Hearty Soups and Pasta Sauce from Roasted Vegetables

 

Roasting vegetables and fruits brings out the best flavors in them without requiring much seasoning because the natural flavors come out during the roasting.

 

Roasted or baked sweet potatoes are sweet and flavorful enough that they can be eaten as is. We had baked sweet potatoes growing up. There was a time that was what we had for lunch! And nobody starved or suffered from malnutrition.

 

We enjoyed those fresh garden vegetables, fruits and berries from the area. If anything arrived by truck back then, it was from a few miles out from nearby farms. I remember seeing people bartering with vegetables for meat or poultry or eggs.

 

The last trip I took along US 49 in Arkansas heading West to Brinkley, there was a little shed with fruits and vegetables for sale. Every trip I’ve taken down that highway, there was always that little shed! Oh, and we always stopped even though we were days away from home!  Most of the time, we ate the fruit we bought within a day.

 

Most cities have large farmers markets, but those aren’t the same as those individual “stands”.  Sometimes you actually knew the family or even if you didn’t, you remembered them from year to year and knew their life stories.  Although the large farmers markets have some really good food, it’s the ‘knowing the providers/growers’ that make it more interesting.

 

If you have never roasted or baked vegetables or fruits, it’s time to try it.  That roasted or baked food will make you go …. um yum good!

 

It’s about time to heat up some of the last batch of soup, just writing about it makes my mouth water!

 

From September

From August

 

September - soup with roasted vegetables

This one included roasted potatoes, carrots, winter squash, peppers, green beans and corn.  It also has ‘fresh’ carrot juice instead of tomato juice.  I do not recommend canned or non-refrigerated bottled carrot juice! Basically if it does not taste like fresh squeezed, it will not have a good effect on this soup.

The finished soup - it comes out like stew, with potatoes doing some major thickening! Delicious for sure!

soup with roasted potatoes and carrots served this one is very thick

 

Soup - roasted vegetables with black and kidney beans added

 

Pasta Sauce

Roasted Vegetables served

 

Preparing soup with a few roasted vegetables

I needed to add other ingredients here, because there was only about 2 cups of roasted vegetables left.
over-ripe tomatoes, frozen mixed vegetables, roasted carrots, roasted corn, roasted potatoes and roasted squash. Cooked sliced okra will be added last

Adding a small amount of quinoa, which will thicken the soup, prior to adding the fresh tomatoes

 

Finished it off with fresh carrot juice

Preparing the okra separate

Added the okra - would be ready to serve in about half an hour

The finished soup  -  Delicious for sure!

Leftovers

                                                                            served with cranberry flax muffin

Prepping the Vegetables

I cover the pans with foil and rub oil over to prevent sticking.  The oil is absorbed into the vegetables. Makes for an easy clean-up.  These can also be roasted in a large covered grill.

Cut the summer squash in cubes

Winter squash

Winter squash carrots and corn

peppers in slices and strips

End pieces of the peppers can be diced for salads or adding to omelets

eggplant and summer squash

Potatoes

 

Get to it!   Roast those veggies and fruits!

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© 2013 http://retiredwithnoregrets.blogspot.com/

Sweet Potato Muffins - Gluten Free

Baked sweet potatoes make the best desserts versus boiled, but shredded makes them even better!
I am using the method used in the Brown Sugar Pecan Sweet Potato Bread and mix from Creating the “Muffin Mix”.

These are not too sweet and great for breakfast or brunch. I actually ate one for dinner as I just haven’t cooked much this week.

These muffins came about because I had shredded sweet potatoes and did not want to cook them all in a dish.

The recipe is very simple. If you have a plain gluten-free muffin mix, it should work just fine.  Gradually add the liquids as with all gluten-free mixes, liquid requirements depend on the actual flour mix. This mix has more fiber than most mixes, thus requires a little more liquid..

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Sweet Potato Muffins with Pecans


Ingredients


Dry Ingredients
2 cups "Fixed-up Muffin Mix" (or your favorite plain muffin mix)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger powder

Wet Ingredients
4 tbsp butter - softened
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
-----------liquids------------
2/3 cup butter milk
2 tbsp water, if needed

Add-ins
1 1/2 cup shredded sweet potatoes, (sauté  or microwave to soften a bit, but should not be mushy. Cooked = 1 cup shredded)
1/4 cup pecans, chopped

Procedure
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease or cover the muffin tin with cupcake papers.
Whisk the dry ingredients together.
Using a mixer, beat the egg, butter and  extract until fluffy.
Beat in the Dry ingredients, adding  the buttermilk as you mix.  Beat about one minute.  Gently fold in the sweet potatoes and pecans. A fork works well and does not flatten the batter.



Spoon the batter into the cupcake tin, lightly twirl to smooth using  a fork or toothpick


Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until done. Toothpick test works well.




Remove cupcakes from pan  and serve immediately or cool on a wire rack







Cover with cellophane wrap or place in a lidded container; store on counter for up to two days or refrigerate. To re-warm, microwave 10 to 12 seconds.

Servings: 12

Nutrition (per muffin): 167 calories, 7.2g total fat, 2.5g monounsaturated fat, <1g polyunsaturated fat, <1g linoleic acid, 3g saturated fat, 46.1mg cholesterol, 23.3g carbohydrates, 1.6g fiber, 21.7g net carbohydrates, 9g sugar, <1mg stigmasterol, 2.1g starch, <1g fructose, <1g galactose, <1g glucose, <1g sucrose, <1g maltose, 83.6mg sodium, 117.8mg potassium, 3.3g protein, 68.9mg calcium, 2536.5IU vitamin a, <1mg vitamin b6, <1mcg vitamin b12, <1mg vitamin c, 2.9IU vitamin d, <1mg vitamin e, <1mcg vitamin k, <1mg iron, <1g lysine, <1mcg lycopene, 4.2mg phytosterols, 3.4mcg selenium, <1mg thiamin, <1mg zinc

Tips
If you are using extra oil to sauté the sweet potatoes, you may want to reduce the fat in the recipe by 1 tablespoon.

I waited a day to see how these were  re-warmed.  They are still soft and fluffy.

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All week I have been looking for meal ideas. One of the sides was these sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes used in the muffin recipe should look like this, instead of being mushy.

Soup’s on! - Carrot Sweet Potato Coconut Cream Soup

My preference is gingered carrot juice over carrots.  There is something nice about getting all of the flavor at once instead of chewing all of those carrots only to not get much flavor.

A better name for this soup would be Carrot Sweet Potato Mirage Soup, because there is a subtle hint of all of the flavors.  It as a slight spicy hint of carrots, sweet potatoes and coconut. There is an even less hint of the onions. It is a simple smooth soup for those days when you haven’t eaten, not hungry but need to eat…
To savor the flavors, eat this soup slowly, sort of like a fine wine…

Carrot Sweet Potato Coconut Cream Soup - with a Hint of Spice

 

Ingredients

1 Tbsp olive oil (EVOO)

1 large sweet onion, shredded

1 16 oz bag peeled baby carrots, sliced thin or chopped

1 1/2 cups sweet potatoes, peeled, shredded

1 Tbsp ginger (squeeze tube)

1 tbsp lemon grass (squeeze tube)

1/2 tsp Cumin, Ground

1/4 tsp Red pepper flakes (not cayenne)

1/2 tsp turmeric, ground

1/4 tsp sage, ground

1/4 tsp white pepper

1 tsp Coconut Manna

1  low-sodium vegetable cube (Edward's & Sons)

1 14 ounce can  light coconut milk (Trader Joe's)

1 1/2 cups water (as needed), heat before adding to soup

Topping (optional):

4 tbsp unsweetened flaked coconut (1 tbsp each serving)

Procedure

Heat oil in large iron skillet on medium heat. Add all ingredients except Coconut Manna, water and coconut milk.  Cook on medium, stirring occasionally until carrots are tender.

The onions and carrots were cooked about 5 minutes before adding the sweet potatoes.

Scrape into a food processor bowl, add Coconut Manna and allow cooling about 5 minutes, then purée until smooth. Scrape the purée into a small slow cooker.

Of course, I grabbed the large crock pot first!

 

Whisk in coconut milk and as much water as needed to get to desired consistency. Allow to heat about 2 hours on low or high about 45 minutes

Serve hot.  Optionally drop a tablespoon of unsweetened coconut flakes over  top of bowl.

 

Servings: 4

Nutrition Facts

Nutrition (per serving): 264 calories, 13.8g total fat, 2.5g monounsaturated fat, <1g polyunsaturated fat, 8.6g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 33.9g carbohydrates, 8.1g fiber, 25.8g net carbohydrates, 12.5g sugar, <1mg stigmasterol, 8.4g starch, 2g fructose, 0g galactose, 2.4g glucose, 5.1g sucrose, 0g maltose, 232.1mg sodium, 565.2mg potassium, 3.1g protein, 70.3mg calcium, 25079.2IU vitamin a, <1mg vitamin b6, 0mcg vitamin b12, 7mg vitamin c, 0IU vitamin d, <1mg vitamin e, 14.1mcg vitamin k, 1.9mg iron, <1g lysine, 0mcg lycopene, 20.8mg phytosterols, 1.6mcg selenium, <1mg thiamin, <1mg zinc, 0mg caffeine.

Notes:
One of the reasons I prefer TJ’s lite coconut milk, is the lack of lots of added ingredients.

© 2012 retiredwithnoregrets.blogspot.com

Cooking for One or Two - A Quick Meal in Less Than One Hour

I prefer baking  to making meals, so I am always looking for quick meals that are nutritious. Today was one of those days; I baked cookies instead of cooking a meal. Of course, they were chocolate!

There are always food in the pantry, fridge or freezer, I just have to decide how to ‘mix it up’ to make a meal.  My preference is a vegetarian meal.

I attended a class at the Celiac Center of Minnesota on Monday night and came away with a better understanding  between fat and carbohydrates.  At least, I accept the explanation. The impression I came away with was that in order to digest carbohydrates without all of it going to sugar, was to be sure to add fat.  Normally, I try to go low-fat.  Future meals will include added EVOO where necessary.

Sweet potatoes are one of those vegetables, we used to eat raw when growing up.  My mother had this garden where she always had sweet potatoes.  When it was time to harvest, we always had to eat a few pieces raw.  They were really sweet even raw. We always had the pink fleshed ones.

There were no left-overs in the refrigerator, so I either had to open a can, microwave a bag or pare and cut something up.

Now back to the sweet potatoes, I picked up one and decided I would be having it for dinner, but had to think quick about what to make with it.  Stir-fries are the quickest way to make a meal with little fuss.  Out of the fridge came a red pepper, baby bellas and eggplant.  I hadn’t decided at that time whether to make rice or use beans.  Well the rice had to be cooked, so I chose the beans.

This is basically a simple way to get a meal real quick…..


Black Bean & Sweet Potato Stir-fry


Ingredients
1 small sweet potato, peeled and shredded
1 small eggplant, diced ( about 1 cup)
1/2 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 cup baby bellas, sliced (cooked)
1 15-oz can  black beans, rinsed and drained
Seasonings
1 tbsp ginger(squeeze tube) or 2 tsp ginger powder
1 tbsp Mrs Dash original spice
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp low-sodium Cajun spice
2 tsp chili oil
2 tbsp olive oil
Topping
2 Tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese

ProcedurePrepare all of the vegetables
Heat a large iron skillet with the olive and chili oils.
Cook the peppers, sweet potatoes, mushrooms and eggplant until eggplant is tender.



Rinse and drain the beans.  Add to the skillet. 



Cook on high for about a minute, reduce to low, stirring to mix.  Cover on low heat for about 10 minutes to allow flavors to merge.



Serve, topped with 1 tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese



and/or optionally with chips




Servings: 2
Yield: 2 meals or about 6 sides

Nutrition FactsNutrition (per serving - 1/2 half of recipe): 486 calories, 21.9g total fat, 13.2g monounsaturated fat, 3g polyunsaturated fat, &lt;1g linoleic acid, 3.2g saturated fat, 3.6mg cholesterol, 59.2g carbohydrates, 18.5g fiber, 40.7g net carbohydrates, 11.8g sugar, &lt;1mg stigmasterol, 9.4g starch, 1.3g fructose, 0g galactose, 1.3g glucose, 1.9g sucrose, 0g maltose, 879.8mg sodium, 2208.1mg potassium, 19.1g protein, 161mg calcium, 10437.6IU vitamin a, &lt;1mg vitamin b6, &lt;1mcg vitamin b12, 51.7mg vitamin c, 3.8mg vitamin e, 30.1mcg vitamin k, 5mg iron, &lt;1g lysine, 27.6mcg selenium, &lt;1mg thiamin, 4.4mg zinc.