There’s nothing quite like coming in out of the autumn chill to a home-cooked meal – and you don’t necessarily need to be at home to make it. Whether you prefer slow cooker recipes that you can set and forget in the morning or long, luscious braises that you can simmer all Sunday afternoon and reheat for an easy weeknight dinner, we’ve got the fall recipes for you.

1. White Wine Braised Chicken and Vegetables

This one pot meal is actually pretty quick for a braise: in just under an hour, this tender chicken and vegetables will be ready to serve. Choose darker cuts like drumsticks and thighs to ensure the chicken doesn’t dry out as it cooks, and make sure you have a pot of rice or your favorite country bread ready to soak up all that delicious white wine sauce.

2. Slow Cooker Sauerkraut

A combination of sweet caramelized onions, cabbage, apples, bacon, caraway seeds, and your favorite beer simmer away in one of our favorite slow cooker recipes inspired by Polish cuisine. Be sure to serve a glass of the same beer alongside the final dish for the full sauerkraut experience.

3. Slow Cooker Asian Braised Beef

This Asian-inspired beef is another of our favorite slow cooker recipes. Richly flavored beef chuck is braised over several hours with garlic, onion, ginger, lemongrass, and chile. A soy and hoisin sauce gets just the right amount of sweetness and spice from light brown sugar and Sriracha. Serve the finished dish over brown or white rice and garnish with a pinch of sesame seeds.

4. Slow Cooker Baked Beans

These mapley baked beans are made even more delectable thanks to molasses, brown sugar, and a generous pour of bourbon. Let the slow cooker do the rest: after 12 hours, the mouth-watering beans will be ready. While this recipe includes Worcestershire sauce, it’s easily swapped out with coconut aminos for a vegan version.

5. Onion Braised Beef Brisket

Brisket is the perfect cut for braising, with lots of collagen to naturally thicken the sauce. Eight whole onions feature in this dish, but never fear: after the long braise, they’ll be sweet, caramelized, and melt-in-your-mouth tender.

6. Braised Pork Belly

This Chinese-style braised pork belly is rich and hearty – perfect for cooler weather. The pork is glazed with a slightly sweet soy-based sauce spiced with ginger, star anise, and chile. Serve it alongside some simple steamed bok choy or Chinese broccoli to round out this meal.

7. Slow Cooker Apple Butter

The perfect autumnal breakfast starts with this apple butter, and it couldn’t be easier to make. Apples, spices, and just a bit of water go into the slow cooker for a ten-hour simmer that will make your house smell divine. A quick whirl through the blender, and this spread is ready to be dolloped on toast, English muffins, or eaten right out of the jar.

Related on EcoSalon
17 Must-Try Butternut Squash Recipes for Fall
50 Awesome Soup Recipes to Make This Fall
21 Apple Recipes to Celebrate Late Summer and Early Fall

The post 7 Scrumptious Slow Cooker Recipes (and Other Braises) Perfect for Fall appeared first on EcoSalon.

1. Sugar-Free Slow Cooker Spiced Apple Butter Recipe

Get your mind, body, and soul in the autumn mood with this deliciously pure apple butter recipe. Not only will your body love the guilt-free spread but your house will luxuriate in the apple and cinnamon aromas.

2. Vegan Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie with Chickpeas and Currants

Shepherd’s pie is reminiscent of heavy, comfort sustenance in the thick of cool weather months. However, this recipe gives the dish a light, vegan twist, without stinting on the comfort aspect.

3. Dairy-Free Butternut Squash French Toast

I mean, if this title isn’t convincing enough, I don’t know what is!

4. Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Lemon and Zaatar-Spiced Almonds

Brussels sprouts make for a fuss-free side dish in autumn, and are ideal for the plant-based dieters out there, simply because they fill you up without weighing you down. This recipe adds a little zest and crunch to the mix.

5. Scalloped Sweet Potato Gratin with Butternut Squash and Cashew Cream

What I love about this recipe is that it maintains the appeal of a potato gratin – warm, dense, and creamy – but makes each bite far more satisfying for the conscience.

6. Spaghetti Squash Pizza

There are spaghetti squash noodles and there is spaghetti squash pizza. Alas, there is more to do with spaghetti squash than live up to its namesake. Try out this pizza for a lighter, lower-carb alternative to regular pizza.

7. Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Sherry Wine Reduction

This Brussels sprouts recipe takes a more sophisticated turn with a sherry wine reduction. The result is a dish that combines plant-based bulk with sweet, sour, and sensuous flavors.

8. Raw, Refined Sugar-Free Caramel Apples

The traditional caramel apple may appear healthy – it’s mostly an apple, after all – but is often overwhelmed by the caramelized sugar coating and various sweet toppings that the apple itself no longer offers a redeeming quality. This recipe for raw, refined sugar-free caramel apples magnifies the nutrition and taste of the apple base. Plus, it’s kid and parent-approved.

9. Crispy Baked Carrot Chips

I’ll take any excuse for a lower-carb chip, and this baked carrot chips recipe is a delicious fill-in for the deep-fried, white potato-based original.

10. Easy Mexican Turkey Soup

This is the only recipe in the list that features animal protein. This recipe for Mexican turkey soup is a great way to reuse leftover turkey after either Thanksgiving or Christmas feasts.

11. Homemade Kimchi

With cabbage in season, it’s the perfect time to make kimchi, a naturally fermented Korean side dish that will boost your gut health and immunity.

12. Vegan Sweet Potato Muffins

Here’s your new go-to morning muffin! It’s vegan and infused with sweet potato flavors.

13. Sugar and Gluten-Free Apple Crisp

Did I mention it’s vegan, too? You don’t need white flour, white sugar, and lots of both to achieve that crave-worthy crisp atop tender, aromatic apples.

14. Vegan Pear Bread

A slice of this pear bread makes for a healthy snack or breakfast. It’s based in whole-wheat flour and fresh pears, sweetened with turbinado sugar, and boosted with cinnamon, vanilla, and lemon.

15. Zesty Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad

Shaved Brussels sprouts provide more texture to the average salad, and you’ll get those coleslaw vibes without the mayonnaise. This recipe features fresh mint, red pepper flakes, lemon, and parmesan cheese.

16. Cheesy Baked Farro with Cauliflower

When the weather cools down, cooked grains step up to provide the bulk we all need to get ourselves through the fall and winter seasons. In this recipe, the ancient grain farro is used as a base for a mac and cheese-like dish that is as cheesy as the original.

17. Vegan Pear Pie

Who said apple pie is the end all, be all? Two can play that game. This vegan pear pie is like apple pie, only better.

18. Carrot Soufflé

Soufflé just got a lot less chocolate-y and a lot more autumnal with this root vegetable version.

19. Gin Cocktail with Poached Pear Simple Syrup

This list wouldn’t be complete without a boozy addition.

20. Immunity-Boosting Winter Vegetable Soup

Nothing warms the senses like soup does, and this vegetable soup is no exception.

21. Cabbage Salad Recipe with Radishes, Walnuts and Mint

I tend to stick to the same salad, each and every day, but every so often I crave more inventiveness that reflects seasonal ingredients and challenges my palate. Enter this unique cabbage salad that uplifts the senses whilst grounding the spirit.

Related on EcoSalon
5 Fall Colors to Wear this Autumn
Get the Smokey Lip Look this Autumn
4 Must-Have Fall Fashion Trends with a Sustainable Twist

The post These 21 Scrumptious Fall Recipes Will Keep You Healthy, Too appeared first on EcoSalon.

Apple butter offers a lot of the comforts of real butter but without all the fat and calories.

With apples in season, it’s the perfect time to take advantage with the abundance in this no-sugar-added apple butter recipe, made in the slow cooker. Ensuring a deep, sensual taste and consistency that can only be achieved when cooked long and on a low heat setting, slow cooking is the way to go with this recipe.

This homemade apple butter recipe requires about 12 hours of forethought, but couldn’t be any easier to put together. Once you toss all the ingredients into the slow cooker, you can forget about the apple butter concoction until it’s ready. I like to make this a few hours before going to bed at night – around 8 pm – or in the morning before work – so that it is ready either in the morning when I wake up or in the evening, after I get home. However you time it, delight yourself in the most deliciously comforting autumn aromas reaching every morsel of your home.

There is no added sugar in this apple butter recipe, which makes it healthier than many store-bought and homemade versions. The key to standing in for the added sweetness offered by refined sugar is to choose apples are naturally on the sweeter side. I opt for a combination of Gala and Red Delicious apples, but any sweet apple will do.

Apple Butter Recipe

Makes 3-4 cups

Ingredients

• 5 pounds of sweet apples
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• ¼ teaspoon allspice
• ¼ cup water

Directions

Core and chop the apples. Transfer them to the slow cooked. Add the spices and water. Stir.

Cover the slow cooker and cook the apples and spices on low for ten hours. After its cooked, use an immersion blender to puree the apples. You could also transfer the mixture to a blender or food processer to puree them and then pour the blended apple butter back into the slow cooker.

Set the slow cooker to high and cook for another one to two hours. Stir the mixture every half hour to make sure that it does not stick to the bottom of the slow cooker.

Once finished, transfer the apple butter to a bowl to cool. Store the apple butter in glass jars and keep them in the refrigerator.

Enjoy the apple butter spread on your toast or dolloped on your morning oats. I personally like to eat it by the spoonful for a quick sweet snack.

Related on EcoSalon
Eat 10 of These Caramel Apples
Apples for Cider in the Heart of Normandy
The 3 Best Vegan Butter Brands

The post Sugar-Free Slow Cooker Spiced Apple Butter Recipe (Vegan) appeared first on EcoSalon.

These 9 spring recipes will inspire an obsession with seasonal fruits and vegetables!

After a long winter, it’s hard to believe warmer days are upon us. Do you know what you’re cooking? Eating according to seasonal availability is a great way to pay homage to mother nature, respect the environment, and boost the nutritional benefits you get from your fruits and vegetables. The following 9 spring recipes are infused with fruits and vegetables that will make you fall in love with the season all over again. Enjoy!

The following 9 spring recipes are infused with fruits and vegetables that will make you fall in love with the season all over again. Enjoy!

9 Spring Recipes

1. Vegan Spring Rolls

Spring rolls are by nature very light, fragrant, and fresh– the perfect springtime sentiment. This recipe wraps rice paper around lettuce, cilantro, carrots, cucumber, and avocado and then dips the result into a deliciously zesty ginger almond sauce.

2. Asparagus & Leek Soup

Light, creamy, and dense with flavor, this soup incorporates iconic spring ingredients, including leeks, onions, and asparagus. The result is a figure-friendly dish that lets its vegetables shine.

3. Spring Pea Salad Recipe with Feta and Pistachios

Peas, parsley, feta, pistachios, and a zesty vinaigrette make for a great salad that you can enjoy as a meal or as a snack. The sweetness of the peas is accented by the honey in the vinaigrette while the feta cheese, parsley, and mustard offer an earthy overtone.

4. Vegan Gluten-Free Pasta Recipe with Kalamata Olive and Sun-dried Tomatoes

With Spring’s arrival come healthier meals, featuring homemade favorites, only with a twist. This pasta recipe nixes the regular pasta, cream-based sauce, and cheese, and it opts for brown rice linguini, a load of vegetables, and cheesy nutritional yeast.

5. DIY Cucumber Face Mist

Treat your palate – your facial one, that is – with spring flavors! This refreshing and cooling mist combines cucumber with aloe vera and witch hazel to make for a soothing, acne-busting concoction that keeps your skin clear and young all season long.

6. Vegetable Frittata Recipe with Red Onion and Radish

Wake up to a unique frittata, which features a springtime favorite: radish. The flavors balance one another surprisingly well, and like any frittata dish, you leave the table satisfied and full of protein to carry you throughout the morning.

7. Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup

Who knew you don’t need cream to achieve a creamy texture or butter to achieve a buttery taste?! This soup highlights the magnificence of broccoli and its versatility as it transforms from large, hard, and bulky to smooth, soft, and sensuous. Enjoy!

8. Spicy Mango Citrus Ceviche

Nothing screams warm weather quite like mango does and spring is the perfect time to introduce some well-deserved tropical sensations into your diet. This mango ceviche is sweet, spicy, and herbal all at once.

9. Pan-Grilled Asparagus and Endive with Fava Beans, Orange and Basil

Just about all of spring’s delicacies are jam-packed into this dish, and I’m definitely not complaining. Asparagus and fava beans add the bulk while slightly bitter endive leaves, sweet oranges, and aromatic basil pique the dish’s flavors. A backdrop of a smoky, grilled essence adds even more spring vibes.

Related on EcoSalon

Seasonal Produce Superstars: Summer

7 Best Vegetables to Grill: Move Over Meat

Seasonal Eating: Market Fresh Warm Grain Salads

Colorful Root Vegetables Image from Shutterstock

The post 9 Seasonal Spring Recipes That’ll Make Your Appetite Blossom appeared first on EcoSalon.

Seventeen butternut squash recipes you’ll want to explore, from sweet to savory.

It’s butternut season! Everyone rejoice, because your favorite, buttery, nutty squash is all over the place, and that means you need tasty and delicious butternut squash recipes at your fingertips.

Why are butternut squash recipes so popular? Maybe it’s because of its gorgeous color, or like other squashes, that it works just as well for savory as it does for sweet ones. Whatever it is, there’s nothing wrong with eating a little more butternut, especially during the fall harvest season.

Butternut squash has high levels of vitamin A and C as well as folate, and it has been reported to help with everything from arthritis to the health of your lungs, so eat up. Here are 17 mouth-watering butternut squash recipes to put on your fall cooking list:

1. Butternut Squash Coconut Curry

Half tropical, half seasonal, this butternut squash recipe is a creative twist on the classic soup.

2. Spicy Butternut Squash and Black Bean Burger

Looking for butternut squash recipes you can eat without a spoon? This vegetarian burger is a hefty hand-food that will please the biggest appetites.

3. Butternut Squash Tart with Fried Sage

While sage and butternut are a common pairing in butternut squash recipes, frying the sage puts a fun twist on this savory tart.

4. Red Lentil and Butternut Squash Stew

This vegan dish is the perfect thing for when there’s an autumn storm brewing and all you want to do is curl up and eat comfort food.

5. Stuffed Butternut Squash with Quinoa

The unique shape of a butternut squash makes it perfect for stuffing. In this dish quinoa and black olives bring out the squash’s natural, earthy flavor.

6. Spicy Squash Salad

Unlike some roasted butternut squash recipes, this salad can hold its own as a side or as a main dish.

7. Mushroom, Butternut Squash and Gruyère Tart

You can never go wrong with a savory tart this time of year, and with the addition of gruyère cheese you’ll impress anyone at the table.

8. Spiced Butternut and Quinoa Muffins

Who says butternut squash recipes are only for dinner? Two classically savory ingredients come together in a sweet muffin that will pair well with a morning cup of coffee or tea.

9. Butternut Squash Tacos

Butternut squash and chipotle powder in corn tortillas. Enough said.

10. Gingered Butternut Squash Pie

Forget pumpkin, this should be the new go-to dessert among your butternut squash recipes.

11. Grain-free Butternut Flatbread

This “bread” made from butternut squash can be used for everything from sandwich bread to pizza crusts.

12. Curried Butternut Squash Fries

Of all the butternut squash recipes, this may be the most tempting: make fries at home and ensure that they’re healthy.

13. Black Bean and Butternut Squash Burritos

Find your favorite whole wheat tortilla and wrap up this easy vegan meal.

14. Butternut Cinnamon Rolls

While you may never have thought to put squash in your cinnamon rolls, you’ll soon wonder why you never had. Gluten-free and vegan as well.

15. Butternut Squash Fritters

A healthy appetizer that’s made with chickpea flour.

16. Butternut Squash with Quinoa, Feta, Mint and Basil

Mint and basil give this dish a fresh spin.

17. Cinnamon Vanilla Roasted Butternut Squash Seeds

Dessert? Appetizer? Does it matter? Make a couple of batches to ensure you have enough to last.

Related on EcoSalon:

17 Vegan Halloween Recipes

50 Awesome Soup Recipes for Fall

Image: Quinn Dombrowski, woodleywonderworks

The post 17 Must-Try Butternut Squash Recipes For Fall appeared first on EcoSalon.

10 seasonal farmers market items to put in your basket.

Hello harvest season! It’s good to see you again.

Right now, the farmers market is brimming with all of the glorious produce that fall has to offer, and if you’re trying to stick to more seasonal foods, it’s time to take advantage. Shopping at the farmers market makes it easy to eat seasonally; if your local farmer comes from the Willamette Valley for example, he or she is hard pressed to be growing grapefruit. If they’re not selling it, you shouldn’t be buying it, simple as that.

So what foods does fall have to offer? Obviously it’s hard to write a comprehensive guide to seasonal foods, without breaking it down region by region. But assuming that most of you are somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere, and not above the Arctic Circle, this guide will help you navigate your autumn farmers market.

There are some regional specialties that not everyone gets to enjoy – huckleberries comes to mind – but for the most part, autumn harvest season means good farmers market finds for all of us. Depending on exactly where you are, some produce items may be earlier later, and some sooner.

Here are 10 seasonal foods to keep an eye out for at your local farmers market, as well as a few ideas for how to use them in scrumptious fall recipes.

1. Apples

Apples, apples, apples: fall is the time to test out every single apple variety you can find. From sweet to savory, there is almost nothing the apple can’t do, and apple recipes abound. Buy a few pounds at the farmers market and see where they take you, be it kale and apple soup or grain-free apple cardamom breakfast popovers.

2. Figs

The fig season is short, so make sure you take full advantage. Roast, drizzle with honey and serve with goat cheese as an appetizer. Or eat with yogurt for breakfast. Need more inspiration? Here are 21 of our favorite fig recipes.

3. Greens

Chard, chicory, kale and beyond, greens do better in colder weather, as they get bitter during the warmer months. Leafy and wonderful, add them to soups, sauté with a little olive oil, or if you like a stronger taste, make a raw salad. Also be sure to check out this roundup of over 240 greens recipes.

4. Wild Mushrooms

Coming across a farmers market table covered in chanterelles is like happening upon a pot of gold. Don’t balk at the price; chanterelle mushrooms are always worth it. Buy more than you need, serve up some in a hearty breakfast of baked eggs with chanterells and chard, then fry the rest in butter and freeze for use at a later date. Lots of other wild mushrooms are in their hay-day during this season as well, like morels. Try them in a morel risotto.

5. Fennel

I often feel that fennel is a forgotten vegetable. But it certainly shouldn’t be. Fennel is a great source of Vitamin C, perfect for fending off the colds that can start to pop up at this time of year, and good for digestion. If you score some at the farmers market, simply dice, throw in a pan, top with olive oil and some herbs and roast like you would root vegetables. You can also shave the fennel and use in a soup (carrot perhaps?) or make a fennel relish.

6. Pears

Much like apples, pears can play double duty in the kitchen, a versatile fruit that’s meant to be experimented with. It’s as good in a crisp as it is right off the tree. Roast a few pears and add them to scones, into gluten-free polenta scones, or simply add to a seasonal salad

7. Eggplant

A fresh eggplant is a beautiful thing. Smooth with a glorious color, it’s practically asking to be turned into something delicious. Slice, roast in the oven and layer the slices with goat cheese for an eggplant stack, or combine with quinoa and lentils for healthy vegetarian burgers. Bought too much of it? Pickle it. You can even make a vegan bacon out of it.

8. Brussel Sprouts

Brussels sprouts have for a long time gotten a bad reputation, probably on account of being served overcooked one too many times. But that ends now. Roast them in the oven and you’ll get a sweet, caramelized flavor, or braise them in mustard. Buy them straight on the stalk – they last longer that way, and look more striking as well.

9. Cauliflower

Why people don’t eat more cool-weather loving cauliflower is beyond me. In fact roasted cauliflower is right up their with french fries in my book, and much better for you. Or try it in a cauliflower mash, a raw and healthy alternative to regular mashed potatoes.

10. Parsnips

Fall is the time for root vegetables, and while the potato is a commonly sought after tuber, parsnip gets left in the dust. Rich in potassium and a good source of fiber, they shouldn’t be passed up during your farmers market vegetable raid. The parsnip makes for an excellent creamy soup (especially with the addition of roasted garlic), a healthy chip to satisfy a junk food craving, and as a raw salad with carrots.

Related on EcoSalon:

7 Tips for Farmers Market Shopping Success

Going Local Online: The Rise of the Online Farmers Market

Image: Sarah Sampsel, bjaglin, See-ming Lee, gina pina,

The post Fall Farmers Market Guide: 10 Seasonal Products and Recipe Ideas appeared first on EcoSalon.