I work in a vegan restaurant. It was opened just last summer. Since last fall it has been take out and delivery only. Today it was announced that our city Montreal, will probably not have restaurant dining until September. Maybe, but probably not, because by then they will be getting ready for the third wave. Who knows. In the meantime I will live day by day and see what happens.
Because of the instability we are changing the menu more often and there is a bit of food waste here and there.
My kitchen manager was sad about having to throw away a huge bag of carrots that are no longer being used on the menu. They were starting to grow leaves already. He begged me to take them. Although I use carrots all the time, I don't ever have that many in my fridge. I was forced to haul them home, which is just across the street.
There they were. A truck load of carrots in my fridge. I guess I am exaggerating but you know what I mean. They needed to be used up quickly before they were not usable anymore.
This is a small portion of the carrots.
I was feeling like some soup anyway for comfort, so carrot soup would be the first item. I kept it northern using fresh herbs like dill which is a good accompaniment with carrots and many root vegetables. I only use dill a couple of times a year. This was one of them. I added some Italian parsley as well.
With the addition of an onion, a few garlic cloves, a celery stalk, a tablespoon of minced ginger, pepper, salt, a teaspoon garlic powder, a teaspoon onion powder, some bay leaves, 2 cups soy milk, a tablespoon of maple syrup, and a couple of teaspoons of vegetable broth powder, the soup began.
I didn't fuss too much with this because it would be blended after it was cooked. I adjust it at the end with more of whatever I felt it needed.
My first carrot mission completed. Carrot ginger herb soup.
There were many carrots left, so I would add them to the green onions that I get every Sunday from work that are being thrown out. They are actually never thrown out with me around. I added some kimchi that I had recently purchased and made a pancake with them. This would continue my Korean inspired, newly experimented with, cooking.
I mixed carrots, green onions cilantro root, ginger, fresh chili pepper, kimchi, rice flour, cornstarch and a little water until it was sticking together.
This was quite experimental so there is no recipe. It did magically turn out.
Because these are kind of rustic, they are just put in the pan with no need for making them uniform and round. I am feeling that this is the nature of this kind of pancake.
Next carrot mission completed.
Since this was a Korean inspired pancake, I made a sauce from Korean red pepper paste. I purchase it recently for the first time in my life. It's called Gochujang. It's really new to me. I added soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. I didn't follow a recipe but I added slowly the items until I got what I wanted. If it's too salty just add water. Cook it then then cool for the sauce.
There were still are so many carrots left.
I saw a post by our Hive brother . He made a delicious salad with apples, but I didn't have any left. However I had plenty of carrots, so I was inspired from his salad, to make a carrot salad on some greens.
This was made with carrots, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, raisins, radishes, zucchini, onion, greens such as arugula and herbs. I made a quick vinaigrette from olive oil, white balsamic, juice of a lemon, salt, pepper, oregano, and thyme, topping it with vegan parmesean that I had left.
Last carrot mission completed.
Now some carrot talk.
"Ahh what's up Doc?"
"My what lovely carrots you have"
"All the better to see you with"
These are things that only a some will get. Sorry for the silliness.
Have a good day, evening or night!