Bind & CrEATe

In honor of the upcoming first day of fall, the Bind & CrEATe kitchen will begin featuring fall favorites. Some of these vegetables are available year round, but there’s something so wonderful about leaves falling in the background of your kitchen window.

When I was a child, sweet potatoes seemed reserved for Thanksgiving. I rarely gave the sweet potato casserole at Grandma’s a second thought. I just knew that Pap didn’t like pecans, and everyone else did – so there were two separate dishes. One year, I swear someone included marshmallows. Was that a fad once? Needless to say, I didn’t find the dish at all appetizing and instead stuffed myself with stuffing (and ketchup).

Thank god a rebirth in terms of sweet potatoes was born. I credit food blogging and adult maturity. Now I know that sweet potatoes can be eaten all fall-long in a variety of styles – such as this Sweet Potato Curry with Red Beans from the “Vegan Planet.” This dish uses a variety of simple ingredients with a powerful team of spices. I’m starting to really embrace curry powder and even stepped into turmeric land for the first time in my life.

This dish is incredible, both on its own and paired with rice. It keeps you full for hours and gives you the taste of fall you’ve been waiting for.

Want the recipe? Buy the Vegan Planet. It’s one of the best books in my cooking arsenal.

What’s your favorite way to use sweet potatoes?

It feels like Fall. It’s not even September yet, and I feel like wearing a sweater. It’s already getting darker earlier, and I just can’t wait for Fall foodage to take effect. I’ll take the foliage too, when it comes.

I saw this soup on Jenna’s blog days ago and fell in love with the burst of orange. I’ve never made a soup like this before in my life. I was inspired by the recent small carrots poking their heads out of the ground in the backyard garden. Although no carrots made the dish (they were reserved for chicken soup for the ill, i.e. me – last week), this still turned out to be supreme.

Every single time I make a new soup, I wonder why I ever bought soup in a can. I wonder how I survived those years of preservatives and that awful tin taste that sometimes leaves its mark on our goodies. This took no more than 30 minutes (as Jenna promised) and resulted in something beautiful for my belly.

Yesterday, I took a mantra workshop where we focused on getting “unstuck.” While chanting, I daydreamed of carrots, cabbage and lettuce. I’m so thankful I took that reverie of orange to the pot and gave this dish a chance. It’s one tasty delight. Thanks, Jenna.

More on the mantra workshop soon. Fall is the season of change, and I am feeling it. I hope you are too.