EVERYTHING. Some may consider it another character flaw. I ended up adding 1 teaspoon of salt, but I also left my vegetable stock fairly unsalted so I could perfect the salt to my taste. You may not need any if you are using prepared stock.

Serve.

Simple Slow Cooker Apple Cider

Cider is the perfect drink for fall and winter. It's warm, cozy, sweet, and spicy. I couldn't ask for anything more. This cider recipe is pretty basic and can be easily doubled, which I feel is part of the appeal. Adding a cup of fresh or frozen whole cranberries, spiced rum, caramel-flavoured vodka, or even brewed green tea would be excellent add-ins. And because it's in the slow cooker, this recipe is virtually effortless to throw together and let sit while you spend your time doing other things (or compulsively opening the lid to take a big smell, but maybe that's just me).

Slow Cooker Simple Apple Cider
Author: Amanda
Serves: 4-6
Difficulty: easy

Ingredients

• 1 can frozen apple juice concentrate
• 2 inches fresh ginger
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 5 whole cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• water

Directions
Add can of apple juice concentrate, brown sugar, spices to slow cooker. Add water as directed on can of juice concentrate plus one additional can of water to slow cooker. Turn on slow cooker on high for 2 hours or on low for 4. Strain out whole spices with slotted spoon or strainer and serve.

Step-by-Step Photos

Peel the ginger and leave in large pieces so that it's easier to remove. Add everything to the slow cooker and turn on high for 2 hours or low for 4 hours.

Once the time is up, remove the add-ins (though in the case of fresh cranberries I would leave them in, if I used them. They're so pretty!). You can leave the slow cooker on warm or low while serving. The missing clove in the picture is because I didn't bother straining out my spices, which in hindsight is a good idea for ease of serving.

Serve, and enjoy. Just the right amount of spicy, and warms you to the core.