Roasted Beetroot and Carrot Soup with Sweet Potato Croutons

Like Solange Knowles, I love color. My wardrobe is riddled with vibrant jewel tones and bold prints, so it should come as no surprise that I am similarly drawn to colorful dishes. If I'm being honest, I probably love beets because of their vibrant purple shade as much as I love their taste. One of my favorite ways to use excess vegetables is to make soup because it keeps well and can easily be frozen. With some beets, carrots, and sweet potato lying around, I decided to make a rich roasted beetroot and carrot soup with sweet potato croutons. To give it an extra punch of flavor, I was a little heavy-handed when it came to the spices. To give it a true Ghananian twist, I added a tablespoon of moringa. 

Although I've known about moringa's properties for years thanks to my mother, who swears that a bit of moringa a day keeps the doctor away, I was recently re-introduced to the "miracle tree" when I met Kwami Williams of Moringa Connect, an Echoing Green Fellow and former rocket scientist turned social entrepreneur. Moringa comes from a tree that thrives in the arid Sahel region. Its leaves have more vitamin A than carrots, more protein than eggs, more calcium than milk and more iron than spinach. 

Roasted Beetroot and Carrot Soup with Sweet Potato Croutons
Serves 4

For soup:
6 medium beetroots
4 large carrots
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 can coconut milk (400 ml) 
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 cloves garlic
1 lemon
1 tablespoon moringa
Salt and pepper to taste 

For croutons: 
4 medium sweet potatoes, cubed in small pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
1 medium Spanish onion 

1. Peel and chop the beetroots and carrots, drizzle them with olive oil, and roast at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour until cooked through.
2. Remove from the oven and place in a large stockpot with the coconut milk, spices, salt, and pepper. Purée with an immersion blender until smooth. Add water as needed to reach desired consistency.
3. In a pan, sauté the sweet potatoes and onion until slightly crispy. 
4. You can add a few spring onions for color if you have them on hand. Bon appetit! 

Curried Tamarind Lentils and Sweet Potatoes

Curried lentils and sweet potatoes à la Smitten Kitchen. I added my own twist with some 1/2 teaspoon of tamarind paste (to create a sweet-and-sour effect) and some leftover smoked turkey from my Ghanaian thanksgiving.

Here's my take: 

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
4 to 5 cups vegetable broth
3 peeled sweet potatoes
1 1/2 cups dried lentils
1 teaspoon salt
2 scotch bonnet peppers
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 tbsp tamarind paste
1/4 cup chopped spring onions 

1. In large pot, heat the oil. Add onion and sauté until translucent. Add garlic, ginger, garam masala, curry powder and some pepper (adjust to your taste). When the spices have been adequately mixe

2. When the spices have been adequately mixed, stir in the broth, the sweet potatoes, and lentils. Add the tamarind paste to the hot broth and allow it to dissolve. Bring it to a boil and allow it to simmer for half an hour. Allow it to cook until the lentils and the sweet potatoes are soft. 

3. Stir in the lime juice just before serving and garnish with the spring onions.

Mango Passion Fruit Crumble with a Baobab Tigernut Crust

Mango Passion Fruit Crumble with a Baobab Tigernut Crust. Now doesn't that sound tropical? One of my favorite Thanksgiving desserts has always been my mum's signature apple crumble. With a perfectly crispy crust and delicious apple base, it's a hit at the dinner table.

Because I'm living in Ghana, I missed American Thanksgiving this year, so I was happy when a few friends decided to throw an epic Ghanaian Thanksgiving in Legon Botanical Gardens. The table was a decadent mash-up of Africa and America: sweet potato casserole, kelewele, jollof rice, and other goodies. While I love to cook, I always pick desserts during potlucks because baking is my first love and it gives me a chance to be creative. In my attempt to harmonize Africa and America, I thought about combining a traditional American favorite with local flavors you can find on the streets of West Africa.

The dessert was a hit among all my friends. The tart flavor of the passion fruit was brought out by a hint of lime juice while the sweet mango balanced the dish. I ground some tiger nuts with a mortar and pestle and added it to the crust. 

If you've been following my culinary exploits lately, you'll see that I've got baobab on the brain. The superfruit has one of the highest vitamin C concentrations of any fruit, and has numerous benefits for the skin, heart and liver. It also has a slightly sweet yet tart taste which makes it easy to reduce the amount of sugar in a recipe. I doubled the superfruit effect by adding tiger nuts, which despite their name, aren't actually nuts. They're tubers, and are gluten-free and high fiber. Often called "earth almonds," they have a wonderful sweet, nutty taste and are sometimes used in horchata (one of my next adventures). You can produce tiger nut milk by soaking them, and they can be ground and used as a wheat flour substitute. If I were to reproduce this recipe again, I would attempt it with a tiger nut flour.

Check out the recipe below, and let me know what you think!

Mango Passion Fruit Crumble with a Baobab Tigernut Crust

1 cup tigernuts
1/4 cup baobab pulp (You can purchase some from UK company Aduna)
1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 stick of butter, cold and cut into pieces  
1 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats (I prefer these to quick-cooking oats because they have a thicker texture)
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 ripe mangoes, peeled and cut
3 passion fruit
Juice from one medium lime 

1. Grind the tigernuts with a mortar and pestle or food processor until they become a smooth powder. 
2. Cut the passion fruit open, remove the pulp and set aside in a small bowl.
3. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 9x13 baking dish.
4. Mix the baobab, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, oats, butter pieces and stir well.
5. Place the mango in the greased baking dish, and spoon the passion fruit on top, drizzle the juice of the lime over the mango-passion fruit mixture. Mix the fruit evenly.
6. Cover the fruit with the flour topping, and sprinkle a little cinnamon and nutmeg evenly on top.
7. Bake in the preheated oven until the top has browned and the fruit is tender, about 20 minutes.*

*If the top is not browned after 20 minutes, broil the crumble for 3 - 4 minutes, watching carefully to ensure it does not burn. 

Passion Fruit Baobab Brownies

Constant access to a supply of fresh and affordable passion fruit is one of my favorite parts of living in West Africa. With Its sweet yet tart pulp and crunchy seeds, a little passion fruit goes a long way in adding a tropical twist to any dessert. Given that I bought a huge bottle of baobab pulp, I've been brainstorming different ways to use it. When a friend suggested I make a dessert for her potluck, I decided to experiment in the kitchen, and whip up some passion fruit baobab brownies. My rendition of these brownies was lighter in flavor and texture than your usual run-of-the-mill brownies. I'm typically a fan of slightly undercooked brownies, but at the request of my friend Mike (who'd like me to let you all know that he is currently single and knows how to cook), I fully cooked this batch. However, to my surprise, because of the passion fruit in the batter, the brownies remained moist and fragrant.

I used Kingsbite chocolate from GoldenTree, a Ghanaian-based confectionary company. When chocolate melts, it is usually a smooth, homogenous mixture, but I was disappointed when I melted the chocolate because the cocoa separated from the vegetable oil. I later learned that this process is called "seizing" -- it usually occurs when melting chocolate comes into contact with a few drops of water. Lesson learned. I now know that the best way to melt chocolate is to heat it over a water bath or in 20-second increments in the microwave, while stirring occasionally so the bottom doesn't burn.

Passion Fruit Baobab Brownies

1 cup vegetable oil
2 cup sugar
1.5 teaspoon vanilla
4 large eggs
1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
2 bars chocolate (about 140g chocolate)
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup baobab pulp (You can buy some via Aduna)
1 cup flour

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Mix oil and sugar, then add eggs and vanilla, and blend until smooth.
3. Mix all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
4. Stir dry ingredients into the oil/sugar mixture, alternating slowly to make the process easier. 
5. Pour into greased 9 x 13 square pan.
6. Bake for 25 minutes or until sides just start to pull away from the pan.
7. Cool completely before cutting.
    

Chicken Coconut Curry with Sweet Potato, Lentils and Green Beans

3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1-2 teaspoon red curry paste (2 if you like it really hot)
1 can unsweetened coconut milk
1 1/2 cups of chicken stock
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 stalk lemongrass, first outer layer removed cut in half
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 1/2 cups boneless chicken breasts, cubed
3 sweet potatoes, chopped thickly
1 handful of green beans
1/2 cup of red split lentils

1. Boil the lentils for 10 minutes in a small pot. 
2. Heat the oil in a deep frying pot or wok, stir in the curry paste and fry for 1 minute. 
3. Add the chicken, sweet potatoes, green beans, and lentils and stir to coat in the paste, then pour in the stock and coconut milk. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked fully and the potatoes are soft. 
4.  Season to taste before serving

Fanciful Beet Salad

I first tried beets when I was eighteen years old during the first week of my freshman year of college. I walked into the Yale dining hall, full of its delicious treasures, and spotted the deep purple vegetable among the salad offerings. I've been in love with beets ever since. Particularly common in Africa, Europe and Asia, beets are one of nature's healthiest vegetables. They detoxify the body, help with blood pressure, act as antioxidants and have great anti-inflammatory qualities. 

Originally people consumed the beet's tasty leaves before they discovered that the root was equally as appealing. Considering how common beets are across the continent, I find it rather surprising I encountered them so late in life. In Ghana, I've been happily consuming my fair share of beets. I grow bored with traditional salad recipes quickly, so I decided to make this fun, fanciful beet salad with avocado, cucumber, mint, goat cheese, sunflower seeds, couscous and quail eggs. I typically prefer to pair beets with quinoa because the texture holds up a bit if there's some excess beet juice, but as import prices are not in my favor... couscous it is!

Fanciful Beet Salad
Makes 2 large salads or 4 small salads.

½ cup cooked couscous
1 cup sunflower seeds
3 medium raw beets, peeled and cubed
2 medium avocados, cubed
2 medium cucumbers, sliced thickly and cut into quarters
Handful of mint
½ cup goat cheese
5 quail eggs
 

Vinaigrette
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
¼ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. To cook couscous: I love this simple technique via The Kitchn.
2. To prepare the quail eggs: Fill a small saucepan with salted water and bring to the boil. Add the quail's eggs using a spoon and boil them for 4 minutes for perfectly hardboiled eggs. Remove with a slotted spoon and cool down under cold running water or in a bowl filled with ice water. Peel carefully to avoid puncturing the eggs.
3. To prepare the salad: Cut all pieces into fairly even cubes. Combine with the goat cheese and sunflower seeds. 
4. To prepare the vinaigrette: Whisk together all of the ingredients.
5. Finally, drizzle dressing over the mixture (you won't use all of it) and gently toss to combine.
6. Season again with salt and pepper as needed. 

Want even more color? Add some red bell peppers and/or some grated carrots.