Week 46 -- Apple Sweet Potato Stew

Hopefully this will be the last soup from my parents' kitchen.  I am moving into my new house and new kitchen as I write this.  In fact, after I post, I have to go dig and find my teapot. 

With my allergies, apples are like gold.  And my usual apple supplier was not in business this year (not to mention they are now two hours away from where I'm living).  Luckily, the tree outside mom's office had an amazing harvest for the first time ever.  We have eaten hundreds of apples off the tree this year, literally.  It's not an easy tree to pick from, so we adopted the habit of going out every day to see what dropped.

This stew makes use of some of those glorious miracle apples.

Mom picking some of these magical beauties.

Hot stew after cold apple picking.

Apple Sweet Potato Stew

1 cup red lentils
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
7 cups water
3 sweet potatoes, diced
3 carrots, sliced
1 Tbsp arrowroot
1 tsp each ginger, allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric
dash ground black pepper
3 apples, diced
1 Tbsp miso
1/2 cup coconut, (reduced fat, unsweetened)
1/4 cup cashews
2 dates

1. Saute onions and garlic in water.  Add sweet potatoes, carrots, red lentils, and half of the water.  Let simmer until all are tender.  Add spices and apples.

2.  In a blender, combine miso, coconut, cashews, and dates with some of the water.  Blend until smooth.  Add to soup.

3. Dissolve arrowroot into a little water that's left.  Add to soup.  Continue simmering until arrowroot is cooked and stew has thickened.

Makes about 6 servings.

Week 39 -- Apple Crisp Soup

I'm still working without my own kitchen, which is being a little challenge for keeping this blog going, but I did get one done for this week.  I didn't have time (or enough molasses) for the soup I was planning, so I threw this one together instead.

It doesn't really taste just like apple crisp, but it's sweet and cinnamon-y and it does have apples, and we had apple crisp earlier today so I have it on my mind.  Just use your imagination.

This is a terrible photo.

Apple Crisp Soup

1/2 onion, diced
2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1/4 cup raisins
1 cup red lentils
4-5 cups water
1 apple, diced
1 Tbsp cinnamon

1. Saute onion in a bit of water until softened.  Add raisins.  Cook until onions are translucent.

2.  Add lentils, sweet potatoes, and water.  Cook until sweet potatoes and lentils are tender.

3.  Add apples and cinnamon.  Turn down heat and let simmer about 10-15 minutes until apples are soft.  Add more water if needed.

Makes 3-4 servings.

Week 30 -- Orange Sweet Potato

I mentioned last week that I'm moving soon.  This week I'm using up things from the refrigerator.  I had a few oranges left from the winter (they're looking leathery but they're still good inside), and I didn't want to waste them.  Normally this would feel more like a winter soup, but it tasted good on a cool and rainy summer day.

This soup is delicious and simple.  It has just a few ingredients and comes together quickly.

Soup with a swirl of cinnamon.

Orange Sweet Potato

1/2 red onion, chopped

3 medium sweet potatoes, diced (cut off coarse skin)

2-3 oranges, peel cut off and tough membranes removed  (mine were small so I used 3)

water to cover

Optional: cinnamon to garnish

1. Saute onion in a little water.  

2. Add sweet potatoes and water to cover.

3. Add orange flesh.

4. When sweet potatoes are tender, turn off heat.  Blend in blender or with immersion blender.  Add water as needed to get desired consistency.

5. Top with cinnamon if desired.

Week 21 -- Orange Sweet Potato

After all the work of the wontons last week, and after coming home from a busy conference, I was ready for a simple and fast soup tonight.  This soup took about 15 minutes from start to finish and made just two servings (perfect for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow).

This soup has few ingredients, which gives it a very simple flavor that is light and delicious, and they're probably foods you already have sitting around.

I lightly peeled my sweet potato, just getting off the thick rough patches and trying to keep most of the layer just under the peel so I didn't lose too much good nutrition.

There it is in all its delicious, fast, and simple glory!

Simmering soup with the allspice.

Orange Sweet Potato

1/2 red onion, chopped
1 large or 2 smaller sweet potatoes, chopped
1/2 cup red lentils
1 orange, peel cut off, sliced and divided into segments
3-4 cups water
1/4 tsp allspice, approximately

1. Cook the onion, sweet potatoes, and red lentils in 3 cups water for about 10 minutes until tender.  Add more water if needed.
2. Add the orange segments and allspice.  Let simmer another two minutes.  Then enjoy!
Makes two servings.

Week 10 -- Turkish Stew

First, I do need to admit that I actually know nothing about Turkish foods.  I needed a name for this soup, and as it contains Turkish apricots and some common Turkish spices, that's what I went with.

This soup is spicy in a good way:  warm spices, not hot, and it's a great excuse to eat dried apricots (not that you really need a reason -- they're so good!).

If you are a follower of Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen, this soup ticks off a lot of boxes: legumes, greens, vegetables, fruit, spices.  If you aren't a Daily Dozen devotee, you should head right over to Nutritionfacts.org and read up on it, then download the app to make healthy eating feel like a game.

Look for dried apricots that don't have additives like sugar, sulfur, preservatives. 

They will probably be ugly.  Pretty fruits have been treated with chemicals.

You could probably chop the apricots with a knife, but scissors make the job easy.

I'm reusing a photo of how to make collard ribbons.

Cut out the stems.  Stack leaves.
Roll them, then slice into ribbons. 
Make one final cut down the middle of the rolls for shorter ribbons.

Can you smell the spices?

This soup is flavorful and spicy, but not as sweet as you'd expect.

Turkish Stew

1 red onion, chopped

1 1/2 cups red lentils

1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped

3 medium sweet potatoes

1 small bunch collard greens (about 1/2 pound), cut into ribbons

9 cups water

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp ground coriander (I ground it in my coffee grinder)

1. Heat a thin layer of water in a soup pot.  Add the onions and water saute until cooked.

2. Add lentils, apricots, and water.  Let simmer about 10 minutes.

3. Add sweet potatoes.  Add collard ribbons and spices.  Let simmer about 15 more minutes until sweet potatoes are soft and spices have had a chance to settle in.

Makes about 6 servings.