Creamy Roast Pumpkin Soup (Vegan & Gluten-Free)

I'm on a roll with the pumpkin theme over here at Dance While You Cook. If you've been hanging around these parts for any amount of time you may have deduced that I am really whimsical in my postings and don't plan a thing, so this pumpkin theme in the month of October certainly wasn't intended.

It's just that pumpkin is jumping out at me from every angle. And I'm jumping on board.

(In case you missed my last few posts, check out my gluten-free pumpkin buckwheat muffins and this six pack of cider beer sitting in my ice box right now.)

I must admit, pumpkin is so darn tasty it keeps me dancing in The Little White Kitchen all month long.

Today's recipe for gluten and dairy free Creamy Roast Pumpkin Soup serves up all the rich warmth we've come to expect in a soup perfectly suited for a crisp fall evening.

Creamy Roast Pumpkin Soup (vegan & gluten-free)


Serves 6

Ingredients:
2 TBS olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground coriander
2 medium pie pumpkins, roasted
2 cups raw cashews
2 cups plain rice milk
4 cups vegetable broth (can use chicken broth if you prefer)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp salt
a few dashs of cayenne pepper
flaky sea salt, to taste

The Preparation Method:


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roasted Pumpkins
Cut pie pumpkins in half, seed and gut. Reserve the seeds for roasting.

Spread a small amount of olive oil over the inside of the pumpkin. Sprinkle with sea salt. Place pumpkin halves flat side down in a baking dish. Roast pumpkins in preheated oven for approximately 1 hour, or until the flesh of the pumpkin is soft and can easily be scooped out of the pumpkin shell.

Cashew Cream
This recipe calls for 2 cups of cashew cream. To make the cashew cream, take 2 cups of raw cashews and soak them in water for at least 20 minutes. Drain water. Place in blender with 2 cups plain rice milk. Blend until smooth. Keep blending so there are no chunks what-so-ever. Measure out 2 cups and set aside. (Freeze all remaining cashew cream for use at another time.)

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
While the pumpkins are roasting, begin preparing the pumpkin seeds for toasting. Wash the pumpkin seeds in a bowl of cold water. Drain water from seeds and set aside on a towel. If soaking wet, give them a spin in the salad spinner to remove some of the excess water. In a small mixing bowl, toss pumpkin seeds with a touch of olive oil, a few dashes of cayenne pepper and some sea salt. Lay in a single layer in a baking pan. Place in the oven with the roasting pumpkins. Allow the seeds to roast until they are nice and brown, approximately 30 minutes. Be sure to stir halfway through to toast all sides evenly. Add more salt once you pull them out of the oven.

The Soup
Next, get all of the other materials for the soup ready. Once the roasted pumpkin is ready the rest of the soup will come together very quickly.

Once the pumpkins are done roasting, scoop all of the flesh out of the shells, mush well and set aside.

In a large soup pot, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion and minced garlic. Cook over medium-high heat until soft and starting to brown, approximately 5 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander, stir well and continue to cook for another minute.

Add all of the mushed pumpkin (approximately 4 cups) and 4 cups broth. Stir well. Allow to cook for another 10 minutes.

Using a submersion blender, or a standard blender, puree the soup until super smooth.

Return soup to large pot and add 1/2 cup light brown sugar, 2 cups cashew cream and 1 teaspoon salt. Stir well to combine. Heat through and serve with a hearty helping of roasted pumpkin seeds as a garnish.

Enjoy!

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I couldn't find a video for this song, but none-the-less, you need to listen to it. So fantastic! I have no idea what it's about, but what the heck, it's groovy. Who can complain? Anyone want to translate for me?

MC Solaar - Bling Bling

Potato Leek Soup with Bacon

Not sure if you noticed, but I have a thing for creamy soups. 

Not sure if you noticed, but I also have a thing for bacon.

Bring them together in a simple and inexpensive one-pot dinner and you'll see one happy domestic engineer standing in my shoes and wearing my apron.

Being dairy-free for the past few years we've gone without creamy things for far too long. I have finally decided to put my foot down and call an official end to the lack of all things creamy in our lives.

Cream LIVES! Cream LIVES! It just doesn't come to us as a product of cow lactation. (Come on now, I'm a childbirth educator, I can say things like that in the middle of a recipe :)

Potato Leek Soup with Bacon


Ingredients:
2 small leeks
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 strips bacon, thinly sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc
5 cups chicken stock
4 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 bunch chives, snipped

The Preparation Method:

Use only the bottom portion of the leek—the white and bright green part. Slice the leek down the center and rinse under cool water to remove any lingering sand and dirt. Once all cleaned up, slice thinly and set aside.

Peel and cube the potatoes. Set aside.

Thinly slice the bacon.

In a large soup pot, brown the bacon over medium-high heat until crisp.

Now there are two ways to go about this next part...

A) Cook the bacon into the soup. This will mean that you will add the leeks to the bacon in the bottom of the pot, and then puree the bacon at the very end along with all of the other ingredients. I found this to lead to a very heavy soup, almost too strongly infused with bacon flavor, if that is even possible. Personally, I prefer option B.

B) Once the bacon is cooked to a crisp, remove it from the pot and set aside. Stir in the bacon chunks after the soup has been pureed. This method offers fun little surprises in every bite.

By now you've decided if you're going with Option A or Option B. This picture depicts a cook who chose Option A.

Either way, saute the leeks in the bacon grease. If you've got a swimming pool worth of grease in the bottom of your pot, you may decide to remove some (but not all) before adding the leeks.

Either way, saute the leeks for about 5 minutes, or until they have softened.

Now add the white wine and bring to a boil.

As soon as it begins to boil add the chicken stock, potatoes, fresh thyme sprigs, bay leaves, white pepper and salt. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork.

After 30 minutes, remove the bay leaves and fresh thyme sprigs and bring out your handy immersion blender. Blend soup until smooth.

If you chose Bacon Option B above, you'll want to add the crispy bacon back into the soup now.

Garnish with fresh chives.

Serve and Enjoy!

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I heard this song on the radio today and it's been playing in my head ever since. Gotta love me some George.

George Strait - Give It Away

Creamy Mushroom Quinoa Chowder (Dairy-Free)

If I was ever stranded by myself on a lost deserted island and I could only choose one CD, one pair of flip-flops, one book and one warm soup that would be in never-ending supply, I would choose Gregory Alan Isakov—That Sea That Gambler, Rainbows, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and this here Creamy Mushroom Quinoa Chowder. 

For years, this was our family's favorite soup... of all time. The kind of soup you would choose to take with you if you were going to be stranded on a lost deserted island. Was is the operative word here. It was our favorite soup, that is until we took the dairy-free oath in our household. What was a cream loving group of people to do without heavy cream? Trust me, I tried it without the cream. It was not good. So the recipe was lost to grow old by itself in the back of my recipe file.

Until last week, that is. I made this soup three different times last week. Yes, in one seven day period I made this three times. Yes, I did. I've fallen in love all over again.

The secret to the creaminess is a little something called cashew cream. I've been hearing about cashew cream for years now. But I was scared. Somehow this sounded difficult, expensive and less-than-tasty. Don't ask my why I thought those things about my beloved cashew cream. For now I know, cashew cream is the answer to all my prayers. 

Funny, but just yesterday a friend forwarded me a link saying "When I saw this post I immediately thought of you." I see that someone else feels the same way I do about creamy mushroom soup with cashew cream! Check out Joy the Baker's recent post on a a really similar version of this soup. Looks fab!

And now... the soup that will accompany me everywhere I may go in my life. Including a lost deserted island.

Creamy Mushroom Quinoa Chowder

Ingredients:

1 C quinoa, toasted

2 TBS olive oil

2 medium onions, diced

16 oz package button mushrooms, chopped

4 TBS molasses

3 C chicken broth

2 C cashew cream (2 C raw cashews + 2 C rice milk, almond milk or water)

1/4 tsp salt 

pepper to taste

fresh chives

The Preparation Method:

Toast the quinoa in a dry, heavy skillet over medium heat until fragrant.

In a large soup pot, saute the onions in the olive oil over medium-high heat until caramelized, about 8 minutes.

Stir in the mushrooms.

The toasted quinoa.

And the molasses.

Stir well to combine and cook until mushrooms are limp about 10 minutes.

Add all of the chicken broth.

I love the Better Than Bullion brand. I think you'll love it too.

Stir it all together and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes, or until quinoa is cooked.

In the meantime, make your cashew cream. It's super easy. Don't be afraid. Watch...

If you are planning ahead, you can soak the raw cashews in water for many hours. Overnight is good. But 2 hours works too. And if you didn't think about soaking ahead of time, no worries. Just put the raw cashews in the blender with the liquid and you're all good.

Strain the water out.

Place them in a blender or food processor.

Add rice milk or water.

Enough to cover the cashews.

And blend until smooth.

Now you have cashew cream. Boy, that was easy wasn't it!

It's about now that the soup should be about finished cooking. The quinoa is finished cooking when it looks like it has come undone, a bit unraveled. Grab your handy immersion blender.

And blend away to your hearts content.

You're done blending when the soup is smooth.

Add the cashew cream.

Stir it around. Add salt and pepper to taste. And presto...

The creamiest darn dairy-free soup you've ever tasted! Garnish with fresh chives if you like. I didn't have any by the time I was taking pics of this dish. It's good none-the-less.

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This post is dedicated to my dear sister who comes off of a 40-day fast today. The remarkable cleansing her body has done astonishes me. She's going to need something gentle for her system. Love you sister!


Train - Hey, Soul Sister

Chili for a Chilly Day

Chili is my run-to dinner when the temperature outside drops into the single digits. It's hot, hearty and hella good. 

This weekend I made a batch to welcome home my two favorite skiers after a long day on the slopes. 

Chili for a Chilly Day

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

1 sweet green bell pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

(2) 14 oz cans diced tomatoes, undrained

(2) 15 oz cans dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

8 oz can tomato sauce

4 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp dried crushed basil

1/4 tsp black pepper

The Preparation Method:

Chop onion, garlic and sweet green pepper. You'll need to use your imagination for what a chopped sweet green pepper would look like here. When it came time to cook my chili I didn't have one because I used it in another recipe earlier in the week. Doh.

In a large soup pot, crumble the ground beef and begin browning over medium-high heat.

Add the chopped onion, garlic and sweet pepper. Time to use your imagination again. Close your eyes and picture little specks of green in this photo.

Saute this mix until the meat is throughly browned and the onions are tender.

Add all of the remaining ingredients - diced tomatoes, kidney beans, tomato sauce, chili powder, basil and black pepper.

Stir to combine. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat to low. Cover and let simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

The flavors in this chili come together so nicely in such a brief amount of time. Enjoy with a cool crisp salad and some cornbread. You'll be in heaven in a hot, hearty and hella good kind of way!

This chili is also easily adapted for the crock pot. Ol' Bessie loves going to work on this first thing in the morning. Mama is extra happy in the evening when all I need to do to get dinner ready is grab a ladle and start dishing.

Crock-Pot Method:

Brown meat, onions, garlic and green pepper as described above.

Place in the crock-pot with all of the remaining ingredients.

Mix well to combine.

Cook on the low heat setting for 8 - 10 hours or the high heat setting for 4 - 5 hours.


I found this video when I was googling how to spell "Hella Good". One 'l' or two 'l's? That was the question. It's two 'l's. Thanks for your help Gwen.

No Doubt - Hella Good

Depression Era Pasta e Fagioli

This is quite possibly one of the recipes closest to my heart. It was my Grandmother's. God rest her soul.

She would always make this meal for my brother and I when we spent the night at her house.

Decades ago, when I was a wee girl, she taught me to make this in her little granny kitchen. She showed me the steps, one by one.

She made it very clear that there is a "right way" and a "wrong way" to do this. Agreed. It must be done exactly as described here or it won't turn out right.

That said, I've heard my sweet husband say that this meal reminds him of Chef Boyardee Spaghetti O's.

Seriously? I don't think he meant to knock my favorite childhood meal. This statement is simply evidence that he did not grow up with a true Italian cook in the kitchen. He's not used to the refined taste of poor-man's pasta and beans soup.

I'll forgive him.

Besides, it is my kids' favorite thing to eat.

Please note that this Pasta e Fagioli soup will not taste like the soup you order at Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill or any other Italian eatery. This is Pasta Fajoli (as Grandma liked to spell it) from the kitchen of a little Italian grandmother who grew up during the Great Depression with 19 brothers and sisters.

Enough said.

Ingredients:
2 TBS olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
15 oz tomato sauce
1 can Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed (or use Cannellini beans if you can't find Great Northern)
1 lb ditalini pasta (we use Tinkyada shells instead)
1 tsp basil, dried crushed
1 tsp oregano, dried crushed


The Preparation Method:

Photo Disclaimer: The lighting conditions in The Little White Kitchen were particularly bad on this fine Wednesday evening. Please consider these photos a work of Contemporary Art more than Fine Food Photography. Thank you.

Dice the onion.

Prep the garlic. To make this painstaking process surprisingly simple, here's a fantastic tip I learned from watching all the fancy chefs on the Food Network. Cut the end off the garlic clove. Place the clove on the prep surface, place your fat knife on top of it. Give it a good slap with the palm of your hand. Ta-da! The skin peels itself off. Why did it take me two decades to learn this trick?

Mince the garlic.

This piece is called, "Olive Oil in Blue and Green".

And this piece is called, "Why the heck is it so hard to take a photo of onions that doesn't turn out yellow and gross?"

Nevermind.
Saute the onions, basil and oregano in the hot oil over medium heat for five minutes.

Add the garlic. Continue to saute for two minutes more.

Add tomato sauce. Simmer. Keep stirring.

Now is the time to get the pasta boiling. Tinkyada is hands-down the best gluten-free pasta we've found for our beloved Italian recipes.

Cook the pasta Al Dente. For Tinkyada pasta, this is about 10-12 minutes or so. For this recipe to turn out right, you MUST NOT cook it until it is soft. Drain the pasta when it is softened but still hard in the center. As all true Italian cooks do, salt your water generously, at least two tablespoons or more.

Back to the sauce. Keep stirring. Add water from the can to thin the sauce as you go along. A couple of tablespoons at a time. Do this at least twice throughout the 30 minutes of simmering.

Also, be sure to scrape the thick buildup of sauce back into the pan. As Grandma always said, "That's the good stuff."

Stir in the Great Northern (or Cannellini) beans. Keep stirring the sauce.

When the pasta is perfectly Al Dente, drain the water off the top. Don't drain it all. Leave enough water in the pot so that it is about 1/2 inch above the macaroni.

The sauce is ready after approximately 30 minutes of simmering. Pour it over the pasta directly into the pasta pot.

Scrape the thick sauce from the sides of the saucepan and add to the soup.

Stir it all together, bring to a low boil and cook at least five minutes to enhance the flavor. It is done when the pasta is cooked to your liking and the sauce thickens. Usually somewhere between five and ten minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

This is one of Grandma's favorite artists. She too liked to dance while she cooked. It's in the genes. Thanks Grandma for leaving us such a rich love of music and dancing and love of true Italian food.

Dean Martin - Volare

Find the printable recipe here.