Fried Cauliflower

Vegetables are the quickest and simplest things to cook!  Other then chopping them up into appropriate sizes, my favourite way of cooking them is with garlic.  As a rule of thumb, get a nice mix of colours both for presentation as well as a good mix of vitamins and minerals!

Ingredients:
Cailiflower, cut into small florets
Snow peas, cut on the diagonal
Red pepper, cut into small pieces
Garlic, minced
Light soya sauce
Cooking Oil

1. Heat up frying pan and add some oil to the pan.
2. When oil is hot, add in garlic and fry until fragrant on low-medium heat, taking care not to burn the garlic. (Note: burnt garlic tastes bitter... urggh)
3. Add in all the other vegetables and season with some light soya sauce.
4. Add a little water, mix well in the pan and cover with lid for a few minutes until cauliflower is cooked.  Serve warm with rice.

Fried Cauliflower

Vegetable/Fruit Bread

One big difference when using a slow juicer as compared to a blender, was the separation of fibre from the juice.  Here's the by-product of juicing:

Vegetable and fruit fibre

 Instead of throwing the fibre away, I added them to my bread.  Ta-daa!  A plain loaf of bread becomes a carrot-celery-apple bread!

Vegetable/Fruit bread

Slow Juicer

Slow juicer

A what juicer, you say??  Exactly what I was thinking when I first heard about the slow juicer...  all my life, I have been making smoothies/juices using a blender.  But, apparently the slow juicer is supposed to retain more nutrients in your juices as it doesn't make use of a high speed blade, which in turn creates heat.  Going through a vegetables and fruit juice phase, we bit the bullet and got ourselves a slow juicer (these are not cheap!).

And to test it out, here's a simple combination of carrots, apples and celery:

Apples, carrots, celery

The end product was a thicker, more condensed version as compared to the blender version (needed water to enable the blender to work).  Yummy!!

Ladies' Fingers

Ladies' fingers

I remember when I was young, my Mum used to cook ladies' fingers with chili.... YUMMY!  When I cook ladies' fingers, the only other ingredient I need is garlic.  Firstly, my kitchen/pantry is not as well stocked as my Mum's and I do not have all the spices needed for the fragrant chili concoction.  Secondly, my cooking skills are not as good as my Mum's.  So here's a really quick and easy ladies' fingers dish when you are in a hurry:

Ingredients:
ladies' fingers, washed and cut into slices on the diagonal
garlic, minced
cooking oil
light soya sauce

1. Heat a little oil in frying pan or wok
2. Fry minced garlic until fragrant (not burnt!)
3. Add ladies' fingers and stir-fry for a few minutes (add a little water to speed up the cooking)
4. Season with light soya sauce and serve hot!

Stir-fried Beansprouts

Stir-fried Beansprouts

Stir-fried vegetables are a quick and easy way to add some fibre to your diet.  As we get more affluent, simple and cheap dishes like stir-fried beansprouts bring us back to the basics...

Ingredients:
Beansprouts, with roots plucked off
Carrots, cut into strips
Green pepper, cut into strips
Garlic, minced
Vegetable oil,
Mushroom sauce
Light soya sauce

1. Heat up a little vegetable oil in a wok.  Add garlic and fry until fragrant.
2. Add beansprouts, carrots, and green pepper to the wok.  Season with mushroom sauce and light soya sauce.
3. Add a small amount of water to the wok, turn up the fire and quickly stir-fry for a minute or less and it's ready to be served!

Note: Small pieces of salted fish can be added to this dish to give it a different twist

Fried Broccoli, Cauliflower & Chicken

Fried broccoli and cauliflower

Broccoli together with cauliflower has to be one of the vegetable dishes that I cook most often.  For this dish, I added in some chicken to make it a quick and easy one-dish-meal to be eaten with rice.

Ingredients:
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Carrot
Chicken breast
Garlic
Vegetarian oyster sauce (mushroom based)
Light soya sauce
Black pepper
Corn flour
Oil

1. Cut chicken breast into bite-sized cubes and season with light soya sauce, black pepper and a little corn flour.  Set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.  Marinate for longer if you have the time.
2. Mince garlic.  Wash and cut up broccoli, cauliflower and carrot
3. Heat up frying pan with a little oil.  On low heat, fry the garlic until fragrant and slightly golden brown.
4. Add in chicken to cook for a while.
5. Add in broccoli, cauliflower and carrot.
6. Add vegetarian oyster sauce and a little water, stirring to mix all ingredients in the pan.
7. Cover pan and bring up to high heat and let cook for a few minutes or until vegetables are cooked but not overly soft.
8. Uncover the pan and give it a final stir before dishing out onto a plate.