Sweet Potato Chipotle Bacon Soup

This is a nice one for harvest season. I love sweet potato soups and we have some sugar pumpkins from our CSA membership. They are smaller than the jackolantern variety and nice in pies and so on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

half onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp butter or oil

1 large sweet potato, peeled and sliced into 1″ slices

5 cups Epicure bouillon, prepared

about 2 cups cooked pumpkin (fresh would probably taste best, I’m sure canned would be ok too, or add more sweet potato)

2 tsp Epicure Minced Garlic

1 tsp Epicure Sea Salt

1 tsp Epicure ground pepper

Epicure’s Chipotle Bacon Cheddar dip mix: 1-2 tsp if you like it mild, 1TBSP and up for those who like it hot.

375g pkg bacon, cooked and crumbled (I like the naturals bacon, no nitrates)

optional: shredded cheddar cheese

In a large soup pot, melt the butter and saute the onion until soft, about 3 minutes. Add sweet potato and bouillon and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer until sweet potato is soft.

Add pumpkin, garlic, salt and pepper and Chipotle Bacon Cheddar dip.

Simmer about 20 minutes. Then puree with immersion blender in the pot or transfer to blender and carefully puree. If too thick add some more bouillon or water.

Add cooked bacon and top with shredded cheddar cheese if desired.

This recipe is great for the slow cooker too. Saute the onion separately and transfer to slow cooker. Then add the rest as indicated.

 

 

Guacamole Pulled Pork Bacon Burgers

Best ever Guacamole Pulled Pork Bacon Burger
(this one had our men wanting seconds, if they had the room!)

Make the patties with two pounds of ground beef and your favorite Epicure seasonings.
I used the Beef and Steak. Grill for four minutes per side. Add cheddar cheese if you like.
Prepare burgers in buns or lettuce wraps and layer with two cups left over prepared Epicure’s Pulled Pork, divided per burger. I used about two tablespoons per burger.
Make the guacamole with two avocados, mashed and mixed
with two tsp Epicure Cheese, Chives and Bacon and a squeezed lime wedge.
Divide that and layer onto your burgers.
Add a couple of cooked bacon slices, I started with one pound bacon, cooked.
Spread Epicure’s prepared Big Burger Seasoning on the buns and enjoy!
As I made these on the fly one night, please write to me if you would like more instructions:)

Coconut Flour waffles

This is a grain/dairy free recipe adapted from “Make It Paleo” by Bill Staley and Hayley Mason. It’s a wonderful book of grain-free recipes for the paleo diet enthusiast. And a very delightful photo of the authors on the front cover, enjoying their paleo meal and each other’s company.

Although we are not trying to go completely grain free at the moment, I do enjoy experimenting with gluten/grain free recipes and coconut flour. This one was delicious, but don’t expect the waffle, or the batter, to have the same consistency as a waffle made with wheat flour. This batter is a lot thicker and spreading it around the waffle iron will bring the best results when cooking.

1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp coconut flour

8 eggs

2 Tbsp coconut milk

2 tsp Epicure’s Cinnamon

2 tsp Epicure’s Baking Powder

Sift coconut flour to remove any lumps. Blend all ingredients with a hand mixer and bake one at a time on a waffle iron. Although the batter will be really thick, you can add a bit more coconut flour if you find it’s just too thick. Makes about 4 waffles.

Top with a sliced banana fried in coconut oil with a handful of pecans and a teaspoon of Epicure’s Maple Spice Fruit Dip Mix. Yummy.

 

Steamed pulled pork buns

A take off on traditional Vietnamese steamed buns, these are filled with Epicure’s prepared Pulled Pork instead of the more common barbeque pork typically found in Asian eateries. And of course, they are home made:)

Make pulled pork in the slow cooker with Epicure’s What’s For Dinner pulled pork seasoning. Then you can make this sweet dough for the steam buns:
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
3/4 c. lukewarm water
2 T sugar

2 T grapeseed oil or other healthy oil
2 tsp. baking powder
2 1/2 c. all purpose flour

Combine yeast, water and sugar in a medium sized bowl. Mix gently and let sit until yeast foams. Then add the oil, baking powder and flour and combine. Knead lightly into a ball and cover the ball in the bowl with plastic wrap or a tea towel.

Let rise for 45 minutes, then pound down and let rise again.

Shape small pieces of dough into 1/4″ rounds and add about one teaspoon of pulled pork in the middle. Pull two edges together to form a hammock shape, then bring the other two sides to the middle and twist the dough to close.

Place each bun on a small piece of Epicure’s parchment paper and then in a traditional bamboo steamer or Epicure’s Pasta pot. Allow to rise again for about 15 minutes.

Steam over boiling water that doesn’t boil onto the steamer for 15 minutes. Let cool slightly and enjoy.

Salsa Meatloaf

This is one of my family favorite dishes. When prepared in Epicure’s silicone mini loaf pans, they have a very short baking time as well. I made it today with shredded zucchini mixed in the meat.

2 lb lean ground beef

2/3 rolled oats or quick oats

1 egg

1/3 cup finely shredded carrot or zucchini

2 tsp Epicure’s Beef and Steak seasoning

1 cup Epicure’s Poco Picante Salsa, prepared

about 1 cups shredded cheese

Combine beef, oats, egg and carrot or zucchini until well mixed. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper, or use Epicure’s silicone mini loaf pans and divide meat and press into pans. Bake at 350F for about 20-30  minutes or until mostly done. Add salsa and cheese on top and return to oven to bake until cheese is melted and internal temperature of meat reaches 160F.

 

 

Barbeque Chicken Pizza

This was a quick and easy pizza, reminding me of the Tandoori Chicken Pizza I made a while back. Again with this one I used large 12″ pitas for the crust, they turn out thin and crisp and such a time saver if you can’t make your own dough. In my opinion they turn out better than store pizza rounds. Here in Edmonton you can pick them up at the Italian Centre Shop or H&W Produce.

Make a quick barbeque sauce with one can tomato paste, 1 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 Tbsp molasses and 2 Tbsp Epicure’s Barbeque Seasoning. Spread this on a couple of chicken breasts and broil about 5-7 minutes per side.

Spread the rest of the barbeque sauce on the pita and slice the chicken and spread it on top. Then add your other favorite toppings; I opted for fried onions in butter and Epicure’s Herb & Garlic. Then add shredded cheese and bake at 400F until cheese is melted. Serve with veggies and your favorite prepared Epicure dip.

 

 

Day 261 – Fruit Leather

Came across an idea for making fruit leather at home in your oven and with the current abundance of local apples, it seemed the perfect time to try it.

I cored the apples first (but left the skins on), added some honey and Epicure’s Apple Pie Spice made applesauce in my slow cooker overnight. You can read more about that on the Day 5 post.

Then I pureed the apples in the blender, greased a sheet of parchment paper with butter, placed the paper on a cookie sheet and spread the applesauce on it about 1/4 inch thick. Baked it in the oven at 200F for about 4-5 hours.

It’s done when the leather no longer looks shiny but appears dull instead. You may have to experiment with the baking time depending on your oven. The first time I made this, I left it in the oven, went to the football game and came home to apple crisps instead of leather. Very crunchy:) To good eating, Christine

Day 260 – Black Bean Soup

This one is really fast and easy, which I was thankful for after a long day out of the house and no plans for dinner until turning the key to the front door! I’m a bit of a guesstimater when cooking, so use your own discretion and add or subtract amounts of the ingredients as you see fit. And a good recipe to use up some of the extra zucchini you may have floating around. A friend showed up at my door yesterday with five monsters, there must be about 20 lbs of zucchini there. The freezer will be full of shredded zucchini this winter!

4 cups cooked black beans (should be about 2 cans worth)

2-3 cups finely shredded zucchini

1 – 796mL can crushed tomatos

1 Tbsp Epicure’s Pueblo Bean dip mix

1 tsp Epicure’s Poco Picante salsa mix

1 Tbsp Epicure’s 3 Onion dip mix

1 Tbsp Epicure’s Vegetable Bouillon mix

about 2-3 cups of stock or water, depending on how much water your zukes have.

Combine all ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer on low for about 15 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes, then serve with sour cream if you like.

Day 259 – Portobello Mushroom “Burger”

A friend of mine collects wild mushrooms for eating. His neighbour was about to mow the lawn the other day, and he picked some HUGE mushrooms, about the size of portobellos, that he was going to make for dinner.

Word is here in Alberta, there is only one kind of poisonous wild mushroom. However my friend, originally from Czech Republic, disagrees with this, and says he has seen many that he would not eat. He told me that mushroom picking is wildy popular in his home country, as though it is the national sports. They are crazy about their mushrooms!

This recipe is made with a verified non-poisonous portobello mushroom that I picked up at the grocery store. I would like to pick wild mushrooms, but I’m always afraid of getting that one poisonous variety…….

• 1/4 cup (60 ml) Epicure’s Balsamic Vinegar
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) water
• 1 Tbsp (15 ml) sugar
• 1 tsp (5 ml) Epicure’s Minced Garlic
• 2 Tbsp (30 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 – 5” (12 cm) Portobello mushrooms, cleaned and stems removed
• 4 whole-grain hamburger buns, toasted
• 1/2 recipe Epicure’s Tzaziki Dip Mix, prepared
• 4 tomato slices
• 4 red onion slices
• 2 lettuce leaves, halved

1. Whisk first 5 ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Add mushrooms and coat with mixture. Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour, or overnight.
2. Preheat barbecue or turn oven to broil.
3. Grill mushrooms over medium heat, or broil, turning often and brushing with marinade using an Epicure’s Silicone Basting Brush. Cook until tender, approximately 5 minutes per side.
4. Place mushrooms on buns and top with 1–2 Tbsp (15–30 ml) Tzaziki, tomato, onion and lettuce.

Day 257 – Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken Burgers

Until now, I haven’t had a teriyaki burger for about two decades. These burgers brought back memories of the best teriyaki burgers I ever had at Denny Andrew’s American Bar. Fellow Edmontonians from that era might remember their catchy commercial gingle back in the 80’s, “where the good times roll”……anyway, in high school I used to work the Saturday afternoon hostess shift but I had to leave by 6 p.m. when the restaurant turned into a nightclub, poor minor that I was. I had the teriyaki burger every Saturday.

Here’s the updated recipe. To good eating, Christine

1 lb. ground chicken

1/4 cup ground steel cut oats

1 egg

1/2 cup Yakitori Sauce, divided (see recipe below)

six slices fresh pineapple

Combine meat, oats, eggs and sauce and form about six patties. Cook in Epicure’s Grill pan or barbeque for about 4-5 minutes per side, basting with Yakitori Sauce. Remove burgers from heat when done and lightly grill the pineapple, also basted with Yakitori Sauce. Top each patty with a slice of pineapple and enjoy.

Yakitori sauce: Whisk up 1 tbsp flour, 1 tbsp. Epicure’s Teriyaki Seasoning, 2/3 cup low sodium soy sauce, 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar. Heat to a boil and keep whisking until slightly thickened.