Last night’s dinner

Here are two recipes that I made last night. They were simple and easy, and made use of small numbers of carrots and large amounts of chard. And while I don’t have a recipe for it, I wanted to suggest that the small carrots and their tops work really well in fried rice dishes. The tops give green flash and texture, and fried rice just doesn’t need very many carrots.

 

 

Buttered Spiced Carrots
one bunch baby carrots, tops removed
1-2 Tbsp of butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dry ginger
1/4 tsp turmeric
roughly 1/4 cup water

Melt butter in small skillet over medium-low heat. Throw in scrubbed carrots and saute for a couple of minutes. Season, add water, and cover. Add a little more water if it dries out before the carrots are tender enough to poke with a fork. The buttery sauce from the bottom of the skillet is good on the carrots and even better over meats. This would also be tasty with smaller amounts of nutmeg or cumin replacing the turmeric.

Sunflower Chard Braise
2 Tbsp olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 onion, minced
1/4 cup sunflower seed meats (I think mine were tamari roasted, which might be why this tasted so good)
2 double-handfuls of chard, washed and very roughly chopped
a splash of soy sauce or ponzu (citrus soy sauce)
roughly 1/2 cup water

In a big skillet or non-stick stock pot, saute the garlic and onion in the oil until starting to brown. Add the sunflower seeds and stir occasionally for a couple of minutes. Add the chard, water, and soy sauce (or a couple pinches of salt), stirring periodically as the chard wilts and the flavors combine. This will take less than ten minutes for the chard to be finished cooking.