Columbus Day Sales and Columbus Day Soup!

This BEAUTIFUL recipe was given to me by my mama, when I was in college, and of course it is now tradition to make this soup yearly! Although, I make it whenever I want! Ha!

The original recipe is still preserved with my mom, and is served best with a 4 cheese Romano blend on top, so that it gets all melty and delicious! However, since I have become vegan since then, I have adapted it to suit the tastes of my own family, and I recommend Daiya mozarella, or nutritional yeast on top! Or if you're up to making your own, my lovely friend Caitlyn gave me a recipe for vegan parmesan that worked wonders for my amazing soup! A side note on that one: I accidentally used coconut oil instead of butter for the whole thing, and it still turned out all right, but probably not as well as the original recipe, and I would recommend cutting the lemon juice down to a tablespoon/tablespoon and a half, especially if you just have oil and no butter to work with. Then up those vitamin C crystals to 1 full teaspoon, plus a pinch of salt. (The vit C was 9.95 at our Fred Meyer)

Since Columbus introduced the natives to sweet potatoes when he first arrived in the Americas, the soup is befitting with its main ingredient being the sweet potato!

Columbus Day Soup!

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

½ yellow onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, smashed

2 Teaspoons ground ginger

3 Gala apples, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped

2 pounds sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cubed

6 cups veggie broth

1 ½ cups soy or almond milk

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Sautee the onion and garlic on medium-high until the onion becomes translucent. Add your chopped apples (I've tried with the peels on for all the extra nutrients before, and the texture gets gross, so I stick to peeling them) and ginger, and stir to coat! Add sweet potato cubes. I used to peel the sweet potatoes but I have found that scrubbing them under the sink gets a lot of the peel off, and the remainder is chocked full of vitamins and doesn't ruin the integrity of the soup! 
Add your veggie broth and simmer, covered for 40 minutes or until potatoes and apples are soft and almost mushy. Transfer half the pot to a blender and add ¾ cup milk, then puree. Repeat with the second half of the pot! I do not add salt or pepper to mine, but you do as you like! Add some “cheese” to the top, whether you are not vegan and chose melty Romano, or the vegan mozarella that will be stringy goodness, or the parmesan I posted that just melts but adds that “parmesan tang” ...ENJOY!

To go with the soup...

Oat Bread!!!!!

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Bake Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups Milk (Soy works well) with

2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar, stirred in.

Vegan Egg (1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 1/3 cup water, heated and stirred until thickened like an egg white. Usually requires 1 minute 30 seconds divided into 30 second increments, stirring in between intervals.)

3 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 cup Oat Flour (Blend 1 ½ cups rolled oats in a food processor)

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 teaspoon Salt

3 teaspoons Sugar

Sunflower Seeds (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Start the milk and vinegar mix and set aside. Create your vegan egg with your cornstarch and water, then add to the coagulating milk and vinegar. In a separate bowl, combine all the rest of the dry ingredients, then mix with a whisk to fully incorporate and fluff the flours. Add your milk and “egg” mixture to your flour mix, and stir with a wooden spoon until all of the dry ingredients are thoroughly mixed in. Well, just make sure they are all incorporated and wet, no need to over-mix here! Pour into a greased loaf pan, or roughly shape it into a loaf on a cookie sheet, then press a small handful of sunflower seeds into the top (about ¼ cup) if you'd like, then bake for 45 minutes.

HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY!!!!

Also! The Columbus Day Sales will end today! Freddies has tons of half priced furniture! Gymboree and some other brand name stores are doing Columbus Sales too! Gymboree's in particular is doing a 17 and under sale on their entire store!!! (Sorry, online ended already)

Annnd, if you want a steal on those sweet potatoes, Costco currently has a 10 # box for 79 cents a pound! So if you aren't a once-a-month shopper, like me, GRAB THAT PRICE! Because even Fred Meyer is at 99 per lb right now! Plus sweet potatoes make great fries, mashed potatoes, rustic roasted veggies, and baby food!!!