*~Riceballz~*

Blanched Broccoli

Yeah, I know vegetables are best eaten steamed. I am lazy and steaming vegetables involves more utensils that I already have, so blanched it is then. Hey, all is not lost, because I used the blanched water to cook vegetable stock by adding other vegetables and turned them into soup.

I used one head of broccoli, some olive oil as dressing, a dash of vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Boil sufficient water in a pot, and when the water is boiled, dump in the broccoli and get them out as soon as they turn vivid green. Don’t overcook the vege because you are going to destroy the nutrients.

Give those miniature green trees a toss with the olive oil dressing, vinegar, salt and pepper and you are good to go!

Popularity: 22% [?]

Posted in Cooking, Vegetables, Vegetarian | No Comments »

Pumpkin and Carrot Soup

Mushy, creamy and hearty. Those are the words I think befitting this humble soup. Although pumpkin is quite a daunting vegetation that test the limits of my cooking skill, I think that this soup is quite passable.

Ingredients:

half a small yellow pumpkin
one medium sized carrot
a thumb of old ginger, crushed
vegetable stock/chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
water

Method:

Its a pity I don’t have an oven here, else I would have baked the pumpkin beforehand, so I just cut the pumpkin and carrots into cubes and boil them with the crushed ginger and just enough water to cover all the stuffs nicely. Boil them until the pumpkin and carrots are mushy, discard the ginger and drain the carrot and pumpkins. Keep the water, leaving half in the pot and the other half in a bowl.

Meanwhile, mash the carrots and pumpkin until they are mushy. Use a food processor if you have. Instead of vegetable stock, return them into the pot with half the boiled water, turn on the heat and cook until it is bubbling. If the mixture is too thick, add more water from the water you boil the pumpkins just now.

Adjust the consistency and the creaminess to your liking by adding the vegetable stock. Lastly, when you are satisfied, add salt and pepper to taste.

Sever with panchetta toppings, which sadly, I don’t have any.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Posted in Cooking, Soup, Vegetarian | No Comments »

Colourful Rice

This organic vegetarian mart has been operating for quite some time in Bukit Beruang. Although most of the time I only drop by to get some raw organic food, this time round, Jy and I dropped by for lunch to try out the organic meals offered there.

They have a menu offering different types of rice everyday of the week as well as a selection of healthy noodles, among which I remembered were seaweed and kelp noodles, ash noodles and some other organic sounding selections. They also serve organic dimsum, hehe.

Since it was lunch we decided on having the rice.

This is my wild rice in nice shades of purple, served with a side of curried vegetables, shredded lettuce and another tofu dish.

Jy’s pumpkin rice, also served with tofu, shredded cucumber and lettuce, and some curried vegetables.

The rice comes together with a complimentary bowl of soup.

This five grain dessert is full of wholesome goodness, and very milky as well.

A cuppa lemon tea after the meal.

I can’t make any comparisons since I don’t eat that much of organic food, but I would have to say that the food is quite refreshing and gives me the “feel good” feeling of having eaten something good for myself, if you know what I mean. Haha! However, I don’t think it will be good enough for me to eat them everyday, because the portion, which is priced at RM6.00 per set, is a tad too pricey for me. Once in a while is okay, though.

I’ve even gotten myself some frozen five grain mantous, and they are to be steamed to be eaten. Will talk about that next time.

P/s: I am actually convinced that the friendly lady who runs the shop with her husband is looking at me in a weird way when I took pictures of my food. Well, heheh, what to do.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Posted in Eating, Vegetarian | No Comments »

Pasta with Roasted Tomato and Capsicum

The other day I chance upon a food blog featuring recipes for roasted vegetables. They seem so healthy that I must give a try no matter what, so today I dropped by the market and got myself some juicy green capsicums and tomatoes to experiment on this dish.

Ingredients:

3 capsicums whole
6 tomatoes, halved
2-3 cloves of garlics, halved
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt and crushed black pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C).

For the tomatoes:
In a baking pan, arrange half tomatoes facing up and garlic together. In a small bowl, stir together olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Spread the mixture evenly onto the tomatoes and garlic. As you can see, my black peppercorns are not crushed finely enough. Roast for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until tomatoes are cooked through and mushy.

For the capsicums:
Poke them with a barbecue fork and roast them over open fire on your stove top. I cheated by halving them and pushing them into the oven. When they are baked, that is when the outer skin charred, remove from heat and peel of the charred skin. Don’t worry, its still edible, just slice them into smaller strips and keep them in container with the mixture of olive oil, vinegar, salt and black pepper.

Since I don’t have any bread on hand, I cooked some pasta and topped them with the vegetables. They are refreshingly tasty!

Popularity: 10% [?]

Posted in Cooking, Pasta, Vegetables, Vegetarian | No Comments »