Since I love any soup that includes butternut squash, I wanted to try Joe’s recipe from the Winter Soups: Community Cookbook. Joe has an awesome site at the Wellness Punks that I highly recommend you check out. I’m really looking forward to catching up on his youTube channel. Most people don’t know this about me, but I love watching youTube especially for cooking and makeup tutorials. It’s also a great resource for health related lectures and interviews with health living authors. So, I’m happy to have some new material to watch. I’ve altered his recipe a little to be dairy free, since I have an allergy and I used bagged butternut squash that was already chopped so it would be less effort on my arms. Then I reduced the amount of ingredients to fit in my dutch oven.
1 package of nitrate, gluten, and casein free bacon
1 medium white onion
4 bags of butternut squash (1⅔ cups)
2 medium parsnips
4 cups of water
2 cloves of garlic roughly chopped
1 chopped granny smith apple
1 tsp of sea salt
½ cup of coconut milk (I like Native Forest organic and unsweetened)
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp of ground cardamom
½ tsp of paprika (I used hungarian sweet paprika since that was what I had in my pantry)
¼ tsp of cayenne pepper
Instructions
Dice and saute bacon until crunchy in a large dutch oven. No oil needed bacon has saturated fat which is great for cooking. Remove bacon bits from pan.
Chop onion and carmelize in bacon grease.
In same pot add butternut squash, parsnips, garlic, apple, sea salt, coconut milk, and water. Water should just cover ingredients in pot.
Then add ginger, cardamon and paprika.
Bring pot to a boil, and let ingredients soften.
Add spices but remember to go slowly and start small, you can always add more and this soup has a nice kick, or you can wait until after blending to add in spices so you can monitor them by taste testing.
Then use an immersion blender or transfer to blender in batches.
Then garnish with bacon bits.
3.2.2807
For more delicious soups and awesome blogs check out:
I got this turkey leg over the holidays when I went to my mom’s regular farmer’s market. My farmer’s market only carries whole chickens and beef, so I was really excited to cook something different. We froze it along with another leg and two packs of chicken livers, then put it into a beach bag and my fiance carried it onto the airplane. Thank you Shameer! The turkey legs stayed frozen and kept everything cold as well.
When I went to cook the turkey leg, it didn’t fit in my slow cooker or dutch oven so my recipe would be much different if I had large stockpot and roasting pan. Since I don’t have these kitchen tools, what I did was a bit messy and complicated. Luckily, it still tasted delicious, even when my carrots turned the broth purple.
Turkey Leg Soup with “Cosmic Purple” Heirloom Carrots
Roast turkey leg on a cookie sheet that's been greased with coconut oil.
Pat top dry so skin get cripsy and season with sea salt and black pepper.
Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for about an hour.
Remove carefully from oven, there is lots of oil and juice in pan.
Let cool until safe to handle.
Then chop off as much as you can and add it to the pot. Keep the chopped pieces large, we take them out and shred later. Discard bones that will not fit in pot.
In a pot add turkey parts including skin and bones. Add water, and unchopped parsley and unchopped onion, sea salt and black pepper to pot.
Let it simmer for a couple hours. The longer the better.
When ready to serve, fish out skin and bones and discard. Shred meat and set aside. Fish out mushy parsley and onion, and discard.
To the turkey stock, add meat back in with chopped carrots.
I don't like mushy vegetables, so I let carrots simmer for 10 to 15 minutes before serving. (Broth will turn purple from cosmic purple heirloom carrots)
I happen to love butternut squash and think it tastes delicious by itself, with a little love from fresh ground black pepper and sea salt. Feel free to add your own flavors or ingredients. Sometimes, I also add in a white onion to bulk up the soup cheaply, add more nutrition (sulfur!), and because I’m crazy about onions. If you haven’t noticed, I add them to everything. Popular ingredients I’ve added into this soup at one point or another are cayenne pepper for spiciness, maple syrup or apples for sweetness, and apple cider vinegar for a tangy acidic flavor. I kept this soup strictly butternut squash, because it’s an awesome vegetable that really doesn’t need a lot of help to taste delicious. Feel free to experiment and let me know how it turns out.
2.5 cups of chopped butternut squash (trader's joes)
1 cup of water (stock or bone broth if available)
1 tsp of sea salt
1 tsp of fresh ground black pepper
Instructions
Steam and boil in liquid until soft about 20 minutes.
Blend in Vitamix, or use immersion blender.
Add sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. Add other spices if desired.
Notes
I kept the amount of liquid small so this soup recipe is very thick and could pass for baby food. Keep in mind, it's easier to add liquid, than to take it out.
I have a ton of leftover Vegan Garlic and Rosemary Mashed Cauliflower from Thanksgiving. So I decided to add some leftover homemade chicken bone broth, and got a delicious “creamy” garlic soup that is dairy free.
I mixed the leftover gravy and vegetables that was in the slow cooker from my Slow Cooked Lamb Shank with Carrots and Leeks Served with a Cauliflower Pureerecipe with the last of the cauliflower puree. This puree, which is just mashed cauliflower with some sea salt and black pepper is what makes this soup look like it has cream even though it is vegan. The richness is from the rendered animal fat, not dairy. Since I have been trying to incorporate more fat into my diet, as I eliminate more sugar and grains, this makes an ideal healthy and satisfying meal. Plus, an economical one. All of the organic vegetables and grass-fed animal fat is being made into another healthy meal, instead of thrown away.
I used Italian flavored meatballs, since that was what I had cooked earlier, but you can easily add Asian flavors to make this meal more consistent with the Asian Beef Broth. I oftentimes add spices and scallions to my bone broth, when I’m in the mood for something other than my usual bone broth with fresh ground black pepper.
