Fall Recipes

Eating with the seasons with these Fall Recipes not only helps us to access the optimal nutritional quality of available foods, and it also helps to lessen our environmental impact. Autumn brings warming meals, pumpkin spice, roasted vegetables and nourishing bowls.

Some of my favourite Fall Recipes include these Soft Pumpkin Cookies, this Easy Moroccan Inspired Couscous Salad, this Curried Butternut Squash Lentil Soup and this Simple Pumpkin Spiced Latte.

Vegan Ranch Dressing with Hemp Hearts

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This simple and delicious Vegan Ranch Dressing with Hemp is packed full of nutrition and taste. With only five ingredients it is an easy way to dress up a salad, and also tastes great on Buddha bowls or as a healthy dip for vegetables.

Hemp hearts are currently a hot topic and for good reason. They are an easy protein source, packed full of essential fatty acids, locally grown, and super versatile. I love hemp so much I’ve shared my favourite milk alternative Hemp Milk, and this yummy nutrient-dense snack Hemp and Sunflower Seed Pâté in the past. This Vegan Ranch Dressing Recipe with Hemp is my new favourite way to incorporate hemp into my day. The creaminess of the hemp lends itself to this dressing, and I love it with shredded kale, beets, and carrots on top of fluffy quinoa. Yum!
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Healthy Soft Pumpkin Cookies | Vegan GF Paleo

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This recipe for these healthy soft pumpkin cookies is sponsored by iHerb, an online natural products store. Delicious and moist, these soft pumpkin cookies are low carb, gluten-free, paleo friendly, diabetic friendly and vegan!

Working in a busy Diabetes Education Centre, I am always looking for new and exciting ways to get people excited about ‘healthy desserts’. We educate on the effects of carbohydrates on our blood sugar levels, better sources of carbohydrates (low glycemic index), how protein, healthy fats and fibre can help balance blood sugar levels, and how to incorporate all of this into healthy meals and snacks. That’s why I’ve created these totally delicious low-carb healthy soft pumpkin cookies, and they are also vegan, paleo and gluten-free!

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Easy Moroccan Couscous Salad with Raisins

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This easy Moroccan Couscous Salad with Raisins recipe is one of my go-to crowd pleasures. It is so simple to make, which is surprising given its complexity in flavour. It is impressive what a little orange zest and balancing of sweet, salty and citrus can do.

This is one of my favourite autumn dishes. It makes a great side dish to accompany a big meal gathering or it can also be had as a meal on its own with the addition of some chickpeas for protein. This recipe was one of the first recipes to appear on my website back in 2013. I learned how to cook from watching Master Chef Australia and after diligently watching the first season, I purchased the cookbook of the Winner Julie Goodwin. This recipe for Moroccan Couscous Salad with Raisins is a recreation of her Couscous Salad with Orange. I love how simple it is to make, despite the complexity in flavour.

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Simple Chocolate Orange Oatmeal for Breakfast

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Looking for the perfect bowl of oatmeal? Look no further. This recipe for chocolate orange oatmeal for breakfast is so simple to make, and the combination of flavours makes it feel like dessert in the morning

Nothing better on these cold, dark mornings than a nice steaming bowl of nourishing oatmeal for breakfast. My smoothies have taken a back seat, but with them has gone my daily addition of medicinal mushroom blend. Medicinal mushrooms have been making regular appearances in health enthusiasts diets and for good reason! When I found out about this Reishi Hot Chocolate mix, I knew it would be an easy addition to my morning routine. Currently, my favourite way is to add it to my oatmeal, which when combined with orange marmalade, it makes this delicious chocolate orange oatmeal for breakfast.

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Curried Butternut Squash Lentil Soup

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A simple and delicious curried butternut squash lentil soup that is as easy to make as it is delicious. Packed full of plant-based protein, at 20 grams of protein and only 280 calories per serving.

From chickpeas to black beans, to lentils and peas, to peanuts to soybeans. Legumes are one of the best foods we can feed our body, but often one of the foods we don’t eat enough of. They have a complex nutrient profile, offer plant-based protein, iron and zinc, and they are one of the most sustainable sources of protein we have access to. Clients tell me that a lacking in confidence in the preparation of legumes that is a large factor in their limited consumption. This is one of my favourite recipes for introducing clients to cooking with dried lentils. This Curried Butternut Squash Lentil Soup really is fail-safe and will take 35 minutes cooking time tops.
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So Simple Pumpkin Spiced Latte

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This simple pumpkin spiced latte will get you excited to get out of bed in the morning, and it is a great low-sugar alternative to what’s available in coffee shops. It is dairy free, gluten free, and packed full of nutrition. Make your own creamy cashew milk by blending cashews in a blender, no straining required!

It’s hard to not get caught up in all the pumpkin spiced hype. Coffee shops have been on the band-wagon even before the leaves started to turn. Now that October is almost here, I think it is fair to start filling the kitchen with pumpkin spiced everything. I used to love enjoying a Pumpkin Spiced Latte at a coffee shop, but I now know that they are so loaded with sugar and so not worth the post-latte crash. This healthier alternative to the sugar-loaded versions will have you surprisingly pleased, and all from the comfort of your cosy couch. I’m sure that this Simple Pumpkin Spiced Latte will turn out to be a regular in your autumn morning routine, just like it has in mine. 
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Easy Curry Lentil Soup with Kale

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A simple mid-week meal that can be easily adapted for the seasons, or for whatever produce is lurking in your fridge crisper. Lentils offer the balance of low glycemic index carbohydrate with a good amount of protein to help sustain you.

These smokey August days have got me thinking about the end of summer, and nothing symbolises the end of summer more than a steaming bowl of hearty soup. Lentil soup, for me, is the silver lining to the end of the long days and warm weather and as the days get shorter the compromise of warming lentil soup makes the transition into autumn that much easier. This easy curry lentil soup is my go-to soup, and really can be adapted for any season. For a summer soup, use up your zucchini, kale and carrots and come winter think about substituting the zucchini for butternut squash, yam or sweet potato.

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Cornmeal Patties with Wild Rice Recipe [Vegan, GF]

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While traditionally, our coastal Aboriginal population thrived off salmon, seaweed and molluscs, in the interior wild rice and corn were staples in traditional diets. This recipe for Two-Ingredient Cornmeal Patties with Wild Rice Recipe aims to marry these two traditional foods together in a simple side dish or appetizer.
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Chaga Benefits and Chaga Turmeric Golden Milk Latte

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We are blessed here in Canada to have wild Chaga mushrooms growing on our own birch tree, offering us wild medicine chaga benefits from mother nature herself. Chaga tea offers a slight vanilla flavour which tastes great on its own, and also makes a great base for a chaga turmeric golden milk latte. Golden Milk is a modern spin on the Auryvedic drink of warm milk and turmeric. Found at health food stores and specialty cafes, it is creamy and delicious and offers a wide nutrient profile provided by the anti-inflammatory curcuminoids in turmeric and the gingerols in ginger. Golden Milk generally uses coconut milk as the liquid base, and as the fat source to facilitate absorption of any fat-soluble compounds. Hemp milk from our own Canadian grown hemp seeds can be used instead and offers a creamy consistency that rivals that of coconut milk (see How to Make Your Own Hemp Milk). The combination of the immunoprotective chaga benefits and the anti-inflammatory aspects of turmeric make this an essential cold weather drink to help nourish and nurture the body.
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Pumpkin Spice Trail Mix + Oatmeal Topper

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This is the best way to get into the festive season, making a big batch of pumpkin spice trail mix to use as you please. I love adding it to my morning oatmeal, but it is also great as a snack on it’s own, or tossed in a roasted squash salad. This Pumpkin Spice Trail Mix recipe is sponsored by iHerb

In autumn we all take a deep breath out, our memory box filled with summer adventures and good times, as we slowly make the transition into winter. For me, autumn is time to turn the oven back on to prepare meals for family and friends, and also start trialling holiday recipes and edible gifts. In our busy lives, we can all appreciate a versatile dish, something that can be used in multiple ways. That’s why I created this Pumpkin Spice Trail Mix and Oatmeal Topper because that’s exactly what it is. As a trail mix, it can be enjoyed as a quick and filling afternoon snack, or perhaps given to friends or coworkers as a holiday gift. As a meal, it tastes great added to your warming bowl of oatmeal or sprinkled on your next roasted winter squash salad. I’ve included more ideas below on how to enjoy this tasty holiday essential pumpkin spice trail mix and some tips on how to maximise the nutritional quality.
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Chanterelle Barley Risotto with Mung Beans

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This week I am doing the Welfare Challenge to bring awareness to the inadequacy of welfare rates in BC. Here in our beautiful province, a person on welfare receives only $610 per month. When this is broken down and basic accommodation, phone, and personal hygiene are accounted for, only $18 per week is left for food. World Food Day is just around the corner on October 16th, making this a good time for us to take on the challenge and experience how difficult living off a strict food budget can be. I’m only on Day 2 and can only imagine the stress and weight that someone trying to feed themselves or a family may feel. I am fortunate enough to have the background and education to be able to make healthy and smart food choices on a budget and already I feel better equipped to help those that may not be. With the help of some foraging, this Chanterelle Barley Risotto with Kale and Mung Beans can be prepared for just under $0.45 per serving.
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Easy Almond Tempeh Vegan Meatballs Recipe [GF]

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Not even a week has passed since my return from Indonesia and I can confidently tell you that the thing I miss most is not the warmth nor the beaches, it’s the food. The flavours and the variety place this cuisine at the top of my list. If you haven’t tried tempeh yet and you are a lover of healthy and tasty food, boy have I got a treat for you. Indonesians enjoy it fried and spicy, and often will add it to dishes such as Gado Gado (see my simplified recipe for Gado Gado Peanut Satay Sauce Recipe) or have it cooked in a spicy sambal served with rice. It is as versatile as tofu, but many prefer the firmer texture of tempeh over its soybean cousin. Here is my play on tempeh, and a good one to get you started on your tempeh journey – Easy Almond Tempeh Vegan Meatballs.
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Fall Recipes

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