Weird Vegetable Experiment!

Here's an update for you~

According to "52 Small Changes: A Year to a Happier, Healthier You" book I'm following with my friend Lorie, we are supposed to "Eat more vegetables" this week as one of the small changes.

But I always eat veggies and love them....so how to add "more?"
I have added eating, either a salad or a lunch of veggies everyday. Been enjoying that and I also decided that once a week, I could serve a dinner that is features vegetables only with no protein or carb included.

So to kick it up a notch, and a bit just for fun....I took a shopping trip to Wegman's and my mission was to find some fun veggies to cook with, and in particular, I stretched myself to find things I've never had or cooked with before!

Basically, my approach was this, pull up to the produce section with my cart, look around... if I saw a very unusual item of produce, and my first thought was "WTF are you??"- I then put it in the shopping cart and made a note to research it and cook it!
It WAS great fun!

I found some adventure in the art of cooking!

I also enjoyed some veggies that I've used before, but splurged on colorful veggies as well as those that I really love eating. For our "veggie dinner" this week, I made Colcannon and great salad made from Kumatoes, brine soaked feta and seedless cucumber. It was filling and very tasty!

Here are some of the veggies that I adventurously delighted in this week...

Seedless Cucumber (also called "English Cucumber") These were not much different than regular cukes in taste. I found that they weren't as "wet" or soggy as the ones I usually buy...and there were no seeds. I liked it right fine. Would buy it again.

Kumato-
Brown tomatoes?? YES. The sign said that Kumatos were "sweeter than Beefsteak tomatoes, and they were right. VERY flavorful and wonderful! A bit unnerving in the color, but made up for it in taste.

Multi colored peppers-
I always love buying these! They are great for snacks. A bagful of little sized multicolored baby sweet peppers! Red, yellow and orange and they made anything I cooked a beautiful fiesta color and added a delicious flavor. I even stuffed a few in Shawna's lunch bag for a treat. :)

Gemstone Potatoes
- These were small baby potatoes of different colors! White, beige, brown, purple, red. Too cute NOT to buy!! I love potatoes~ I wonder if they'll taste any different?
Jicama
- will be using this in this recipe, or maybe the one below with the Chayote squash....methinks?

Ensalada De Jicama:
8 oz. Jicama, peeled and cubed (1 1/2 c.)
1 lg. cucumber, sliced
1 orange, peeled and cubed
2 tbsp. lemon juice
3/4 tsp. chili powder
Salt

Will let you know how I like it....

Chayote Squash- This looked weirdly interesting...will be trying it on it's own or with the Jicama in a recipe called "Chayote Squash and Jicama stew" (chayotes, red peppers, onions, jicama, lettuce, with orange cilantro dressing) Again...will let you know. It's going to be a fun experiment!Daikon- Chinese radish. Looked sort of like a parsnip to me. It's a lot more mild than regular radishes, and I decided to try it in a Beef and Veggie Curry Stew. A radish that you cook?
YES. It was awesome! I made stew w/ stew beef (braised) and added, sliced onions, medallions of daikon, a bunch of those colorful peppers, carrots and potatoes. Drizzled some olive oil on it all and sprinkled it with curry powder, soy sauce and pepper. Put it in a roasting pan for about 45 minutes to an hour. A definite do again recipe!
Kale
~ I have had kale a lot before, and I adore it. I saw it in a HUGE bag and I bought it and made Colcannon with it. (It's like mashed potatoes with sour cream, kale and sauteed onions. Delish!) With 2 scoops of the leftover Colcannon, I even made a potato cake for us and sauteed it for breakfast. How very Irish :) I may also make some "Kale Chips" and bake them in the oven.
Tomatillos-
from the Nightshade family (as are tomatoes) and they reminded me immediately of the Japanese lanterns I used to grow. (which are posionous...). But these are edible.
Evidently, this is the veggie that they make that yummy green salsa from!
I will make Chicken Chile Verde with it on Sunday!
Thought you'd want to know.....

Just sending messages back to you in a bottle :)

Enjoy life, lovies, sneak up on it, peek into places you've never been....and savor it.

2 comments:

Wegmans said...

What a great adventure/experiment!!! Happy that we were able to provide you with some interesting veggies and love to see how you've approached this challenge! Thanks so much for sharing!

-Aaron Thompson
Wegmans Social Media

Merlyn Mischief said...

I will continue to do this with veggies...and the next step will be fruits one of these days. I thank Wegman's for providing the opportunity to try new things like this! It's an amazing world out there and nature is fabulous, even if you don't live in the area that these particular vegetables grow, you can still savor them :)