Recipes: Roasted Pumpkin Apple Soup

We're wrapping up our month of fall harvest soups with a week of soups on the sweeter side. After all, fall is when sweetness comes into its own! With sweet and tasty fruits and vegetables like apples, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, fennel, and cider at every turn, it's easy to find ingredients for making hearty fall vegetable soups this time of year.

Check out today's recipe for a great way to use up that sugar pumpkin you picked up on a whim at the farmer's market. This simple soup is sweet, spicy, smooth, and delicious - the essence of fall in a bowl!  And be sure to check back later this week for some more interesting soups on the sweet side!

Roasted Pumpkin Apple Soup
(Serves 2-4.)

(Image courtesy of tiramisustudio at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs of diced cooking pumpkin
1 large firm apple, peeled and diced
2 Tbsp cooking oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
3 cups vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
1 cup whole milk

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees and get out a large baking sheet.
• Put the pumpkin pieces, apple pieces, cooking oil, salt, and cumin in a large bowl and stir to coat very well; dump out onto the baking sheet and roast in oven fo4 45 minutes, or until pumpkin and apple are browned and soft. Stir with a spatula several times during the roasting time. Remove and let cool slightly.
• Scrape pumpkin/apple mixture (with all the oil and seasonings on the baking sheet) into a blender, add some of the vegetable stock and puree until smooth. Do this in batches if necessary, pouring each batch out into a clean soup pot as you go.
• When mixture is all pureed and in the soup pot, put over low heat and stir in milk. Heat just until hot, do not boil.
• Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.
• For a creamier soup, add the milk during the puree process along with the milk.
• Serve hot.

Recipe: Hearty Root Vegetable Stew

This recipe is the essence of fall in a pot! It makes a great side dish, or a vegetarian main dish, and is a quick and simple way to use up some of those fall and winter root veggies you just harvested.

Serve hot, with crusty bread and a fall salad like the one we shared on Wednesday, and you'll have a perfect meal for a cool fall evening!

Hearty Root Vegetable Stew
(Serves 4-6.)

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato
1 white potato
1 small rutabaga
2 onions
3 parsnips
4 regular carrots
6 cups vegetable broth
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

• Peel and dice all the vegetables, then add to a big soup pot with the vegetable broth. Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Put pot over medium heat, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, lightly cover the pot and simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes or until all the vegetables are fork tender, then serve hot.
• You may put this soup in the blender and puree for a creamy soup instead of a chunky soup, if you wish. Sprinkle chopped fresh flat leaf parsley on top of each serving if you wish.

Recipe - Fall Harvest Omelet

This delicious high-protein recipe combines the healthy goodness of eggs with yummy fall and late summer veggies for a tasty start to the day, light lunch, or even a quick dinner. Feel free to substitute other veggies, or spice it up with other kinds of herbs or cheese. Omelets are great for experimenting as they are so quick and easy and versatile!

Omelette.

Fall Harvest Omelet
(Makes 2 good-sized omelettes.)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms (shitakes are great for a tasty twist)
1/2 cup sliced yellow summer squash
1/2 cup sliced zucchini
1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
oil for cooking
4 eggs (pasture-raised for the best health benefits and nutritional value)
1/4 cup water
2 tsp. grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. dried basil leaves
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. butter (or oil)

Directions:

• Add oil or coat with cooking spray a heavy oven-proof 10 inch skillet, and place over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, summer squash, zucchini, and bell pepper and cook, stirring until vegetables have browned slightly and are softened a bit. Scrape out into a bowl and keep warm; wipe out skillet and set aside.
• In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, water, cheese, basil, and garlic powder until blended. Put butter in the skillet over medium-high heat and shake the skillet until the bottom is evenly coated with the melted butter.  
• Pour 1/2 of the egg mixture into the hot skillet. Tilt skillet and gently push the cooked portions from edges toward the center, moving the uncooked eggs to the hot skillet bottom. Once the eggs are solid, spoon 1/2 the vegetable mixture on 1 side of the eggs, then flop the other side of the omelet over the top and slide off onto a plate.
• Repeat with the remaining 1/2 eggs and vegetables for the second omelet.
• Serve warm.