This week the focus was on carrots, which are plentiful right now.
One day I took several cups of leftover brown rice and mixed it with lentils, chopped up several carrots in my little mini-food-processor, sliced several green onions, and added close to a cup of sweetened cranberries. I didn't have any cashews or I would have added them. Instead, I added some raw sunflower seeds. Then I made a curried dressing with 1/2 cup mayo and 1/2 cup yogurt, about 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, a little lemon juice, salt, pepper, and mixed in 2 teaspoons turmeric, 1 teaspoon ground coriander, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, and 1 teaspoon garam masala, Frontier Brand, that we get from our co-op (the Common Ground coop in Urbana). To be honest, if I'd had curry powder I would have used it, but I didn't have any. I added some sparkling pear cider that we had in the fridge that needed to be used to thin it out. You could add apple juice or even just water, but the slight sweetness the pear cider gave it was really good. This turned out to be a very nice salad and it was very good the next day as well.
Chopped up carrots go really well with cold lentils and a dressing of any nationality; I almost made a salad like that tonight but ended up making a cold white bean salad with chopped fresh basil, cherry tomatoes cut in half, sliced green onions (did you guess those are also in season?) and a simple dressing with lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and finely chopped capers (I don't like them whole but I love the flavor they give when I mince them).
We tried a new kind of rice. We got it here in Champaign at Am-ko, and it is partially hulled brown rice. It still has 3 grams of fiber, and a nice chewy texture, but it isn't quite as chewy as regular brown rice, and I have to say it goes over big with the children. It feels like cheating a bit but it really is good. I used it again in a recipe I have for risotto with lemon, greens, and nutmeg, and it worked great as a substitute for Arborio rice, and it has more fiber than Arborio rice.
More carrot ideas: We made some really good carrot pancakes. I found the recipe when I was visiting the amazing blog of one of our CSA customers, which you can visit at http://veganlinda.blogspot.com/. The original carrot pancake recipe can be found at http://theppk.com/2010/11/carrot-cake-pancakes/ (this is the Post Punk Kitchen site). We made this with a gluten-free flour mix. If you're using a gluten-free mix I'd recommend a fairly hearty one with either brown rice flour or if you don't mind it, bean flour, because the one I used was a little fragile and wanted to burn before the pancake was cooked through. These need to cook a little longer on a slightly lower heat than your average pancakes. This is a vegan recipe and between the carrots and ground flax made a very nutritious and high fiber breakfast. Of course, we put maple syrup on them, well, my daughter did. I just ate them plain because they were already pretty sweet and delicious. Next time I'd serve them with plain sweetened yogurt (I use stevia, which works pretty well in dairy products, I think) mixed with a little vanilla extract (or store bought vanilla yogurt, or some other flavor--apricot comes to mind). For that matter, stewed fruit would be great with these.
Another day I made brown rice couscous with carrots and green beans. Sadly, this stuff just isn't as good as brown rice itself. Kind of boring. But I guess it's a good base for a really soupy stew or something it could soak up. However, the sliced carrots and pieces of fresh green beans that I cooked right in the broth with the couscous were really good and I like the idea in general of cooking carrots with grains.
Kale is still coming from the garden and farm. This week I made a dish that reminded me of Spain. I sauteed 1 onion in 2 tablespoons of olive oil with several slices of chopped Canadian bacon (from the Moore's local family farm, purchased at the Urbana Saturday Farmer's Market) until they were quite soft and starting to brown, then added blanched, squeezed, and chopped kale, and sauteed that for awhile. We had this with a mess of boiled, peeled, and sliced fresh beets from the farm that we served with a simple dressing of apple cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Coming soon: the onslaught of the summer squash...don't worry, there really are ways to use all that zucchini!
One day I took several cups of leftover brown rice and mixed it with lentils, chopped up several carrots in my little mini-food-processor, sliced several green onions, and added close to a cup of sweetened cranberries. I didn't have any cashews or I would have added them. Instead, I added some raw sunflower seeds. Then I made a curried dressing with 1/2 cup mayo and 1/2 cup yogurt, about 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, a little lemon juice, salt, pepper, and mixed in 2 teaspoons turmeric, 1 teaspoon ground coriander, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, and 1 teaspoon garam masala, Frontier Brand, that we get from our co-op (the Common Ground coop in Urbana). To be honest, if I'd had curry powder I would have used it, but I didn't have any. I added some sparkling pear cider that we had in the fridge that needed to be used to thin it out. You could add apple juice or even just water, but the slight sweetness the pear cider gave it was really good. This turned out to be a very nice salad and it was very good the next day as well.
Chopped up carrots go really well with cold lentils and a dressing of any nationality; I almost made a salad like that tonight but ended up making a cold white bean salad with chopped fresh basil, cherry tomatoes cut in half, sliced green onions (did you guess those are also in season?) and a simple dressing with lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and finely chopped capers (I don't like them whole but I love the flavor they give when I mince them).
We tried a new kind of rice. We got it here in Champaign at Am-ko, and it is partially hulled brown rice. It still has 3 grams of fiber, and a nice chewy texture, but it isn't quite as chewy as regular brown rice, and I have to say it goes over big with the children. It feels like cheating a bit but it really is good. I used it again in a recipe I have for risotto with lemon, greens, and nutmeg, and it worked great as a substitute for Arborio rice, and it has more fiber than Arborio rice.
More carrot ideas: We made some really good carrot pancakes. I found the recipe when I was visiting the amazing blog of one of our CSA customers, which you can visit at http://veganlinda.blogspot.com/. The original carrot pancake recipe can be found at http://theppk.com/2010/11/carrot-cake-pancakes/ (this is the Post Punk Kitchen site). We made this with a gluten-free flour mix. If you're using a gluten-free mix I'd recommend a fairly hearty one with either brown rice flour or if you don't mind it, bean flour, because the one I used was a little fragile and wanted to burn before the pancake was cooked through. These need to cook a little longer on a slightly lower heat than your average pancakes. This is a vegan recipe and between the carrots and ground flax made a very nutritious and high fiber breakfast. Of course, we put maple syrup on them, well, my daughter did. I just ate them plain because they were already pretty sweet and delicious. Next time I'd serve them with plain sweetened yogurt (I use stevia, which works pretty well in dairy products, I think) mixed with a little vanilla extract (or store bought vanilla yogurt, or some other flavor--apricot comes to mind). For that matter, stewed fruit would be great with these.
Another day I made brown rice couscous with carrots and green beans. Sadly, this stuff just isn't as good as brown rice itself. Kind of boring. But I guess it's a good base for a really soupy stew or something it could soak up. However, the sliced carrots and pieces of fresh green beans that I cooked right in the broth with the couscous were really good and I like the idea in general of cooking carrots with grains.
Kale is still coming from the garden and farm. This week I made a dish that reminded me of Spain. I sauteed 1 onion in 2 tablespoons of olive oil with several slices of chopped Canadian bacon (from the Moore's local family farm, purchased at the Urbana Saturday Farmer's Market) until they were quite soft and starting to brown, then added blanched, squeezed, and chopped kale, and sauteed that for awhile. We had this with a mess of boiled, peeled, and sliced fresh beets from the farm that we served with a simple dressing of apple cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Coming soon: the onslaught of the summer squash...don't worry, there really are ways to use all that zucchini!
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