Creamy Spiced Squash Soup

Here's a delicious recipe for you on a chilly autumn or winter day. I've been very negligent about updating this blog, and I apologize. I promise to try to be better about it... the key word there being try. :-)

This is a completely original recipe created by my sister and me. We love squash soups, but usually they use all kinds of ingredients that are incompatible with candida, like brown sugar and heavy cream. So we set to work to create a squash soup that would be safe for the candida-afflicted! It has coconut milk to give it a creamy taste, and spices and yacon syrup to give it a subtle sweetness. We'd love it if you try the recipe and come back and comment on how you liked it!

RECIPE NOTES:
The only limit ingredient is the coconut milk (milk - not cream!). Make sure you read your labels and that it has no sweeteners added. Just don't eat this soup more than once or twice a week and you'll be set!
Make sure all your spices are less than 6 months old to avoid mold growth.
Read your labels on chicken broth!

Ingredients:
1 large spaghetti squash (approx. 5-6 cups cooked)
3 Tbsp. ghee or coconut oil
1 medium sweet yellow onion, chopped
½ tsp. salt or to taste
5 cups chicken broth
1 (13 oz) can unsweetened coconut milk
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. salt or to taste
1 Tbsp. yacon syrup

Instructions:
Prick spaghetti squash all over with a fork. Boil in a large pot of water for around 20 minutes to a half hour. Cut open and remove seeds. Using a fork, shred the flesh of the squash into "noodles."

While the squash is cooking, melt butter in a deep skillet or large saucepan and saute onion with about ½ teaspoon salt over medium heat. When onions are tender and translucent, add chicken broth and coconut milk and stir.

Place about 2 cups of the shredded squash into a blender. Strain out the onions using a slotted spoon and add the onions to the blender. Put in some of the broth/coconut milk mixture to make it easier to blend. Blend on medium to high for one to two minutes, until smooth and creamy. Pour into a separate pot, and repeat until you have pureed all the squash. Add any remaining broth to the pot and stir.

Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, 1 tsp. salt, and the yacon syrup. Whisk until combined; taste and adjust spices if needed. Ladle into bowls and garnish with a dusting of cinnamon if desired. Enjoy!

Variations:
• Make this a vegetarian soup by substituting the chicken broth for vegetable broth.
• Make this more of a main dish soup by adding some cooked chicken.

Pasta Fagioli

My sister made this amazing soup the other day for lunch. Since Dad is the only candida-afflicted one in our house, for lunch we don't always eat candida foods. After we tried this soup recipe, though, I checked to see if it would work, and lucky for you, it does! Wait! Pasta? Yep! If you use brown rice pasta, this dish is suitable for those with candida (and it would still be good even without it too!).

RECIPE NOTES: Note that tomatoes, cooked carrots and bell peppers are semi-limit foods, therefore you should not eat this soup every day. :-)
Also this contains dried oregano - make sure all your dried spices are less than 6 months old to avoid mold growth.
Check the labels on your chicken broth or make your own.
We recommend Tinkyada brand rice pasta, as we have found it is the most similar to real pasta, though we suggest you cut out a little bit of cooking time if you like firmer pasta. Rice pasta is also a limit food, so if you want to reduce the number of limit foods in the soup, you can omit the pasta entirely.

Ingredients:
2-3 cups cooked beans (a good combination is red kidney, great northern and Garbanzo)
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, grated (optional - cooked carrots are limited for candida)
½ stalk celery, sliced
2 Tbsp. olive oil or ghee
¾ cups tomato puree or crushed tomato
¼ tsp. oregano
½ tsp. salt
Dash of pepper
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
6 cups chicken broth
¼ cup chopped bell pepper
1 cup grated zucchini
Approx. 2 cups uncooked Tinkyada brown rice pasta (shape of your choice)

Instructions:
Sauté onion, garlic, carrot and celery in oil. Add beans, tomato puree, seasonings and liquid. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add pepper and zucchini. Simmer 10 minutes longer. Add pasta and cook for slightly less time than required on package.
(If freezing this for later use, omit the pasta until serving the meal)

Original recipe modified from Cross Country Bakers

All-American Apple Pie

Apple pie is probably one of the icons of America. :-) And it's also my dad's all time favorite dessert (well, that and a good ol' Dairy Queen Blizzard). Since the DQ Blizzard is totally out of the question on the candida diet, that leaves the more probable option of the two. Since tomorrow is Independence Day, you might want to try this one out!

RECIPE NOTES: This is a limit food. Do not eat this all the time. :-) I will admit that when I made this I cheated and used regular butter. However, you can use ghee or coconut oil (ghee has a more savory flavor so since this is a dessert you might want to try the coconut oil).

Xanthan Gum is a candida-safe elasticizer. Because you'll be using a gluten-free flour, it will tend to want to crumble. Xanthan Gum is used to help hold it together. 

Stevia has a strong aftertaste, so use less and then add more if needed.

Ingredients:
Filling
4 cups or more sliced Granny Smith apples
2 Tbsp. to scant ¼ cup powdered stevia
½ tsp. xanthan gum
¼ tsp. salt
Juice of ½ a lemon (or 2-3 Tbsp.)
Cinnamon, to taste

Crust
¼ cup cool water
2 cups buckwheat flour
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1 cup coconut oil or ghee
¼ tsp. salt

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450°F. Combine stevia, xanthan gum and salt in a small bowl. Peel and slice apples, tossing as you go with a spoonful of the stevia mixture and a squeeze of lemon juice, until you have used it all. Add cinnamon.

For the crust, remove 1/3 cup flour from the 2 cups and mix the 1/3 cup in a bowl with the ¼ cup cool water, until it forms a paste. In a large bowl, cut the coconut oil (or ghee) into the remaining flour and salt with a pastry blender or fork. Mixture should be crumbly. Mix in xanthan gum. Add the paste to the flour/oil mixture and stir using the back of a fork (or a dough hook on a kitchen mixer) until dough forms a ball.

Divide dough into 2 equal pieces. Heavily flour rolling surface and rolling pin. Roll out bottom crust to 1/8 inch thick; place in a 9-inch pie plate (if you find that your crust is crumbling, you can adjust the amount of xanthan gum and/or add a touch of water until it sticks together). Fill with apple filling. Roll out top crust, place on top and crimp edge with a fork. Pierce the top of the pie a dozen times.

Bake at 450°F for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350° and bake another 40 to 50 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting.

As you see, I made my top crust a lattice crust. Either way works!

Breakfast Quinoa

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is a delicious, versatile dish - you can use it pretty much a hundred different ways. One of my personal favorite ways to eat quinoa is for breakfast. You serve it similar to how you would serve oatmeal. There isn't a real "recipe" to this because it's really driven by your personal preference. Quinoa is a seed, not a grain, which makes it good for candida. You should still use it in moderation, but it's a better choice than a lot of other gluten free grains out there.

How to cook quinoa:

Use 2 parts water to one part dry quinoa (to serve 2-3 people for breakfast, I would use 2 cups water and 1 cup quinoa). Rinse the quinoa prior to cooking. Combine the water and quinoa in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn to low heat, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until it is tender and you see little squiggly "tendrils" attached to each seed and water is cooked off. Fluff with a fork.

From here, it's up to you what you want to add. Quinoa does have more of a rice consistency rather than being thick like oatmeal, so I like mine a little more creamy. You can use coconut milk to cream it up a bit (make sure you READ the labels - coconut milks often have sugar added), or melt some coconut butter in if you want an even sweeter, thicker coconut flavor. You can top with strawberries, blueberries or raspberries - these are limited, so don't do it all the time, but as a treat, go ahead. :-) You can try adding cinnamon or another spice you like. Sweeten with stevia (warning - don't add to much or you will get an unpleasant aftertaste) or yacon syrup. Play around and see what you like!

Hearty Sausage Minestrone

This is one of our favorite soups ever! It's filling, and tastes great.

RECIPE NOTES:

Limited foods included in this recipe. Limited ingredients are marked; you can make this an unlimited dish by removing the limit foods.

This recipe contains broth, obviously. Homemade broth is best because you can be sure of no sneaky ingredients, but if you are going to buy broth, make sure you read the label. One good brand of chicken broth we have found is Health Valley.

It also has canned tomatoes - citric acid is often in canned tomatoes. If you can't find any without citric acid, you can cut up fresh tomatoes or omit them entirely.

Dried herbs are used; dried herbs should be used within 6 months to reduce the risk of mold.

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1 c. chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced
8 c. chicken or beef broth (homemade is best)
1 can diced tomatoes (watch out for citric acid or use fresh - semi-limited)
2 carrots, coined (optional - limited)
2 c. cooked black beans (or use canned but watch for sugar)
1 lb. frozen green beans
1 c. uncooked quinoa (limited)
4 t. Italian seasonings
1/2 t. paprika
1/2 t. dried sage
1/2 t. dried parsley
1 t. fennel seed
sea salt and pepper

Instructions:
Brown beef, onion, and garlic in a large pot. Add all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer half an hour, or until quinoa is done (you can simmer all day if you want to!).