I LOVE bimbimbap. There, I said it. It's been one of the 'it' meals for a while and believe me it's worth the hype. BUT, I was eating this waaay before it because the hot thing. After living in Korea, I know what makes a good bimbimbap and so I'm reluctant to try a recipe from somewhere that isn't from Maangchi or learned from someone Korean.
I've been trying to entice The Hubby to try more veggies so I knew he would go for this, such is our love for the ricey, spicy goodness that is bibimbap! I found a recipe for bimbimbap from Alice Hart's book Good Veg. What attracted me to this recipe were the lack of ingredients, nothing more I hate than an endless list of ingredients - all of which I don't have at home!
Yay or Nay: Yay
I must say, I'm impressed. Mostly with the sauce - it is pretty identical to ones used in Korean Kimbap shops. The mushrooms were nice and savoury, the peppers added sweetness and the wilted spinach was subtly gingery! I
did sub some of the veggies for ones I had available or for preference,
but the beauty of this dish is that you can combine a whole bunch of
things and as long as you have the sauce - it's dynamite!
Browsing through the stacks of new Non-Fiction I found this gem of a cookbook. It is by Ruth Roth who has the blog We Don't Eat Animals
and has written a cookbook for children called 'The Help Yourself
Cookbook For Kids'. The recipes are easy, manageable and the
illustrations are super kitschy and fun! Even if you aren't a kid, there
are definitely recipes I will be trying out for this blog!
I love going to the Public Market on the weekends, especially in the summer as you see the abundance of seasonal fruit and veggies at their prime! Spurred by a friend's purchase of beets I decided to do the same. Back home I loved boiled beets, chopped into a salad but my love didn't quite make it over the pond. Mainly due to availability, but now I had my hands full, so I boiled half and quartered and ziplocked the rest. First things first, a beet dip I can put on crackers or dip veggies into!
Yay or Nay: Yay
It's kind of like a beet hummus but without the tangy finish, however this is just as good. I made a small batch to last me a few days and have been crunching veggies with this dip. FYI it doesn't last a full week even with cover (as it's as fresh as you can get - I do think this is a good sign) and in the heat it does get quite liquidy, but don't let that put you off! Just to backtrack it is delicious!
Another up-the-veggie quota recipe, I originally wanted to make celeriac fries from a recipe online but I couldn't find any. I'm pretty sure it is out of season so I had a backup plan in the shape of carrot fries. Now, I know sweet potato fries are usually the plan B option, but the Hubby DOES NOT LIKE sweet potatoes. Boo. I do know he likes carrots though so these Roasted Parmesan Carrots were worth a try...
Yay or Nay: Yay
Even though they look Nay, they were a yay after all. So it turned out that the Hubby doesn't like cooked carrots as they remind him of sweet potatoes and in turn I did have to give him a portion of raw carrots instead. The prep was easy enough, I put everything in a bag, gave it a shake and hey pesto! The only complaint was that the crumb didn't quite stick to the carrots but that may be down to the frugal amount of oil I was using. Also, the crumb cooked before the carrots so they were erring on the side of still being raw. On the plus side, the Hubby did like them after all as they had a bit of a bite to them. Result!
I'd read in the weekend paper that it is recommended that you eat at least two and a half cups of veggies a day. I did a quick calculation of what I usually eat in a day and it definitely fell short. Now I consider myself a pretty healthy eater but this scared me a little as I knew I wasn't getting half of that. Anyway, I browsed the net for recipes that would include more veggies and most importantly disguise them for the Hubby. This Spicy Shrimp with Cauliflower Mash ticked the (more) seafood box and the hiding-the-veggies box too, no harm in trying right?
Yay or Nay: Hmm...in the middle
It's meant to be one or the other right, but this divided us both. We both loved the shrimp, it was seasoned well and had a nice kick. However, the mash was, er, interesting. Yes I didn't use the white beans so maybe that affected it but the texture was slightly off. The cornmeal thickened but made it look a little unappetising. Even though I've cut down on my cheese intake, it definitely needed more cheese to add somedepth of flavour and DO NOT SKIP the salt, as I learned the hard way, I can promise you it will be a tasteless mealy slop.
