Haha!
What a morning. Holy shit that was fun.
We had first days. We had birthdays. We had conga lines. We made Rob do a billion pushups. We sqautted it out and I shared my fav/totally made up winter soup recipe (it’s below for all of you who asked… which was basically everyone). We had prizes. We got totes to head to the Farmers Market with afterwards. We got a coffee card for a post-workout hangout. Aaaaand, we had the sun.
So, a pretty great morning.
Thanks to the Old Strathcona – Whyte Business Association for reaching out to partner with us. Thank you to Eric for giving us a tote + a $5 GC to the Farmers Market.
That was a lot of fun!
Ok, a new soup recipe you’ll love for the rest of your life. And, if you know anything about how I cook, you know I just make stuff up which means that this is not a real recipe and it might frustrate the heck out of you if you are a “I need to follow it exactly” kind of person.
When I was diagnosed with RA, I obsessed about the life changes I felt I should make. One of them was eating more of an anti-inflammatory diet. Also, if you know me, you know I never compromise on delicious food. Soooo….. my made up recipe is my way of eating health/anti-inflamm while also eating food that is effing delicious.
Ok, the recipe.
Lazina’s healthy winter soup: my attempt at writing a recipe
What you’ll need:
- Maybe 1-2 tsps of cumin
- Maybe 1 tsp of tumeric
- Maybe 1-2 tsps of black mustard seeds
- Like a shake from a jar of ras el hanout (not a giant amount)
- Salt- the amount is totally up to your taste buds but don’t under salt this one
- Zataar (totally optional)
- A chopped yellow onion
- 1-3 cloves of garlic chopped up fine (you decide how much garlic you like)
- Grate a nub of ginger- pick some amount but don’t skimp
- 1-3 red thai chilis (depends on how much heat you like… but don’t use none)
- A butternut squash – cut it into maybe 4-6 pieces
- A sweet potato cut into 4-6 pieces
- 1-2 carrots chopped up
- 1-2 pieces of celery chopped up
- Masoor dahl- maybe 1 cup ish (it’s the kind of dahl in this link... it cooks quick)
- Maybe 2-4 big kales leaves… chop this up
- A lot of veggie stock (I usually make my own)
- ¼ – ½ coconut milk from a can
- Cilantro
- A slice of lime
- Some amount of avocado oil… you’ll just figure out the amount. I have no idea.
Ok, here goes my attempt at a recipe:
- Put the butternut squash and sweet potato pieces on a baking sheet. Add oil, salt and, if you like, some zataar. Use your hands to make sure everything is coated well and pop that into the oven at maybe 400F. It should roast until you can stick a fork in it. Oh yeah, turn the oven on beforehand.
- In a big soup pot, add avocado oil, the chopped onion, garlic, grated ginger, chopped carrots, and chopped celery. Add salt. I’d say that the stove top should be about medium… maybe a bit higher than that. Fry this up for a few mins. Make sure there’s no sticking or burning. That’s not great.
- Add the cumin, tumeric, black mustard seed, ras el hanout and keep frying that up so that the spices release their gorgeous smell. I’d say do that for 3-5 minutes- ish. Turn the overhead fan on if you haven’t done that yet. Add salt.
- Wash that dahl and add this to the pot. Continue to stir everything together for a few minutes. If it sticks, add some of your stock to de-glaze the bottom of the pan.
- Once all fried and mixed together, add maybe 2- 2.5 cups of the stock. Maybe more. I don’t know. Add those chilis in now. I like to put a bit of a slit in them so it releases the heat but isn’t screaming hot. You may need to add some salt here.
- It may take a bit of time for this to simmer. I’d say maybe 15-18 minutes ish. In the meantime, go get a glass of wine or whatever you like to sip on and enjoy your life. And don’t forget to stir the pot every so often.
- While you’re enjoying that beverage, turn your attention to the squash and sweet potatoes. Hopefully, they are roasted to perfection at this point, you’ve taken them out of the oven and they’ve had some time to cool down. Take the skin off the butternut squash and chop all of it into small pieces. Do the same with the sweet potato (leave the skin on or off… you do you). Put this in the soup pot. You likely need to add more veg stock.
- Once the soup is mostly boiled down – and your kitchen smells amazing – I’d use a hand blender and kind of half blend the soup. If you like soup smooth, keep blending. Oh- don’t forget to take out those chilis before you blend or else it’ll be a really spicy hot soup rather than just flavourful. You may need to add a bit more stock here.
- Once that soup is chunky/ blended, add the kale. I like it very green but wilted so right at the end is best.
- Add the coconut milk and stir it in.
- Ok, you’re done! This should be a slightly runny stew consistency (unless you blended it until it was smooth).
- Ladel this out into a bowl and top with chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime.
- Enjoy your life. Your taste buds will be so happy.
- If this doesn’t make sense, just ask me.
Announcements
- Monday at 5:58am– we’ll see you at Violet King Henry Plaza (formerly the federal plaza). The tree is up!
~togetherisbetter
Lazina
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