Mediterranean Roasted Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon grape seed oil
• 5 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 potatoes, diced 1 cm thick
• 2 peppers (green and yellow), diced 1 cm thick
• 1⁄2 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 1 yellow zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1 cm pieces
• 1 large red onion, cut into 1 cm chunks
• 1 1⁄2 cups carrot juice
• 4 Italian or roma tomatoes, diced
• 1 teaspoon fresh tarragon

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C)
• Combine the grape seed oil and garlic in a roasting pan and roast until the oil begins to sizzle, about 5 minutes
• Add the potatoes, peppers and rosemary, and toss to coat
• Roast until the potatoes begin to colour and soften, about 15 minutes
• Add the yellow zucchini and the onion, and roast until the zucchini is tender, about 15 minutes
• In a medium saucepan, combine the carrot juice, tomatoes and tarragon and bring to a boil over medium heat
• Spoon the roasted vegetable mixture into the saucepan
• Pour a little water into the roasting pan and stir. Making sure to scrape up any browned bits that cling to the pan
• Pour the pan juices into the saucepan
• Cook until heated through, about 2 minutes, then serve

Prep time and cook time: 60 min

Serves: 4

recipe courtesy of besthealthmag.ca

Dr Patel’s Homemade Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 medium onion diced
• 7-8 cloves garlic minced
• 8-10 fresh roma tomatoes
• 6 mushrooms chopped
• 1 green pepper diced
• 1 carrot diced
• 1 stalk celery diced
• 1 zucchini diced
• 2 tsp fresh basil chopped
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme or fresh
• 1/4 tsp red chili powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp grape seed oil
• sea salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

• Puree tomatoes in a food processor
• In a medium sauce pan, saute onion on medium-low heat until translucent
• Add garlic and saute for 1 min
• Add carrot, green pepper, celery and zucchini saute for another 3 min, then add mushrooms and saute for another 2 min
• Add pureed tomatoes and bring to boil
• Add balsamic vinegar, red chili powder, garlic powder, thyme, sea salt and black pepper
• Boil for another 2 minutes, bring to simmer covered for 15 min
• Add basil and then simmer for another 5 minutes
• Serve with your favorite brown rice pasta!

Thanks to Linda for the farm fresh roma tomatoes!!!!

Tandoori Veggie Kebobs (Skewers)

Ingredients

• 1 green pepper cut in 1 inch cubes
• 1 red pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 orange pepper
• 8 mushrooms
• 2 tbsp grape seed oil (like coconut oil, this oil can withstand high temp – at room temp it remains in a liquid form, whereas coconut oil is solid)
• 1/4 tsp red chili powder
• 1/4 tsp tumeric
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander seed
• 1/4 tsp tandoori powder
• 1/2 a small jalapeno minced
• 1 garlic clove minced
• juice of 1/2 fresh lemon
• sea salt and black pepper to taste
• You can also add red onion, tofu and grape tomatoes to the skewers and for those who eat meat, you can add chicken

Directions

• In a bowl combine grape seed oil, lemon juice, garlic, jalapeno, red chili powder, coriander powder, tumeric, tandoori powder, sea salt and black pepper
• Mix in mushrooms, red, yellow, green and orange peppers
• Allow this to marinate in fridge for several hours
• Using wooden or metal skewers, alternate veggies until skewer is full
• Grill on barbeque until mushrooms are tender or alternatively you can bake in oven at 375 F for 20 min

Prep Time and cook time: 40 min

Makes about 10 skewers  (If you add more veggies, it will make more skewers)

Spinach and Mushroom Quiche

Ingredients

• 2 cups baby spinach
• 8 mushrooms cubed
• 1 red pepper diced
• 1/2 green pepper diced
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1-2 shallots finely chopped
• 8-10 eggs
• Mediterranean feta cheese (available at trader joe’s – see picture) (optional)
• sea salt and black pepper to taste
• 1/4 tsp red chili flakes
• 1/4 tsp thyme leaves
• 1/4 tsp italian seasoning
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 spelt flour pie shells (see picture)

Directions

• In a large mixing bowl combine baby spinach, mushrooms, red pepper, green pepper, shallot and garlic
• Add sea salt, black pepper, red chili flakes, thyme, italian seasoning, olive oil and feta cheese to the bowl and mix well
• In a separate bowl crack eggs and beat well and then add them to the large mixing bowl and mix well (number of eggs depends on size of pie shells)
• Pour mixture into pie shells equally
• Bake in oven for 50 min at 375 F

Cook time and Prep Time: 1 hr and 15 min

Serves: 6 -8

Thai Red Coconut Curry with Tofu

Ingredients

Sauce

• 4 tbsp tomato paste or crushed tomato
• 1 small onion, peeled and quartered
• 1 thumb-size piece ginger peeled and sliced
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder
• 1 heaping tbsp coriander seeds, ground
• 1-2 red chilies, depending on how spicy you want it
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 kaffir lime leaves (if available)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 can coconut milk
• juice of 1/2 – 1 lime
• sea salt to taste

Stir Fry

• 1 cup fresh basil leaves (roughly chopped if large) chopped
• 1 green pepper diced largely
• 1 red pepper diced largely
• 1 bunch bok choy
• 8-10 mushrooms quartered
• 1 package tofu diced in one inch cubes
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp tumeric
• 1/4 tsp red chili powder
• 1 tbsp grape see oil
• 1 tsp ground coriander seeds
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 2 tsp coconut oil
• 2 tbsp cilantro for garnish

Directions

• In a food processor or Blendtec blender, combine all ingredients for sauce and blend well
• In a bowl combine lemon juice, tumeric, red chili powder, grape see oil, coriander seeds, and garlic and mix well.  Toss tofu in this mixture
• In a skillet heat coconut oil on medium heat.  Add tofu to skillet and brown on each side.  Remove from skillet once browned and set aside in a bowl
• In the same skillet sautee green pepper for 3-5 minutes on low to medium heat, ensure it is still crisp, add mushrooms and saute for an additional 3 min.  Add bok choy and saute for 3 min
• Add sauce to the veggies and heat
• Add basil and cook until slightly wilted.   Then add tofu
• Garnish with cilantro
• Serve with brown rice or quinoa

Variation: for those who eat chicken or shrimp, you can add it to this recipe instead of the tofu

Prep time and cook time 30-45 min

Serves 2-4

Spicy Quinoa Salad

Leftover quinoa is great to turn into a salad.  Use the leftovers from our Spicy Quinoa recipe for this salad. This can be eaten cold and it tastes great!

Ingredients

• 2 cups spicy quinoa
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tomato diced or 10 cherry tomatoes halved
• 1/2 green pepper finely diced
• 1/2 orange or yellow pepper finely diced
• 1 tbsp cilantro chopped

Directions

• Toss all ingredients together and serve cold!