5 Ingredients

I was given the challenge of making a recipe that uses only five ingredients. This may seem very easy, but boy oh boy I sure do love my pantry. Its is just so full of things calling out to me to add into a recipe. Making a baked good vegan calls for a few more ingredients then a regular baked good because you can't add an egg in and such. So a savory dish was going to be easy (as long as you count salt and pepper not as ingredients, I figure everyone has those so they shouldn't count in the five) and it was, but a sweet dessert dish was going to be much harder.

So for the five ingredient challenge I choose to make a soup and some chocolate mousse. I didn't take pictures while making the soup, but the process it just like the carrot ginger soup I made, and the chocolate mousse is so crazy easy and requires only 3 ingredients! HA!

Parsnip Soup

2 medium parsnips, cubed
1/4 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon oil
1/2 teaspoon coriander
3/4 cup vegetable broth
1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a pan, add in the onion and let it brown slightly. Add in the parsnips and let them cook for 5 minutes. Add in the coriander and salt and pepper and continue to cook for another 5 minutes. Add in the veggie broth and simmer for 20 minutes or until the parsnips are soft and tender. Puree the soup, add in extra water if needed. Reheat and serve.

I topped my soup with fresh parsley and I had a side of tomatoes. If you do not like parsnips you probably will not like this soup. But if you have never had them, try it because the soup brings out the natural sweetness of the parsnip root.

What to eat for dessert, well how about some chocolate mousse!

Chocolate Mousse

1 small/medium sized banana, very ripe (mine is usually a defrosted frozen one, because I always have them in the freezer)
2 tablespoons nut butter of choice (I have tried peanut butter and almond butter)
3 tablespoons cacao powder (cocoa powder I like Hershey's extra dark), plus a little extra if needed
toppings

Mash the banana.

Add in the nut butter.

Add in the cacao powder, more if necessary.

You want it to be thick, but it doesn't really stick to the sides anymore.

Place in a dish and top with what you like. I usually top with raisins and white chocolate chips. Ok so if you add in the toppings it does come out to be five ingredients.

Yum!

Since I have been enjoying my pumpkin kick recently, I have been coming up with a few pumpkin recipes. Right now I am coming up with a black bean pumpkin chili because I have been seeing a lot of pumpkin chili recipes out there, hum....