Pumpkin Soup with Crispy Walnuts

This is based on a recipe in Jacques Pépin’s Fast Food My Way. It is a great quick meal. We always have chicken stock and cooked pumpkin in the freezer (in the autumn I buy pumpkins and roast them and save the pulp in the freezer). Tonight I was able to throw together dinner in around a half hour after getting home from an event at church, even with the stock and the pumpkin still being in the freezer (they just take a little longer to cook).

If you have crispy walnuts, then use them. In a pinch (less healthy), you can toast walnuts with a little salt and cayenne in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes.

1 1/2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 cups chicken stock
1 tsp Celtic sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp thyme
(pinch saffron, if you have it and want to splurge. We didn’t do this, but after tasting the soup, we thought it would be excellent in there)
1 1/2 Tbsp butter or coconut oil

Cook celery, onion, and garlic in the olive oil until soft but not brown. Add chicken stock, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil and boil for about 6-8 minutes, then add the pumpkin. Bring to a boil again and boil for 5 minutes (if pumpkin is frozen, wait until it’s thawed and cook for 5 additional minutes). Puree soup in a blender or food processor and return to heat. Add butter or coconut oil and heat until melted and incorporated. Top with the crispy walnuts (about 5 per bowl).

Book Review: Fast Food My Way

I recently heard Jacques Pépin on the radio, talking about his new cookbook, More Fast Food My Way. I thought, this sounds like a great idea: a French chef who wrote two books on cooking quickly. As a working mom with special dietary needs, I love the idea of fast meals that don’t involved processed foods. (Note: some of these books do include processed foods for the sake of speed, especially the new one, but it’s mostly for desserts).

These cookbooks are more “mainstream” than the ones I have been focusing on; I have been reading a lot of cookbooks based on special diets or “traditional foods” (ala Weston Price) or allergy/gluten-free cooking. Many of the recipes have wheat and/or dairy, so they are just out, but Fast Food My Way has a lot of recipes without all of those things, or that can have substitutions. Some recipes are still a little complex (too many ingredients to want to deal with after working all day), but many of them just sound great, such as:

Chicken Tonnato (chicken breasts with anchovy and tuna)

Chicken on mashed cauliflower with red hot salsa (great for those of us who can’t have potatoes!)

Codfish in walnut-cilantro sauce

Glazed salmon in mirin

Bean puree with anchovies

Pumpkin soup with toasted walnuts (this one was excellent, although I changed it up a bit; even my husband liked it)

I think this would be a great addition to the home cookbook library, and would make an excellent holiday gift! I prefer this one to the newer one, although the newer one has some gems as well; but if you just want to get one book, this is the one to pick.

Great Series on Low Budget Traditional Foods

The Nourished Kitchen has a great series on eating well on a very low budget. Check it out! I may be seeing if I can do some meal plans based on her weeks with substitutes and still keep the cost low.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Breakfasts for Blood Type O Diet

My naturopath has me trying the Blood Type Diet. My standard breakfast food in the path has been oats, which is an avoid on this diet. I am having to get creative with ideas for acceptable breakfasts. The O blood type has a lot of similarities to the Paleo diet and the GAPS diet, although you don’t have to be completely grain-free, just wheat & oat free.

Here are some things that I came up with. I’d love any more ideas.

Spelt musli (I bought some in Iceland, but you could make your own with spelt flakes)

Spelt “cornflakes”

Nut butter muffins (grain free)

Nut butter & banana pancakes (grain free) (I can’t have peanuts on the O diet so I would sub some other nut butter).

Wheat free muffins

Mini Broccoli/Chard/Kale Frittatas

Grain Free Granola (three recipes: Grain Free Foodie’s Yummy Granola, Organic & Thrifty’s Grain Free Granola using soaked crispy nuts, and Elana’s Pantry Granola) – leaving out coconut and sunflower seeds

Quinoa Porridge

Rice Porridge

Crunchy Buckwheat Cereal

Carob Buckwheat Pancakes

Grain-free Primal Apple Cardamom Popovers

Italian Sausage Pasta with Vegetables

12-16 oz. Italian chicken or turkey sausage, sliced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 package frozen mixed vegetables (some kind of broccoli/carrot blend: broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, or broccoli, carrots, snap peas, etc.)
16 oz can tomato suace
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 package Tinkyada brown rice spaghetti
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano

While water is boiling, cook sausage in a skillet in olive oil. When sausage is browned, add onion and green pepper; cook until it softens slightly and onion begins to brown. Add tomato sauce. Rinse can with water and add that to the pan. Add spices and cook over medium-low heat while pasta cooks. Cook pasta according to package instructions; drain but leave some water in the pot. Return pasta to pot with frozen vegetables; put lid on pot and let the hot water steam the veggies. When veggies are steamed, drain the pasta and veggies and add to sauce/sausage mixture.

Menu Plan Monday – Week of 11/2/2009

I have to figure out some kind of appetizer to bring to a church function on Sunday afternoon. Any ideas for a non-dairy, non-wheat, no-corn appetizer that average people will enjoy and is inexpensive?

Monday – Icelandic Meat Soup (leftover from Saturday, the best way to have it)

Tuesday – Italian Sausage Pasta and Vegetables

Wednesday – Homemade “Takeout” Chinese food: Sesame Chicken & Broccoli, Shrimp Fried Rice

Thursday – Curried Chickpeas and Vegetables

Friday – Pizza (one regular, one with a zucchini crust)

Gluten-free Pumpkin Cupcakes with Carob Almond Frosting

It’s Halloween, and I figured we needed some kind of fun treat.

1 cup buckwheat flour (or sorghum flour, which is an avoid for O’s)
1/3 cup tapioca flour
1/3 cup arrowroot flour
1 tsp xantham gum
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
2 eggs
1/2 cup canned or cooked pumpkin
1 c maple syrup
1/3 c light olive oil or canola oil

Mix dry ingredients. Beat eggs and add wet ingredients to eggs, then add wet ingredient mixture into dry mixture. Put into muffin tins. I made 9, but I filled them all the way to the top and they came out very puffy. I think this would do better for 12 normal-sized muffins.

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean.

Frost with carob almond butter frosting (based on Sarah’s recipe at Heart of Cooking):
1/2 cup almond butter
3 Tbsp carob
3 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp non-dairy milk

Mix ingredients together. Frost cupcakes.

Pumpkin Spice “Not-te”

Back when I could have coffee, sugar, and milk, I used to love the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Since I can’t have any of these things, I decided to come up with a version that I could have.

1 cup soy milk
1 tsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp canned pumpkin or cooked pumpkin
1/2 cup water
2 tsp instant coffee substitute, such as Cafix or Dandy Blend
(If you have another herbal coffee substitute, make a very strong 1/2 cup of that instead)
cinnamon and nutmeg to top

Heat soy milk, pumpkin, and maple syrup until steaming. Whip until frothy. Fill cup with the coffee, and then top with the hot milk. Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Icelandic Meatballs & Cabbage

These are traditionally made with pork and beef, or pork, beef, and lamb, but we made them with beef and turkey because turkey is cheap and pork is a no-no on the Blood Type Diet. This is a cheap and fairly easy & quick meal (except for the cleaning of the food processor).

2 lbs ground meat (beef, pork, lamb, turkey)
3/4 cup flour (spelt or brown rice)
1 onion
2 eggs
2 Tbsp starch (potato, tapioca, or arrowroot)
salt, pepper, and paprika to taste
cabbage leaves

Mix ground meat, onion, and flour in food processor until well blended. Add water to thin it out (it will be VERY stiff). Add salt & pepper, eggs, paprika, and starch. Mix with an electric mixer until combined. If mixture is still too stiff, add a little more water. It should be fairly soft.

Scoop meatballs out with a spoon that has been dipped in cold water. Put into a pot filled with water. Top with cabbage leaves. Bring to a boil, and cook for 20 minutes.

Vegetable Fettucine with Meat Sauce

I found this in a women’s magazine that my mother-in-law gave me. It’s a great way to get more veggies into your diet as well as eliminating grains. I think that the peeled turnips in the sauce vaguely remind me of slightly melted cheese, but my husband insists that I am just making things up. It’s a great meal for blood type O.

Sauce:
1 lb ground beef
2-3 tsp paprika
1-2 tsp oregano

1-2 cups pre-made marinara sauce (I used leftovers from last week)
OR
1/2 chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 Tbsp tomato paste
a little water
1 Tbsp olive oil

“Pasta”:
1 medium turnip or 1 large parsnip (or 2 medium ones)
1 very large or 2 large carrots

If not using premade pasta sauce, heat oil in pan, add onion and garlic. Add ground beef,paprika, and oregano. When meat begins to brown, add remaining ingredients or sauce, and cook for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel carrot and turnip. Using potato peeler, peel strips of the vegetables (to make the “fettucine”). Boil water. Cook the vegetable strips in the water for 2 minutes, and drain.

Serve meat sauce over the vegetable strips. Serves 4.