Saffron Pepper Soup

This soup recipe calls for couscous, however you can use quinoa instead to make it gluten-free.

You'll need...

1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove of garlic
3 red shepherd peppers
2 roma tomatoes (they're fleshier and have fewer seeds than field tomatoes)
1/2 carton of vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
the juice of half a lemon
one pinch of saffron
about 1 serving of cooked couscous

Method
1. Sautee the garlic and olive oil until the oil starts to smell fragrant and the garlic is slightly brown.
2. Add the chopped up shepherd peppers and tomatoes, lemon juice, saffron, salt, and pepper, then reduce the heat to medium.
3. Pour in the broth and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and let cook for 45 minutes on low heat with a lid on. Stir often.
4. Remove the lid and let simmer for 15 - 20 minutes until slightly reduced.
5. Ladle the soup into a blender and pulverize til smooth. You can strain out the seeds and skins using a fine strainer but personally I really like the texture so I leave mine au naturale.
6. Pour a ladle of soup into a serving bowl and scoop in some couscous for each diner.

Salads in Bloom: 2 Fresh Recipes

Your Insta and Twitter feeds are likely swarming with PSL posts, pumpkin patch pictures, and snaps of cozy sweaters as the weather has officially transitioned to cold and windy. But let's bid summer one final farewell with 2 delicious, fresh, healthy salad recipes. A final hurrah before we're all stepping over ourselves to get away from the snow.

First up is a light Boston lettuce and citrus salad.

Ingredients
1 Boston lettuce
1 Florida orange, peeled and cut into cubes
1 tbsp diced red onion
1 Alfonso mango, peeled and cut into cubes
A few edible flowers (these can often be found at Loblaws)
1 tsp poppy seeds
1/3 cup sunflower or grape seed oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and black pepper to taste
1 tsp organic honey

Method
1. Tear the lettuce leaves apart into a large bowl along with the orange, mango, and red onion.
2. In a small bowl mix the poppy seeds, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and honey until well combined. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well, making sure not to over-saturate the leaves. This salad should be light and bright.
3. "Casually" drop some edible flowers on top, as though they had just sprouted there, for that magazine-ready look.

Crispy dandelion leaves with fresh fruit

Ingredients
1 bunch of dandelion leaves
1 ripe peach, diced
a handful of ripe figs (green or red) cut into halves
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp good balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method
1. In order to get that bitter taste out of the dandelion leaves you just need to soak them in a bowl of cold water for several hours before prepping this dish. So it pays to plan ahead! If you don't soak them it's not the end of the world. But it's better if you do.
2. Dry off the leaves using paper towel. Heat up the oil in a non-stick pan. When the oil is hot (but not burnt - olive oil has a low tolerance for burning) drop the leaves in and let them crackle. You can use a grease guard to prevent spattering. This will only take a few minutes. When the leaves appear crispy around the edges you can add the vinegar and let it continue to sizzle away. Turn the heat off and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Immediately pour into a serving dish and add the fruit on top.

This salad isn't just delicious, it's also very high in nutrients and will add some fresh beauty to your next weeknight dinner.