Carrot-Asparagus Salad

Yesterday I was volunteering at the Ferry Building Farmers Market Info booth, and on my lunch break I started roaming around looking at the goodies. I was very startled by the colors that were to be found in carrots!

Colorful Carrots

This vendor (I forget who!) was sending bunch of carrots that contained 4 different colors of carrots: white, yellow, orange and dark red-purple. I bought 3 of those bunches. I figured that it would look great in a salad! That same vendor had lemon cucumbers! I love those! So I bought 6. On my way back to the Info booth, I came across baby fennel. I thought it looked cute (don’t judge, I like cute foods) so I bought some.

After a while back in my Info booth, I started looking at the vendor across from me. He had thin and thick asparagus and I was trying to decided if I wanted to stir fry or grill asparagus, but wait there are purple asparagus. Huh? I kept looking, and trying to find a way to escape my booth as his supplies were quickly dwindling. I finally grabbed on of those guys who work at the market to have him cover for me and bought the last two! The vendor told me that those are tender and sweeter than the green ones and can be eaten raw. He also told me that cooking too long would leach the color out of them.

I took it all home and today I decided to do something with it. My idea was a salad, but I was making it in the morning to eat at night. I didn’t want the veggies to dry out. I decided to just lightly steam the carrots and the asparagus to brighten the colors. That worked well for the carrots, but it leached out most of the purple out of my asparagus. Next time I am not steaming them at all!

Still my salad turned out to be delicious and I think, beautiful. I had planned to use cilantro and green onion in it, but after tasting the baby fennel, I decided to use flat leaf parsley instead of the cilantro, and to skip the green onion altogether. Here’s how it went:

Carrot-asparagus Salad
4 servings

2 bunches of  thin carrots, quartered length-wise
1 bunch purple asparagus, sliced
1 baby fennel, thinly sliced
Handful parsley, chopped
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

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2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp mashed garlic

Steam carrots for 2 minutes, rinse in cold water to stop cooking, drain well and dry with a paper towel. Put in a large salad bowl. Steam asparagus for 1 minute, rinse and drain well. Add to the bowl.

Add fennel, parsley, zest, 1 tsp olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss well, refrigerate.

Mix dressing ingredients very well, add to salad at the very last minute.

Nutritional Information* (about 1 cup): Calories 139.6; fat 4.0g; Carbs 25.6g; Fiber 7.7g; Proteins 3.2g.

Source: My brain!

*Nutritional information is calculated using various online calculators and given for informational purpose only. I cannot guarantee 100% accuracy.

I totally love those dark carrots! They are so neat looking with their darker outer skin and paler inside flesh. Very cool looking!

That salad was really satisfying, I think my decision to make it with parsley rather than cilantro was a good one. I served it for lunch with lemon cucumber and a chopped tomato. For dinner we had it with bulgur and chicken. A winner for sure! And healthy to boot! ;op

“Summer in a bowl” Gazpacho

How’s that for a name? I always loved the idea of a gazpacho, but couldn’t seem to find one that fitted my taste. It was always too sweet, not sweet enough, too spicy, not spicy enough. I’m preparing a little presentation about “Packing Up Summer Foods” and really, what’s better for a packed lunch, or a picnic, than a gazpacho right? So I decided to just start over and invent my own.

How summery does that look?

My criterias were simple: I wanted a soup that would be sweet, fresh with a bit of a bite to it. It had to be low calories, low fat, low carbs and finally, it had to be simple and quick to make. Litterally, I created this recipe at a cafe, sipping on a coffee and then brought it in my kitchen to try out and modify. It’s the first time I do it that way rather than invent as I’m cooking, and it was a lot of fun!

I love handling ingredients. Real food!

Not only it was fun, but it turned out to be absolutely delicious. Honestly, to my taste, it is the best Gazpacho I have ever had! I knew I wanted mango for sweetness, cucumber and cilantro for freshness, and a Serrano pepper for spiciness. Those were my start point, and here’s what I ended up with:

“Summer in a Bowl”  Gazpacho
4 servings

So good, and quick!

Ingredients
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 English cucumber, chopped,
2 green onions, chopped
1 small yellow bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup red onion, minced
1 Serrano pepper, minced (I remove about 1/2 of the seeds to cut spiciness)
1 mango, pitted, peeled, chopped
1/3 cilantro, coarsely chopped (to taste)
Juice and zest of 1/2 orange (I used cara, but navel would do)
3 medium tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

I like to mix veggies before processing.

Mix chopped vegetables (all but tomatoes*) in a big bowl. Process in batches in a blender or a chopper (see Tool Note), along with the orange juice, until it’s pretty homogeneous, but still slightly chunky.

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Can't have too much cilantro!

Add cilantro and orange zest, salt and pepper and process some more. If you are preparing it to serve the following day, or even much later in the day, stop there and refrigerate until ready to serve, or to pack.

Orange zest is smoother than lemon.

Just before serving (or packing), finely chop tomatoes, add to the soup, and mix. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Chopping by hand is prettier I think.

Nutritional Information* (about 1 cup): Calories 83; fat 0.6g; Carbs 19.5g; Fiber 4g; Proteins 2g.

Source: My brain!

*Nutritional information is calculated using various online calculators and given for informational purpose only. I cannot guarantee 100% accuracy.

Blending is faster, but you do lose the look.

* If you want to serve the soup right away, or if you don’t mind refrigerating the tomatoes (I try not to as it kill their taste) then just coarsely chop them and throw them in the blender with the rest of the veggies.

Tool Note: I used my trusty handheld blender with the chopped attachment for this. This one is very old  (6 years at least) and has been used and abused a lot, and yet it is still going. Honestly, I got rid of most of my kitchen “power tools” after I got this because I use this for everything.

My best friend in the kitchen!

It WAS pricy, I paid about 80 dollars and that was with an employee discount, but I absolutely would spend it again. I do smoothies (with ice), hot and cold soups, chop veggies, anything with this and on it goes. It also has a blender attachment (handheld style), and a whip attachment.

It has at least one more soup to go, right?

It IS starting to sound a little tired, and I’m already starting to look around for a decent replacement, but I’m afraid I might not find such a friend again ;o)

Let me know what you think. I’m totally open to ideas and suggestions, more than open I love it!  As always, my recipes are to be adjusted to your own taste but really, this is deliciously delicious!

Lazy Roasted Vegetables

That night I ended up with a full fridge of pieces of vegetables, left over roasted chicken, and not a lot of energy. I just threw stuff together without really measuring precisely, and it turned out DELICIOUS. Don’t you hate that? How do I replicate it now?

After dinner I noted down what I had put in there and am putting it here to share and so that I can find it again. It is by no means precise measurements, but considering the nature of what it is, I don’t think it needs to be.

Lazy Roasted Vegetables
4 servings

Ingredients
1 small leek, sliced about 1/2 inch thick
1/2 butternut squash, chopped
1/3 orange bell pepper, sliced
1/3 yellow bell pepper, sliced
15 thin asparagus spears, chopped
2 tsp garam masala, divided
1 tsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp lime juice, divided
1 tsp tomato paste
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Olive oil spray bottle
Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 F, on a cookie sheet, spread butternut squash, leek and bell peppers. Spray lightly with olive oil, sprinkle with 1 1/2 tsp garam masala, salt and pepper. Spray again lightly and put in the oven for about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, mix the remaining garam masala, the tomato paste, the olive oil, the garlic and 1 tsp of the lime juice in a small bowl and mix well. Pour about 1 tsp of the mixture on the asparagus and toss to coat.

After 15 minutes, take out the cookie sheet from the oven, add the asparagus and drizzle the remainder of the tomato paste mixture on top the the vegetables. Toss lightly and cook for another 15 or so minutes*.

*I raised the temperature to 425 F  at that point and the veggies were just right to my taste. It depend on your oven, and how cooked you like your roasted vegetables. It also depend on how in a hurry you are!

Nutritional Information*: Calories 70.4; fat 1.7; Carbs 14.3; Fiber 3.3; Proteins 1.8
Source: My brain!

*Nutritional information is calculated using various online calculators and given for informational purpose only. I cannot guarantee 100% accuracy.