This year we managed to go apple picking again. It was a perfect fall day with mild temperatures and blue skies. We had so much fun and ended up with a huge amount of apples. While I love eating them almost every day, there are just too many of them. The best way to use up a lot of apples? Applesauce! We like to mix the sauce into yogurt or our morning oatmeal and sometimes it will even end up in a cake. This version has a nice little zip of ginger since I’m really into using ginger with fruits these days.

To complement the pudding I served it with gingery honey poached pears, which made this the perfect dessert – a little fancy with the pear, but nice fall flavours and the punch of ginger complemented the creamy pudding beautifully.

You can find the slow-cooked rice pudding recipe on Ricardo’s and the pears below.

This post is sponsored. I was paid by Ricardo to write this post and help promote his brand in English Canada. All opinions are my own and I chose the recipe and adapted it to my needs.

The meatballs are juicy, the sesame seeds give a bit of crunch and the ginger, lemon grass and hoisin give the meal a wonderful flavour. I pair the meatballs with egg noodles, which makes it an easy sell for my kids. But this would work with any kind of Chinese noodles or you could serve the meatballs on their own at a party.

During this time of extensive baking and lots of comfort food, I was craving some colour and a little healthy zing. I had a generous amount of butternut squash lying around in my fridge, as well as a can of coconut milk in my pantry that had been lingering for quite some time. Butternut squash soup seemed like the perfect solution – it’s nice and comforting, but I added a bit of Asian flavour to it for a different spin on a classic.

I don’t usually follow a recipe for my soups – that’s the beauty of a soup, you can throw in most anything and end of up with a great meal. Here is roughly what I did, but feel free to adapt. We served the soup with naan bread and I ate it cold the next day which was great as well. My daughter loved it and my son didn’t touch it, which was to be expected because it’s a vegetable.

Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut and Ginger

• 2 pounds of butternut squash, cubed
• 1 generous tablespoon of minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons of minced ginger
• 1 tablespoon of minced lemongrass
• 1/2 tablespoon of minced chilli
• water
• salt and pepper
• cilantro (optional)

Heat the oil in a deep soup pot, add garlic and cook until fragrant – less than a minute. Add the butternut squash and toss until covered in the oil and garlic, let warm a couple of minutes. Add the coconut milk, ginger, lemongrass, chilli and stir well. Add a bit of water to cover all the squash.

Cover with lid and let it cook on medium-high until squash is soft and breaks apart easily with a spatula. Use a immersion blender to smooth soup (If you don’t have an immersion blender, use a regular blender and blend it in batches. Watch out with the hot liquid). Once smooth, decide if you are happy with the consistency or add a bit of liquid if you like your soup not to be too thick. Season generously with salt and pepper. Serve with chopped cilantro. Enjoy hot or cold.