Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup for One

This simple little dish will make your kitchen smell marvelous and it will fill your tummy in the most satisfying way ever. And it’s orange. More food should be orange, don’t you agree?

½ TBLSP olive or coconut oil

1 clove garlic, minced

2-3 carrots, sliced

1 small sweet potato (about ½ cup), chopped into small cubes

1 dried apricot, diced

Dash of turmeric

Dash of ground cumin

Dash of ground ginger (or ½ inch of fresh, diced)

¼ cup water

Pinch of salt

Zest of ¼ orange (or dried)

1 ½ TBLSP orange juice (from the orange you just zested), about ¼ of an orange

1/3 cup almond milk (or other non-dairy milk—coconut would be lovely)

Ground black pepper to taste

1. In a saucepan large enough to hold the whole serving, heat the oil and toss in the garlic.
2. Add the carrots and sweet potato, dried apricots and spices. Toss them around in there for 3-5 minutes, softening the veggies a bit. Don’t burn the spices, though. Just brown ‘em. Your kitchen should smell fabulous.
3. Add the water and salt, give it a stir, cover it, and let it simmer for 10 minutes. You’ll probably want to turn the heat down a bit, so you don’t boil all the water away. The object is to soften the veggies, but not turn them into mush. You should be able to push a wooden spoon through the veggies when they’re cooked to perfection.
4. Add the zest, orange juice, and almond milk and simmer for 5 more minutes.
5. Use an immersion blender or pour the soup into a blender or food processor and whirl until smooth.
6. Top with ground black pepper and serve.

That yummy looking side dish is homemade naan topped with faux cream cheese, diced yellow onions, avocado, home-grown sprouts (alfalfa, mung, and broccoli), with a bit of chopped cilantro and some chopped raw almonds. It was yummy too. 

Cauliflower Mac ‘n’ Cheeze for One

The weather is changing, and a nice piping hot bowl of something filling is all you can think about. But the refrigerator only has a little lingering cauliflower and the cupboard is nearly bare. What to do? Cauliflower Mac ‘n’ Cheeze, of course!

2.5 ounces dry macaroni pasta (for me, that’s about two double handfuls. Your hands may be bigger.)

½ a cup of cauliflower florets, broken up

1 garlic clove

2 ½ TBLSP almond milk, or the non-dairy milk of your choosing

2 TBLSP nutritional yeast

¼ lemon’s-worth of lemon juice

A splash of soy sauce

A pinch of kosher salt

A dash of turmeric

A smidgen of Dijon-style mustard

A grind or two of fresh ground pepper

1. In a saucepan, boil the water for the pasta. You can salt it, if you like, but I don’t. The salt makes it take longer to boil, and there’s soy sauce and salt in the sauce. Once the water’s boiling add the pasta. Cook according the package directions and drain.
2. Meanwhile, in another pan, steam the cauliflower for no more than 10 minutes. You want them just tender, not really cooked.
3. In a blender, add the cooked cauliflower, the garlic, milk, yeast, juice, soy sauce, salt, turmeric, mustard, and pepper, and blend until it’s smooth and creamy.
4. Add the sauce judiciously to the cooked pasta in your serving bowl. You might not want all of it, you, maybe you’re feeling like slopping it all up with a nice piece of crusty bread. It’s your choice.

Variations:

• Chop some onions (I like green onions) to toss into the finished dish.
• Add nuts, faux meat, tofu, or faux cheese to the finished product to add a protein element.
• Parsley or cilantro would be nice, chopped finely and stirred into the finished sauce. Or you could grind it up with the sauce and have a greenish delight.