Category Archives: Carrots

Dinner Tonight: Red Lentil and Sausage Soup

Posted on January 25, 2012 by kerry

I’ve been really into the crock-pot recently. It’s so nice to come home and know that dinner is ready with just a little preparation the evening before. Plus, it’s one pot so it makes clean up a snap (for Sean since I rarely do dishes.)

We’ve also been trying to pare down our pantry and use ingredients we already have. In this case, we had a bunch of lentils and a bunch of potatoes, carrots, and kale from our Boston Organics boxes. And we recently stocked up on spices at Penzey’s so we had plenty of flavor agents. We only needed to purchase chicken stock, canned tomatoes, and sausage for this super healthy, filling, and tasty meal.

In my experience, you just never know how something will actually turn out in a crock-pot. It’s a bit of a roll of the dice (did I put in enough liquid? too much liquid? will everything disintegrate to mush? will the beans still be crunchy?) This recipe came out awesome! On a scale of 1-10, I gave it an 8 1/2; Sean gave it an 8. The lentils broke down during the cooking which made the consistency super creamy; the potato and carrot were perfectly tender without being mushy and the sausage kept its integrity and flavor. Coming home after our 2 mile walk with the dogs to a huge bowl of this soup made the end of the day a happy one.

Red Lentil and Sausage Soup
Serves 6-8

Comfort food that's *really* good for you!

1 medium onion, diced small
2 large carrots, diced small
5 cloves garlic, minced
4 small potatoes, diced small
1/2 lb. ground sweet Italian sausage.
1 bunch of kale, cleaned, stemmed, and chopped
2 cups dried red lentils
1, 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1, 28 oz. can water
1 quart chicken stock
2 tbsp. smoked Spanish paprika
2 tsp. dried basil
2 tsp. dried thyme
Salt, to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese, to taste
Crushed red pepper, to taste

In a large crock-pot, combine the onion, carrots, garlic, lentils, potato, and kale. Make mini-meatballs out of the ground sausage. I was able to purchase bulk sausage, but if I couldn’t find that, I would remove the casing of sausage links and make that into meatballs. Add the meatballs to the crock-pot. Add the tomatoes, water, and chicken stock. Add the paprika, basil, and thyme. Stir to combine. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Taste and add salt to your liking. Serve in large bowls and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper.

Posted in Beans, Carrots, Comfort Food, Cuisine, Healthy, Kale, Main Dish, Meat, Potatoes, Potatoes, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Sausage, Soup, Vegetables | 1 Comment

Dinner Tonight: Asian Chicken Salad

Posted on January 15, 2012 by kerry

What a great weekend. On Friday, I decided to bake some cupcakes — my friends on Facebook helped me choose between lime and coconut or lemon with raspberry icing. Lime and coconut won the Facebook vote. I was leaning that way anyway because I’m getting excited for our trip to St. Martin in March where I expect to drink lots and lots of limey, coconut-y rum drinks! I spent the rest of the night watching Pretty in Pink and Project Runway. Love lazy Fridays!

This is my dessert tonight!

On Saturday, we went to a belated holiday party where we took part in a Yankee swap — I lucked up and ended up with a great scarf from Ecolissa. Sean got the new hot game among our friends, Quelf. It’s a pretty silly party game. He broke it out at the party. I sat out and still had a great time just watching. It was HILARIOUS!

Today, we met up with Ana & Jesse for dim sum. They just got back from Brazil where they got engaged! It was great to see them for some congratulatory dumplings. It was Jesse’s first time going to dim sum. I hope he liked it so we can do it more often.

We spent the rest of the weekend working on a project that we’ve been wanting to accomplish for a long time. We are creating a media library using an external media storage drive. Turns out it takes a long time to rip CDs into MP3s — after many hours, we’re still probably not even near half way done. But, it’s a good project to continue through the winter. I’m excited to finally have easy access to all of our music — and to be able to box up our CDs and move them to the basement so they aren’t taking up space.

Before we headed to the party on Saturday, I wanted to fill up on something that was filling and healthy. Like everyone else in the universe, I’m trying to eat healthier after the holidays. I didn’t want to get to the party and eat a bunch of junk. We had half a head of cabbage in the fridge, so I used that as inspiration to make this salad. It’s super fresh, flavorful, and filling. The salad base gets an extra punch from the cilantro and green onions mixed in.

This recipe makes a ton, so we had these for dinner last night and tonight. Plus we have leftover salad mix which we’ll use later in the week for something else (stay tuned!)

Asian Chicken Salad
Makes 6 HUGE Salads

GIANT, delicious salad.

Salad
1/2 medium head of cabbage, thinly shredded
1 head romaine lettuce, thinly shredded
2 large carrots, cut julienne
5 green onions/scallions, chopped
1 medium bunch of cilantro, remove the bottom couple of inches of the stem and then roughly chop the bunch
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, poached, cooled, and shredded
1 14oz. package of fettuccine style rice noodles, cooked and cooled (found these at Whole Foods — you could really use any noodles you like.)
3/4 cup of sliced almonds, toasted

Toss all of these ingredients together. If you are going to split this up over multiple meals, hold out the almonds and use them to garnish before each meal.

Dressing
6 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp. honey
3 tbsp. olive oil
3 tsp. soy sauce
3 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
3 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. granulated garlic/garlic powder
1 tsp. sesame oil

Whisk all of these ingredients in a bowl. Or put all of them in a plastic container with a tight fitting lid and shake, shake, shake until everything is well combined (this makes for easy storage for leftovers!)

Posted in Asian, Cabbage, Carrots, Chicken, Cuisine, Healthy, Lettuce, Main Dish, Meat, Pasta, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Starch, Vegetables | 1 Comment

Dinner Tonight: Vegetable Green Curry

Posted on January 12, 2012 by kerry

On Sunday, I did a bunch of cooking — and part of that was making a huge batch of green curry paste. Green curry is one of my favorites when I get Thai food. It’s not difficult to make on your own, but making the paste necessary for the curry does require quite a few ingredients and a little bit of time to whiz them together in the food processor. You can buy it in a jar at the store, but fresh tastes so much better.

I found the recipe that I used on Instructables.com It made A LOT. I froze the curry paste into 30 pucks using my mini-cupcake tins. Now I have at least a year’s supply.

Tonight, I went out for drinks with some co-workers. It was a really fun evening. I didn’t get home until 9:00 — thankfully, I was able to throw together a batch of vegetable green curry in minutes and we were having a healthy albeit late dinner by 9:30.

Vegetable Green Curry
Makes 2 Big Servings

Thank you green curry pucks!

1 tsp. olive oil
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 medium green bell pepper, sliced into strips
2-3 tbsp. green curry paste
1 can light coconut milk
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. Thai fish sauce
1 large sweet potato, diced large
1 carrot, sliced
1/2 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1 can of chick peas
2 cups steamed white rice

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and green peppers and cook for 2-3 minutes until softened. Add the coconut milk, curry paste, brown sugar, salt, and fish sauce. Bring to a boil. Add the vegetables. Cover the skillet and cook for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are cooked through and tender. Add the chick peas and cook for another minute.

Serve over white rice.

Posted in Asian, Carrots, Cauliflower, Cuisine, Healthy, Main Dish, Peppers, Recipe, Sweet Potato, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Leave a comment

Fish Taco Wraps with Simple Slaw

Posted on November 15, 2010 by kerry

Sean and I headed to Albany this weekend for a pre-Thanksgiving celebration while his sister was in town from Reno. We spent Saturday at the New York State Harvest Fest where we sampled lots of NY State wine and foods. Then we had dinner with the family — roast pork, cabbage, latkes, and homemade applesauce.

On the drive home on Sunday morning we discussed our dinner plans. We decided to make fish taco wraps to use up a lot of the stuff we had in the fridge and freezer. Far from a gourmet meal, I bought frozen fish sticks at Whole Foods a few weeks ago (way better than the fish sticks you remember as a kid!) and used those.

Way better than Gortons!

Fish sticks, chimichurri sauce, simple slaw, and avocado. Yum!

I also had a quarter of a head of cabbage and a zillion carrots and red onions, so I whipped up this simple slaw to go with the tacos. I love a little cabbage on my tacos — and it’s fairly traditional when you get tacos from authentic taquerias. I also love slaw on sandwiches for an extra crunch and tang.

A note: I use a special vegetable peeler to shred my carrots. It’s a pretty awesome tool. But you can also just julienne the carrot with a knife — or just buy a package of pre-shredded carrots (I won’t tell!)

Oh yeah, I also baked a whole bunch of cupcakes for work — food porn below.

Simple Slaw
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. honey
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 medium head of cabbage, thinly shredded
1 large carrot, shredded
1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced

In a small bowl, combine vinegar, salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder, and honey with a small whisk. Slowly whisk in canola oil.

In a large bowl, toss together the cabbage carrots, and red onion. Pour the vinaigrette over the shredded vegetables and toss well to combine.

Simple Slaw for Tacos

Cupcakes -- yellow with chocolate icing by popular demand.

Posted in Cabbage, Carrots, Cuisine, Healthy, Mexican, Recipe, Side Dish, Tools & Equipment, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Leave a comment

Ginger Orange Chicken with Green Beans

Posted on April 30, 2009 by kerry

Sean and I just joined Boston Organics. It’s a really great deal for organic fruits and vegetables — and they deliver, to boot! I was pretty excited about it because they send a basically random box every week. I figured it would help me be creative every week in what I make for dinner.

This week, we got green beans and some organic oranges. I’ve noticed those two items go bad fast, so I wanted to use them. We also received 5 pounds of carrots last week and a huge bulb of ginger. Since one of our favorite Chinese take-out dishes is spicy string beans, I decided to try and make something similar with all of these ingredients we need to use up.

Ginger Orange Chicken with Green Beans
Serves 4

3 tbsp. olive oil
1 lb. boneless chicken thighs
1 lb. green beans, trimmed
2 large carrots, sliced on the bias
1 small onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
zest of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange
2 tsp. freshly grated ginger, divided
1 tbsp. rice wine vineger
4 tbsp. soy sauce, divided
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. chili garlic sauce or siracha
2 tbsp. honey

Ginger Orange Chicken with Green Beans Mis En Place

Cut chicken thighs into 1 inch cubes. Put into a bowl and add 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce to season the chicken. Toss to coat. Set aside for 10 minutes.

Mix together half of the ginger, orange juice, orange zest, rice wine vinegar, the rest of the soy sauce, sesame oil, chili garlic sauce, and honey. Whisk to combine. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over high heat. Once the oil is very hot, add the chicken and cook until it’s cooked through — about 7-10 minutes. Remove from skillet. Set aside.

Once you remove the chicken, make sure the pan is still very hot, and add the onions, rest of the ginger, and garlic. Cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the green beans and carrots. Stir fry until the carrots and green beans are al dente, about 10 minutes.

Add the chicken back to the pan and pour in the sauce. Cook uncovered for another 2-3 minutes, stirring, until the sauce is mixed into the chicken and vegetables well and starts to thicken. At this point, if you need to cook the vegetables a little more, cover for a couple of minutes to let the vegetables steam.

Serve over rice.

Posted in Asian, Carrots, Chicken, Cuisine, Fruit, Green Beans, Healthy, Main Dish, Meat, Oranges, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Vegetables | Leave a comment

Asian-y Noodles with Grilled Chicken

Posted on August 25, 2008 by kerry

I thought of this recipe on the way home today. Sean and I didn’t have very much in the fridge, but I knew we had some cabbage and some chicken that we needed to use up. I always have tons of flavorful pantry items (spices, vinegars, sauces, etc.) so it was easy to throw together. It turned out great. The noodles themselves were great served at room temperature — perfect for a warm evening like tonight.

You can serve this as a main dish with chicken (as written here) or shrimp; you might also serve as a delicious vegetarian dish by forgoing the meat all together.

Asian-y Noodles with Grilled Chicken

For Dressing:
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 tsp. toasted sesame oil
4 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
Juice of a lime
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. siracha sauce
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

For Salad:
1/2 lb. fettucini
1/2 small head green cabbage, thinly shredded
1/2 small head red cabbage, thinly shredded
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
2 green onions, sliced
2 tbsp. chives, chopped
1 medium carrot, julienned
1 large chicken breast
Toasted almonds

Put ingredients for the dressing into a small bowl; whisk to combine.

Boil the fettucini noodles for about 10 minutes until al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water until the noodles are cool to the touch. Drain well. Toss together with the cabbage, onions, chives, and carrots until all ingredients are mixed together well. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine.

Season the chicken breast with salt and pepper (or, you could also marinate in teriyaki, hoisin, or any other asian-type sauce.) Grill until temperature reaches 165 degrees and slice.

To serve, place some salad in a large bowl. Top with sliced grilled chicken. Garnish with sliced almonds and sesame seeds.

Posted in Appetizer, Asian, Cabbage, Carrots, Chicken, Comfort Food, Cuisine, Fish, Healthy, Main Dish, Meat, Recipe, Side Dish, Vegetables, Vegetarian | 4 Comments

Shrimp and Cauliflower Curry

Posted on August 19, 2007 by kerry

Sean and I went on a Penzy’s shopping spree today. We bought all sorts of fantastic spices — chili powder, cumin, peppercorns, cocoa powder, a few spice blends…and curry powder. We opted to buy sweet curry powder because we like to manage the amount of heat we add to our curry dishes using chiles or cayenne pepper.

With our new loot, I threw together this dish for dinner tonight. I did a little research to see how a curry is generally put together and this is basically a Thai-style curry using coconut milk as well as cilantro and lime as a garnish.

I loved how this recipe turned out; the curry was sweet and spicy and creamy — and a very pretty dish. Usually, I’m pretty critical of my own cooking, but tonight, I had no trouble patting myself on the back (although, I did make it a touch too spicy!)

You can easily tweak this to meet your own tastes. Add chicken or fish instead of shrimp. If you’re a vegetarian, simply ignore the shrimp and add some chickpeas in the end to add protein to your meal.

Shrimp and Cauliflower Curry
Serves 4

1 lb medium (41-50/pound) shrimp, shelled
2 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 large onion, thinly sliced
1 large red pepper, julienned
1 large carrot, sliced thin
2 small or 1 large sweet potato, cubed medium
1 large head cauliflower, cut into small florets
4 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 tbsp. fresh ginger, minced
1 red chile pepper, chopped*
2 tbsp. sweet curry powder
6 oz. coconut milk
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 cup chicken or seafood broth
Cilantro, to garnish
Lime, to garnish
Salt and pepper, to taste

In a large pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan. Sprinkle shrimp with salt and pepper to season and add to the pan. Cook 2-3 minutes or until pink and just cooked through. Set aside.

Set up a pot of water with a steamer basket. Steam the cauliflower until fork tender. Put the steamed cauliflower in a bowl and add the diced sweet potato to the steamer basket. Cook this until fork tender and set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the pan. Add the onions, carrots, and peppers. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger. Cook until the vegetables are cooked through and soft.

Add the curry powder, salt and pepper, coconut milk, broth, and brown sugar. Stir until well combined.

Add the cauliflower and sweet potato. Toss to coat with the sauce. If you’re sweet potatoes and cauliflower are on the underdone side, bring to a simmer, cover, and simmer until the cauliflower and sweet potatoes are done.

Add the shrimp and toss to coat.

Serve over brown rice and garnish with chopped cilantro and lime wedges.

* Use as much of the chile pepper as you can stand.

Posted in Asian, Carrots, Cauliflower, Chicken, Cuisine, Fish, Healthy, Main Dish, Meat, Recipe, Sweet Potato, Vegetables, Vegetarian | 2 Comments

Corned Beef and Cabbage Calzones

Posted on March 15, 2007 by kerry

Last year, we had a St. Patrick’s Day bash at our condo. My favorite part about throwing parties is creating a menu. There’s nothing more traditional in this part of the country than corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day. I wanted to include it on the menu, but I had to think of a way to make it portable and easy to eat at a party.

The solution: I created this recipe that stuffs the usual corned beef and cabbage dinner ingredients into a calzone — with a delcious tangy, mustard dressing. Everyone seemed to really enjoy these calzones.

They are a bit of work, but if you’re only going to make them once a year or for a party, they are well worth it. And you can actually do a lot of the prep work ahead of time*.

Corned Beef and Cabbage Calzones

2 lbs. of your favorite pizza dough (I’m partial to this recipe — or you can get it at your grocery store.)
1/2 head cabbage, shredded
3 large carrots, medium dice
3 medium red bliss potatoes, medium dice
2 lbs. corned beef, cooked and medium dice
1 medium onion, minced
3 tbsp. olive oil
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup grainy mustard with horseradish
1 tsp. garlic powder
Salt & pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

All of my veggies chopped and ready to go.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a rapid boil. Add shredded cabbage. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until cabbage is cooked but still al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water until cabbage is cooled. Dry in a salad spinner or between paper towels. Set aside.

Put the carrots and potatoes in a medium pot. Cover with water (about an inch over the vegetables) and bring to a boil. Cook until fork tender. Make sure that when you dice the carrots and the potatoes, you keep them even in shape so that they cook at the same time. Drain and set aside.

In a large pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until the onions are soft, but not browned — about 10 minutes. Add the diced corned beef (should be roughly the same size as the carrots and potato) and cook another 2-3 minutes.

Add cider vinegar, mustard, garlic powder, salt and pepper (to taste). Stir and toss in the cabbage and coat with the dressing. Add the carrots and the potatoes and stir to coat with the dressing. Turn off the heat and set aside.

Divide your dough into 10 equal portions**. Roll into balls and allow to rest about 10 minutes.

To assemble the calzones, flatten a pizza dough ball into about a 6-inch round (the dough should be about 1/4 inch thick). Fill with a healthy 1/2 cup of the corned beef filling. Fold the dough over to create a half-moon shape. Crimp the edges of the dough to close the calzone. Repeat for the rest of the dough balls.

Transfer to a baking sheet (or better yet, a pizza stone you have warming up in the pre-heated oven.) Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the calzones are GBD (golden brown and delcious!)

Enjoy with a Guiness, Harp, or Magners!

* You could create the filling ahead of time and store it in the fridge until you’re ready to stuff your calzones — will probably last a couple of days in the fridge.

** Play around with this recipe. For a party, you could make mini-calzones to feed more people! You’d just need to divide your dough into smaller portions and put less of the corned beef mixture into each calzone.

Posted in Appetizer, Bar Food, Beef, Cabbage, Carrots, Cuisine, Irish, Main Dish, Meat, Potatoes, Recipe, Vegetables | 1 Comment

Smashed Carrots and Turnip

Posted on November 25, 2006 by kerry

Since we had a potato casserole (recipe to come) instead of mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving, I thought we should have something smashed. I got this idea from my mom who made something similar last year for her annual Thanksgiving party with her girlfriends. It’s simple, vaguely sweet, and a great addition to the table.

Chop the carrots and turnip into a similar size so that you can boil them together in the same pot and they will finish cooking at the same time.

Smashed Carrots and Turnip

5 large carrots, peeled & cut into large pieces
1 large rutabega or purple-topped turnip, peeled & cut into large pieces
1/2 cup 2% milk
1/2 cup turkey or chicken broth (low-sodium)
Salt & Pepper, to taste

Put carrots and turnip into a medium-large pot. Add cold water just to cover the vegetables. Add several large pinches of salt to the water. Bring to a boil and cook until the carrots and turnip are very soft and they are easily pierced with a fork.

Meanwhile, mix the milk and broth together and warm in the microwave until just below boiling.

Stain the carrots and turnip in a large colander and return to pan. Pour in half of the milk/broth mixture. Mash with a potato masher until somewhat smoth and combined. Add more of the milk/broth as needed. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Posted in Carrots, Recipe, Side Dish, Turnips, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Leave a comment