This Sweet Potato soup is soooo yummy but not overloaded with calories. It's an ultimate winter food but I like it so much that would definitely eat it all the year round. This specific recipe of soup makes a perfect match for the Orange Wednesday as it contains sweet potatoes, a pumpkin and carrots.
Ingredients:
2 sweet potatoes 2 cups of pumpkin 2 carrots 1 celery root 1 large chopped onion 3 sliced cloves of Garlic Chicken stock Some fresh thyme 1/2 a cup of rose wine. 1/2 a cup of cream (15% fat) 1/2 tsp of nutmeg Salt and pepper to taste 2 tbsp of oil olive
Directions:
Peel the sweet potatoes, the carrots and the pumpkin, and slice into large cubes.
Fry the onion in a pot with some olive oil until it gets yellow.
Add the garlic and the celery root, and keep frying for 1 minute.
Add the carrots, the sweet potatoes and the pumpkin, and keep stirring for 3 minutes.
Add some fresh thyme, the chicken stock and the wine, just enough to cover the vegetables, and bring to a boil.
Low the fire to medium hit, and cook for 40 minutes until the vegetables are soft.
Remove the pot from the fire, fish out the thyme and blend with a hand blender until you get a smooth cream.
Return the pot to the stove, add the cream, the nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.
Cook for 5 more minutes.
Serve hot and garnish with some fresh thyme, a few drops of olive oil and a splash of pepper and nutmeg.
Our Colorful Diet Week continues with orange fruits and vegetables. Yay! Orange color is a happy color and orange recipes are yummy.
But what's actually so good about the orange food?
Orange fruits and vegetables are a great source of beta-carotene which is converted in the body to vitamin A. It strengthens the immune system and prevents several kinds of cancer. It's also good for eyes. Citrus fruits are also rich in vitamin C and potassium.
What orange products will be the best choice for your fun and healthy diet?
Carrots, pumpkin, sweet potato, peppers, oranges and grapefruits - this is what you need. These fruits and veggies are low in calories and rich in fiber, contain vitamins and minerals that will do good to your body.
And now, on to delicious and healthy recipes for the Orange Wednesday!
How much do you think about vegetables beyond which ones are your favourite? How much do you really know about them? You may be surprised about the facts behind your favourite vegetables. Like why you cry when you cut onions or why people plant large patches of thyme in their garden. Keep reading to learn these facts and more.
A chemical reaction is the reason why people cry when they cut onions. When you cut an onion, it releases amino acids sulfoxides, which then turn into sulfenic acids. The sulfenic acids then mix together with enzymes from the onion to produce propanethiol S-oxide, which is a sulphuric chemical. The sulphuric chemical, being in a gaseous state, comes into contact with the water in your eyes and causes a burning sensation. In response to this irritation, your eyes release tears in an effort to remove the irritant.
As a side note, when the onion is being cooked, the heat inactivates the enzyme, so that it will no longer irritate your eyes.
There are a few things that you can do to prevent crying when you cut an onion. These include:
Wear safety goggles,
Run a fan to pull the sulphuric gas away from you,
Place the onion in a bowl of water and then cut it, and
Keep the onion in the fridge until you are ready to cut it, as the cold air in the fridge will slow the chemical reactions inside the onion.
Other Vegetable Fun Facts
I bet you didn't think onions could be that interesting, did you? Well here are some more interesting facts about other vegetables. See how many of these facts you already know.
Watermelons are actually vegetables! They are in the same family as cucumbers, pumpkins and squash.
The world's largest watermelon on record weighed over 260 pounds.
In England, it is tradition to plant large patches of thyme because it is said that these patches are playgrounds for fairies.
Carrots can help you to see better in the dark. That's because carrots contain lots of Vitamin A, which helps to prevent "night blindness".
Frozen vegetables can be more nutritious than fresh vegetables. Fresh vegetables take a lot of time, once they have been picked, to reach the supermarket. The more time between picking and eating, the more nutrients they loose. Frozen vegetables however are usually processed and packaged on the same day they were picked; therefore they maintain the maximum amount of nutrients.
The top green leaves from beets can lightly boiled and then eaten, just like spinach. In fact, beet leaves are the most nutritious part of the vegetable.
Two common varieties of peas include snow peas and snap peas. Snow peas are picked before the peas inside have a chance to develop, so that the pea pod is still very flat and tender. With snap peas however, the peas are allowed to grow and then both the pod and the peas inside can be eaten either raw or cooked.
Hope that you have enjoyed reading these facts about vegetables. Please visit The Gardener's Escape to learn more fun and interesting facts about vegetables. Plus, you'll find lots of Gardening Tools that you can use to help you have the best garden on the block!
I'm almost 100% sure that Kasha (Buckwheat Kasha) is not on your usual menu. Too bad. Why?
Here are 3 reasons why you should become friends with Kasha:
1. Because kasha is a very healthy food. Buckwheat is wheat-free and gluten free, rich in protein, high in fiber with none of the cholesterol or fat.
2. Because kasha is a very tasty food (when properly cooked). In Medieval Russia, kasha was considered to be a festive meal, often cooked for weddings and royal feasts.
3. Because kasha is a very easy-to-cook food. See for yourself!
This is the basic recipe, you might want to enrich it with onions, garlic, mushrooms and herbs.
Ingredients
1 cup buckwheat groats (kasha) 2 cups water 1 tablespoon vegetable oil or butter Salt and pepper
Tip: Wash buckwheat grains before cooking and sort out the bad grains.
Directions
Heat buckwheat in a nonstick skillet over low heat stirring constantly for about 1-2 minutes or until golden. Pour over boiling water, add salt and oil/butter. Cover and cook, without stirring, for about 10 minutes or until water is absorbed. Fluff with a fork; remove from heat and let stand for 3 minutes before serving. Kasha usually served with cold baked milk or butter but you can also serve it with nonfat white cheese.
