Winter salad with mustard and vinegar #189

It's time for a winter salad, it's simple tasty and let's you use some of the delicious vegetables that you might not use for salads that often. It's very simple, peel and wash root vegetables. Slice them thin and make a vinaigrette with mustard and red wine vinegar, combine with the vegetables and serve. 

Here it is served as a tapas but this is almost better as a side for that fatty Christmas food or Sunday roast with the relatives, since it's quite acidic the salad could also replace pickled vegetables, maybe put on a burger?

Winter salad with mustard and vinegar

root vegetables, use your favorites, I used yellow beets, purple carrots, carrots and celeriac

mustard

brown and yellow mustard seeds

parsley

olive oil

red wine vinegar

salt, pepper

Peel and wash the vegetables and then slice thin using a potato peeler, combine in a bowl. Combine olive oil, mustard, vinegar and mustard seeds, chop the parsley and add to the vinaigrette. Season and adjust the flavors to your own liking, I make it a bit more acidic than a normal vinaigrette and quite a bit of mustard so the salad gets a little sting, add salt and pepper and combine the vinaigrette with the vegetables, serve.

Roasted carrots with goat cheese, chives and lime #186

Here in Sweden it is a great season for carrots, they are cheap, tasty and beautiful and come in all shapes and colors, at least if you visit a good vegetable shop. I really like to serve vegetables almost on their own and let they play the main part of a dish. That approach might not work so well if you are serving a main dish but for a starter or in this case tapas it´s absolutely perfect.

I also felt while making this dish that I´ve probably been making something similar before, so I checked and for a trip down memory lane you can check out my previous recipe with roasted carrots, then served with Greek feta cheese instead.

Roasted carrots with goat cheese, chives and lime

carrots, any size, color or shape you like

butter

lime

soft goat cheese

chives

olive oil

salt, pepper

What to do

Trim and rinse the carrots, if the skin is thick then peel them as well, fry in a pan in a combination of butter and olive oil on medium heat until they are golden and almost cooked through. Check using a small knife while they are cooking so they don´t get to soft, adjust the heat if necessary. When done season with salt and pepper. 

Cut a lime into wedges and add to the pan, roast the lime with the flesh side down until it´s browned, almost burnt. Remove from the pan. Slice the chives.

Plating

Spread a spoonful of goat cheese on the bottom of each plate, add the carrots on top and squeeze a wedge of lime on the carrots, leave each wedge on the plate. Sprinkle the chives on top with a bit of salt, pepper and a few drops of olive oil, serve.

Roasted carrots with cheddar dip # 37

Roasted carrots is a great way to transform a simple vegetable into something really tasty, here I roasted the carrots in a pan until they are almost cooked through, that way they get some of their sweet roasted flavor but still maintain a little bit of a crunch.

As you can see in my photos I used carrots in some different colors, if you have a good grocery store nearby they should have or be able to get some other varieties of carrots. Each color is a bit different in both taste and texture but I you don´t find any you can of course use regular ones.

Roasted carrots with cheddar dip

Carrots
Sour cream
English cheddar
Garlic
Salt, pepper

Peel and cut the carrots in quarters, toss with olive oil, salt, pepper and roast in a pan until almost cooked through.

Grate the cheddar and mix with the sour cream, season with crushed garlic, salt and pepper.

Seared duck breast with soy & carrots # 16

Seared duck breast with soy & carrots

Duck breast
Carrots
Japanese soy sauce
Honey
Sesame seeds
Salt, pepper

Fry the duck breast until medium rare, make sure to fry the fat until crispy. Set aside and leave to cool. Whisk soy with honey to a sweet and salty sauce. Cut the carrots and slice the duck breast. Serve each slice with carrot, soy and honey sauce and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Roasted carrots with feta cheese # 12

Roasted carrots with feta cheese

Carrots
Feta cheese
Salt, pepper
Parsley
Olive oil

Peel and cut the carrots and roast them in a pan in some olive oil for a few minutes, do not cook through, they need to have a crunch left to be good. Cut pieces of feta cheese an put on the carrots, chop som parsley and put on top. Finish off with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Seared beef with cilantro, carrots & sesame seeds #5

Seared beef with cilantro, carrots & sesame seeds

beef

fresh cilantro

carrot

sesame seeds

salt, pepper

japanese soy sauce

Sear or grill the beef, slice the carrots thin. Slice the beef and season with salt, pepper and soy. Garnish with carrots, cilantro and sesame seeds.