recipe redux Archives - Happy Healthy RD

Miso Potato Soup

January 12, 2016 by 8 Comments

I received free samples of Progresso Cooking Stock mentioned in this post at no cost. By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by Progresso Cooking Stock and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time. #ProgressoEatsContest

When I was growing up one of our little town’s restaurants had potato soup Thursdays. In high school, we spent countless Thursdays eating potato soup at Clementine’s. Such good memories! Clem’s potato soup was delicious, creamy, and I think it actually had noodles in it. I haven’t had it in years but can taste it like it was yesterday. So needless to say potato soup has a special place in my heart and also is one of my favorite comfort foods.

Fast forward to today, with New Year resolutions of healthy eating on the brain, I wanted to create a recipe that evoked rich memories of Clementine’s potato soup while also keeping things on the light and healthy side. This potato soup contains ample veggies and no heavy creams or cheese. It also fits into vegan, dairy free, or gluten free categories if that’s your jam. So you can enjoy it while still sticking to your resolutions. (Extra health points if you top with a little shredded kale but that’s totally optional – I admit a few crunchy croutons would probably taste much better. )

Derek actually made a similar soup a while back and came up with the idea of adding the miso. I’ve been wanting to recreate it for awhile. Miso has a delicious nutty salty flavor that goes perfect in a potato soup, giving it a creaminess and richness without the need for butter or cream. If you are new to miso, it is a fermented soybean product. It is also good in salad dressings, stir frys, or just plain miso soup is pretty delicious too. Just make sure to add the miso at the end of the cooking process since it is fairly delicate.

I have a couple of other tricks for creating a creamy dairy free soup. First is adding nutritional yeast, which lends a creamy cheesy flavor. Nutritional yeast is an amazing product – vegans everywhere bow down to nutritional yeast since it tastes so cheesy. I usually find it in the bulk section of our health food store.

Second is taking a few cups of the soup, blending it, and then adding it back into the pot. This adds a smooth texture and thickens the soup a bit.

We often make our own homemade stock but sometimes there just isn’t time for that and it is handy to have a few containers of ready-to-go stock in the pantry. Progresso recently came out with a new line of cooking stocks that are a pretty darn good substitute for homemade stock. They are made by simmering real bones (pretty sure 2016 is going to be the year of bone broth btw), vegetables, and herbs. Plus no artificial colors or crazy weird ingredients are anywhere to be found. I used Progresso vegetable stock in this recipe and it gave the soup a wonderful deep homemade flavor but I think chicken stock would also work well too.

As always, I encourage you to play around with this recipe. If you do not have nutritional yeast and want to add milk or cheese, do it! The miso is optional also but I might recommend adding a bit more salt if left out. Enjoy!

Miso Potato Soup

Makes 6-8 servings

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

2 cups white onion, chopped

1 cup celery, chopped

1 cup carrot, chopped

1 cup parsnip, chopped

6 white Russet potatoes, chopped (I peeled 3 and left the skin on 3)

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 box (32 oz) Progresso Vegetable Cooking Stock

2 cups water

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

2 cups finely chopped kale

2 tablespoons white miso

1-2 teaspoon salt (more to taste)

Heat a large stock pot over medium heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Add chopped onions and cook until soft and translucent. Add in celery, carrots, parsnips, and potatoes. Cook on medium to low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add oregano and thyme and stir until incorporated. Add the 4 cups of broth and two cups of water. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 30-40 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Add in nutritional yeast and chopped kale and cook until kale is wilted. If you want a creamier texture, take two cups of the soup and blend until smooth in a blender and add back in. While heat is on the low, stir in the 2 tablespoons of miso. Salt to taste (I added about 2 teaspoons of salt at the end.)

If I haven’t shown my love for soup enough yet, check out a few of my other soup recipes.

Butternut Squash Soup

Curry Chicken Lentil Soup

Curried Broccoli Soup

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

As always my fellow Recipe Reduxers knocked it out of the park with all their creative recipes. Check them out below!

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Zucchini Bread with Almond Butter Frosting

July 21, 2015 by 22 Comments

This month’s Recipe Redux is right up my alley!

Fresh from the Garden

The season of bountiful produce has arrived. Whether your produce comes from the Farmers Market, a CSA share, or a plot of dirt out back, show how you are using fresh July fruits or veggies. And if you have gardening successes – or failures – please share!

(Don’t forget to check the bottom of the post for many other great recipes!)

We have transformed most of the raised garden beds in our yard that used to have decorative plants into a huge veggie garden. Our garden is a bit crazy right now but I love it. We have already been picking peas, green beans, lettuce, kale, and all the herbs. Tomatoes, zucchini, squash, watermelon, cucumbers, and eggplant all are growing like champs right now. Things are looking a little bit like a jungle but I’m loving it.

These tomatoes are taller than I am!

We picked our first zucchini last week. Last year we had zucchini coming out of our ears so we only planted two plants but from the looks of it, one plant might have been enough. So much zucchini!

I like zucchini roasted, sautéed, in soup, or shredded and fried into fritters but I have to say my favorite way to have it is in zucchini bread. Homemade breads are on the top of my favorite food list…pumpkin, banana, blueberry breads – ah! they are all so gooood. It may be that I love those kinds of breads because they are great vehicle for almond butter but that’s up for debate.

I know there are a million and one zucchini bread recipes out there but my go to is from one of my first cookbooks, the . It is easy and the ingredient list isn’t a mile long. I alter it just a bit but I always use the flour, baking powder ratio they suggest. I did use all whole wheat flour this time but if you aren’t big fan of whole wheat maybe just do half all purpose and half whole wheat. To me whole wheat makes a more dense bread and it doesn’t rise quite as high but I don’t mind. I would encourage you to at least try to do at least half and see if you even notice.

Since I knew I would be putting almond butter on every slice I thought I might as well just cover the whole loaf. It might be a stretch to call this frosting but it tastes just as good as frosting loaded with powdered sugar and butter to me.

Zucchini Bread with Almond Butter Frosting

1 1/2 cups flour (whole wheat or all-purpose)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 beaten egg

1/2 cup sugar

1 3/4 cup finely shredded, unpeeled zucchini

1/4 cup cooking oil (I used coconut oil but any vegetable oil would be fine)

Almond Butter Frosting

1/2 cup almond butter

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of salt

Set oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan and set aside. Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl: flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground ginger. In a separate bowl combine wet ingredients: egg, sugar, zucchini, and oil. Add wet to dry ingredients and stir until just mixed. Place batter in loaf pan. Cook at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

To make frosting, combine almond butter, vanilla, and cinnamon and stir to combine. If your almond butter is very dry, heat in the microwave to 10-20 seconds to soften. Spread on zucchini bread when it is still warm from the oven.

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Be happy, be healthy!

Lemon Tofu Pie with Gingersnap Crust

June 21, 2015 by 7 Comments

This is my first month participating in the Recipe Redux. Every month all kinds of talented bloggers will be sharing their take on the month’s recipe theme. (To learn more about the Recipe Redux – click here!) Be sure to check out the other links below! This month’s theme was PIE!

Pie Love

Tucked in a crust, nothing says love from the oven like pie. Whether it’s a twist on the all-American apple pie or a traditional recipe from your home country, give a healthy makeover to your favorite savory or sweet pie recipe.

I can probably count the number of pies I have made on one hand so this required some thought on my part. I love any sort of chilled creamy pie, and I knew I had a lemon pie made with tofu at one time in my life, but it was many many years ago. Yes, you read that right – tofu! I remember it being surprisingly good since tofu pie sounds like one of the least appetizing things I can think of. Anyway, my goal was to recreate a creamy tart but sweet lemon pie. A graham cracker crust would also work just fine but I went the gingersnap route.

Tofu gets a bad rap in my opinion. When cooked right, I love it! It gets deliciously crispy when stir fried or adds a creaminess when blended and takes on any flavor that you want it to. Such a versatile food. Plus it packs a mean protein punch, 20 grams in one cup of tofu. Hard to beat that!

This pie requires a bit of planning but then it is super easy to put together. First I used coconut cream instead of whipped cream (you could totally use whipped cream though) which requires a chilled can of coconut milk. Chilling overnight is best but a couple of hours will do. Second you have to press the tofu to get all the liquid off. If you can press it for at least an hour that would be sufficient. Or you could press it overnight in the fridge…just throw it in along with the can of coconut milk.

To press tofu, I usually use a variation of this method. Basically just wrap the tofu in a towel and put something heavy on top. The liquid will seep out. It’s actually a good idea to press firm tofu anytime you cook with it.

Ok, so once your tofu is pressed and your coconut milk is chilled it’s time to get cooking!

Lemon Tofu Pie with Gingersnap Crust

Filling:

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 lemons)

1/2 tablespoon lemon rind

1 package extra firm tofu, well drained (method for draining tofu)

1/2 cup sugar

1 can of full fat coconut milk, chilled

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Crust:

3 cups gingersnaps

1/4 cup coconut oil or butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees. To make the cookie crust, process or blend gingersnaps to fine crumbs. Add in coconut oil or butter and process until crumbs start to stick to together.

2. Press crumb mixture into pie plate covering the bottom of the plate completely then press mixture up the sides of the plate. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove and let cool.

3. After tofu is well drained, combine tofu, lemon juice, lemon rind in a high speed blender or food processor. Process until well combined, add in sugar. Process until smooth.

4. Make coconut cream. Open can of chilled coconut milk. You will find that it has separated. Remove the solid thick portion and beat with mixer until creamy and fluffy. (You can save the watery part and add into smoothies.) Add in vanilla and beat until combined.

5. Fold in coconut cream to tofu mixture. Pour into pie plate and chill for at least 1 hour before serving. Top with fresh fruit.

Telling your family that this pie is made with tofu is optional!

Also can’t forget to say – Happy Father’s Day to all those hard working Dads out there! I know I have a lot of wonderful fathers in my family and they deserve a day of special treatment. Thanks for all that you do!

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