Carrots Archives

Sniffles and Soup

January 28, 2015 by theblogbloom.com 7 Comments

Oh. My. Gosh.

You know that cold that is going around? Well, it has stuck me… hard.

I had it coming though.

I traveled a lot last week, stayed in hotels and was up later than normal doing activities like bowling with coworkers who were also in town for the meetings. I have not been bowling in years and it was a great activity for work… but the more I think about it, bowling is super germy.

So, it’s not really shocking that I am fighting some bug this week.

Just yesterday, I was pretty sure my brain was melting because there is no way that my nose could have ever housed the amount of liquid coming out of my face. I had to apologize to anyone I was on the phone with this week explaining that I typically don’t sound like a robot. I was even on a call with my counterpart in Texas and she said, “Honey. You sound terrible.”

And, she has a five year old… she knows bad colds.

But, thanks to lots of fluids, an earlier bedtime and the workout I have given my small collection of Plant Therapy essential oils, I think I am on the mend.

It may also be thanks to this hearty lentil soup.

I know it’s early, but lentils may be my favorite new ingredient of 2015.

I had never cooked with them, but I finally mustered up the courage to check out the bulk foods area of the grocery store. (I still use my Kuerig… I feel like such a poser around the bulk coffee beans.) While surrounded by oats, multiple kinds of flour, and lots of beans, I spotted lentils and became very intrigued.

I should have never waited so long. Lentils are great. They have a nutty, earthy flavor and they are packed full of nutrition. Lentils can help lower cholesterol, support a healthy heart and help you manage your weight.

Not to mention, they are one of the least expensive sources of major amounts of protein. Over a quarter of the calories from lentils are attributed to protein. So, if you feel your grocery bill getting a little out of hand because of the cost of meat, lentils are a great meatless option.

They are also very easy to prepare because they don’t require lengthy soaking like other beans. So, making this soup is an easy solution for a week night dinner even if you are feeling under the weather.

However, the one really sad part of making this soup was that I used the last of my frozen carrots from the garden! Gotta make a note of that for next year.

Vegetable Lentil Soup

2015-01-28 11:16:29

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Ingredients

4 Garlic Cloves, Minced
1 Yellow Onion, Chopped
4 Carrots, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
3 tbsp. Olive Oil
2 cups Lentils
1 tbsp. Cumin
2 quarts Chicken Stock or Broth (Vegetable broth works great too)
1 Bay Leaf
2 Whole Sprigs of Thyme
Salt and Pepper

Instructions

Place a large dutch oven over medium heat.
Add olive oil and saute garlic, onion, carrots and celery until tender.
Add the lentils and cumin, stir so that lentils are coated in oil.
Add broth, sprigs of thyme and bay leaf to pot.
Simmer until lentils are tender about thirty minutes.
Remove thyme sprigs and bay leaf before eating.

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Cool Carrots

October 19, 2014 by theblogbloom.com 7 Comments

Carrots are definitely Adam and my favorite vegetable we have grown in the garden.

Oooh. But, I do love tomatoes.

And, growing our own garlic is pretty cool.

Oh… and having lettuce straight from the backyard is kind of awesome.

Oh geeze. I can’t forget about how great it felt to slice into that first spaghetti squash either.

Okay, so it’s hard to pick just one, but carrots… are a (one of many) favorite(s).

Carrots have also been a favorite of any guest to the garden.

When we had photos taken last month, the photographers were blown away with how great the carrots looked.

Hive and Honey Photography

So was Adam’s mom when she stopped by to pick some this summer. She laughed as she pulled carrot after carrot with his sister, Amanda.

Amanda described pulling the carrots from the ground as “magical.”

And, when Stephanie, my friend from Chicago, visited for a weekend I think she felt the same way. She excitedly pulled so many carrots from the ground I wondered how we were ever going to eat them all fast enough. … Cue the veggie dip!

Summer 2013 was the first year we grew carrots and both Adam and I were blown away by the amazing flavor in our homegrown carrots versus the carrots we had been eating our whole lives. The flavor of a carrot is best right after it is pulled from the ground. In fact, some say the flavor diminishes within hours of being harvested.

The good news is that carrots don’t typically last much more than two hours at my house anyway.

But, this is bad news too. In 2013, we only planted a half of a garden bed in carrots. They were all ready mid summer and then they were gone.

So this summer, with one year of carrot growing experience under our belts, Adam and I decided to see how we could extend our carrots into the fall… and, at this rate, we should be good for the winter too!

Carrots are planted straight into the ground and they need good, light soil to penetrate the earth as their roots grow. They are pretty hands off throughout their growing process needing normal amounts of water, sun and a little thinning when the tops start sprouting.

This year, we planted carrots in a couple different beds in different rounds to extend our carrots throughout the growing season. It’s currently a couple weeks out from Halloween and we have plenty of carrots still in the ground… and I am in no hurry to get them out.

They do need to come out of the ground before the ground freezes solid (or good luck getting them out ’til spring…), but they are incredibly cold weather resistant and can eve handle freezing temperatures. Carrots are full of natural sugars and those sugars act like an anti-freeze in the cold weather so that ice crystals cannot disrupt or damage the carrot. In all our reading, we have also learned that freezing temperatures actually make carrots sweeter!

We are still frost free, but it’s likely only a matter of time until we can find out first hand.

I have also blanched and frozen some of our carrots throughout the late summer and early fall. Blanching and freezing is one of the easiest things that you can do to preserve vegetables from the garden.

Here is how I do it:

Clean, peel and slice carrots into small coins, discarding the tops and ends.

Place carrot coins in a pot of boiling water for about two minutes.

Remove the carrots and immediately cool carrots in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.

Drain and dry well. Lay coins out on a cookie sheet and set in freezer overnight.

Working quickly, remove the carrot coins from the cookie sheet, put into a gallon ziplock bag and place in freezer. Use within a year.

I am excited to have my carrots, preserved at the peak of their freshness, for chicken noodle soups and vegetables soups all winter long.

Root Loot

December 15, 2013 by theblogbloom.com 2 Comments

During our visit to my parent’s home in Michigan earlier this month, my mom took Adam and me to Holland’s Farmer’s Market. Holland is about twenty five minutes away from my parent’s house and is a really neat little town.

The Farmer’s Market/dish crew…. got to love family dinners.

Holland is home to Hope College, where my little brother is a freshman and a strong backstroker on the swim team. The community plays up the connection to the country, Holland. It is decorated with traditional windmills and hosts a Tulip Festival each spring. There are also a bunch cute boutiques and unique restaurants that I cannot wait to check out on a future visit.

But, it is clear the town value’s the farmers market. A whole street is set up for the market which is open twice a week from May to December.

And even during the first weekend in December, the market was full of produce, baked goods and beautiful Christmas décor.

One vendor was offering a deal where you could fill a large department store bag full of any root vegetables of your choice. Adam and I took him up on this offer and filled our bag with Red, Yukon and Sweet Potatoes, lots of carrots, yellow and red onions, beets, and a celery root.

The following are recipes showing what we did with some of these great root vegetables.

Homemade Terra Chips:

I love Terra Chips. If I buy a bag, it rarely makes it into my home unopened because I always seem to “need a snack” on my drive home.

But, I hate how they are so expensive.

So, using some of my beets, sweet potatoes, and Yukon potatoes from the Holland Farmer’s Market, I decided to make my own.

They were great and really easy. The beet chips were sweet and balanced the more savory flavors of the potatoes.
I loved having them around as a snack. Can’t beat getting a serving of vegetables but feeling like you are eating chips. (And saving you the $8 Terra bag…!)

The colors were amazing!

Ingredients:

3 medium beets
1 large sweet potato
3 medium Yukon Potatoes
Olive Oil

Preheat Oven to 400 degrees.

Slice all veggies ¼ inch thick. I used my mandolin. Toss sliced vegetables with oil.

Lay vegetables on a large cookie sheet.

Bake for thirty minutes and place on a cooling rack. Chips will continue to harden as they cool.

Consume within 48 hours.

Turning up the Beet on Risotto:

I recently was asked what my favorite thing to cook is. And honestly, I was stumped. I love to cook. Eggs, dessert, breads, vegetables, large roasts, soups, stir fry’s, homemade pizza… I could go on and on.

Then, it came to me at work when I was assisting a chef at my Alma Mater: I love to cook risotto.

I came to this discovery while cooking risotto for eighty sorority women. Even though the muscles in my shoulders burned from stirring the massive amount of Arborio rice, I knew this was my love.

It’s great anytime of year, but there is just something so cozy about it when it’s chilly outside. It is also so versatile. Risotto prep starts the same every time, but you can add all sorts of ingredients towards the end to make it your own. My mom often adds parmesan and scallops. That evening on campus we added coconut milk and toasted coconut flakes to the risotto as it served as an accompanist to some island style chicken.

I was searching for something to do with our farmer’s market beets other than roasting them and through my searching, found that goat cheese pairs great with the sweetness in the beets. Inspired by my risotto at the sorority, I thought it could be a great combination.

And it was.

Ingredients:

3 medium beets
1 shallot, chopped
1 Tablespoon of butter
1 Tablespoon of olive oil
1 cup of Arborio rice
6 cups of chicken stock (… It may take less. I have found with any risotto recipe that I use far more broth than is called for. It is just a lot easier to be prepared and have more ready. I can easily use any leftover broth with something else. Also, for this, we actually used our turkey stock…worked just fine!)
4 ounce log of goat cheese
Salt and Pepper
Fresh Chives for garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Rinse any dirt off beets, pat dry. Roast Beets for 40 minutes. Easy way to do this is just place on a sheet of foil. Doesn’t hurt to drizzle a little olive oil on the beets. Once complete, let cool and remove skin. Cut into ½ inch pieces.

Heat up stock in a sauce pan. You want the stock just to steam, not boil.

In a large, high sided skillet (We have found our wok works better than a skillet… I had forgotten about this when I made this risotto.) heat olive oil on medium high heat. Add the shallots and cook for about three minutes. You don’t want them to brown. Add the rice and stir to coat in the oil.

Reduce heat to medium and add a half cup of stock, stir until absorbed. Continue with a half cup of stock at a time until rice is cooked through.

Remove from heat and stir in beets, butter, and goat cheese. Top with chopped chives.

Roasted Whole Chicken and Root Vegetables:

So, the oddball in out root loot was the celery root.

I had never cooked or had one, so we decided if there ever was a good time to give it a try, this was it.

It is a weird looking vegetable. And, really, not all that pretty. But, I read that what it lacks in looks, it makes up in flavor.

I also read online to prep it you need to remove the skin. I used a vegetable peeler and it worked okay. The skin is a bit thicker than anything on a carrot.

We had just had fifty of our free range chickens processed and we were eager to give them a try. We decided to roast one of the birds so it just made sense to roast some veggies as well. Using a few other of the root vegetables on hand we made a great meal when a couple friends were joining us for dinner.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (Ours are about six pounds… Chickens at the store are typically smaller than this.)
1 Onion cut into 1/2 inch pieces (We used a yellow onion, but I wish I had grabbed a red one instead. It would have added great color.)
5 Carrots cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 Celery Root, cut into ½ inch pieces
Salt and Pepper
Juice of one lemon
Red Pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 425.

Rub salt and pepper onto chicken. Place on baking sheet and cook for twenty minutes.

While cooking, season vegetables with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and lemon juice. Toss to coat.

Add vegetables to baking sheet, turning to coat in the chicken drippings.

Continue to roast until vegetables are tender and the chicken is reaches at least 165 degrees internally and the juices run clear. (Should be about forty more minutes.)

Let chicken rest about five to ten minutes before serving.

Pairs well with an oakey Chardonnay… and fun friends.

Savory Sweet Potato Fries:

Sweet potatoes seem to be all the rage these days. They are even showing up on menu at fast food restaurants!

But, I can’t knock them. They are full of nutritional benefits. For starters? They are a great source of Vitamin C, which is great this time of year because it helps ward off the cold and flu viruses. And another reason to eat sweet potatoes this time of year is because they are full of Vitamin D. Which, most popularly, we get from sunlight. Which, also happens to be in short supply as we near the Winter Solstice.

So, all those (self diagnosed…) Seasonal Affective Depression Disorder sufferers out there? Sweet Potatoes are for ~~you~~ us.

I think sweet potatoes already are pretty sweet, so I wasn’t looking to jazz mine up with brown sugar like they are traditionally done. So, I went the savory route with these fries based on a recipe from the Williams Sonoma blog and they were spot on.

Ingredients:

About 2 large sweet potatoes cut into batons about ½ inch thick
2 Tablespoons of grape seed oil
Salt and Pepper
3 Tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of parsley, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Place sweet potato batons on baking sheet with oil, salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Make sure the potatoes are spread out so that they cook evenly.

Roast for about twenty five to thirty minutes, stirring halfway through. You want the potatoes to be tender and a little browned.

While roasting, combine parmesan, parsley and garlic in a bowl.

Add the warm fries, toss gently to coat. Serve right away.

Enjoying a Hiatus from the Grocery Store

August 5, 2013 by theblogbloom.com 3 Comments

Today I had a weird thought.

Outside of a trip to get a couple lemons and some milk, I have not been to the grocery store in two weeks.

For a girl who frequents the super market at least twice throughout any other week this is kind of monumental.

The farmer’s market visit, frozen meat from Adam’s hunting trips last winter and the garden’s current bounty set us up for a great week of easy, cheap meals. It also helped to remind me that things don’t need to be complex to be delicious. So long as I have a little oil, salt and pepper, and some seasonings such as herbs, I am good.

To compliment some bacon wrapped steaks that were still in the freezer from the baby shower in July, I made this recipe with my farmer’s market beets: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/roasted-beets-with-lemon-thyme-dressing-recipe/index.html

I had never made beets, outside of the Chopping Block class, and was surprised how simple it was.

The lemon juice and thyme was a perfect way to bring out the beets natural, sweet flavor. Adam had never eaten a beet before and compared the flavor to sweet corn.

Beautiful Beets.

One thing to be aware of, beets have a very strong magenta color that can dye your fingers, clothes, table cloth, floor, counter top (etc, etc…), if you are not careful.

Another night, Adam grilled the pork from the Farmer’s Market, and I made this recipe that I found on Pinterest: http://andreasrecipes.com/sauteed-zucchini-with-tomatoes-mushrooms-peppers-and-basil-the-kids-cook-monday/

It was seriously summer on a plate, and it was made with many different garden veggies including summer squash, zucchini, bell peppers and tomatoes. I subbed a little corn shaved off a cob for the mushrooms because we had it.

My basil is still booming, flavorful as ever, and was so perfect and fresh in this dish.

“Chiffonade” is a cutting technique where a leafy vegetable or herb, like basil, is cut into small strips. This can be nearly impossible (… or at least really annoying) to accomplish when cutting a single leaf at a time.

… this is annoying.

A great skill I learned at a catering event a couple years ago when I was making bruschetta is to roll a handful of basil leaves as if you were rolling it like a cigar.

Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’…

Basil Cigar?

Hold the bunch together as you thinly slice the roll and it is so much easier to achieve many little thin strips, quickly.

Ahh, this is better!

Perfect, easy Chiffonade.

Our favorite of the week didn’t come from the internet or Pinterest, but was made up on a whim. I baked some summer squash in the oven that was dressed with a little grape seed oil, salt, pepper, and finished with a sprinkle of Parmesan. It was easy and tasty.

Here’s what I did:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Evenly slice, or mandolin, squash into about ¼ inch coins, place onto an ungreased cookie sheet
Drizzle with oil, salt and pepper and toss with hands to coat
Place in the oven for about seven minutes, then flip and cook for about another seven minutes. With about three minutes left sprinkle Parmesan on squash. Parmesan should just melt.
Serve immediately.

I shared this with a woman at work when I was trying to get her to take some zucchini and squash off my hands. (It was beginning to take over my kitchen…) Thankfully, she did, and she even made the recipe for her girlfriends. I received a text from her this morning asking if I could bring her more squash. Apparently, everyone loved it, and she wants to make it again for a party she’s hosting later this week.

Besides the taste and the fact that you probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen every day of the week, this recipe is so great because it is so versatile. You can grill, bake, or sauté not just zucchini or summer squash this way, but it works great with other vegetables like asparagus, brussels sprouts, or cauliflower.

Tonight, I roasted carrots from the garden this way with a little fresh rosemary.

Yummy roasted garden carrots!

Side note: Pulling my first carrots out of the ground was maybe one of the most proud moments of the garden so far. I couldn’t see them growing so when I pulled the large, orange roots from the ground I can’t even explain the feeling that came over me. I was thrilled with my carrots. I felt a sense of accomplishment. (And a little relief, as I didn’t know what to expect.)

All of this was followed by a little laughter.

I was super excited about a carrot.

What has my life come to?!