Fall foods Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Cabbage Soup with Beet – Anti-Inflammatory Soup

Cabbage soup is a great fall soup and for year round. When you add beet juice, you get a beautiful color… and you can’t beat that in a bowl!

This is an Ayurvedic melody. You can get your sweet vegetable, savory, sour, and umami tastes in one bowl. You can also add some heat if you’re feeling cool (and more Kapha or Vata in fall Vata season). Most Ayurvedic balancing foods are also anti-inflammatory healthy.

Tamarind is one ingredient with a tart-sour taste that’ll set your soup apart from the rest. It’s commonly used in more exotic sauces and dishes.

If you buy tamarind paste that has seeds, to remove the seeds: pull apart taffy-texture-like pieces. Then place the tamarind paste in a bowl with heated water (just below boiling water is good). You can leave for a few hours or even overnight. Then the tamarind taffy-sticky texture should slip off more easily.

Add go right into your warming cabbage beet soup. You can make this soup without beets if you’re not a fan. And use red cabbage.

But if you’re a beet lover, this is the fall color you can BEAT! 🫜

And at the farmers markets or maybe your own farm

Cabbage soup is a healthy and light soup you can enjoy year round. It’s better warm, but you can enjoy it cold too. Either way, it’s LOW SODIUM healthy.

Cabbage is a great veggie to lose weight. And in a soup, it’s soup-er tasty. When cabbage is raw, it has a crunchy texture that can be satisfying like chips.

And what you don’t use, you can save for a future cabbage soup or dish. Or a lettuce wedge salad.

Iceberg lettuce is the common cabbage head. Sometimes they’re the size of a head or a volleyball.

It’s a filler that’s a good way to stretch a grocery bill, like the cost of a common loaf of bread..

And since cabbage is over 90% (and mainly) water, it’s underestimated as a healthy food.

For starters, it has K vitamins, some B vitamins, and minerals. It also has Vitamin C, that’s an antioxidant.

And best of all, cabbage is a high source of fiber, so it’s great for digestive reasons and losing weight.

The cabbage soup that my mom used to make did not have tomatoes. She used soy sauce that gave it a umami taste.

And instead of just heating the cabbage to soften, you can do what I call the radish method. Which is adding the cabbage to the freezer overnight and then bringing to the fridge or in room temp when you’re ready to work it in a soup.

It will turn mushy and you can cut into strips like for a radish salad.

You don’t want to skip cutting down the cabbage into smaller pieces as it’s hard to swallow fibrous whole cabbage leaves. Like a palm leaf, it would be good shade cover.

So to avoid a big mass wad of cabbage, you can take a pair of kitchen shears and cut, cut, cut… similar to as if you were trimming hair, making many micro-cuts. Keep cutting through the fibers.

And this will allow for an enjoyable soup experience that you can serve as an appetizer or starter bowl.

For a little heat that creeps us, wasabi powder (or horseradish powder that’s white color) is a sharp and pungent way or cayenne pepper for more heat.

If you’re game for a healthy comfort bowl of soup, you can also try an anti-inflammatory rainbow soup with cauliflower, a fall vegetable soup with fresh veggies and fall spices, and other easy homemade low-sodium soups.

Cabbage Beet Soup - Anti-Inflammatory

This is a rich balancing and anti-inflammatory soup.

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 cup cabbage
1 can whole beets
1 tbsp Five Spice
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 tsp salt and black pepper to taste
1/8 tsp wasabi powder or cayenne pepper (optional for heat), to taste
1/2 tsp tamarind (optional)
1/4 tsp turmeric (optional)

Instructions

Add beef broth, soy sauce, beets, and beet juice (from the beet can) to a cooking pot.
Cut cabbage into small strips, and add to pot.
Add spices and seasonings.
Cook on heat until cabbage is soggy and soft.

Vegetable Soup – Low-Calorie and Healthy

Vegetable soup is one of the healthiest and tastiest soups when done right. And low-sodium homemade healthy.

…That’s easier than doing it not-right, because you can’t really mess up this easy-to-make simple soup.

Especially when you use fresh veggies that stand on their own. You can find unusual varieties from your local farmers markets and grocery stores.

Variety is the spice of life and this bowl of spice has plenty. Recipe below.

This Ayurvedic balancing soul food soup recipe is all veggies and great for Vata (fall) season. 🥣

It has no tomatoes (that’s a fruit and maybe doesn’t belong that way?).

The healthy goodness ingredients are good for any diet you’re on (plant-based, anti-inflammatory, Mediterranean, all-of-the-above)… and even a balancing Ayurvedic one.

Plus, this no-tomato variety vegetable soup is even more exciting to look at than an ordinary tomato-based soup.

And then another plus on top of that… if acidity prevents you from eating tomatoes, then this umami soup base recipe will be a good substitute.

It’s like a change in autumn leaves color in a bowl. 🍁

So you can think of it like a no-tomato, heartburn-resistant minestrone soup full of welcomed warm comfort surprises.

That also includes no carrots or celery found in other common soups.

Save those good ingredients for homemade low sodium soups like immunity carrot ginger soup or a cream of celery. Or anti-inflammatory eat-from-the-rainbow soups.

…Believe me, I used to buy all my soups before I learned how easy it is to make my own healthy (soups).

…Sometimes it’s as much or little effort as heating up a canned soup, like the vegetable soup here.

It’s also fun to add in your own little of this… and a little of that.

You build a warm relationship with food in a healthy way.

…Oh, and wait ’til you hear what warming and cooling spices (below) are in this soup that’s great for transitions and weather changes.

I get excited over the simplest things, like spices that are year-round adds 🎉for me. And changing it up as Ayurvedic seasons change.

…That’s something I look forward to plus a bowl of soup in the fall that I like to make bottomless by adding new veggies like a growing soup garden.

But I slowly digress.

…And speeding it up – are you ready to make this comforting soup-ed up souper soup (sorry, couldn’t resist 😁) that can enjoyably last as long as you can before spoon scooping it up?

This fresh vegetable soup has a umami flavor with spices, so that the star ingredients are the veggies and the spices that support them.

Adding more plant-based veggies to a diet is always a good thing and when you can make it super tasty with simple flavors and spices like turmeric, pepper, thyme, and paprika. And even a little cayenne pepper heat.

…Depending on your season. And you!

Or add white pepper that’s not hot, but has an adult umami-forward flavor. And turmeric is perfect for a smoky touch in a warm bowl like this.

Spices are a great way to balance daily Ayurvedic moods and preferences that your body naturally gravitate towards. And as holiday spice accoutrements.

Spices can be the new low-sodium substitute (from salt).

And if spices were punctuations…

Cayenne pepper is the exclamation point ❗️of spices. Where a sprinkle of heat sneaks up on you at the end.

If you’re not ready for heat or are Kapha balanced, you can put a comma pause on it. 😁

And you can add dashes of cumin for Pitta if that’s still spilling over from summer heat in your body.

If you add cayenne and cumin equally, they’ll help to cancel each other out as heat in your body even though you’ll get the cayenne heat in taste.

And turmeric will change everything. It’s a great year round spice add, period.

Now you have a smoky and herby blend great for fall outdoor tastes.

I also love to add a little sumac (that’s found in za’atar). The dramatic purplish color blends in well and contrasts with the warm orange and yellows. It gives a little subtle tart taste.

You’ll know whether to add the spice if you give it an EASY sniff the spice test. If it smells good, it will BE good in your vegetable soup.

I’m never shy experimenting with spices and I use taste and sniff preferences as my Ayurvedic balance guide.

And with that, then I add the soup base.

Water is underrated (like, “it’s just water”) as an ingredient, but often the most important ingredient for soups.

Which btw, the no-cost pure ingredient solves a lot of cooking and baking dilemmas that other ingredients can’t.

You can make a vegetable broth with a little umami flavor that low-sodium soy sauce adds.

You can also sub the sauce with Worcestershire sauce that has several subtle tastes for the taste buds.

And that’s it for the broth. The spices will also bring out the broth.

Now it’s time to meet the star veggies. 😊

Before cooked, look at the gold beet ⭐️, red beet 🫜, watermelon radish 🍉, and red cabbage. This could be a band.

And these colors can’t be BEET!

Then when cooked with okra in a vegetable soup, they become the burnt autumn leaf colors. Oh, and there’s a violet tucked amid the bowl from a purple bell pepper that snuck in there.

Anti-Inflammatory Vegetables For Soup:

Okra is an anti-inflammatory food that you often find in southern dishes and soups like gumbo. It is sometimes used as a thickening agent… so now you can look at its somewhat slimy personality as a plus.

It’s also filled with healthy antioxidant seed pods that add pearly contrast to a bowl.

An easy way to cook okra is to cut the long veggie into smaller pieces like you see in frozen bags (with the round flower shapes). Okra is actually related to the hibiscus flower. 🌺

It also belongs to the same family as cotton. And cacao too.

Beets – classic red beets are earthy that go well with umami flavors. Gold beets taste pure to me and you gotta love the warmish color glow. 🌅

Radishes – watermelon radishes are so pretty like ‘lil pieces of artwork in a soup bowl. They’re also less bitter than classic radishes.

Red cabbage is loaded with polyphenols from the purplish color. They have more of a bitter taste and is a hearty vegetable.

After you choose your veggies, add your longevity beans like pinto beans. Or kidney beans for a minestrone vibe… and then you’ve got one anti-inflammatory preventative health forward bowl.

It’s that simple for bringing in more plant-base in your soup bowl.

You can also make your own no-soggy za’atar cracker for your soup that’s 3 ingredients if you include water (that ya know I do).

And to make fluffy rice flawlessly from dry grains, it’s easy and you can walk away from the stove when you use the double boiler method.

Healthy Fall Vegetable Soup (Low Sodium)

Ingredients

okra, cut
watermelon radishes, sliced
beets, sliced
pinto beans (or kidney beans)
cooked rice (optional)
water
low or reduced sodium soy sauce
spices

Instructions

Cook veggies, spices, and liquids in a pot. Let simmer but don't overcook veggies.
Cook rice separately. Add if desired.
Pour in a bowl and enjoy.

Notes

Tip: Add your spices in the heating soup to enhance the flavors and unleash the spice healthy benefits.

Easy Apple Tart Healthy Recipe

Apple tart can be a breakfast idea or dessert made from healthy baked wheat, oats, and honey. Oh, and wholesome apples are whole snacks for some… maybe you? Fuji apples here, but there are so many apple to choose from for your enjoyable tarts. 🍎

Below is an easy breakfast ingredient recipe for apple tart that’s low sugar and needs no proofing. And the proof is when you make them (…and in photos below 😊).

And if you decide to bake your apples at all…

Because a whole apple snack from an apple tree needs no improvement or addition… and if all you do is add peanut butter on them and eat them raw, they’re delish-elevated!

I esp. like the crunch and taste pairing of Granny Smith green apples with a natural peanut butter (like the kind you stir up with peanuts). 🥜

With a baked apple tart recipe, the sweeter crisp red apples are better for dessert snacking. As they soften in the oven, you can taste more of the sweet and tart.

…And for a pop of bright red on a plate.

Well… sometimes.

They do come out with baked fall colors. You’ll see below what I’m talking about. 🍁

Because red apples vary in color as you’ll see shades of red, yellow, white, and green if you pay closely attention. It’s like nature did a Bob Ross painting on each apple (and apple orchard if you like landscapes).

Like us peeps in nature, no two apples are exactly alike.

They say there are over 7,000 apple varieties and you know the ones that are abundant and growing in your surroundings. 🌳

Red apples dominate the fruit market scenes in the autumn. They match the fire engine red leaves on the U.S. east coast and make great healthy candy apples (instead of sugary caramel).

Healthy apples can be stuffed with healthy ingredients… like the sweet messy kind you can’t stuff in a bag 🎃, but you can stuff yourself with and enjoy the swirling mess in your mouth.

That’s one idea for today.

And with apple season upon us, you need no other reason to come up with new apple snack ideas, like an easy baked apple tart.

The steps are simple and easy…

Cut your whole apples in half and de-core them.

An easy way to do this is to take a paring knife and cut around the core, and as you get around to the other side of the track, you can almost pop the center out.

Save your apple seeds and plant them.

Then seedless, you can eat all the apple flesh parts without waste. Organic (pesticide-spraying free) apples are suggested if you eat the skin (that have a lot of healthy fiber).

Add peanut butter (that will ah! and ooh!-ze out when warmed and baked).

Then put your apple halves aside.

Make your pastry dough:

It’s an easy mix of ground oats and whole wheat. You can even add wheat bran and/or buckwheat for some more variety and healthy goodness, like I did. Mix in water.

Then add the honey and butter that’s a food pairing harmony, working so well together for taste and texture.

But if you want to use a healthy oil (instead of butter) you could do that.

And also your choice is to add cinnamon (and/or cardamom) spices with your apples.

Cinnamon adds that warm fall-ish cozy fireplace or fall hiking outdoor tasting vibe. Sweater weather is coming, but apple cinnamon baking is the active season beforehand.

For Vata (fall season) and us balancing moods, that’s comforting and clearing. It’s a great season to breathe intently and catch new breaths.

And getting back to the bake (and not to get too much in the weeds), cinnamon will help anxious energies. Cassia or traditional cinnamon spice you find easily in grocery stores is going to be sweet for adding to bakes before going in the oven. The other Ceylon cinnamon kind is more healthy and good to add to coffee and zhughing. But mix-and-match spices and kinds before, after, and during as you please.

You do you… and dousing some cinnamon spice of any kind is healthy. The plants even love some on their soil to prevent unintended growth. 😊

Cinnamon is one of those natural foods that have no pitfalls. and goes great in the fall.

And now you’re ready.

For this easy apple tart good for fall bake, you can put this short pastry crust together in a few short minutes.

The dough will have crumbly bits falling off (appropriate for the season), but will mostly stick together as a ball.

Divide the dough into three equal parts.

Flatten/roll out the dough with the palm of one hand is easier. See as easy promised, you don’t even need a rolling pin.

Shape the dough into an apple shape around each apple half if you like. Of make into a circle with your circle cutters.

Use some honey to glue your apple bottoms (halves) to your flattened pastry bases. Then when you’re happy with your apples…

Bake at 325°F for about 25 minutes. If you want to give your apples a drying baked apple look (see 🍎 baked photo above), you can leave them in the still-warm oven after you turn the oven off. That will soften the apples even more for that you can even add to an apple pie. 🥧 💭

Before the apples are fully softened, the pastry base will be golden brown. You can pull them out of the oven at that point or bake a ‘lil longer. The apples start out shiny smooth like this duo below.

Which btw, these apple tarts in-the-making look like they are in jail but believe me, they’re enjoying their warm cell and cozy base as they bake. 😁

Oh, and if you like this recipe, you’ll love these low-sugar dessert recipes… some even have apple ingredients.

And if you’re looking for Vata season sweet and salty snack idea, you can try a happy Rocky Road energy bar, a no-bake peanut butter cookie, and/or pair with an apple carrot smoothie.

Curious, what you like? Lemme know in the comments.

Baked Apple Tart Breakfast with Oatmeal and Peanut Butter

This is a great dessert snack idea with healthy oatmeal breakfast-inspired ingredients. Makes 3 apple tarts.

Course Breakfast

Servings 3 apple tarts

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

3/4 cup whole wheat flour (can combine with wheat bran or buckwheat)
2 Tbsp softened or melted butter
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
3 tsp peanut butter
1 Tbsp raw honey, plus more
4 Tbsp heated warm water (plus a little more as needed)
1-1/2 tsp cinnamon spice
1/2 tsp cardamom spice (optional)

Instructions

Grind your oats into fine pieces.
Cut your apples in half and hollow out center with seeds. Leave skin on (if using non-organic apples, you can de-skin apples also if you choose).
Add peanut butter to apple hollowed center. Set apples aside.
Make the pastry dough apple bases. In a bowl, add the flour and oats, butter, cinnamon, and then add water and honey, and cinnamon (if using). Fully combine with a spoon. You can use a little more water as needed to help the dough crumbly pieces stick together. The dough should stick together and have some crumbly bits.
Divide pastry dough into 3 equal balls. Flatten each with palm of hand and shape into circle or apple disc-base shapes that your apple halves will fit onto of.
When you're happy with your pastry discs, add a honey circle ring drizzle around to "glue" your apples to the pastry. The peanut butter will ooze out of the apples.
Bake at 325°F/165°C for about 25 minutes or until the pastry is lightly browned on the sides and bottom. You can leave in the oven after the temp is turned off for a softer baked apple tart.

Salmon Salad – No Mayonnaise (Lunch Idea)

Salmon salad is something you can enjoy anytime on bread or by itself. And it can be made deliciously without mayonnaise, in case you’re not a fan. Or if you want to try a different healthy way like this version on an open face toast… toast to that!

And any way you prefer, it’s a great protein snack or meal. Especially for lunch for all ages. As salmon salad is universal and can be eaten anywhere unlike an egg salad (…where I still remember a classmate’s bag lunch).

Cooked salmon has no fish aroma that your companions next to you can detect, (and that can make you feel self-conscious about your lunch).

It also has a more subtle fish taste. So it could be the new tuna salad sandwich… if it isn’t already on your menu!

…This also reminds me of my days as a teen working in a deli where it was all about the scoops. But the scoop wasn’t an ice cream scoop… it was tuna, chicken, or shrimp salad… and served like this salmon salad one on the plate that fits in a 4 oz cup (recipe below 👇).

In the deli, it was served on the side of a bed of lettuce or grapes, or on a sandwich.

And you can smear this salmon salad like butter.

But without butter. I personally like my dinner salmon with a béarnaise sauce, with a French Mediterranean vibe (no butter).

And this version for lunch.

For variety and fresh healthy ways, you can also serve your salmon salad with or without mustard, like Dijon mustard.

And if mustard is what you’re craving, you can substitute the horseradish or add ontop of the salmon salad.

It’s also delicious with crackers, multigrain, rye bread, or sourdough.

And what makes this one different is the lightness. Unlike heavy duty mayo (as in full fat), this version is salad light.

It uses yogurt, so you can hold the mayo. And no eggs.

But you could make an egg salad layer (if you want) for a Smorgastorta effect, or sandwich cake to go with your salmon salad.

That goes hand-in-hand with these 2 Swedish concepts I can get behind:

Lagom is a way to balance and moderation.

Fika is a Swedish concept for a coffee break with pastries and while you’re on yours, you can enjoy a Swedish finger sandwich or smorgastorta. This concept is kinda like afternoon English tea or an American brunching on the weekend (one of my fun things to do!).

And a salmon salad is perfect fit for a brunch. It’s light and protein-full. And if you want to give it a building-an-autumn-fire tasting vibe 🍁, you can add fiery orange color turmeric-spice that has ember burning smokey flavors… in case you didn’t know what the turmeric taste is like.

Black pepper and turmeric are a healthy spice combo so it makes sense too.

You can also substitute with Spanish smoked paprika that’s sometimes harder to find. Now that you have some good ideas, maybe it’s time to make your salmon salad sandwich! 🥪 You can make it today and eat tomorrow.

I bake the salmon and then decide!

A good tip is to decide what you will do with the salmon when it is still warm cooked or baked 🐟 . Because it will finely crumble easier when it’s warm and soft.

Drizzled with olive oil and a little salt and pepper, on 350°F/180°C it’s to my baked doneness liking in 3o-40 minutes depending on the fish filet thickness.

You can also cook on the stovetop if that’s your preference. But don’t add too much EVOO if you plan to make it into a salad, as it leaves the salmon more oily. Vs. baking that will dry out and soak in the oil quicker.

But no worries, you can’t go wrong…and all who love salmon will love. 😋

Salmon Salad - Yogurt (No Mayonnaise)

A healthy salmon salad that can be added to a sandwich.

Course brunch, fika, lunch

Cuisine American, swedish

Servings 4 oz

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

2 oz salmon, cooked
1 oz Greek yogurt (use both liquid and thick portions)
1 tsp fresh dill (or spice form)
1/4 tsp black pepper and salt, or lemon pepper
3/4 tsp fresh horseradish
1/2 tsp turmeric powder (optional)

Instructions

Crumble salmon in a bowl into fine pieces.
Make the yogurt mixture: Mix yogurt, dill, horseradish, and other dry ingredients to a separate bowl.
Mix in salmon with yogurt mixture. Add to your sandwich bread or enjoy as a scoop on a plate or green salad.

Notes

Tip: Crumble the salmon for salmon salad when it is still warm. Let cool and then make the salad.

Malt Loaf Bread – Banana Cake

Malt loaf bread is comfy country bread that I could eat regularly as in weekly. It’s hearty, comfort food like a raisin bread. And this similar molasses cake (yes, you heard right!) recipe needs no proofing.

Learn more below 👇

malt loaf with early grey tea. — Recipe below 🧡

Molasses is one of the star ingredients in this loaf or cake (depending on how you want to look at it) and one of my favorite sweet ingredients. ⭐️

Watching the slow as molasses dark glossy liquid glide down the jar to the opening is joyful.

And when it does and makes contact with its destination, it comes with multi-dimensional tastes.

…I like to call it dark caramel and one that Grandma’s from the south grew up with. (That’s also the common household molasses brand most of us know).

It’s got the old-fashioned flavors mixed in…

Along with regular molasses comes a bit of sweet, bitter, and black licorice tastes that gives gingerbread cookies its distinct flavor.

The acidity in the ingredient also helps to activate the cake rise if you use a common household ingredient like baking soda (that’s usually stored in the fridge for other purposes).

Also, unlike white table sugar as a sweetener, amazingly molasses has anti-inflammatory effects. If you’re a food science nerd like me then you get excited about these nuances in daily sustenance that affect the body! 🎉 …and whether the ingredient will be used.

Not as common is blackstrap molasses that comes out after the third boiling, so most of the sugar has dissolved like Houdini. It has a lower glycemic index and polyphenols compared to regular molasses. PLUS it has minerals and Vitamin B-6.

With the dark flavor, the dark color matches.

It’s perfect for the cooler months and warming inside if you think of a warm fireplace playing jazzy tunes. 🎶

…And just in time for holiday baking season.

Malt loaf was a challenge on the The Great British Bake Off where I heard of the cakey bread.

And I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love a cakey bread because that means no proofing, but is Prue-fitting, as in Judge Prue Leith who sent the loaf popularity waves across the pond… and into my sound waves vicinity.

…And what makes this loaf so out-of-the-ordinary great is the plumped up raisins from the Earl Grey tea.

It’s a strong brisk black tea that is what you expect for an afternoon high tea. 🫖

I had first heard of the intriguing “raisin plumping” idea in a food class where I collaborated with dieticians.

I loved the idea then… and loved it even more when I added them to this recipe.

You can see how bold and dramatic the raisins become. Who knew raisins could grow and not more wrinkly old? 😁

And to top off this breakfast dessert, you can add a glaze if you wanna shine! ✨

But I like the rustic and plain… like the simple raisin bread. But with bananas, this one is even BETTER.

Not needing butter.

And however you bake your cake or bread, you can make this in one bowl or even in the same baking pan it will end up in! That’s what happened here…

I mean, it doesn’t get much easier than this for fall foods, breads, and baked goods. That makes a malt loaf like this so easy to FALL for! 🍂

You in? 😊

Easy Banana Malt Loaf Cake

A moist malt loaf that has molasses as a star ingredient.

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy LIfe Secrets

Ingredients

1 tbsp Early Grey tea, brewed
1 tbsp raisins (plumped up from tea)
1/3 cup currants, chopped dates, or additional raisins
1 cup mashed bananas
1 tbsp coconut oil (in addition to coating the pan)
1/3 cup molasses
2 eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup almond milk or milk of choice or more
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup flour of choice
walnuts, chopped (optional)

Instructions

Coat your baking vessel with coconut oil that helps to give a nice thin outer crust and help prevent sticking to the pan. If you prefer less crust, then you can use a light dusting of flour to coat your pan or use a non-stick baking spray.
Brew hot tea and add raisins to the tea. While you're waiting for the tea to steep and raisins to plump up, make the loaf.
Mix the wet and dry ingredients together. Easy tip: you can do this in one bowl and even the same baking pan/vessel that you will use to bake the loaf! This is/should be a very liquid-y batter (like pancake) depending on the flour(s) you use tthat will come out moist. Bake on 350°F for 65-80 minutes until outside is the brown color preferred.