Butternut Squash & Almond Soup

This is now the second (edible) soup I've made with almonds. The other one (African nut butter stew) is pretty filling, as vegetarian soups go. This one is much lighter, and is good for a small snack or as a precursor to a glorious almost-in-a-food-coma-while-still-eating dinner (i.e. Thanksgiving). This comes from a friend, LG.

Pictured with Cedar Circle Farm's Trukenbrod whole spelt bread, which is amazing and delicious and you should try it if you live around VT/NH.

Ingredients
1 butternut squash
4-6 cups broth
1 cup almonds
curry powder, to taste
black pepper, to taste

Procedure
Boil about 3 cups of broth. Peel the squash (this is really not too bad if you just use a sharp vegetable peeler -- takes a minute and you don't lose much of the flesh). Cut it into cubes, and put it in the boiling broth. Add as much broth as you need to completely cover the squash. For one medium squash, I used about 5 cups of broth (not including the 1/2 cup that comes later; see below) and got a thin soup, which was delicious and not as heavy as squash soup usually feels. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, until the squash is completely cooked through -- about 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, blanch the almonds (i.e. pour boiling water over them and let sit for a minute). Rinse with cold water until they're cool, and peel the skins off. They should pop off pretty easily at this point. Put the peeled almonds with about 1/2 cup of broth into a food processor, and process until the nuts are as finely processed as you'd like to have in your soup.

When the squash is cooked, remove it from the broth (don't toss the broth!) and process it with the almonds. When it's all pureed (or to whatever chunkiness level you prefer), add the almond and squash puree back into the broth and mix everything together thoroughly. You may want to use a hand mixer or immersion blender if you have one, but a whisk would do the trick as well.

Serve hot. Keeps for a while in the fridge, though the puree may start to separate a little when it sits.

Moist Banana (or pumpkin!) Bread

I have been meaning to post this recipe for a long time. It has never served me wrong! One day maybe I will remember to take a picture before eating the banana bread, but it's unlikely. :) Though now (October 2014) I've actually managed to take a photo of the pumpkin variation before eating it, so here it is:

As a warning, start checking the bread after 45 minutes. Sometimes I need a full hour, but usually it's more like 50 minutes. On the other hand, be careful not to lose too much heat from the oven by checking too often, or it'll be dry by the time it's finally baked through. Once you've gotten to know your oven, just use your judgement!

Ingredients

3/4 to 1 cup brown sugar 

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 - 1.5 cups flour (depending on your preference)

3-4 very ripe bananas, mashed - if using frozen, defrost fully beforehand 

Preheat oven to 375F and grease a loaf pan. Blend together first four ingredients (mixing vigorously with a fork is fine). In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ones and mix lightly (do not overmix). Fold in the bananas. Pour mixture into loaf pan and bake for 45-60 minutes.

Variations

1. Try adding 1/2 cup of chopped nuts and/or dried fruits.
2. Make it gluten free: replace the 1.5 cups of flour with 1.5 cups of gluten free flour (as always, I recommend Gluten Free Mama's Almond Blend) and add about 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum. If you don't have xanthan gum, that's fine -- the bread will come out a little flatter and more dense, but no less delicious.
3. Pumpkin bread! Replace the bananas with a can of (unsweetened, unflavored) pureed pumpkin.

African Nut-Butter Stew

This is a recipe that is found, in one form or another, in a number of West African cultures. The traditional dish is a stew primarily with tomatoes and ground nuts. This particular incarnation probably deviates somewhat from tradition, but it sure is tasty.

Also included here is a recipe for 10-minute vegetable broth. Highly convenient if you don't have any stock around the house. Chicken broth would work here, too, and I've seen this soup prepared with chicken (or other meat, like mutton or lamb) as well.


[Probably enough for at least 6 servings, but who knows.]
Ingredients

1 small onion
1 large red pepper
3-4 cloves garlic
1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes (do not drain them!)
6 cups vegetable broth (see 10 minute broth recipe below)
1/3 cup uncooked rice
~1 cup unsweetened nut butter (I used almond)

Directions

To make vegetable broth: Chop up 1-2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 1-2 onions, and 1-2 garlic cloves, or run them through the food processor until they're coarsely processed/grated. Heat oil in a saucepan, throw everything in, and cook, covered, for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, boil 6 cups of water. Pour water over the veggies and return to boiling, then reduce heat and simmer another 5 minutes. Now strain and you have vegetable broth.

Finely chop up onion, pepper, and garlic. Heat oil in a dutch oven or saucepan. Throw in onions, pepper, and garlic for a few minutes, browning the onions a bit. Pour in tomatoes and broth and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Now add the rice and simmer until it is cooked through, another 20-30 minutes. Whisk in nut butter, return to simmer, and serve.

Variation: Try adding peas to the soup. Wait until the very end to add them in. We've been storing the soup in the freezer, adding the peas to the portion we're reheating in the pot.

Nutty Energy Bars

This recipe came from River Cottage Every Day, unsurprisingly. I made a few adjustments on the basis of lacking ingredients or not liking certain things (e.g. using almond butter instead of peanut butter). In the end, I thought it was a little too sweet, so next time I would use maybe 1/3 cup of brown sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of honey. A suggested variation in the book is to use a mashed ripe banana in place of the nut butter, but I haven't tried that yet.

As you can see, my attempt at these bars gave me an odd pattern -- I tossed the seeds over the top and the mixture started bubbling when it came to a boil in the oven, and evidently it came up over the sides. I think it's pretty neat -- plus the edge pieces have no seeds, for added variety. :)

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup raw, unsalted, unsweetened nut butter (I used almond butter)
1/4 cup honey
2/3 cup (packed) brown sugar
little bit of lemon zest (grated)

1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup mixed seeds
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup (or less) chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 325F. Melt first five ingredients in a saucepan over very low heat, stirring occasionally. Add in the oats, raisins, and about 3/4 of the seeds. Mix together.

Grease an 8" baking dish and line with parchment paper (so that it's easy to remove the concoction after baking). Pour in "batter," smoothing it out on top. Scatter chocolate chips and remaining seeds on top.

Variation: I added half of the chocolate chips directly into the saucepan to have a more chocolatey base.

Bake for about 30 minutes. For me, the stuff came out pretty much liquid, which figures as there aren't a lot of solid (when heated) ingredients. Put it in the fridge until it cools completely -- it'll be pretty much rock hard by then. :) Store in the fridge, and eat at a little lower than room temperature so everything doesn't goo up in your hands.

Coconut Fudge Truffles

The brigadeiros were a big hit -- but I feel like I'm going into a diabetic coma just eating one (or maybe two... or three). So we were thinking about how to make a slightly less sweet variety. The main idea was using evaporated milk instead of condensed milk and adding in sugar ourselves (condensed milk is about 4 parts evaporated milk to 5 parts sugar, which is crazy -- we wanted to try 2 parts evaporated milk to 1 part sugar and see how it went). Well, we got a little carried away... but the truffles turned out so delicious!

So here it is -- a pretty crazy spin on Brazilian truffles.

[Makes 30-35 candies.]
Ingredients
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 tsp. salt
4 tsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. instant coffee
2-3 Tbsp. tasty flour

Directions
Bring the first seven ingredients to a rapid boil over medium heat. Lower heat and simmer mixture, stirring occasionally to keep it from sticking. If it still seems too liquid after about 10 minutes, add in a bit of the flour. It took us about 20-25 minutes of simmering to decide to add in flour, after which point the mixture still didn't seem thick enough, but we took a chance and put it in the fridge. It came out fine. Keep it in the fridge until it's completely cold (we just left it overnight because we got tired, but an hour or two should do the trick).

Meanwhile, chop up nuts, toast some coconut flakes, and prepare whatever other toppings you want to use. This time, I used pistachios, hazelnuts, almonds, and toasted coconut. Take 1 teaspoon at a time of the fudge and roll into a ball over the topping(s) of your choice -- if the topping is some kind of nut, try putting a whole one in the middle. Place the candies on parchment or wax paper. If storing or giving as gifts, try wrapping them in wax paper (as shown here).



Tip: Get your hands wet with warm water -- this will keep the fudge from sticking to your hands while you're trying to roll it. Wash your hands after every four or five truffles you roll, or whenever they start to get dirty -- if the chocolate mixture starts to accumulate on your hands, the truffles will stick more, creating a frustrating mess.

Variation: Try dipping them in chocolate.

Chocolate Truffles - Brazilian style

I read about brigadeiros somewhere on Smitten Kitchen a little while ago and have been wanting to try them. Her recipe is more "advanced" than I felt up for tonight. Not really, but it involves coconut milk and a longer cooking time than I was willing to commit to. So I decided to stick with the basics: cocoa powder, condensed milk, and butter. That's it. At least until I decided to roll them in stuff after being inspired by their Wikipedia page. ;)

[Makes about 20 brigadeiros.]
Ingredients
3-4 Tbsp (unsweetened) cocoa powder
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbsp butter

Directions
Heat ingredients together in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. Chill in the fridge or freezer until the mixture is pretty firm -- malleable, but not too sticky.

Meanwhile, chop up some things to roll the candies in. I chopped up some hazelnuts, white chocolate chips, semisweet chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips. If I'd had some coconut flakes, I'd have tried that too!

Spread each topping in an even layer on a cutting board. When the mixture is sufficiently chilled, roll into balls with your hands (about 1-2 teaspoons' worth for each candy) and roll the balls in the desired toppings.

I think they taste delicious at room temperature, but keep them in the fridge until you're ready to eat them.

Storage idea
Wrap truffles individually in wax paper. I cut the wax paper into strips, rolled each strip over a truffle so that it formed a cylinder, and twisted the ends.



Variations:
1) Put a whole nut (e.g. hazelnut) into a truffle with the same topping.

2) If you like Lindor truffles, try dipping the brigadeiros in melted chocolate after doing the procedure described above and let the truffles cool. You'll end up with a hard(er) chocolate shell and soft truffle inside.