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Trying to eat more veggies, but tired of the same old dishes? I was feeling this way over the weekend, so I dreamed up a recipe for a roasted vegetable salad with feta that ended up being out of this world.

roasted vegetables

I started with a giant sweet potato, a yellow onion, a peeled eggplant, a bunch of carrots, and some butternut squash chunks, cutting and peeling everything as needed. After tossing them in oil, I put the carrots, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash into a 420 degree oven to get started while I prepped the dressing.

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red pepper flakes, coriander, cumin

The dressing was really full of flavors and textures which made this veggie dish so enjoyable. I used about a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, a teaspoon of coriander seeds, crushed, and a half teaspoon of cumin. I absolutely love coriander, so I kept some of the seeds whole, roughly crushing them in a bowl with the back of a spoon.

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One of the other key ingredients in the dressing was a fig jam that was in my swag bag from the Boston Food Blogger launch party.

fig jam

To a little bowl, I added a teaspoon of the jam, the spices, and about a half cup of balsamic vinegar. Then I streamed in olive oil until the dressing tasted just right.

balsamic and fig jam

When the veggies were soft and browned, roasted to perfection, I scooped them into bowls and poured some of the dressing over them, tossing to coat all of the warm vegetables.

roasted vegetables

I cut up a bit of Athenos feta to sprinkle over the top.

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And sat down with a glass of wine and a really satisfying dinner. I planned on heating up some chicken sausage with these veggies, but I ended up pretty full from them.

roasted vegetables

Do you like roasted vegetables? What are your favorite veggies to roast?

Tags: butternut squash, carrots, eggplant, feta cheese, healthy, healthy food, healthy recipes, onion, roasted vegetables, salad, spices, sweet potato, vegan option, Vegetarian, vegetarian recipe, veggies

As is the case with many healthy eaters, salads make up a large part of my diet. I have been known to have salads, with various veggie, bean, meat, and cheese toppings twice a day. But as I know many of you have found, eating salads in the winter is more difficult due to lack of local produce and salad’s general lack of warmth and comfort. Since we had yet another snow day this week, I decided to make a hearty lunch salad for my husband, who had spent over three hours in the car trying to get to his office, only to end up turning back home because of the icy roads.

I started by thawing out some frozen yellow and orange carrots from Trader Joe’s. On the particular day I bought these, TJ’s had icky looking produce. I am not sure what was up that day, but nevertheless, I went straight for the freezer.

yellow and orange carrots

The base of the salad was a Near East tabouli bulgur wheat salad mix. I prepared the bulgur wheat and spice packet according to the box directions, then set it aside.

tabbouleh ingredients

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While the tabouli waited, I diced a small yellow onion and grated several teaspoons of ginger.

cumin

I added a palm full of cumin to the onion and ginger mixture, then sautéed it in olive oil. I added the carrots to the onions in the pan, then tossed in some pre-soaked and partially cooked chickpeas.

chickpeas

When the carrots were warm and the pan sizzling, I added the tabouli mixture along with about 1/4 cup of water, stirred well, and let it all simmer.

warm tabbouleh salad

When everything was well-blended and cooked through, I served up the salad topped with crumbled goat cheese and golden raisins. I am loving these raisins and the sweet punch they bring to dishes with lots of spices.

goat cheese and raisins

As you can imagine, this dish was bursting with different flavors and textures. The hearty bulgur wheat was nice and chewy and provided a great canvas for the other ingredients. While I didn’t make the tabouli mix in a traditional manner, I loved this dish and felt like it really gave me energy which I seem to be lacking these days.

I am starting to feel a serious winter slump. As much as I love the possibilities my new career path could provide, being stuck inside all day with dreadful weather and icy sidewalks is bringing me down.

Any advice for kicking the winter blues?

Tags: carrots, chickpeas, cooking, ginger, health, healthy, healthy eating, recipe, recipe. tabouli, recipes, vegan, Vegetarian, winter cooking, winter recipes, winter salad

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