...He Packs His Own Lunch: Soup's On

Today, I had one of those moments where I actually had most all the ingredients to a recipe in a cookbook in the house at the same time. For me, this is like having the planets align, all of the stop lights on my commute be green, and the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series all rolled up in one.

It just never happens.

So, my lunch today consists of a soup recipe from Andrew Weil, MD's book True Food. It's just as the title says, Soup's On! Here's what I'm working with.

The 'gredients

1 Butternut squash peeled and cut in 1 inch pieces
4 Granny Smith Apples
Some cloves of garlic, mashed
Chopped up onion use as much or as little as you like, I use a half of onion
A couple teaspoons of oil, I'm using grape seed oil
Just a teaspoon of salt
Cayenne pepper
Turmeric (optional)

The recipe calls for cashew milk. The book describes how to make it but I don't have cashews in my pantry. I do however, have plenty of coconut milk.

I found this recipe easy to execute, but time consuming from prepping the squash and apples.

I put all the 'gredients in a large bowl and mix it up. I use my hands because I'm not afraid to get dirty.

Bake all this in the oven until everything is soft. Test softness by puncturing the squash with a fork. Very little resistance means its ready. Puree all of it in a blender with about a cup of water. Pour into a cooking pot with the coconut milk, heat, stir, and serve. Or in my case put it in a coffee mug since I don't have anything better to put it in. Guess I didn't think that one through.

What goes with soup? Salad. It just sounds good. Say it, soup and salad. Soothing.

I felt fancy so I made kale salad.

I clean and steam some organic kale. It's highly recommended to use organic kale due to the high prevalence of pesticides found in conventionally grown crops. Check out the Environmental Working Group's list of fruits and vegetables that people should buy organic under Resources in the sidebar. I don't buy everything organic but there are certain items that have tested for levels of toxic pesticides and I don't want to give my long term health to save a couple dollars.

Back to salad making. Steam the kale. While this is going on make a vinaigrette with tsp extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp balsamic vinegar 1/2 tsp reduced sodium soy sauce, and squeeze of lemon. Grind some pepper into the mixture and sprinkle a little dried basil. I use a fork to whisk it all together. Then I toss in a little minced garlic

Keep an eye on the kale, it will take less than two minutes to get it to cooked just right.

Run the kale under cold water for a few seconds to stop the cooking process, toss into the Tupperware with the vinaigrette. Then shake the beejeezus out of it.