Fall Recipes

October & November offer us our last opportunity to enjoy the local harvest.  Late season wintergreens, squashes, cabbage, brussel sprouts, apples and root vegetables are all in abundance.  October and November are great months to make stews, soups, and casseroles, and we wanted to share some of our favourite recipes – some of them specifically for the slow cooker.

Our retail store is overflowing with produce delivered daily by our farmers.  Today’s haul includes Kobacha Squash from Songberry Farm (pictured above) and mountains of Kale from Juniper Farm.

Squash & Fennel Soup

Note:  The basic recipe is very versatile, and you can easily adapt this recipe to accommodate different vegetables.  Some examples are Potato & Leek, Carrot & Ginger, Pumpkin, Sweet Potato, Jerusalem Artichoke etc..  If you want to add some depth of flavour, the root vegetables can be roasted beforehand.

Ingredients:

Olive oil or canola oil
1 medium white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 pounds of winter squash (preferably organic)
3 heads of fennel
1 cup white wine
4 cups or vegetable chicken stock
1 pinch thyme
1 cup whipping cream
Salt and pepper

Directions:
1:  Peel and chop squash into 1 inch pieces.

2:  Wash and slice fennel.  Sauté onion and garlic in oil until transparent, about 5 minutes. Add fennel and sauté until tender.  Deglaze with white wine and cook until wine is almost evaporated.  Add squash and stock.  Simmer on low for 10 minutes, until squash is tender.  Taste for seasoning.
3:  Add cream and remove from heat and cool. Blend in batches in a blender until smooth.  Add more water/stock if necessary to achieve the desired consistency.  Re-heat until warmed through and serve.

Serving Tip – for an elegant starter to any special meal, soup can be served in shooter glasses, and garnished with things like bacon bits, ground nuts, fresh herbs, etc.    This is how we served them recently at the Red Apron 5^th anniversary celebration at the Urban Element in September.

Beef & Barley Soup – Slow Cooker Recipe

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound stewing beef, cut in 1/2-inch cubes
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 medium carrots, diced
3/4 cup pearl barley
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried thyme
6 cups beef broth
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
pepper, to taste

To Prepare:

Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion to hot oil; cook and stir until onion is tender, about 4 minutes.  Add garlic and thyme, salt & pepper.   Transfer to Slow Cooker.  Brown beef in skillet and transfer to Slow Cooker.  Add remaining ingredients to Slow Cooker and cook on LOW in Slow Cooker for 6 to 8 hours.

Curried Lentil Stew – Slow Cooker Recipe

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 cup of dried French lentils, soaked for 2 hours or overnight, and drained
1 large onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, with liquid
1 14 oz can of coconut milk
1 cups water, OR stock
2 large carrots, diced
1 large sweet potato, peeled & cubed
½ cup raisins
1 ½ tsp curry powder
½ tsp ground cumin
1  tsp ground ginger (or 1 tsp fresh grated ginger)
¼ tsp ground turmeric
1 ½ tsp salt
2 cups chopped fresh spinach

To Prepare:

Sauté onions & garlic.  Place all ingredients (except spinach), in the Slow Cooker and cook on the LOW setting for 7-8 hours, or until the lentils & sweet potatoes are tender. Fold in chopped spinach.  You can garnish this dish with chopped fresh basil, cilantro or parsley, plain yogurt, diced avocados, chopped green onions or goat cheese.

Moroccan Chicken Stew

Serves 4

Ingredients:

½ cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and drained
4 carrots, peeled and diced
2 large onions, diced
8 pieces chicken thigh, bone in, skin on
½ cup raisins
1/2 cup dried apricot, coarsely chopped
2 cups chicken broth
2 tbs tomato paste
2 tsp flour
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 ½ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp ground turmeric
1 1/2 tbs fresh grated ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste

To Prepare:

Sauté onions & garlic in skillet on medium heat.  Toss chicken pieces in flour, salt & pepper and add to skillet to brown on both sides.  Place all ingredients in the Slow Cooker and cook on the LOW setting for 7-8 hours, or until the chickpeas are tender.

Serve in bowls with couscous and garnish with chopped nuts, cilantro and/or yogurt.

Filed Under:  Recipes, Uncategorized, by Season

Lansdowne Farmer’s Market Pesto

This past weekend, Jacqueline treated the patrons of the Lansdowne Farmer’s Market to a demonstration on how to make the most of this summer’s bounty.  All of these ingredients were sourced on site on Sunday morning.

It’s so easy and oh so delicious! Make sure to carefully wash and dry the herbs!

1 3/4 c. organic basil (from Roots and Shoots)
1/4 c. parsley
1/3 c. hemp seeds (Stone Farm)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed (from Jambican)
3/4 c. Sheep’s Milk Nettle Pecorino cheese (Canreg Station)
1/2 tsp. Salty Don’s smoked maple salt
1/2 c. hemp seed oil (Stone Farm)

Pulse everything EXCEPT THE OIL together in your food processor until they are finely minced but not a paste.

Put in a bowl and mix in the oil.

You can freeze it in ice cube trays if you have leftovers, serve it with a pasta salad, grill it on chicken or fish, make potato salad, eat it from the spoon or use your imagination.

Filed Under:  Recipes, Uncategorized, by Season