fat-free

Low Fat Vegan Greek Stuffed Eggplant With Brown Rice

October 1, 2012 by Veronica Grace 22 Comments

This summer I had some girl friends over for an end of summer vegan dinner party. I wanted to make something special and I decided on stuffed eggplant. Many people have tried stuffed peppers, but few have had stuffed eggplant, let alone delicious succulent Greek stuffed eggplant.

When I was traveling around the world I fell in love with rustic Greek cuisine. It’s nothing like you find in North America and it’s not all about souvlaki and rack of lamb. Many classic Greek dishes are vegan or vegetarian in nature, so it was a pleasant surprise to find delicious homemade dishes at local tavernas. These are called Melitzanes Papoutsakia or “Little Shoes”. They are often served luke warm or room temperature as is customary in Greece. They believe that room temperature food is the best for health and this may be why their mezze platters are so popular, where a variety of items can be eaten together at the same temperature.

This is my vegan spin on Greek Little Shoes and you can find it with and without rice. Since this was a main entree I decided to add rice to it and I had some delicious pre cooked brown rice from Hinode in the cupboard so this was pretty easy to throw together.

I have found that it makes a difference in cooking time to precook the eggplant before baking and this way the flesh can soften without having to be cooked with oil. It’s got all the flavor you need by adding fresh herbs without any of the fat.

I served this with salad and my Tuscan Roasted Tomato Chickpea Soup that’s featured in my Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm recipe ebook.

Greek Stuffed Eggplant (Little Shoes)

Serves 8

Ingredients:

4 medium eggplants/aubergine
1 cup vegetable broth (low sodium or homemade)
1 large red onion, diced small
5 large cloves of garlic, minced
4 cups of fresh tomatoes, diced small
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice (I used Hinode)
3 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp fresh oregano or 1 1/2 tsp dried
1/2 cup of fresh dill or parsley, chopped
2 -3 tsp of honey/maple syrup or pureed dates
1/2 tsp salt
Fresh ground pepper
olive oil for greasing pan and sprinkling on eggplant

Directions:

Step #1: Cut tops off of eggplant and slice in half. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and boil eggplant skin side down for 15 minutes. Depending on how large your pot mouth is and your eggplant you may have to boil 4 halves at a time.

Step #2: Once done, take out eggplant and set aside to cool before handling.

Step #3: Preheat oven to 350 F/177 C. Scoop eggplant out of shell carefully and leave a small layer of flesh inside to prevent skin from tearing.

Step #4: Heat a large wok or frying pan over medium heat and add the vegetable broth. Add the onions and sauté for 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and tomatoes and sauté for 5 minutes.

Step #5: Cut the chunks of eggplant into smaller pieces or mash them. Add to tomatoes and onions and continue cooking.

Step #6: Meanwhile, chop the dill or parsley into small pieces.

Step #7: Add cooked rice, dill/parsley, oregano, lemon juice and salt and pepper to eggplant and tomatoes. If your tomatoes are a little acidic, add honey or sweetener to balance the taste as desired.

Step #8: Place a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet and place the eggplant shells skin side down. Fill with tomato eggplant mixture evenly.
Bake eggplant in oven until heated through, about 20 minutes.

Serve warm with salad, potatoes, or pita and hummus.

Have you ever had eggplant before? What’s your favorite eggplant recipe?

How To Cook The Perfect Brown Rice

September 20, 2012 by Veronica Grace 10 Comments

How To Cook The Perfect Brown Rice

Brown rice takes much longer to cook than white rice and sometimes it can be confusing why your brown rice didn’t turn out if you have never cooked it before. Brown rice is a whole grain and still contains the outer layer of bran. White rice has just been de-hulled and reveals the white endosperm inside. Any rice that contains the outer layer of bran will look brown and can be called brown “rice”.

So let me show you how to cook brown rice in 2 easy ways, on the stovetop or in a rice cooker.

Stove Top Directions For Cooking Brown Rice:

Measure out rice using a measuring cup. Usually it’s 1/3 cup for a small single serving and 1 cup for several servings. You can always make a big batch in advance and reheat it later or use to make rice salad.
Place rice in a mesh strainer or a bowl and rinse with cool water to remove any debris and excess starch. Drain.
Add rinsed rice to a pot and add 1 ½ times the amount of rice you have in fresh water. For 1 cup of rice, add 1 ½ cups of water.
Put the pot on the stove uncovered and turn the heat to high and bring it to a boil.
Once your water is boiling, turn the heat to a simmer and cover with a lid. If your lid has a hole or steam valve cover it with a little cloth. Let the rice cook at a simmer for about 20 minutes.
Turn off the heat and let the rice sit and steam for another 10 minutes.
Fluff with a fork and serve.

My favorite rice cooker is the Zojirushi 5 1/2 cup (dry amount) rice cooker. It’s designed in Japan and is like the Mercedez of rice cookers. You can program it to cook rice at any hour of the day, but I personally enjoy being able to set it the night before to cook steel cut oats for whole grain oatmeal in the morning. It also has settings for brown rice, white rice, mixed rice, sweet rice, porridge, cake and steaming vegetables. So if you’re looking for an awesome all in 1 grain cooker I recommend this one. If you’re just a single or looker for a cheaper one there’s also the Zojirushi 3 cup (dry amount) rice cooker.

Rice Cooker Directions For Cooking Brown Rice:

Measure out rice using the measuring cup that comes with rice cooker. Usually it’s 1/3 cup for a small serving and 1 cup for several servings. You can always make a big batch in advance and reheat it later or use to make rice salad.
Place rice in a mesh strainer or in rice cooker pan and rinse with cool water to remove any debris and excess starch. Drain.
Add rinsed rice back to rice cooker pan and add water to the corresponding water level for brown rice. If your rice cooker pan does not have a brown rice and white rice water line, use 1 ½ times the amount of rice for water. For example: 1 cup of dried brown rice will need 1½ cups of water.
Turn rice cooker on and select brown rice setting. If your rice cooker does not have a brown rice setting, select white rice or just press on/start.
Once cooking is complete and the rice cooker turns to the keep warm setting, let the rice sit and steam for 5-10 minutes before opening. (This helps your grains stay separated and not stick together when you scoop it out.)
Fluff with a fork and serve.

I suggest setting your rice cooker to cook 1 to 2 hours before your main dish is ready to ensure that it is ready on time. For basic rice cookers it’s about 1 hour of cook time, for the Zojirushi it’s about 2 hours because it adds a soaking cycle (and produces better brown rice.)

Fruit and Veggie Smoothie Recipe with Beet Juice

September 10, 2012 by Veronica Grace 14 Comments

Sometimes people ask me, “Can I put vegetables into my fruit smoothies?”. And I say “Well that depends”. I wouldn’t necessarily tell a novice that they should try broccoli or carrots in a smoothie, because those vegetables are pretty hard to blend and you may not like it. Same goes for beets. Don’t just toss them into your blender (unless you have a really high powered one and like a gritty chewy smoothie). So instead I recommend for those wanting to up the nutrition of their fruit smoothies that you juice some veggies like carrots or beets and use that as a base for blending. That way you can get the added nutrition of veggies in your fruit smoothies just like a V8 juice, but a much much healthier version.

Normally I only use water to blend my smoothies (because I use sweet fruit like ripe bananas I can get away without using packaged fruit juice), but using a fresh pressed veggie juice is an idea you can try as well. We all know you can certainly drink more beets or carrots than you can chew, so once in a while this may be a good option for you to sneak in some more veggies to your diet. (Or the diets of your loved ones!)

I decided to try it out, and it’s a very interesting taste, you get the earthiness from the beets, without the smoothie being too overly sweet and it’s a cross between a smoothie and plain veggie juice. It’s nice actually. So this way you are still keeping a lot of the fiber intact and this helps create bulk and fullness so your smoothie is much more satisfying as a meal than just a plain old juice.

Here is my beet juice smoothie creation:

Beet Banana Mango Strawberry Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

1/4 cup fresh beet juice (about a bunch of small beets juiced, tops optional)
2 ripe bananas
1/2 cup fresh or frozen mango
1/2 cup strawberries

Directions:

Pour beet juice into blender and add remaining ingredients. Blend on high until smooth. You can either juice the beet tops or you can chop them up and blend them in.

Additional Tips:

Remember beet greens are a little stronger tasting than lettuce so start out with a little at first and taste test and see what you think. To make this even sweeter add another banana.

Other veggies you can consider juicing to add to your fruit smoothies:

carrots
golden beets
cucumbers
celery
greens (but you can always blend them in too)
other mild veggies

I don’t recommend strong vegetables from the brassica family such as broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower etc. You CAN however make a savory blended salad or savory veggie stew if you use things like tomatoes for the base and skip the fruit. I just don’t find strong sulphur containing vegetables go well with fruit.

Have you ever had beet juice or beet greens in a smoothie before? What did you think?

Fermented Food Recipe: Applekraut by Cherie Soria

August 17, 2012 by Veronica Grace 1 Comment

Today I have a delicious recipe to share with you from my friend Kevin Gianni’s new ebook Cultured: Learn How To Make Healthy Fermented Foods At Home.

This is a really neat recipe that everyone will be able to make no matter where they live. Apples are such an awesome ingredient to use in recipes because they work well in both sweet and savory dishes. I pretty much love apples in everything!

This recipe comes from Cherie Soria of The Living Light Culinary Institute in California. This is what she has to say about her recipe:

“This kraut is sensational!

The apple and ginger create a wonderful combination of sweetness and tang. For variety, add spices such as anise seed, curry powder,
caraway, or cardamom.

These krauts are easy to make and very health promoting. Use your imagination and see how many great flavors you can create!”

Applekraut by Cherie Soria

(Makes 1 1/2 quarts)

Ingredients:

1 medium-sized cabbage, finely shredded or ground
(reserve several outer leaves and pieces of cabbage to cover the Applekraut)
2 tart, firm apples, peeled, cored, and shredded
1 tsp freshly grated ginger root
1 tsp Himalayan crystal salt

Instructions:

Put the shredded cabbage in a bowl and sprinkle with salt and massage the cabbage until it becomes very juicy. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Firmly pack the mixture into a deep glass bowl or crock.
Place the reserved leaves over the top, allowing them to extend partially up the side of the crock; put a small saucer (plate) on top.
Fill a clean plastic bag with grains or beans to act as a weight; place it on top of a saucer and put it on top of the leaves. Allow some space around the sides to ensure a good air supply.
Cover the top with a clean dish towel. Place the mixture in a warm, dark closet for 3-4 days. (It will ferment sooner in warmer weather.)
Store your Applekraut in a glass jar in the refrigerator. It will last two weeks or more, but it is best eaten soon to ensure live lactobacillus bacteria.

This recipe is just one of the 70+ found in Kevin Gianni’s fermented foods recipe book called “Cultured: Make Healthy Fermented Foods at Home.” I highly recommend it!

I know what I’ll be making today! How about you?

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Strawberry Banana Green Smoothie

August 13, 2012 by Veronica Grace 14 Comments

So last week I launched my new ebook ‘Simply Decadent Smoothies’ as part of my combo recipe package with ‘Savory Raw Dinner Recipes’ and ‘Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm’ and gave it away as a free bonus.

The combo package was incredibly popular, but a few of you wanted to know if you could get just my smoothie ebook if you had already purchased one or more of the other products before. So I just wanted to let you know that ‘Simply Decadent Smoothies’ is now available at a special discounted price here.

Today I’m going to share with you a tasty new green smoothie recipe that is featured in the recipe ebook. Often people have a hard time finding enough green smoothie recipes that they like and that contain different greens so they are not just eating the same ones all the time like baby spinach.

So because I have a few greens growing in my garden (like leaf lettuce, Swiss chard, kale and spinach) I like to at least rotate through those ones and think up new combinations that work well while masking the taste of the greens with sweet fruit.

This green smoothie recipe features banana, mangoes, strawberries and red leaf lettuce and looks more of a burnt orange color than green for a typical green smoothie recipe.

So let’s check it out:

Raw Vegan Strawberry Banana Mango Green Smoothie

Serves 1

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas
1 ripe mango (flesh only)
2 cups whole strawberries (fresh or frozen)
1 handful of red leaf lettuce or other mild green
1/2 cup of water

Directions:

Place ingredients into VitaMix or blender in order listed. Blend on medium speed and use the tamper (if necessary) to push the lettuce down until they are incorporated. (If you have a regular blender you may want to chop the lettuce first into smaller pieces.)

Garnish with a fresh strawberry and serve!

What do you think of this smoothie recipe? Have you ever used red leaf lettuce in a green smoothie?

For more delicious smoothie recipes check out:

Simply Decadent Smoothies

Over 50 raw fruit and green smoothie recipes

In this 46 page ebook, you will discover:

What tools are necessary to create the best tasting smoothies
How to tell if your fruit is ACTUALLY ripe
How to design your own fruit smoothies that taste great every time
How to design your own green smoothies that taste great every time
How to make your green smoothies more appetizing and attractive
25 delicious raw and vegan fruit smoothie recipes
26 delicious raw vegan green smoothie recipes

Order Now

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Watermelon Banana Peach Green Smoothie and 7 Ways To Enjoy Watermelon This Summer

July 24, 2012 by Veronica Grace 12 Comments

Ah Summer… who doesn’t love enjoying a hot summer day and diving into some ice cold juicy watermelon?

Watermelon is the PERFECT Summer fruit and it can be enjoyed so many ways.

7 Different Ways To Enjoy Watermelon This Summer:

#1. Sliced up and served traditionally

#2. Diced into a fruit salad (or use a melon baller)

#3. Blended into fruit smoothies

#4. Juiced (you can even juice the rind!)

#5. Cut into thin slices and dehydrated into watermelon “candy” or fruit roll ups

#6. Grilled and served over a salad

I know right, grilled watermelon? That sounds so weird… But I was at a vegetarian restaurant once that had a grilled watermelon salad on the menu. I thought it was odd, but who knows maybe it could be delicious! I don’t have a barbecue though, so if you try it out let me know what you think!

You should definitely try out dehydrated watermelon slices though if you have access to a dehydrator. It’s like a homemade fruit rollup but tastes like watermelon candy! Kids really love these things and it’s a fun way to get them involved in making healthy treats at home. I was really impressed by how tasty dehydrated watermelon was.

And #7… You can make a watermelon birthday cake like this one I found online!

This watermelon fruit cake would be great for kids with gluten, dairy or egg allergies or if you just want to offer something fresh and wholesome instead of a standard sugary birthday cake. The fruit kabobs make it really easy for kids to eat as well.

Really watermelon is such a versatile fruit and there are so many ways to enjoy it! It makes the perfect base to fruit smoothies too.

Check out my watermelon green smoothie recipe below…

80/10/10 Watermelon Banana Peach Green Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

4 cups/20 oz. watermelon chunks
2 ripe bananas
3/4 cup frozen peaches
1 cup packed baby spinach (or other mild greens like lettuce, Swiss chard etc)

Directions:

Place ingredients in Vitamix or blender in the order provided and blend until smooth. Garnish with a spinach leaf or slice of watermelon if desired.

Variations:

Try out different melons! Cantaloup or honeydew will be delicious as well and make for a great variety.

What’s your favourite way to eat watermelon or favourite watermelon recipe?

80/10/10 Recipe: Mellow Yellow Summer Smoothie With Mangoes, Peaches, Oranges and Banana

June 27, 2012 by Veronica Grace 11 Comments

I don’t know about where you are, but summer is really just starting where I live outside of Vancouver, Canada. The whole Pacific Northwest area is just so darn RAINY we only get a day or two of sun or mixed sun and clouds each week! It’s crazy. May was such a beautiful month, we had almost 2 weeks of sunshine and as soon as June hit it was like June-Gloom… Now that it’s almost July I’m starting to feel that panic set in that summer is fading away before it even really started…

Do you ever get that feeling? You wait all year for summer and as soon as you’re in the midst of it, you’re already sad that it’s almost over and can’t believe you have to wait so long for it again. Maybe not if you’re in the southern states, or Australia, but it’s sure like that here for me.

On the Eastern side of Canada and the US it’s the total opposite of our weather. They’re getting beautiful warm humid weather and lots of sunshine.

My garden is getting jealous… Already some of the plants have called it quits and shrivelled up and died. First to go was the delicate Thai Basil. They REALLY hate getting too much water and want lots of full sun. They gave up… The dill I transplanted is not happy. He’s turning yellow and shrivelling up. It’s very hard for me to grow dill here it seems, it gets to a certain height and just says “No way, I can’t do it anymore”. Shame, I really really love using dill! It’s awesome in salads, raw dressings, and raw blended soups or savory stews. I have one plant that is from last year and is still alive, but after picking from it the other day I don’t know how much more it will give me before it goes to seed. My cucumber and squash plants are a little unhappy, they were flowering and reaching for the trellis but the leaves are getting that white yellow spotty look from too much rain.

The good thing is I planted a huge variety, so it will help with the disappointment if certain plants completely bite the dust this year. It’s always a challenge growing in a climate that is so rainy and cloudy and you only get patches of sun or a few hours of full sun every few days.

But something that cheers me up when it’s so gloomy is to have a delicious summer fruit smoothie for breakfast. In particular one based on mangoes. I call blended mangoes liquid sunshine because they taste amazing (when ripe of course) and you get so much energy after drinking a glass of them. Even if you were feeling down and bummed out there’s no way you wouldn’t feel at least a little better after having a mango based smoothie. They’re that amazing!

So check out my Mellow Yellow Summer Smoothie down below, I know you’re going to love it!

Fat Free Raw Vegan Mellow Yellow Summer Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

juice from 3 navel or valencia oranges
2 ripe ataulfo/champagne or honey mangoes (flesh only)
1 ripe banana
1 ripe peach or 3/4 cup frozen peach slices

Directions:

Use a hand juicer or citrus juicer to juice the oranges. Place ingredients into blender or Vitamix and blend until smooth. Add a little bit of water if desired for a thinner consistency. Garnish with a slice of orange if desired!

What’s your favourite mango based summer smoothie? Have you ever tried ataulfo mangoes before?

Fat Free Vegan Slow Cooker Indian Dal Soup With Mixed Vegetables

June 25, 2012 by Veronica Grace 19 Comments

Here’s another deliciously easy and affordable fat free recipe that you and your family will love. It’s inspired from a delicious Indian soup from a local restaurant we like, and I tried to make my own version at home. It ended up tasting a little differently of course but still very delicious! It’s also very versatile and you can use any yellow split lentil like chana dal or toor dal. You can buy these lentils at ethnic markets, Indian markets or Amazon. Although these lentils look similar to yellow split peas, they are not the same, so this recipe will taste best if you use yellow split lentils instead of yellow split peas.

I really love using the slow cooker (aka Crock Pot) when I want to make something hearty but don’t have time to watch the stove, or when I’m making something that tends to take a long time to cook such as lentil and bean based dishes. It’s one of those appliances that I love using, but don’t use it all the time. Making a big batch of something in a crockpot is a great time saver when you’re looking for quick meals during the week.

If you or your family is new to Indian food, this is a really easy recipe to start with because it’s savory and mildly spiced without being too “exotic” for those not used to it.

Slow Cooker Indian Dal Soup With Mixed Vegetables

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 lb/454 g chana dal (split chickpeas) or toor dal (split yellow lentil)
2 medium onions, diced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp ginger, minced
15 oz/425 g diced tomatoes
4 cups/1 qt/~1 L vegetable broth (low sodium or homemade)
4-5 cups/1 qt/~1 L water or more vegetable broth (more or less to thin as desired)
2 tbsp cumin seed
1 tsp roasted coriander powder (or regular)
1/4 tsp tumeric powder
2 tsp black mustard seeds

After dal is done cooking add:
3 cups mixed frozen vegetables or other mixed diced vegetables
1 tsp roasted cumin
1-2 tbsp. sugar or sweetener (if desired)
3/4 tsp Herbamare or salt to taste
fresh ground pepper to taste
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped

Directions:

Pick over the dal/lentils and remove any discoloured ones or stones. Rinse thoroughly and drain.
Place ingredients into slow cooker, except for frozen vegetables and additional spices and cook on low 10 hours, or high 7-8 hours. You can also cook this overnight and add the additional vegetables and seasonings the next day.
When the lentils are soft and breaking apart, add the vegetables and seasonings and let cook for another 30 minutes or so. Taste test and adjust seasonings if necessary.
Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve!

Additional Tips:

I use a 6 quart family size slow cooker like this one because I like being able to set it on a timer, as soon as the timer stops it switches it to keep warm until you’re ready to serve, so it’s really handy.

You can also try yellow split peas, but it won’t really be an Indial dal, but more an Indian spiced split pea soup. You may need to add more water as well depending on how thick or thin you like your soup.

What’s your favourite meal to cook in the slow cooker?

80/10/10 Recipe: Purple People Eater Green Smoothie with Chard and Blackberries

June 19, 2012 by Veronica Grace 9 Comments

So maybe this smoothie is not a “people eater” per se, but it is purple and it is delicious so I think you need to make this green (err purple) smoothie recipe so you can become a purple smoothie eater! “Purple People Eater” is just a silly song from the late 1950’s about a monster that comes to earth because he wants to be in a rock band. He happens to have only one eye and one horn as and he apparently only eats purple people, so most of us should be ok… I said should… if you drink a lot of this smoothie there’s no guarantee that might not turn purple! Just sayin. I warned ya…

I like to keep my green smoothie recipes fairly simple, so bananas are a very common choice as a base flavour and natural sweetener for my green smoothies. Next I like to throw in some ripe mangoes if I have it (or frozen if I don’t). Make sure your mangoes are soft to the touch like a ripe avocado and the skin will be slightly wrinkled. Ripe mangoes should smell fragrant and have a dark yellow or yellow/orange flesh on the inside. If your mango is still firm, not very fragrant and pale yellow and too tart when you cut it open, it’s not ripe enough yet. It’s not a bad mango, you just didn’t let it ripen and let those enzymes do their job and create the natural sugars that make fruit sweet when ripe.

Baby spinach is a really easy addition to any green smoothie recipe, and if you don’t have any other greens to work with I suggest to start with that or even some leaf lettuce. Swiss chard is a great green to use in smoothies as it’s generally fairly available at the grocery store or farmers markets. If not you can easily grow it at home. It comes in green, red and rainbow coloured stems, any kind will do for a green smoothie. You can either just use the green portion or blend the stalk and the green. The stalks are actually really tasty steamed if you want to save them as well or add them to a fresh stir fry.

One of the best parts about a purple green smoothie is that it looks fairly similar to store made smoothies and no one will know you put some greens in there. So it’s good to give to children or your spouse and they won’t be as likely to turn their nose up to it on account of it being green and looking like a swap smoothie. But you never know, green smoothies are fairly popular, even trendy nowadays and many people who aren’t even into raw or vegan foods are making green smoothies and throwing things like green vegetables into their blenders assuming that will do the trick…

By the way I don’t recommend you throw anything like a bunch of broccoli or really strong cruciferous vegetables (Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower etc) into your green (fruit) smoothie either. They contain sulfur and can be pretty strong and untasty in combination with sweet fruits. Save those veggies for blended soups or raw vegan blended salads or savory smoothies and mask the taste of them with a combo of tomatoes, cucumbers and mangoes (or dates) and this will mellow out the flavour.

Greens like Swiss chard and kale can still get by in smoothies without being too overpowering or strong if you use them in moderation. I would start with 1 leaf (stalk removed) if you’re new to green smoothies and blend it with the rest of the fruit and taste test it before deciding to experiment with more. Even myself I don’t really like more than 2 large leaves of chard or kale in my smoothies as they can add a stronger flavour and some grittiness to it. Baby spinach can always be added as it barely affects the taste of a green smoothie, so that’s why I’m throwing it into the mix as well.

Purple People Eater Green Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

2 ripe spotted bananas
1 ripe mango (flesh only) (about 1 cup)
1 handful of baby spinach
1-2 leaves of Swiss chard (stalks optional)
3/4 cup fresh or frozen blackberries
1/2 cup of water (or more to blend as desired)

Directions:

Place ingredients into Vitamix or blender in order above using the tamper if necessary and blend. If you have a low powered blender you may want to blend the bananas and water first, then add the mango and blend, then add the spinach and blend and so on so that each item is incorporated in the smoothie. Add more water if necessary for your type of blender.

Additional Tips:

To make this smoothie nice and cool you can use frozen blackberries and frozen mango or substitute one fresh banana for a ripe frozen one.

Have you ever used Swiss chard in a smoothie? What combination did you use?

Fat Free Vegan Summer Harvest Soup With Butternut Squash, Sweet Corn and White Beans

June 12, 2012 by Veronica Grace 15 Comments

Ah summer… I think it’s everyone’s favourite month. (At least mine as it’s the sunniest/warmest time in Canada.) I was looking around the freezer the other day and wanted to make up something quick and healthy and I saw I had some bags of frozen butternut squash and some fresh corn. I decided to put it together with onions and broth and make a soup out of it, but it wasn’t thick enough so I thought, hey why don’t I try some white beans to add some bulk and cream it up? It turned out to be a great idea and a totally delicious combination. This soup doesn’t need any butter or cream to make it creamy and delicious, the white beans work perfectly. It also needs very little seasoning since it’s so sweet naturally from the sweet corn.

In fact you could even eat this soup without any of the seasonings at all, it would be a great soup for fussy children, or even a good choice for toddlers. Everyone knows children enjoy soft naturally sweet foods and butternut squash and corn is a favourite.

I decided to kick things up a bit with some smoked paprika which added a delicious smokey flavour to the soup. Smoked paprika isn’t of the spicy variety, but sweet so it adds some nice flavour without being spicy.

Summer sweet corn goes really well in almost any dish. It’s a great topping for salads, adds natural sweetness to soups and is great on it’s own, no seasonings required.

Give this soup a try! It’s super easy (especially if you have frozen squash already, available at most health food stores.)

Fat Free Vegan Summer Harvest Soup (Butternut Squash Sweet Corn and White Bean Soup)

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

4 cups/1 qt./946 mL vegetable broth (homemade or low sodium)
1 large sweet onion, diced (such as Vidalia or Walla Walla)
5 cloves of garlic, minced
6 cups/25 oz./1.5 lbs butternut squash, peeled and cubed (fresh or frozen)
2 1/2 cups sweet corn (fresh, frozen or canned – no sodium)
16 oz./453 g can white beans or chickpeas, drained
1/2 tsp smoked paprika (or any other seasoning of choice)
3/4 tsp Herbamare or salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

Directions:

Saute onions and garlic in a large pot over medium heat in 1/2 cup of vegetable broth until soft 5-6 minutes.
Add squash, corn and beans and remaining broth and cover. Cook until squash is tender.
Carefully spoon mixture into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
Pour mixture back into pot, add seasonings and mix thoroughly. Taste test and adjust seasonings if desired.

What do you think of this summer soup? Have you ever tried smoked paprika before?