Today's Produce Box! October 13, 2010

This week's Produce Box arrived today with a couple of unique items. In addition to NC mountain apples, field tomatoes, potatoes and another butternut squash (thank goodness I finally depleted my reserves with the soup yesterday!), this box contained PURPLE sweet potatoes and nearly white eggplant. I'll have to be creative coming up with some yummy things over the next week or so. I've got a couple of Afghan dishes I want to try, but if you have any other vegan-friendly ideas, send them my way!

View after just opening the box

View after some slight rearrangement

Butternut Squash Soup (vegan, gluten-free, soy-free)

This recipe is my version of a recipe I found here. My version isn't much different, except that I didn't use fresh ginger because I didn't have any (powdered worked just fine) and I also didn't have fresh cilantro to garnish so I used ground coriander. I also used Crema di Balsamico to drizzle on at the end and served with corn chips.

Here's my picture by picture instructions. Enjoy!

The ingredients: 2 medium butternut squash*, garlic*,
1 extra large onion*, vegetable broth, coconut milk,
ginger, curry powder, turmeric, salt and pepper
*Denotes fresh, local ingredients from either the Produce Box
or the farmers' market

Dice onion

Add a couple tablespoons of vegetable broth to the pot
and heat.

Add chopped onion to the pot with the vegetable broth
and saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes
until translucent.

Add garlic - I used about 6 cloves since I doubled the recipe.

Add 2-3 tsp. of powdered ginger or 1 TBS of
fresh chopped ginger. Saute for another minute.

Add curry powder (I used ginger curry from 1001 Gewürze),
turmeric and mix well.

Add peeled and cut butternut squash.

Add the rest of the broth (for the doubled recipe the whole container).

Mix.

Bring to a boil over high heat.

Once it comes to a boil, reduce heat to medium.
Simmer uncovered until squash is tender
for about 10-15 minutes.

Add coconut milk (for doubled recipe the whole can)

Blend with a puree stick or in a blender in small batches.
If you don't like coconut milk and still want to keep
the recipe vegan and soy-free, you can use MimicCreme

After blending the soup should be smooth like this.

Add freshly ground salt and pepper to taste.

Stir.

Serve in bowls.

Decorate with freshly ground coriander
and Crema di Balsamico if desired.

Garnish with corn chips. You can also serve with
fresh cilantro. Enjoy!

Gluten-free, dairy-free blueberry banana bread

After eating almost exclusively fresh, local fruit all summer, with the change of season there is less selection and I've had to go back to fruit from he grocery store - including bananas, which I skipped almost all summer. My first banana purchase this fall was a bunch of 6, of which I only ate 2 before the other four started browning - perfect for making banana bread. I have a recipe I found last year that I have modified somewhat to be gluten-free and dairy-free. Enjoy!

The basic ingredients: Arrowhead Mills Gluten-Free Baking Mix,
almond meal, canola oil, organic cane sugar, baking soda,
baking powder, salt, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, cinnamon,
cloves, vanilla, ripe bananas, lemon (zested), 2 eggs,
frozen blueberries

1 3/4 cups of GF baking mix, plus a couple
tablespoons of flax seed

Pour into bowl

Add 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp of salt

Add spices: ginger, some pumpkin pie spice, cloves

Blend

1/4 c. of almond meal

Grate about 1 tsp. of lemon zest

Add almond meal and lemon zest to bowl and mix.

Puree bananas.

... until smooth

Add 1/2 cup of oil and 3/4 cup of sugar to mixer.

Blend

Add eggs (this was 2 eggs, but one had a double yolk)

Blend

Until smooth

Spoon in flour blend to egg-oil-sugar mix.

Alternate with blended banana.

Add a bit of vanilla and blend.

Add 1 c. of frozen blueberries

Blend

Pour into greased pan and bake at 350 F for 1 hr.

Should be golden when done.

Serve warm with butter or margarine. Yummy!