Perfect for Cold Weather or When You're Feeling Sick

On Monday I went into a cooking frenzy after the gym and whipped up an excellent batch of Orange Cauliflower and Squash soup as well as some brown rice pasta with ground buffalo, shallots, and roasted vegetables including fennel, golden beets, shitake mushrooms, and leftover cauliflower from the soup recipe.  These have both proven to be a lifesaver to me since for the remainder of the week I've been a sickie.  Especially the soup - nothing better than warm soup when you're feeling blah.  I followed the recipe pretty much to the letter, although I didn't add the whole head of cauliflower to the pot as I was concerned about the soup boiling over.  I topped it with a quick purple basil pesto which added even more depth to the soup, recipe below.

Find the recipe for the tasty Orange Cauliflower and Squash soup here.

Purple Basil Pesto

Ingredients:
1 bunch of purple pesto (about 1 cup)
1/4 cup lightly toasted pine nuts
1 tsp each salt and pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 to 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Just pack all of the ingredients into a food processor (I used a mini one since it was a small batch) and blend away until all of basil and pine nuts are incorporated into the oil.