Curry Coconut Butternut Squash Soup

There's a butternut squash just lying around and you're not sure what to make. You love butternut squash soup but you crave something new. This recipe is just that.

Ingredients
1/3 or 1/2 butternut squash
1 small white onion or 1/2 medium
1 garlic clove
1 tsp madras curry powder (or paste)
1 veggie stock cube
1 teaspoon vegetable oil 
1/2 can coconut milk (I used Thai Kitchen)
salt
pepper

Directions

1. Cube the butternut squash in giant pieces, and boil them until soft (about 20 min or so). Remove from water and let them cool for a few minutes before scooping the squash with a spoon. Place all scooped butternut squash in a food processor.

2. Finely chop the onion and garlic, sautee over low-medium heat in a small pan. After onion becomes translucent, add the salt, pepper and curry powder. After a minute or 2, add this to the butternut squash in the food processor.

3. Crumble the veggie stock cube all over and add the coconut milk. Pulse blend a few times in the beginning, then process for 1 or 2 minutes.

4. Pour mixture into a pot and heat to preferred temperature.

Happy soup time! Have you ever tried a spicy butternut squash soup before?

Banana Bread With Walnuts, Chocolate Chips & Coconut Oil

It is soft. It melts in your mouth. It smells like sweet love which tingles your nose. I'm talking about decadent banana bread that will win the heart of even your most non-vegan friend. Yes, it's that good. One of my friend's family members who likes to be a clown usually refers to vegan food as dinosaur eggs. (it's a joke, I only clued in after the first few sarcasm remarks and I started playing back) However, after having a couple of slices of this, he had nothing to say except [insert Canadian accent]: "that was really fuckin' good."

Please note: I used 1 cup of chocolate chips because I really love chocolate. Must admit it was a bit too much, so if you prefer a more even ratio, you can use 1/2 a cup.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1 cup chocolate chips (I used Cocoa Camino)

1 cup chopped walnuts

3-5 organic bananas (I used 5 of the skinnier ones)

 3/4 cup agave syrup (Wholesome Sweeteners)

1/2 cup coconut oil (Nutiva)

2+ teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. Mash up bananas with a potato masher or a fork in a medium bowl. Add in liquids and mix in well until all lumps disappear. 

2. Add dry ingredients in a large bowl, including the chocolate chops and chopped walnuts. 

3. Slowly incorporate wet ingredients into dry mixture, until all dry mixture is worked in.

4. Oil your pan with coconut oil and pour mixture in. (I used a bundt cake pan that was quite shallow, so I got a ring of banana bread. You can use whatever you would like, including loaf pans) Pick up pan and drop a couple of times to get rid of air bubbles, and even out batter. Using a pastry brush, gently brush a thin layer of agave syrup, which will make it luscious and give it gorgeous colour.

5. Bake at 350 Farenheit for about 25-35 min (do a toothpick check in the earlier minutes, it's ready when it comes out clean with no gooey batter on it.)

Feel free to leave a comment, a Facebook post or a Tweet if you have any questions or if you tried it out!!

Love,

 The Scrummy Vegan