Food

This refreshing take on salsa has just the right ingredients to make it delicious served with any dish. We’ve developed it for crusted chicken, but it’s equally delicious tumbled over cedar-planked salmon, pan-fried paneer, or on thick grilled slices of butternut squash.

Buttery roasted squash, sweet figs, salty olives, and a creamy dressing team up for a salad that explodes with exciting flavour and texture. All components can be made and chilled separately in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. For added protein, include some roasted chicken.

One of my favourite salads from our Cuisine Canada Gold-award-winning cookbook Ultimate Foods for Ultimate Health … and don’t forget the chocolate! This vegetarian main course can be served either cold or hot.

Wrap up your morning with this savoury and satisfying Spinach Omelette with Spiced Squash, filled with vitamins A, C, K, and folate. This dish offers a range of health benefits due to its contents’ unique nutritional properties and bioactive compounds. It’s also a great way to incorporate vegetables into your breakfast routine!

A vegan take on “meat” and potatoes, this meal transforms the familiar into something fresh and spring-like. As it’s not quite barbecue season, the tempeh is cooked in the oven, developing a lovely, sticky crust.

Go for gold … or don’t

Eating colorful plant foods—from dark blue and purple to green, yellow, orange, and red—is the key to good nutrition and good skin. Take butternut squash as an example. Its brilliant orange color indicates it’s chock-full of carotenoids and vitamin C, which help protect against UV-induced skin damage.

Allowing this chutney to ferment gives it a more complex flavour that would be perfect to accompany any holiday meal.

Tip

Instead of seafood, gravlax is made with butternut squash (or carrots) for a vegetarian take on Danish smørrebrød (an open-faced sandwich). The beauty of smørrebrød is that you personalize it to your tastes, so the options are virtually endless.

Tip: Hot stuff

Studies are proving that eating plant foods rich in colours of the rainbow—from dark blue and purple to green, yellow, orange, and red—is the key to good nutrition. Take butternut squash as an example. Its brilliant orange colour indicates it’s chock full of carotenoids, bioflavonoids, and vitamin C, essential to decreasing the risk for certain diseases, including cancer and heart disease.

The tag team of black lentils and sweet potatoes creates a satisfying dish that is jam-packed with heart-friendly and hunger-squashing fibre. Any leftovers of the lentil mixture are a great dish on their own served as a healthy lunch.

Soup is the ultimate budget-friendly pantry meal. Even if you’re not feeding the masses, make the entire batch for a week of healthy, hearty winter lunches and skip the excessive price tag (and sodium levels) of cafeteria versions.

These stuffed zucchini boats are a great way to use up those squashes that have grown a little hefty under the sun. Any extra rice salad can be tossed with some greens and a dressing for a great stand-alone lunch.

The contrast of colour makes this an eye-appealing meal for all ages. With slightly crisped lentils, kale, and nuts, it delivers on all textures as well. Topped with a creamy, lemony mayo, it’s pucker-y delicious. Our roasted veggies are mild flavoured for young eaters. If serving to an “adults only” crowd, jazz up the squash and broccoli with some harissa paste, curry powder, or a generous dusting of chili powder before roasting.  

Feeling like your favourite Indian takeout tonight? This plant-based curried bean and potato dish is an easy, delicious take on a classic Indian specialty. This version is made with a warm, mild traditional Indian curry, but can be made spicier with a green, yellow, or red Thai curry, if preferred.

Hash may have a reputation for being a greasy spoon special, but this kale hash, which can be enjoyed for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner on your days of cleansing, will change your idea of the dish. Sweet potatoes add substance, nutrition, sweetness, and a great depth of flavour in place of the usual floury white potatoes.

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This hearty and warming rice porridge dish is popular in many Asian countries. This variation incorporates sweet butternut squash, which not only provides this dish with a good amount of vitamins A and C, but it also adds its cheerful sunny colour.

Tip

Black rice is quickly becoming a pantry staple. It’s full of rich, grapey taste and has an inky hue that makes white rice shake in its boots. Paired with sweet seasonal squash, satisfying chicken, and a cheese that bites back, this burrito is an ideal way to warm up to fall and winter cuisine without fully committing.

Hummus is the staple of all snacks for good reason: rich in plant-based protein and satiating fibre, it packs a boost of energy that keeps you feeling fuller faster and longer. Double the recipe for a big batch.

Saffron is expensive, though a little goes a very long way. Its floral and earthy flavour makes it a natural pairing for the subdued notes of cauliflower, another cancer-preventive ingredient. These ingredients are encased in a galette, a round, flat pie that is free-form and rustic looking.

Stay seasonal

Kale pesto is heartier than the more familiar basil pesto. It’s delicious tossed with our Potato Gnocchi recipe, but it’s also appealing in many other dishes. Try tossing it with roasted diced butternut squash or spreading it on chicken breasts before roasting. The possibilities are endless wherever pesto is used. Can be refrigerated in tightly covered container for a couple of days or frozen for up to a month. Double up the recipe and freeze in batches so you’ll have a small container ready in an instant for any dish.

Serve this as a vegetarian main or side dish with whole grain bread and a leafy salad. Tap into the pudding; the Parmesan layer cracks like a crème brûlée, giving way to the supple, velvety bounty within. If serving this to a crowd—prepare yourself. Your guests will look at you differently and revere your very presence from this day forward. To wow your dinner guests, use a handheld blowtorch, tableside, to brown the cheese topping.

Here’s a simple bowl of comfort food with a soothing flavour that employs both steaming and poaching techniques to gently cook and soften. Although wonderful on its own, this dish becomes even more bolstering when served in a light, lemony broth—itself another great use for water.

Tip

A classic winter soup, this version has deep flavour and layers of spice that proffer subtle heat. A few spoonfuls of store-bought harissa are the secret to subtle warmth tempered by warm cinnamon and cumin. A finishing touch of lime yogurt gives a fresh and zingy flavour that will have you coming back for more.