
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.

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




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.

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!!

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.

PS- Can USA people still get your bars before Christmas; my sister in Cali had ordered some & needs more. She got excited with the accidental email thinking we had sent her some more!! (I was going to order her some.)
I made a turban squash soup this fall that was delicious! I’m not one for recipes or writing down what I wind up throwing in the pot, but the squash itself has really great flavor to play with.
I found your website a few weeks ago and have been reading nonstop. Great stuff! I’m trying my first GM tomorrow morning. eep.
“You sleep in long johns and start thinking they are pretty damn sexy” LOL you crack me up, girlie!!
That soup sounds amazzzzing, and great for this frigid weather.
I’ve missed reading your blog while I was gone in the Caribbean! I’m off to do my catching up now :D
Wait, long john’s aren’t sexy? ;)
I eat soup almost every day in the fall and winter. My current favorite is Kabocha Sun-dried tomato soup – super flavorful and its easy to make.
2 ounces sun-dried tomatoes
4 cups kabocha squash, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces
1 cup diced tomatoes
½ t. thyme, dried
1 ¾ t. salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 cups water
½ cup celery, diced
¾ cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
¼ cup water
1. Put sun-dried tomatoes in a small bowl. Pour boiling water over to soften for 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Remove the tomatoes and set aside.
3. Combine onions, garlic, celery, water, tomatoes, squash, almost all of the sun-dried tomatoes, and spices in a large stock pot, cover, and bring to a boil over high heat. Turn heat down to simmer, and cook for 10-20 minutes. Fork test squash for tenderness. There should be no resistance. Turn off heat.
4. Puree soup with immersion blender. Leave a few chunks of squash and tomatoes, add the remaining sun-dried tomatoes and return to simmer to heat through.
Wow. The photos in this post are stunning, really well done! And that soup sounds so gorgeous, what a creative combination of flavors. Thanks for sharing another great recipe!
I can’t wait to try pear in my next soup!
Here’s the Squash & Apple soup I made not too long ago:
http://momentanew.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/squash-apple-soup/
damn woman.
how do you juggle it all?
THERES A POST I NEED TO SEE :)
Yum, that sounds sounds delicious!
Yum!! That soup looks delicious. Soup is one of my favorite winter foods! I love this Simple Split Pea Soup…
http://foodfitandfun.wordpress.com/recipes-2/soup/split-pea-soup/
I have a red lentil soup that’s made with garam masala and coconut milk that I love to make, because it’s so easy and quick and everyone loves it! I’ve served it to vegans and meat eaters, and I’ve yet to come across one person who doesn’t like it. This soup sounds really yummy too, I’m going to try it this week!
I’m digging that soup recipe!
That is one thing I DON’T miss about Canada – the winters!! Hope you guys stay warm – soup and tea are the best when it’s cold out! Enjoy the rest of your time with your mum :O).
Your soup looks amazing! It’s on my to-do list! I can attest that it’s flippin’ cold in Alberta. I live in Calgary and am amen-ing to your “you know it’s cold when list”. Understand how much I LOVE the weather on my “God Makes Weather That Cold?!”…haha
Your soup looks fabulous! And I love all the photos. :)
Your CTV segment aired here in Vancouver a week ago Sunday I think? But I DID see you in your kitchen!
Wonderful looking soup!
Well, I hit a few of the survival list… and I live on the West Coast… I would like to be able to say “in my defense, it’s a cold snap for us” but it’s soooo nothing like the rest of the country. Although, that doesn’t mean I also don’t have a kettle of water boiling 80% of the day, and eating copious amounts of soup…
My favourite soup is a potato soup that my mom makes… I keep “forgetting” to grab the recipe from her and end up just begging for a pot to be dropped off at my front door. And Yes, I realize that’s such a princess thing for me to do, but even if I’m 2 months shy of my 30th birthday, I’m still her baby ;)
oh wonderful recipe! I’m totally going to make this. I love sweet potatoes so much and this looks superiorly tasty. hehe
Mmmm, that looks yummy. I just posted a recipe for vegan chili on my site http://2bahealthyfit.com. It is the time for soups!!!
The soup recipe sounds delicious! I’ll have to make some this week. :)
A soup recipe that I fell in love with recently is called the “Roasted Pear-Butternut Squash Soup” from Eating Well. It calls for crumbled stilton, but it is delicious and vegan without that.
Congrats on the CTV interview!