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Brrrrrrrrr.
Its chilly.
Not Alberta chilly, but chilly.
The arrival of OSGMOM also brought Southern Ontario’s first cold snap of the Winter season. On Thursday, wind chills were around -22C (-4F). Northern Ontario was also pummeled with over 90cm of snow in some areas. Yeeps!
I sprung into Canadian Girl Survival Mode this week. Every winter she surfaces with the only mission to…
Stay.
Warm.
How do you know you are in a cold snap? Well, let me tell you:
- You run the kettle all day long, even when you already have a full pot of tea made- you always need hot water ready, ‘just in case’
- A cold beverage isn’t even an option until at least April
- You currently have so many blankets on your bed you wake up in a hot sweat at 5:30am
- You sleep in long johns and start thinking they are pretty damn sexy
- You put the space heater so close to your body your zipper melts
- Your cat starts to sleep in the cabinet with the door closed for days on end
- You decide that picking up your mail isn’t worth the walk down the driveway after all
- You start eating copious amounts of soup until people start asking if you are on a special soup diet
Vegan Sweet Potato & Pear Soup
This is a traditional Holiday Soup that will warm your heart and soothe your taste buds. It would be fabulous on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, or even on New Years Day.
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Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegan margarine
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup chopped carrot
1/4 cup chopped celery
3 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 pears, peeled and diced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
5 cups vegetable broth
1/3 cup coconut milk
2 teaspoons maple syrup, or to taste
2 teaspoons lime juice, or to taste
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Directions:
In a pot, heat margarine on medium heat. Add onion, carrot and celery and sauté for 1 minute. Add sweet potatoes, pears and thyme and sauté for about 2 minutes. Add paprika and veggie broth. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes or until sweet potato is soft.
Puree in a blender or food processor until smooth. Return to pot. Add coconut milk, maple syrup and lime juice. Simmer for 5 minutes. If soup is too thick add a little extra broth.
Season with salt and pepper, adding more syrup or lime juice as needed. Drizzle with maple syrup if preferred. Can be made up to 2 days ahead of time.
Total Prep time: 30 minutes. Cook time: 30 minutes
Adapted from Food & Drink Magazine
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After we blended the cooked veggies and broth, we each had a little taste and wow was it ever magnificent!
Rich yet light, sweet yet savoury. So many complex flavours that went so well together. The little kick of lime was genius.
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When my mom asked me what we could substitute for the heavy cream that was vegan, I suggested coconut milk. I thought it would go well with the sweetness from the pears and the sweet potatoes. It turned out awesome!!
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Do you have a homemade soup recipe you’d like to share? I always like trying out new ones!
The three of us have been having a wonderful visit together so far. I am just soaking up my time with my mom before she heads home on Tuesday. Family is so so important to me. I hope you don’t mind my absence from the blog over the past couple days.
As always I will be very sad to see her go. :( She has also been a huge help for the bakery this weekend, helping me package the 600+ Glo Bars I baked this weekend. Moms are the best, aren’t they? :)
Updates:
1) My CTV interview has not aired yet, but it may be on tonight’s 6pm CTV News. I was told it was going to be on this weekend and it wasn’t on Saturday, so I assume it will be tonight or latest Monday!? I will Tweet about it if I find anything out.
2) Whittle My Middle recap will be coming up shortly. I haven’t been on my computer all weekend so I will get to that this week.
I hope you are having a lovely weekend. Call a family member you haven’t talked to in a while and catch up. Often life gets so busy that we forget what is truly important.
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