A warm and comforting soupy grain bowl is one of those grain bowls or protein bowls sought after during cool weather season, which is right now.
If Leftover Chicken Breast Salad can be prepared in 20 minutes, why not this Chicken Veggies Rice Soup?
The major difference between this Cabbage, Woodear Mushrooms Salad and the regular raw veggie salad is: these finely julienned/thinly sliced vegetables (including the mushrooms) are blanched to cook - vegetables become warm, tender and infuses deeper with sesame oil-based dressing.
It is not officially summer at point of writing but we are beginning to experience bouts of heat wave. What comes to mind are summer-ready and heat-wave friendly chilled salads such as Coleslaw, Celery and Dates Salad, Grapes and Radish Salad, Tomato, Cucumber and Feta Cheese Salad, Watermelon and Feta Cheese Salad.
Today, this Celery Carrot Tofu Salad is an improved, easier to prepare version, better than this celery tofu recipe.
During the cold winter months, we still have our vegetables but MAKE IT BETTER.
YESsss! Spice them up!
Vegetables curries like this Roasted Vegetables Spiced Curry or Sayur Lodeh-style Vegetable Curry are exceptionally satisfying during this time of the year as the spices warm us up from the inside (our belly!) to the outside.
This is an easy one-pot recipe for a comforting mildly-spiced vegetable curry.
This 3C Rice Porridge/Congee cannot be bought with Cash or Credit Card. It is homecooked and worth many carats...or rather, carrots.
A fuss-free 3C - Carrots, Celery, Cod Fish Porridge/Congee recipe that you can easily make at home, this porridge/congee stands alone as one-dish meal consisting of vegetables (carrots, celery), proteins (fish) and carbs (rice/ grains).
The carrots add subtle sweetness and celery, a tender crunch to the savory cod fish porridge/congee.
Pillars of the dry pantry, beans is a great source of plant-protein, fiber, essential vitamins and minerals. Raw and bought in bulk, they are super budget-friendly. Canned and cooked, they can be used straight out of the can, particularly time-saving when building healthy and nutritious vegetarian veggie bowls.
Pinto Beans Veggie (Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrot) Bowl
My pantry stocks a variety of canned beans or lentils including chickpea/garbanzo beans, black beans, navy beans, pinto beans, red kidney beans, even black soybeans.
When I came across the term "Alimentary Yakisoba", I was puzzled for a while, not knowing what "Alimentary" meant until I tried to find out later that it meant "relating to nourishment or nutrition". But, is there a reason why "alimentary" is tagged with "yakisoba"? I wonder if there is a special connotation or meaning.
This dish uses "Yakisoba" noodles but you can replace with your favorite noodle variety e.g. Ramen or Udon. As the base-sauce for this noodle stir-fry is developed from simmering five-spice tofu (Hodo brand) and mushrooms, the noodles are infused with the five-spice flavors from the simmered tofu which makes it essentially Five-Spice Stir-Fry Noodles.
I would never have imagined combining carrots and okra in a same dish unless it is stew where both ingredients are cooked in such a order that renders stewed carrots similar in texture to stewed okra in the final dish.
After recent experiments e.g. Ratatouille-Inspired Roasted Vegetables and Roasted Vegetables Spiced Curry in roasting that attempted to fully load the oven, I found that carrots and okra do come in unison when
roasted tender.
Sweet roasted carrots and smoky roasted okra taste delicious and hearty, and a good accompaniment side dish to roasted entree - chicken or fish.
Traditional ratatouille, the stew, starts with a base of tomatoes, garlic, onions, spices and seasonings with layers of vegetables e.g. eggplant, bell peppers, cooked in the base, then finished off either in the oven or over the stove-top.
What you are seeing here today may not be traditional ratatouille but to capture the spirit of French chef and restaurateur - Joël Robuchon of The Complete Robuchon: "The secret of a good ratatouille is to cook the vegetables separately so each will taste truly of itself".
This is how the roasted vegetables in this recipe are done. Seasoned and cooked in separate trays within a single oven roast, so that when they are combined in a single dish, each vegetable will taste truly of itself.
Similarly, the tomatoes are also "cooked" separately in a "no-cook" way - immersed in extra virgin olive oil, garlic, and basil, salt and black pepper.
Ratatouille is usually served as a side dish, but may also be served as a meal on its own (accompanied by pasta, rice or bread).
These organic rainbow carrots are so attractive and I was instantly drawn to them. Though carrots are available all-year round, fall/autumn is supposedly, or officially, carrots season.
Before roasting
Other than the regular orange carrot
we all know, there are also purple and yellow carrots in this organic rainbow bag (available in my local Sprouts Farmer's Market @$1.99/2-lbs bag). Rainbow carrots is a breed of heirloom carrots naturally created from heirloom yellow and purple carrot seeds, and known to be sweeter than regular orange carrots.
Roasting, with a light drizzle of olive oil, came to mind when it came to meal preparation. Not only it is a quick and easy way to make available the fat-soluble beta-carotene and polyphenols in carrots, the roasting process also concentrates the sugars and brings out the natural
sweetness.
Other than roasting carrots, stir-frying carrots and perhaps making a pureed all-carrot soup in which carrot shines as a main ingredient (not just a subset ingredient of a dish), this everyday ingredient can also make an omelette taste all natural sweet in an entirely savory dish. Delicious! I have done Daikon Omelette previously and the sweetness does not come close. Thanks to sweet grated carrots!
Watch how a professional chef cook a fluffy delicious carrot omelette. If you notice, the Chinese-style omelette resembles a frittata - the egg is golden brown on the outside with crisp edges; a little different from the Western-style breakfast omelette which is usually more moist throughout.
Note: Two dishes are showcased in this video (Carrot Omelette and Shrimps Asparagus Stir-Fry)
I have been using more and more onions in my everyday cooking. From 2-3 medium-size onions for every week's grocery shopping, to 4-6 onions. With an average of half or more onion used in any single dish, the onions in my pantry can be used up really fast!
Onions contain flavonoids such as quercetin and anthocyanins, with anti-inflammatory benefits. Not only onions offer a range of health benefits, they easily flavor a simple stir-fry of carrots and green (French) beans so well!
This easy Stir-Fry Carrots & French Beans 清炒胡萝卜 is inspired by Little Corner of Mine's Easy Stir-Fried Carrots. I never thought of using carrots as the main ingredient in a side dish. This is indeed budget-friendly, nutritious and tasty!
To scale up to a one-dish, add more greens such as kale and add more bulk by adding green beans. Then add noodles and out comes a one-dish stir-fry noodles!
Sharing with Hearth and Soul.
Other French Beans recipes:
Garlic Haricot Verts
French Beans,Woodear Mushrooms and Ginger Stir-Fry
Garlic French Beans with Toasted Sesame Seeds
French Beans Egg Fritters
Tag: vegetarian noodles, stir fry carrots
These two ingredients actually landed unexpectedly in my kitchen. 5lb carrots and thyme.
5lb of organic carrots because it was on-sale for just $2.99 and thyme because it was growing (...and growing) in the garden.
Initially, I had some reservations about the quantity of carrots I bought. However after looking it up that carrots store well in the refrigerator (can be up to 3 months! Yay!) and they actually produce more Vitamin A as they store, those worries were gone.
Roasted Carrots with Thyme 百里香红萝卜
Slice the carrots thinly, drizzle and coat with olive oil, toss with finely chopped thyme, season with salt and ground black pepper, then roast in oven (375F for about 30-40mins) till they are cooked.
If you prefer a more robust flavor, you can toss in some finely minced garlic once the carrots are removed from the oven. The heat from the carrots will soften and mellow the garlic.
The sweetness of the carrots is being accentuated in the roasting process (which gets rid of the moisture at the same time) - a perfect side dish anytime, especially for the holidays.
Sharing this with Hearth and Soul.
Tag: carrots, thyme, roasted carrots
If zucchini cakes fritters can be in ubiquitous existence, why not carrot fritters ?
And they can be made into little cuties and button up with a platter of zucchini and carrot minis.
I tried this dish, prepared by my parents' helper, during my earlier visit to Singapore this year. The dish was so simple - a plateful of ground meat with dark brown sauce. But it was SO DELICIOUS. So savory sweet! It was similar to the 肉燥 (braised or stewed minced meat) I have tried in Taiwan but her version has certainly more depth in flavors, more intense, very moist and juicy too. I asked her what made the dish sweet - she said: carrots! Oh, carrots!? I could not believe it! I never ever associated 肉燥 (braised or stewed minced meat) with carrots. She also told me she used a special (thicker) soy sauce* - which I never probe further because knowing myself too well, I will not buy a bottle of seasoning just to cook one particular dish, that in this case, I am naming Simmered/Braised Chicken Meat Sauce.
To what extent would you go, to cook a particular dish? Buy a special seasoning or sauce just for THAT (ONE) DISH? New tool that solely slices potatoes to wafer-thin?
So the SECRET is the carrot and to grate them very fine. Then fry them with garlic, (lots of) shallots; and fry with ground meat. I reconstructed the gravy using soy sauce, brown sugar and honey for the ground meat to simmer in.
Finally, I was close in replicating the dish. It was as delicious as what I ate at home. This dish is perfect with steamed rice. You can see that the grated carrot has "melted" into the sauce.
