Sometimes life gives you too many carrots and a muffin craving.
Tag: low fat
Last Friday night I made a light dinner, this would be perfect for a main course of a large meal, or as a lunch. I didn’t immediately think that the orange would work with curry spices but it really was a fantastic flavour combination. And super healthy.
It’s Sunday and I’ve still got all the vegetables from my organic box on Tuesday! So before the next batch arrives I have been trying to desperately come up with quick recipes to use all my veg up. After trying coriander flowers on my Broccoli soup last week, I decided to create a soup really determined to bring those subtle flavours out.
Carrot and Coriander Soup, garnished with coriander flowers
A new week, a new box of vegetables, and a brand new veg to try! This week I received another wonderful batch of organic vegetables including the kohlrabi, which is a turnip-y cabbage-y wonderful raw or cooked vegetable.
Kohlrabi is the turnip looking thing in the middle
Purple is my favourite colour. Last winter I had a purple coat (I got some pretty amazing compliments about it in Seattle – do Americans not have purple jackets?) I also had about 5 purple tops, a couple of purple dresses and the most amazing purple shoes. (I even had a pair of purple tights… but we won’t go into that.)
Even though going through an extreme purple phase I never ate anything purple. It’s not a colour I associate with food, especially not savoury meals. So when I got beetroot in my organic box this week and started looking into what new things I could do with it. Browsing online this purple risotto jumped out at me!
Strikingly purple beetroot risotto
Largely based on the same recipe as my Low Fat Beef Stir-fry this has the surprising addition of broccoli. A version of this recipe was one of the first things my fiancee ever made me for dinner. While I have never been a broccoli-hater, I had relegated it to something to be boiled and put as a side vegetable. This dish made me see that Broccoli can be a main star. If you don’t believe me you’ll just have to try it and see.
Cooking the Broccoli
The number of times I have made really bad beef stir fry has meant that now I have actually made a really good one I feel the need to post the recipe! However this time I did it a bit differently, and it was worth it.
- The first thing I did differently was to buy a great cut of meat, a fillet steak. While you might think it a waste to stir-fry a fillet steak, this was by far the best change I made. Admittedly if I had been deep frying the beef in the stir-fry it would have been a crime, but by keeping it healthy (or at least healthier, it didn’t compromise the taste).
- I marinaded the Beef for 8 hours. This meant that it was succulent and melt in the mouth.
- I tend to overcook everything, and I made sure this time that the beef was cut really thinly so that it would cook quickly in the heat, this way it didn’t dry out and become tough.
From now on I think I’ll try to stick to these rules as much as possible, although maybe I’ll try downgrading the cut of beef, the fillet was perfect but really can only afford it for special occasions.
