Roasted Butternut Squash Soup & Colorful Carrot Salad

Ellen Orsa, an animal rights activist who volunteers with Mercy For Animals is making Roasted Butternut Squash Soup and a Colorful Carrot Salad with Crisp Apples & Dried Cherries today on #LunchBreakLIVE. Ellen is an accomplished cook who has found creative ways to veganize traditional comfort foods! #JaneUnChained

RECIPES: Ellen Orsa’s Recipes

Colorful Carrot Salad

INGREDIENTS

• 2 pounds carrots, unpeeled (if not using organic, you might want to do a quick peel)
• 1/2 c dried cherries
• 3 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 – 3 T organic sugar
• 1 small container of unsweetened coconut yogurt So Delicious
• 1/2 c vegan mayonnaise Vegenaise by Follow Your Heart
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper, or to taste
• 1 cup diced apple. I use either Honeycrisp or Pink Lady varieties in this salad.

DIRECTIONS

1. Wash and dry carrots, slice off the top and very ends. Cut to fit into the feed tube of a food processor fitted with the “grating blade”
2. Grate all the carrots and set aside in a large bowl.
3. Sprinkle with the sugar and the lemon juice and gently toss. (You can also use a hand grater, it just takes a little more time.)
4. In another bowl, combine the coconut yogurt, vegan mayo, salt and pepper. Whisk together to blend flavors.
5. Add the sauce, the dried cherries and apples to the carrots and gently mix well.
6. For best flavor, cover and refrigerate for about an hour to allow the flavor to develop.
7. Serve cold or room temperature.
8. Add more lemon, salt or pepper before serving if desired or for leftovers the next day.

This is a great salad for holiday meals, potlucks, or picnics.  For a change in the summertime, try using fresh diced pineapple and golden raisins instead of apples and cherries!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

INGREDIENTS

• 1 whole butternut squash
• 1 large yellow onion
• 4 – 6 medium to large garlic cloves
• 4 – 6 carrots
• 1 can coconut milk
• Salt (will be to taste)
• Sriracha Sauce (will be to taste)
• 8 cups of water, or to desired thickness of soup

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
2. Using a large knife, cut the butternut squash in half longwise.  Scoop out the seeds and pulp.
3. If you want to roast the seeds to garnish the soup, put pulp and seeds in a strainer, rinse well, separate the pulp from the seeds and discard the pulp. Make sure seeds have no pulp remaining, drain and pat dry in a paper towel.
4. Lay out on a flat dish to dry thoroughly  before roasting. Instructions below to roast the seeds.
5. Cut onion in half, cut off ends and remove outer skin.
6. Cut ends off of garlic and also remove the outer skin.
7. Wash carrots with a vegetable brush and cut off tops and very bottom tip.
8. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Brush squash, onion, carrots and garlic with a little olive oil and place on pan.
9. Roast for approximately 60-75 minutes, but checking along the way as the garlic, onions and carrots may finish early, as well as the carrots depending on their size. If anything is getting too browned, remove and allow the rest to finish.
10. Set aside to cool off.  When cool enough to handle, remove the skin from the butternut squash. It doesn’t matter if the squash breaks as it will be going into a food processor.
11. Take 1 half of the butternut squash and break into pieces and place in food processor.
12. Do the same with half of the carrots.
13. Add half of the roasted garlic. Add half the roasted onion. Pulse the ingredients together to start to mix.
14. Begin to add some of the water.  This batch should be pureed completely. You will be adding most of the water to this batch.
15. Remove and put into a large soup pot.
16. Now take the other half of the remaining roasted vegetable, broken up to fit in processor. Pulse a few times so the veggies now are getting mixed, but still retaining some chunkiness.  Add a little more water, pulse and place in the soup pot.
17. Add 1 can of the coconut milk to the mix, stir and use a medium lto heat the soup.  Add more water if desired.  Allow it to warm up and add the Sriracha and salt to taste.  Simmer for at least 15 minutes or longer, then serve. Garnish with the roasted and spiced squash seeds if desired.

Roasted Squash Seeds

INGREDIENTS

• Seeds from the butternut squash, washed and dried, all pulp removed.
• 1 tsp of olive oil
• salt
• cumin
• smoked paprika

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
2. In a bowl, mix seeds with the olive oil, salt, cumin and smoked paprika to coat well.
3. Line a small roasting pan with parchment paper.
4. Lay seeds on the sheet, roast for approximately 15 minutes or until desired crispness, checking periodically to turn. Remove and allow to cool.
5. Garnish soup with Roasted Squash Seeds

Some of the ingredients for today’s recipes and Mercy for Animals‘ literature

Colorful Carrot Salad and Roasted Butternut Squash Soup garnished with Roasted Squash Seeds and some of the ingredients used in recipes for today

Ellen Orsa with her Colorful Carrot Salad and Roasted Butternut Squash Soup Garnished with the Roasted Seeds from the Butternut Squash