Garlic and ginger bulghur pilaf

Another meal starring my favourite bulgur!

First I sauteed a generous amount of finely minced garlic with finely minced ginger on a small amount of oil together with a pinch of salt. Then I added cut up leek, carrot tops and young green cabbage. When the veggies softened, I added some leftover cooked bulgur, mixed through and allowed to heat up.

Angela´s Carrot apple ginger soup

Here goes another lovely recipe from Angela of Oh she glows – the Carrot apple ginger soup!

I made about half the amount the recipe calls for, and made some slight changes, so I used:

1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, diced

half of a green garlic head (approximately 1 standard clove)

1 tbsp grated ginger

1 smaller apple, cut into cubes

300 g carrot, cut into cubes

2 cups water (instead of broth)

a pinch of nutmeg

sea salt and black pepper to taste

 

First I sauteed the diced onion on olive oil until it became golden, then I added grated ginger and minced garlic, sauteeing for a bit more, adding some water as needed. Then I tossed in cubes of apple and carrot, sauteeing on a low flame for a couple more minutes. I poured in two cups of water, covered the pot with a lid and simmered gently for about 20 minutes. I divided the soup in two halves and blended each half separarely in a blender until smooth (be careful, the blender must be just about half full, otherwise it will explode!). I thinned the soup with a bit of water (it was really thick!), added some salt, nutmeg and freshly cracked black pepper. The soup was like nothing I ever tasted, very creamy and carroty, with a subtle apple undertone. Next time I would use less ginger though, for me personally it was a bit overpowering 😀

 

 

 

11.1. Snacktime

Today I wasn´t hungry for a big lunch since I still had some of the rice dessert to finish before starting my fast tomorrow…so I just made a quick little snack which I ate with a few rice cakes. I was surprised by the harmony of flavours though so I decided to share even this very basic little recipe 😀

I chopped up quite finely a 10 cm chunk of leek, 4 large green beans (flat variety) and a 10 cm chunk of daikon which I sauteed together with a 5 cm piece of minced ginger (cut as small as possible!) and a handful of roasted hazelnuts. As a seasoning I used 1 tsp of tamari and 3 tsp mirin. I didn´t add any oil or water even so the result was crunchy and bright in colors.

Wok-wok

I really like wok dishes. And my boyfriend´s friend lent us a magnificent huge cast iron wok for our stay in Amsterdam, so I wok pretty often!

I like that you can wok almost any combination of vegetables – here I used (as far as I remember) rings of onion, chunks of carrots, snap peas, celery stalks, Chinese cabbage  and thin slices of red cabbage. I fry quickly on high heat using sesame oil and towards the end I add a bit of tamari, some water (otherwise the tamari might get stuck on the pan and burn a bit) and little pieces of fresh ginger. My partner wasn´t fond of the ginger – you definitely have to be careful with it! :-p

The wok veggies were served with red Thai cargo rice (first time I had it, and it´s tasty AND wholegrain!) with some roasted sesame seeds on top.