Green Kale Vegetable Soup for all those healthy January people out there!

Hi there January New Year’s resolution people. It’s mid-January and I feel really good for some reason. Normally, January has got me like….uhhhh….but this year, I feel strong, confident and definitely confident. This might be partially due to all the healthy food that I consumed since Christmas, and partially due to the lovely people that I am sourrounded by. It’s the first year of having my best friend living really close to me, like 30 minutes close, which is a new record-breaking closeness for us. And I am focusing more on date nights with my boyfriend, which is another great feature of this January.

I have been doing lots of yoga, too, attended a couple of sweat-wrenching HIIT classes and I’ve been fairly productive for my Master’s studies.

Do you hate me already?

Please don’t! I am really just trying to encourage you that you can work on more positive goals in your life as well. Maybe you are balancing a full-time job, kids and a husband all at the same time? Maybe you are a single-dad trying to raise a teenage girl all by yourself? Maybe you have just started or finished university, and you feel completely lost right now?

Whatever place you are in right now, it is definitely possible to move closer to your goals this year, even if it is just a tiny little bit. We all have baggage to carry, but it is so important to look after ourselves, and to pay attention to what we want and what we need.

This soup is a gift to treat your body well, to take some time off, and to get back on track this year. There are so many awesome veggies that your body needs right now to fight the cold and the wet weather, and to nourish itself from the inside.

Be kind to yourself and do take some time to relax from time to time!

This recipe was created for my monthly column on “Ohhh….Mhhh”. If you like German, you can check out my column on Steffi’s blog.

Enjoy!

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE OR HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS, QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

Feel free to leave a comment below, and don’t forget to tag your creations on social media using #heavenlynnhealthy.

I’d love for this blog to be a dialogue.

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Holiday Stuffed Butternut Squash with Lentils and Kale as part of my 2016 Christmas Menu.

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas this week. I wrapped up most Christmas presents already, sent off my Secret Santa package yesterday, and I am getting ready to completely fall into Christmas mode by Sunday. Well, I still got some school stuff to finish, but then I am ready for the Holidays. Which means that now I can think about the really important things: what’s for dinner on Christmas Day? This Holiday Stuffed Butternut Squash with Lentils and Kale is a Christmas menu dream and should go on your potential Christmas dinner list asap. 

I’ve created this dish as a REWE Feine Welt* Christmas ambassador, and I could not be prouder as this is such a cool job.

“Excuse me, I got work to do as a Christmas ambassador.” Yes, I could get used to this.

Jokes aside, this lentil and kale filling can easily challenge any stuffing you’ll ever eat. It’s rich, it’s fresh, it’s delicious. And it’s completely plant based, gluten free and refined sugar free. How can this be, you may ask? Well, turns out, nature is amazing and has so much delicious and healthy produce to offer. I am definitely hooked by the kale and the edible flowers in this filling. I never thought about adding edible flowers to my dishes, but I think it’s so much fun and they are just too precious just to be used as a porridge topping.

Whether you enjoy this filling by itself or combined with the baked butternut squash, you will treat your body to some much goodness such as minerals and vitamins from the pomegranates. Eating it with the butternut will provide some extra beta-carotene, which protects the eye-sight and the immune-system when converted to Vitamin A in the body.

If you’ve enjoyed this main dish, then you might like my appetizer suggestion sweet potato and parsnip soup with truffled popcorn. I’ve also collected some other healthy Christmas ideas in my post 21 Heavenly Healthy Christmas Recipes. I hope you’ll find some healthy inspiration for the upcoming Holidays. Also, I cannot wait to share my delicious dessert suggestion as the last part of this menu on Sunday! Stay tuned!

Enjoy!

*A Big Thank You to REWE Feine Welt for sponsoring this post. And thank you, readers, for supporting the brands that make hour-long recipe testings in the Heavenlynn Healthy kitchen possible.

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE OR HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS, QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

Feel free to leave a comment below, and don’t forget to tag your creations on social media using #heavenlynnhealthy.

I’d love for this blog to be a dialogue.

The post Christmas menu entrée: Holiday Stuffed Butternut Squash with Lentils and Kale appeared first on Heavenlynn Healthy.

This is my first healthy pumpkin soup recipe on the blog. I never thought I’d ever put a pumpkin soup recipe on the blog, because I thought that pumpkin soup is the one recipe that everyone can master, and nobody needs a food blog to tell them how to make it. I feel like everyone who likes to cook has a favorite pumpkin soup recipe, so why change a winning team, right? Well, turns out, I got quite a few requests from readers to post my personal favorite recipe on the blog. So here it is. Since pumpkin soup is special to many people, myself included, this recipe is a deep inside into soul – haha maybe not that deep, but you know, like maybe 15 feet down. Anyhow, this recipe has been my favorite ever since I started cooking, and it’s also one of the first soups I ever cooked. The special ingredient that I added this year is crispy kale chips, which add the final crunch, and make this my favorite pumpkin soup ever.

I cooked this healthy pumpkin soup in my favorite kitchen gadget, my Vitamix 750*. It’s amazing what this thing can do, and how much you can actually love a kitchen gadget. However, there is one key step that I still use my good old pot for: sautéing the onion, vegetables and spices. I feel like this is a crucial step for getting the perfect flavor in any soup. The good news is that you do not need a fancy kitchen gadget to make an incredible tasting soup (but a fancy gadget never hurts, right?!). So whether you are a proud owner of a Vitamix or prefer the old fashioned way of cooking, this recipe is a winner for everyone.

So, what makes this healthy pumpkin soup my favorite? Well, for starters it has pumpkin in it, so it’s gotta be good. Then we have carrots, apples, ginger, coconut milk and limes, which already sounds pretty neat, right? I also love the taste of turmeric and cumin in it, as well as a hint of orange juice. I guess it’s the mix of all of these ingredients that make it taste so delicious.

Health-wise, this soup is bursting with nutrients. The color already indicates that it is loaded with beta carotin, a pre-stage of vitamin A, which is vital for a healthy vision. The other superfood in this soup is kale, which is one of the best anti-inflammatory vegetables you can find. The anti-inflammatory properties can mainly be traced back to the vast amount of omega-3 fatty acids present in this leafy green. One serving of kale covers roughly 30% of our daily recommended omega-3 doses, which is amazing, given that most people do not get enough omega-3 in their daily diet.

I hope you’ll find a new way to enjoy pumpkin soup, and please, I’d love to hear about your favorite ingredients in pumpkin soup.

Enjoy!

*My Vitamix Professional 750 was kindly given to me by Vitamix. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make hour-long recipe testings in the Heavenlynn Healthy kitchen possible.

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE OR HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS, QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

Feel free to leave a comment below, and don’t forget to tag your creations on social media using #heavenlynnhealthy.

I’d love for this blog to be a dialogue.

The post My favorite healthy pumpkin soup with kale chips appeared first on Heavenlynn Healthy.

Can anyone tell what I got for Christmas? That beautiful grey dutch oven is the newest addition to my kitchen, and as you can tell, I am pretty obsessed with it. Until now I have been cooking everything either in my Thermomix, or in my grandma’s old iron pot, that literally burned everything. So this dutch oven has been used quite frequently ever since I got it for Christmas. Last week I added the most delicious bean and buckwheat chili to the blog, which sort of took us to Mexico, and today’s recipe is inspired by yet another country: Morocco. Even though I am yet to visit this beautiful piece of land, I do love its foods and spices. Moroccan spices include many warm flavors, such as turmeric, cumin, cinnamon and coriander. All these can be found in this delicious stew, that all of you really need to try. The dish is also completely coconut milk free, which I know my sister will love when she reads this. 

As kale is still in season I thought that it would be a nice addition in this otherwise pretty red meal, but if you can’t find kale anymore, you can totally substitute it with baby spinach or other greens. Chickpeas and sweet potatoes are the main ingredient in this stew, and they form the most delicious liaison that you can imagine. Chickpeas also add some healthy protein and fiber to this dish, leaving you satisfied, but not too full, for many hours.

Sweet potatoes are one of my all-time favorite ingredients, as they are so much more exciting than regular potatoes. They are also an incredibly rich source of vitamin A, which is important for healthy eye-sight, skin and immune system.

I am absolutely in love with this recipe, and I am sure you’ll love it too! The warm spices such as turmeric, cumin, and cinnamon create an absolutely incredible sensation in your moth, leaving you to want more more more… I am not exaggurating, this moroccan spiced chickpea, kale and sweet potato stew is pure heaven.

Enjoy!

Moroccan Spiced Chickpea, Kale and Sweet Potato Video

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I know it may seem a bit trivial to be talking about food when something so awful has happened in Paris yesterday. Let me just say how shocked I am about the current events in the city of love. I thought about not posting a recipe today, but then I realized that I will not let my life be dictated by terror. Maybe one of you will make this salad today and share it with your loved ones for dinner – this way you can bring a little bit of peace to your home. My thoughts and prayers are with the French people today.
There is no bridge that could connect the first paragraph with the second, so I will just jump right into what I wanted to say about this salad. Please excuse my exciting voice in the following text, but like I said, I won’t let them take away my happiness.

Oh how I am loving kale season. Unlike Americans or Brits, Germans cannot get fresh kale all year around. It’s simpy one of those things that you can only get seasonally. Of course it’s a shame that kale season is only a few months long, but the good thing is that you really learn to appreciate seasonal food. Kale season has a very long tradition in my country, we’ve always been eating it, even before it became known as a superfood. Ok, the traditional German kale recipes are anything but healthy and we probably boil vitamins out of it, but hey, at least we try.Kale salad is something that is not so commonly known by most Germans. In fact, many probably think that it’s incredibly weird to eat kale raw. But trust me, once you’ve tried a massaged kale salad, you’ll never want to go back. It’s such an exciting dish and completeley different than most salads. 
Combined with other foods such as pumpkin or pomegrante seeds, this salad really is the perfect fall salad. It’s a great side dish for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners, too. And just like that you’ll be adding tons of vitamins and minerals to your diet, because this composition is bursting with nutrients. Kale is one of those dark leafy greens that actually contain more iron than beef. Iron enables the oxygen to be carried to our cells – a process that gives us energy. It’s also a wonderful source of vitamin K, which regulates our blood sugar level. 

Besides almonds, pecans are my favorite kind of nuts because of its sweet, caramel-like flavor. As all nuts, they contain healthy fatty acids that help lower cholesterol and prevent cardiovascular and heart disease. Like almonds, pecans are a wonderful source of vitamin E, the beauty vitamin that lets our hair, nails and skin glow.

Pumpkin squash is one of the best sources of vitamin A, which keeps our eyes healthy and helps build beautiful, glowing skin. It also has lots of antioxidants, which help prevent several chronic diseases. Omega-3-fatty acids found in pumpkin squash can even help prevent cardiovascular disease. Hokkaido squash also contains lots of vitamin C, which is the most commonly known antioxidant.

So what are you waiting for? I’d say, you should definitely plan a visit to the local farmers market today to get all the ingredients for this delicious kale salad with roasted pumpkin squash.

INGREDIENTS:

Serves 2:
– 6 handful of kale
– ½ hokkaido pumpkin (about 600g)
– ½ pomegrante
– 1/2 cup (65g)
– 1 tablespoon of raw honey or maple syrup
– 1 tablespoon of olive oil
– sea salt

For the lemon-dijon-vinaigrette
– 3 tablespoons of olive oil
– 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
– 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
– 1 teaspoon of honey or maple syrup
– ½ teaspoon of salt
– pepper to taste

METHOD

1. Start by pre-heating the oven to 180°C.
2. Cut the pumpkin into bite-sized pieces and place them on a baking sheet aligned with baking paper. Drizzle the olive oil and sea salt on top and bake for about 20 minutes until tender.
3. Wash the kale, and remove the leaves from the stems. Discard the stems and place the leaves into a salad bowl.
4. To make the maple-glazed pecans, heat the maple syrup (honey would also work) in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add nuts and toss to coat. Place the nuts on a baking sheet aligned with baking paper and toast them for 5 minutes. Set aside.
5. Drizzle all the dressing ingredients onto the kale. Massage the kale firmly using your hands. Massage them for a few minutes so they turn soft and wilt. This is a crucial step, so please don’t skip it. Once the leaves are nice and soft, stir in the pomegrante seeds and the roasted pumpkin.
6. Sprinkle the nuts on top and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

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