Cumin Roasted Vegetables

[purplecat]

I got this recipe off the internet as a carrot-based recipe. Our opinion was that it had promise but was too carroty (and too ricey). This is the modified version which just got enthusiastically hoovered up by B (though if he hadn't given up on counting calories for the day I suspect he wouldn't have eaten it all - for those interested in such things I reckon it works out as around 120 calories per 100g).



This was taken before I remembered to add the sunflower seeds.


Serves 2 as a main.

1 tbsp cumin seeds
200g carrots, sliced
200g parsnips, sliced
100g turnip, sliced
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tin chickpeas, drained
1 tbsp olive oil
125ml vegetable stock
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/3-1/2 cup dried rice
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
30g feta cheese, crumbled or chopped as your cheese allows
Pepper to season

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C.
2. Grind the cumin seeds to a powder (toast first if you feel keen)
3. Combine the sliced vegetables, onion, chickpeas, olive oil and cumin in a roasting dish. Stir to coat everything with cumin and oil.
4. Pour over the stock and lemon juice, cover with tin foil, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
5. If using a rice cooker, put the rice on to cook around now, otherwise start cooking the rice after about 25 minutes.
6. Remove foil and return to the oven for about 10-15 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven, toss in the rice, sunflower seeds and feta cheese. Season with pepper.

In other news. The NuWho rewatch is suspended until NLSS Child feels up to Blink. She has seen bits of this in the Internet and a few years ago it led to a whole "I can't take showers because of falling statuary" panic, made the more bizarre because we own no statues, let alone any in the bathroom. She has agreed to watch it on a weekend morning (it having been made clear that not washing isn't an option), but I'm away this weekend so it may have to wait until next weekend.

Meanwhile, she has to read a number of different sorts of book for school, and has selected The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy as her humour book (a choice endorsed by her teacher). This has led to a certain amount of defensiveness on tame layman's part. He is currently forcibly playing her the radio series on the grounds it is superior and she should listen to it before reading the book.

Comments

[sir_guinglain]

Tame layman does have a sound historicist point - the book can stand by itself, but comparing it to the radio series can be instructive in all sorts of ways.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I have marked this post for future reference.

Good choice on the part of NLSS Child. My first year stats course had four books on the reading list:
1. LotR, on the grounds that it was a really good book.
2. HHGTTG, on the grounds that while it wasn't quite such a good book, it did have one number in.
3. D&D rules, as they had lots of numbers in, and you could get some interesting distributions from N Dx.
4. A stats textbook.

[purplecat]

I'm not sure quite what G has to read. One is a humour book (hence HHGTTG) and one is a pre-20th century book. She's chosen to re-read Little Women but has got a bit bogged down - I'm wondering whether to suggest something over-the-top and romantic like Jane Eyre as an alternative.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Northanger Abbey?

[purplecat]

I'm not, personally, terribly keen on Northanger Abby thinking the heroine rather silly...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can see that she is rather silly

[a-cubed.livejournal.com]

pre-20th century: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland?

[purplecat]

Alice is a very odd book, and I've a feeling she's tried it before and not really go along with it. I was picking pre-20th century books off our shelves for her consideration last night and she decided that she'd stick with re-reading Little Women - but then she's very distrustful of anything we suggest she might like.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

That looks delicious.

Is it worth grinding your own cumin?

[purplecat]

No idea.

B. swears by it (though not by the toasting/dry roasting beforehand that most recipes require). He's bought a dedicated spice grinder so actually grinding the things is a matter of seconds if you skip the dry roasting step. But I have no idea if it actually makes any real difference to the recipe. I imagine a tablespoon of ground cumin would certainly be almost as good if that was what you had to hand.

[a-cubed.livejournal.com]

Fresh spices add more depth to recipes, just about always. It's like grinding the coffee yourself from beans. Pre-ground coffee degenerates quicker than beans so grinding the beans fresh results in better coffee.

"Worth it" is always a subjecctive measure of benefit versus cost. I prefer to grind my own coffee beans for good coffee but not for everyday coffee. I don't generally bother grinding my own spices, though.