Snow Day Vegan Sweet Potato, Leek, and Cider Soup

As an educator one of the greatest perks besides shaping the minds of youth is snow days! Its like a magical gift from nature, an unexpected day off where anything is possible. Since this is the first snow day of the season it seemed like the perfect time to hunker down and make some soup!

The weather in the Northeast has been very bizarre, on Saturday it was 60 degrees, beautiful and sunny, I didn't wear a coat and traipsed through the woods thinking about how to bottle the perfection of the day, by Sunday morning it had dropped to 30 and 6 in. of snow had fallen and continued to do so sporadically throughout the day and evening.

I am not much of a cold weather lover. Snow is pretty, for about one day. The cold is not as invigorating or refreshing to me as to others. I much prefer 90 degrees, bathing suits, warm breezes and fresh fruit! There is always a bright side though, the cold requires you to figure out how to get cozy, wool socks and this soup does the trick!

This is a simple soup that doesn't take long to make, creates a heavenly smell throughout the house and is rich and creamy without being rich and creamy in the calorie department. If you are forced to stay inside, this soup makes it worth it. Enjoy and healthy eating!

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Vegan Sweet Potato, Leek, and Cider Soup

3 Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cubed

3 Potatoes, peeled and cubed 

4 Leeks, green part removed

1 Onion, chopped

2 Garlic Cloves, chopped

1 tsp Smoked Paprika

1 tsp Ginger

1 tbs Oregano

1 tsp Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

1/2 cup Apple Cider

5 1/2 cups Water

2 tbs Olive Oil

Optional Toppings: leek stems, coconut milk, almonds

1 tbs Vegetable Base (you can use a vegetable bullion cube or vegetable broth for the water - go light on the salt if you do)

In a large stock pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the chopped onion, garlic and leeks. When preparing the leeks, cut the dark green part off and slice down the middle to rinse the dirt out before chopping. Saute until softened, add the potatoes and spices, cooking another 2 minutes until fragrant. Add the stock and cider and bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to simmer, cooking until potatoes are tender, 15 to 20 minutes. 

Using an immersion blender or a food processor, process until smooth. I used my food processor and processed in batches. Divide soup into bowls, top with a drizzle of coconut milk, chopped almonds, and leek stalk if desired and enjoy!

Cake ReMake: Paleo Chocolate Birthday Cake with Lemon Cream & Avocado Chocolate Mousse

So yes, this post is about cake! Cake is probably as non-alkaline as you can be, filled with sugar, flour, dairy and fat, it is anything but healthy. However, birthdays are a time for celebration, a special day to celebrate the light that you bring to others and in doing so they also call for that devilishly delicious confection! So what is a girl to do who is trying to eat alkaline when such an event happens? She has to make tough decisions about cake!

Luckily, I am the cake maker in my family, growing up I had perfected the birthday cake and experimented with a variety of flavors and styles. Ganaches, buttercreams, preserves, curds, and more. I even considered becoming a baker at one point as I found baking to be relaxing while meeting my desire to care for others through nourishing them, as food nourishes so much more than the stomach. As my food habits have converted to more healthful practices, I moved away from baking and focused more on elemental usage of vegetables and main meal preparation. Recently,  you will have noticed that I have experimented with cookies and raw energy balls a bit on the blog in attempts to transform those treats into nourishing goodies, plus I was really missing cookies.

I have delved into raw cakes a bit but nut allergies are an issue in my family so 'cheesecake' was definitely out this time around. I have never tackled the revered birthday cake and quite frankly felt that I had left cake in my past life of sugar comatose and was not particularly keen on reentering that stage but alas my grandma's 90th birthday arrived and she wanted her cake!

Making cakes for other people is a special challenge, you want to create something that sets the person of honors taste buds aflame. My grandma's favorite cake is lemon but being the sweet woman that she is she told me that I should probably make a chocolate cake since not everyone likes lemon and everyone loves chocolate. 

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Avocado Mousse

So you see, I had a lot of choices to make, at first I was just going to make a traditional cake, fill it with my grams favorite lemon curd and call it a day and then I found Pierre Herme's Riviera cake, a delicious flourless chocolate cake filled with decadent chocolate mouse, rich lemon cream and covered in chocolate ganache. It sounded perfect but also about as unhealthy as a cake could possibly be and that is when the guilt started. How could I possibly make this cake for my family knowing that it is so unhealthy? So I put on my thinking cap and determined that I would take this delicious cake and model a healthier version after it.

This is where the hard decisions began, for I had to determine my list of priorities, was it more important to go flourless, omit refined sugar, remove dairy, or forgo eggs? After much debate I decided that eliminating refined sugars and bleached flours was the most important aspect, simultaneously I decided to maintain the Pierre Herme's lemon cream as it is my grandma's favorite and at 90 she deserved to have what she wants. The lemon cream is made by adding butter in as the last step thus turning the curd into a creamy mousse like consistency. You could definitely eliminate the butter in order to completely rid the cake of dairy. Coconut sugar could also be used to replace the regular sugar, I just didn't have any on hand. 

Lemon Cream

So what did I do, I went with a chocolate paleo style birthday cake developed by Elana's Pantry that used coconut oil and flour as well as honey, a chocolate coconut cream avocado mouse, the lemon cream (which was traditional and therefore contained sugar and butter) as well as a dark chocolate glaze, creating a divine, creamy, chocolaty and tart cake which surprisingly worked well together. Chocolate and lemon seem like they would be at odds but in reality it was beautiful and best of all, my grandma was happy and loved it!

I had to have enough cake for 20 people and thus made two cakes, a 10in and a 9in thus doubling all recipes. the following recipe is recommended for a 10in cake 

Elana's Paleo Birthday Cake

1 cup Coconut Flour

1 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

16 Eggs

1 cup Coconut Oil, melted

1 cup Honey

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10in. springform pan with coconut oil and cut a parchment paper circle to line the bottom of the pan.  In a bowl combine the coconut flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. 

In a mixer or using a hand mixer, blend the eggs, coconut oil and honey until combined. Slowly stir in the flour mixture until well combined. Pour into pan and bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until the cake is set and a toothpick comes out clean. Set aside to cool. 

Coconut Cream Avocado Mousse 

6 ripe Avocados

3/4 cup Honey

1 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

2  14oz cans Coconut Milk (thai style)

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

The night before making the cake, place the coconut milk in the fridge upside down in order to separate the cream from the water. Open the cans upside down and pour the water into a jar for later use. Place the cream into the chilled bowl of a mixer with a whisk attachment. Beat the coconut cream until stiff peaks form. 

Meanwhile, in a food processor combine the avocado, cocoa powder, honey, and salt. Blend until smooth. transfer to a bowl and fold in the coconut cream. Place in the fridge until ready to use. 

Pierre Herme's Lemon Cream

1 cup Sugar

Zest of 3 Lemons

Juice for those 3 Lemons

4 Eggs

1 cup + 5 tbs Unsalted Butter, cut into chunks

Place a small amount of water into a pot and bring to a boil. Place the sugar and zest in a heat proof bowl and rub the sugar between your fingers until it is moist and fragrant. Whisk in the eggs and the lemon juice. Place over the pot of boiling water and whisk often until the mixture becomes thick and you can clearly see tracks from the whisk this will happen once the mixture has reached 180 degrees. Remove from heat and pour into a blender or food processor. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.

With the blender or food processor running add the butter, a few pieces at a time. Once incorporated, blend for another 3 minutes or so until rich and creamy.

Assembly

Slice the cake into 4 different layers. Place the first layer at the bottom of the springform pan. Spread half of the mousse over the cake, top with another layer of cake. Top with the lemon cream and then the 3rd layer of cake, repeat with the remaining mousse and finish off with the final cake layer. In a small pan heat 1 cup of coconut milk until simmering. Pour over 4 oz of dark chocolate. let sit for 1 minute and then stir until smooth. Pout over the top of the cake.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Remove from springform and enjoy!   

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