Broccoli soup inspired by Colleen!

This soup was originally made without the onions, beans and sour cream by my friend Colleen. I love cream soups, and here is a lovely way to do one without dying from all the heavy fats. Minus the sour cream and queso fresco, this is vegan (and mozzarella vegan-rella would go really well with the soup too).

Get a large soup pot with a cover ready with a steamer in the bottom and about 1/2" of water in the bottom of the pot. Cut up 1.5 large or 2 medium heads of broccoli and steam until tender but crisp (or use a bag of frozen). Blend in blender (2-3 batches) with (plain) soy milk (enough to cover) and some sliced almonds then return to the soup pot. Thinly slice a small onion and peel 2-3 garlic cloves. Add 1 C cooked great northern beans to a pan and heat up. Add the onion, garlic and almonds and gently saute until the onion is transparent. Blend in batches with soy milk if necessary and add to the soup pot. Add a drizzle of olive oil and a lot of freshly ground black pepper and sea salt to taste. Simmer until thick and slightly reduced. Garnish with sour cream and queso fresco (or mozzarella).

Hummus, with or without red pepper

Hummus is really easy to make, despite how much it costs at the store. This recipe makes about a quart of great hummus.

I generally soak a whole bunch of chickpeas and then use them for hummus, indian dishes or on salads. You'll need 2 cups cooked chickpeas for a quart of hummus. This should be about 2/3 C dry. Soak the chickpeas in water for 4-8 hours (more is better). Place in a pressure cooker, with water used for soaking and heat on high (with pressure cooker top on to pressurize). Cook at high heat for about 30 minutes, then use a knife to gently tap the top of the pressure cooker to release steam. Once the steam is all released, open the pressure cooker, take out a chickpea, cool it and taste it. If it's soft and even slightly mushy, it's done. If not, try another 10-20 minutes in the pressure cooker.

Take 2 cups of the cooked chickpeas and place in a food processor (a small amount of cooking liquid included here is good). Add 1/2 C tahini, 1/4 C lemon, 1-3 cloves garlic and cumin and paprika to taste. Pulse briefly, then add 1-3 roasted red peppers. I buy these in jars, in the canned food section, as bell peppers are very expensive currently. Salt and pepper to taste, then keep in refrigerator until ready to serve. Good on pitas and sandwiches and with raw vegetables.

baba ghanoush

Traditional eggplant spread, great on pitas or sandwiches.

Cut a large eggplant in half and trim the leaves off of the top. Pop into the oven at 400 degrees, cut side up, for 40 minutes. Dunk into cold water when done, the eggplant should be very soft and the skins should be bubbling off. Put the halves into a food processor with about 1/8th C lemon juice, 1/4 C tahini (sesame butter, try your local coop or health food store), 1-3 cloves garlic (depending on how much you like it) and salt and pepper to taste. I also like to add a bit of chili powder if I've got it around. Pulse until blended and chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

easy blueberry muffins

Made with frozen blueberries, you can enjoy these all year round.

Makes 8 large or 12 medium muffins.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease or line muffin tins with paper wrappers.

Mix together 2 C all purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 C sugar, dash cinnamon, 1 tsp lemon zest (optional). Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and crack an egg into it. Pour 1 1/4 C yogurt into the well with the egg and mix ingredients until everything looks moist (batter can be lumpy). Add 1 C blueberries and distribute into muffin tins. Sprinkle tops of muffins with a little sugar - turbinado is especially good for this. Bake for 25-30 mins at 350 and let rest 5 mins before removing from cupcake tins.

Palak with tofu (palak paneer)

I'm a big fan of Indian food, but don't always like to go the whole 9 yards. Paneer, a traditional inian cottage cheese, is easy to make, but time consuming (you basically boil a gallon whole milk with a quart yogurt until curds form, then strain and press those curds to form a cheese block). Tofu is a healthy tasty paneer stand in when you don't have the time to make paneer.

Cube a pound of tofu and set out on paper towels to drain. Once drained, saute with curry powder until browned ad remove from heat. Thinly slice 3 small or 2 medium white onions and saute, sprinkling liberally with curry powder until translucent. Add about 3/4 package (12oz) chopped frozen spinach (no need to thaw) and stir until thawed. Run the whole mixture through a blender or food processor, pulsing until smooth but not quite pureed with 1/2 C whole fat yogurt or sour cream. Return to the pan with tofu and simmer on low.

Start some rice - either 1 C brown or 1 C white in a saucepan with 3 C water. Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered until grain are fluffy and soft (white rice: 20 min, brown rice 30-40 min).

homemade whipped cream

So simple, but lots of people my age don't know how to make it. Fresh whipped cream is one of life's simple joys. Buy heavy whipping cream, as fresh as you can get it, and ideally the ingredients should say "Cream" and nothing else.

Use 8oz cream if you've having a few people over for waffles or sunday brunch, more (1 pint) if you're going to be serving lots of ice cream or dessert.

Pour 8 or 16 oz cream into chilled metal or glass bowl. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla extract per 8oz cream and 1-2 tbsp per 8oz cream. Grab a hand held mixer and start beating at the lowest speed to start, slowly increasing speed as the bubbles get smaller and the mixture get frothier. Beat until you hit stiff peaks, but not any further, or you'll get a lumpy mixture with tiny butter granules in it. Stiff peaks are when you can lift the beaters out of the cream and the cream sticks straight up, and flops over very little.

Smoothies

Smoothies are one of my favorite ways to eat a healthy breakfast. You'll definitely need a solid blender for this one - I have an Oster Pro and it only takes a few seconds to blend everything together. TO cut costs and also keep everything cold, I use a lot of frozen fruit. Here is the smoothie I made this morning:

(add in this order for best results)

1/2 C frozen raspberries
3/4 C frozen strawberries
1 C full fat yogurt (plain, no sugar)
1 medium banana, broken into several pieces (best if they're just beginning to get a few spots)
1 tbsp sugar/honey
1-2 tbsp orange juice concentrate

blend until the frozen fruit is completely pulverized. Add 4 ice cubes and blend until ice is crushed. Enjoy!