I love making soup at this time of year, especially with fresh, local veggies, like cauliflower and leeks. In addition to making a delicious soup, leeks and cauliflower are packed with health-boosting nutrients, many of which have been shown to protect and promote cardiovascular health. This recipe makes about 12 cups of soup and it freezes beautifully.

What You’ll Need:

• 5 or 6 leeks (about 6 cups when coarsely chopped)
• 2 medium cauliflower (about 6 to 8 cups when coarsely chopped)
• 8 cups of chicken or veggie broth, store bought or homemade (I used veggie broth this time)
• 3 TBSP olive oil
• 3 TBSP coconut oil
• Salt
• Optional garnish: a few tablespoons of a brightly coloured cooked vegetable (e.g. beets, carrots, spinach) and some fresh chopped herbs such as parsley, dill, or cilantro

Step 1: Prepare Leeks

Cut off the roots on the bottoms of the leek and the harder, darker part of the green tops. Cut each leek in half length-wise and wash if necessary to remove any dirt. Coarsely chop the leeks and put aside. Heat the olive oil and coconut oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add the leeks and 1 teaspoon of salt, and cook, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes, or until leeks are soft and just starting to brown a bit. While the leeks are cooking, move on to Step 2.

Step 2: Prepare Cauliflower

Remove the outer green leaves from the cauliflower , coarsely chop it up, and add it to the cooked leeks in the pot. Stir well to combine the cauliflower and leeks.

Step 3: Add the Broth

I usually make my own broths, but this time, I didn’t have any ready so I used this product to make the veggie broth:

Add the broth to the pot and stir well.

Increase heat to medium-high, bring to a boil, then reduce to low heat, put the lid on the pot, and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until cauliflower is soft.

Step 3: Blend Soup

Before blending the soup, let it cool off to avoid ‘blender explosion’. Given the amount of soup to be blended, you’ll likely have to do it in batches. Once soup is blended, return it to a pot, give it a stir and a taste, and season to your liking.

Step 4: Serve

Once you’ve seasoned the soup to your taste, heat up what you want for serving, and freeze the rest. Serve as is, or if you want to fancy it up a bit, take about ¼ cup of the soup and blend it with something that will give it a nice bright contrasting colour. I had some cooked beets in the fridge so I used a piece of beet. Set this coloured mixture aside. Ladle the soup into bowls, then drizzle the coloured soup mixture onto the bowl either in stripes or a spiral, then drag the edge of a knife through the soup to make an interesting pattern. Sprinkle with fresh chopped herbs for an extra burst of colour … and taste!

Enjoy!

These buckwheat pancakes are yum yum yummy and so easy to make! This recipe is my favourite pancake recipe and I consider it a bonus that these pancakes are gluten-free/wheat-free.

Did you know that buckwheat is not a type of wheat or even a type of cereal grain? It’s actually a fruit seed that is related to rhubarb. That makes it a great alternative if you are sensitive to wheat or other gluten-containing grains.

Buckwheat is a great source of fibre and plant-based protein. It is also loaded with health-boosting nutrients, including B-vitamins and minerals such as manganese and magnesium – 2 minerals that many of us are deficient in and that help the body deal with stress.

This recipe makes 6 to 8 medium-large pancakes. Feel free double it if you want more pancakes. If you have any extras, they freeze beautifully! Just put a piece of parchment paper between each leftover pancake, put them in a freezer bag and freeze. When you want them, you can heat them up in the oven or in the toaster. Easy peasy!

You Will Need:

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 cup of buckwheat flour (I get mine at Bulk Barn)
• 1.5 tps of xylitol (you can use regular sugar)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp of baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:

• 3/4 cups of plain, whole fat yogurt
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 TBSP of melted butter (this will go in the batter – note that you’ll need another TBSP or so of butter to grease the pan/griddle)

Step 1: Prep Dry and Wet Ingredients

Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl. In another bowl, beat all wet ingredients.

Step 2: Mix Dry and Wet Ingredients

Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Mix together well using a fork or a whisk and let the batter stand for about 5 minutes. The batter will be ‘thick-ish’, but if you find it too thick (e.g. won’t spread out after you’ve dropped in onto the pan/griddle), you can add a bit more water … just do it a couple of tablespoons at a time so you don’t end up with batter that is too thin. You want to end up with thicker, fluffy pancakes (or at least I do!).

Step 3: Cooking the Pancakes

Melt a bit of butter in your pan or on your griddle over medium heat. I use my ceramic non-stick pan.

Once the pan/griddle is heated, ladle batter to whatever sized pancakes you like. Let the batter cook until the edges are golden-brown and the bubbles start to break through the top of the pancake. Cooking time might vary depending on your griddle/pan and/or stove top. For me it takes about 2 minutes, but check by carefully lifting an edge of the pancake with a spatula. When the bottom is nicely browned, flip the pancake over and cook for another  2 minutes.

Step 4: Top and Enjoy!

Top your pancakes and enjoy! I kept it simple with a pat of butter and some local maple syrup. Delish!

With all the rain this summer, my veggie garden was hit and miss. I usually have zucchini coming out of my ears at this time of year. While this wasn’t the case this season, I did get enough to make stuffed zucchini a few times. You can use whatever veggies and other ingredients you like for the stuffing – no need to stick to what I’ve used. Just make sure you use something that will hold the filling together. I used an egg and cheese, You can freeze these once they’re stuffed/before you bake them; however, I enjoy them best when they are fresh. For this recipe, I used 2 ‘largish’ zucchini, and it served 4 of us as our main. You can use 4 smaller zucchini if you want to make this dish as a side.

What You’ll Need:

• 2 TBSP of butter
• 2 TBSP of olive oil
• 1 medium sized onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 medium sized tomatoes (make sure they’re ripe!)
• 2 larger zucchini
• 1 portobello mushroom
• a couple of handfuls of chopped up fresh kale or other leafy green
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 tsp of dried Italian herbs (or whatever herbs you like)
• 1 egg
• 8 TBSP of grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• fresh parsley (enough to give you a 2 or 3 TBSP of finely chopped parsley)

Step 1: Make the Tomato Sauce

Here’s my go to recipe for a quick tomato sauce … but you can use any tomato sauce you like – homemade or store bought:

• dice up 1 clove of garlic, 1/4 of the onion, and the tomatoes
• heat 1 TBSP of butter and 1 TBSP of olive oil in a small sauce pan over medium heat
• add the diced garlic, onion, and a pinch of salt and cook until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes

• add the diced tomatoes and dried herbs, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. Cover and proceed to next step. Check the tomato sauce from time to time though to make sure it is doing OK … you don’t want it to dry out or be too watery. It should have a nice thick ‘salsa-like’ consistency. Turn it off when it’s done.

Step 2: Prepare the Zucchini

• cut the zucchini in half lengthwise then scoop out the seeds and flesh (an ice cream scoop works great!). Keep about 1/2 of what you’ve scooped out as you’ll add it to the filling. You can use the rest in baking or soup or whatever other dish you’d like to add it to.

• place the scooped out zucchini in a Pyrex/glass baking dish. My dish was a 9 x 13 inch one … so you get an idea of the size of the zucchini I used. If they don’t lie flat in the dish, you can cut a tiny bit of the back off to give it a flat edge to sit on.  p.s. Check your tomato sauce!

Step 3: Prepare the Filling

• take 1/2 of the scooped out zucchini filling, dice it up, put it in a bowl, sprinkle it with a little bit of salt, toss it up, and put it aside
• dice up the mushroom, the remaining onion and garlic clove, red bell pepper, and kale
• heat the remaining butter and olive oil in a pan/skillet over medium heat and add the diced up veggies and remaining 1/2 tsp of dried herbs. Cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently, until the veggies JUST start to soften (you don’t want to fully cook them as they will finish cooking when you put the filled zucchini in the oven to bake), then squeeze the diced up zucchini you’ve set aside add it in. Cook for one more minute. Add salt and pepper to taste. p.s. Check your tomato sauce!

Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl to let cool. It’s important that the filling is cooled before you add the ‘binding’ (see next step!)

Step 4: Prepare the Binding for the Filling … and Get the Oven On!

• preheat the oven to 350F
• in a small bowl, beat together the egg, 4 TBSP of the grated Parmesan, and 1 TBSP of the chopped up parsley
• once the cooked veggie filling has cooled, add the egg mixture to it and mix it in well. It’s important that the veggie filling is cooled before you add the egg mixture, otherwise the egg will cook and instead of a liquid binding, you’ll have scrambled eggs … trust me … I know this can happen! :o)  p.s. Check your tomato sauce!

Step 5: Fill ‘Em Up!

• Fill up the scooped out zucchini with the veggie/egg mixture. Sprinkle with half of the grated cheese and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until the zucchini ‘boats’ are soft (or done to your liking – you can test by inserting a fork). Once zucchini are done to your liking, you can set the oven to broil for a few minutes to get a nice crisp on the cheesy topping.

Step 5: Serve

• warm up your tomato sauce if you turned it off awhile ago and it’s cooled down. Then spoon/pour it onto a serving dish and arrange the stuffed zucchini on top of it. Sprinkle with more Paremsan and chopped parsley and enjoy!