Tag: vegetables

2 versions for the same veggies base

This weekend I tried quite a few new recipes, mainly for breakfast and teatime and we spent quite some time outside in the garden preparing for spring: there’s still loads of fallen leaves, and trees to trim… So when it comes to a meal, something warm and energetic was really important. I had a piece of cabbage that I really wanted to use, and some beautiful winter red carrots. The leftovers of whole rice, and fresh rice cakes (mochi) that I bought at the local farmers market (I love rice cakes but my husband don’t like them to much so I don’t buy fresh ones too often). So I decided to prepare a two way dinner, one a vegan chahan (sautéed rice) and the other a kind of o-zoni (the soup for new year with rice cake in). In a wok I cooked the chopped piece of cabbage and one carrot sliced with a bit of oil and then a bit of water. In the mean time I prepared some konbu dashi by boiling two pieces of konbu in 0.5L of water. I then moved roughthly half of the veggies in the soup and cooked a little longer, while in the wok I added the whole rice already cooked, a bit of sesame oil, and some sesame seeds. I grilled the rice cake to soften it, and added a large spoon of miso in the soup (ideally white miso, but I didn’t have any).

I served both, added the rice cake in the soup, and ready to eat! 

Colorful winter plate

It’s incredible the sudden change in temperature and weather, one day is winter, one day spring. Some of the plum trees in the garden ate already starting to bloom which is incredibly early. So for the food it’s one meal winter one meal spring and a colorful is always welcome and with a beautiful red cabbage a plate is always a feast, with tomatoes, baby leaf salad, avocado, whole rice and scramble eggs with sesame.

Just the perfect boost before a new week! 

A little veggies medley

Broccoli, turnips, potato, shiitake for a good meal after work, there’s nothing better. Add a little of pork filet diced if you like it, sautéed in a pan with olive oil!

Fennel soup

Still enjoying some local Sicilian products, the fennels are, just like the cauliflowers a must of the season. Fennels are also found everywhere and are beautiful. For me in particular it’s a feast because in Japan it’s not easy to find fennels and they are usually small and not too good eaten raw. So I’m really enjoying eating plenty, raw, cooked, braised… And since soups are a big favorite for dinner in our family, the fennel soup we prepared with our mother was a big success. For 8 people we used 2 onions, 2 little tomatoes, 2 big fennels, olive oil, salt and pepper. First we cut the onions, the tomatoes, and the fennels and slightly cook them in olive oil (no need to say, Sicilian olive oil is amazing) . Then cover with water and cook for 40min. Blend and add some olive oil and serve. Simple and so delicious, perfect before the Christmas feast! 

Late after-work dinner

This week is the last one before flying to Italy, so there’s quite a number of things I want to finish to be sure that I’m leaving with everything sorted out. Days at the lab have been extremely long and busy juggling with meeting, students, lectures and administrative work. So when back home I want to prepare aome light and comforting food. These little tortellini are just perfect. But rather than simply boiling them and serving them with olive oil, this time I opted for a fresh veggies broth made with leek, carrots and carrot leaves. After boiling the veggies in water for 3min I added the tortellini and boiled them for about 10min (you don’t want to over-cook them). I served it as a soup and for those who like it I served with some gratted Parmegiano.

Improvised dinner

Having always a fridge ready with fresh veggies is just perfect when you want to prepare an improvised dinner for a friend stopping by. I had in mind two menus after checking its contents, a vegan-mexican or a Japanese one-plate dinner. Vote has decided for Japanese and so it was a simple rice with katsuobushi and veggies in soya sauce. For the veggies I used what I had in the fridge: carrots, turnips, potato, purple sweet potato and broccoli (they had this massive-beautiful-just cut broccoli the other yesterday at the local farmers place near the university that I couldn’t resist). I wash and cut them (recently I seem to like sticks over slices). I first cook at high heat in a bit of olive oil, then I add a bit of soya sauce and water and cook under cover until the potato is cooked. The rice is just plain white rice to which I add katsuobushi thin flakes after cooking.

Quinoa and autumn veggies

Autumn, winter, autumn, winter… day after day the temperature are one day high one day low, and I have a hard time deciding what to cook. I don’t want to start already to cook tuch winter stuff because I know it’s long before spring and the new veggies, and though I love cabbage, and turnips there’ll be plenty of time to eat some. Yet when it’s cold it is exactly what I am craving for. So today’s recipe is a fall-winter prep with quinoa and veggies. I just boiled the quinoa with water and salt, and finish with a drop of olive oil. The veggies: 1 leek, 1 carrot, 1 purple sweet potato, and 2 turnips are slightly sautéed in olive oil. Et voilà! A perfect one-plate for dinner!

Donburi

The donburi or one rice bowl is a very convenient alternative to one-plate, and I like the rice base lunch because it provides tons of good energy necessary to stay outside all day long, now that it’s gotten colder.

 

For this donburi I cooked plain white Japanese rice that I topped with sautéed purple sweet potato, carrot brocoli, and finished with some proteins croquettes: I mixed rice flour with a mix of seeds, an egg and dome chicken meat. The egg and meat can be replaced by tofu for a vegan option. 

Purple salad

At the local farmers market I found this beautiful purple mizuna that I already used in a recipe Sunday. I love mizuna because it’s fresh, crunchy and easy to prepare, and this purple one is particularly pretty. I also found some beautiful purple sweet potatoes (紫芋-murasaki imo) and decided to prepare a big salad for our guests visiting us. I baked the potatoes in the oven wrapped in aluminum foil until soft, then I peeled them and cut them in small pieces. I washed a lettuce, a tomato and some mizuna, cut all in bites, and added some black sesame, olive oil, salt. Additionally you can add grilled tuna, smoked chicken… 

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