Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Sesame crusted carrot noodles



Today's dish is a simple one, and perhaps more of a side than an actual main meal. It would go very well with the teriyaki tofu of my last post. Perhaps that is why these carrot noodles came out more Japanese than Thai: I set out with the idea of Thai carrot noodles and finished with something a bit different. Sometimes cooking is like that.



It is no secret that I love my vegetable spiralizer, and I have wanted to try carrot 'noodles' for some time now. I wasn't sure if they would work. The carrots certainly spiralized without difficulty, but eating them was akin to eating grated or finely chopped carrot. In other words, spiralizing was not really necessary for this dish - no doubt good news for those of you who don't have spiralizers of your own. When I have made zucchini or beetroot noodles, the 'noodles' were quite different to eat than the zucchini or beetroot in its original form. Carrot seems to be in a different category.

Those points aside, I do like the look of the carrot noodles, and would recommend them if you have a spiralizer to hand. If not, running some carrots through a food processor grater would be an understandable shortcut.

The carrots are flavoured with with mirin, soy sauce, chilli and a dash of lemon juice. Hulled sesame seeds look pretty, give some texture and protein, and round out the flavour profile. This is a light dish, and while you can eat the whole batch for lunch (I did...with chocolate following), I would recommend pairing it with other dishes for a more rounded meal. For my saucy teriyaki tofu re-run, this may well appear next to the tofu and rice.



Sesame crusted carrot noodles
An easy side dish to complement Asian dishes
Serves 2 as a side
Vegan and low in fat

Author: Bite-Sized Thoughts


Ingredients
2 medium carrots
1/2 small red pepper, thinly sliced
2 tsp mirin
3/4 tsp soy sauce
1/2 red chilli, finely chopped
Squeeze lemon juice
1 tbsp hulled sesame seeds

Method
Spiralize your carrots, or if preferred, grate or chop finely.

Add the carrots and red pepper to a bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl, combine the mirin, soy sauce, chopped chili, and lemon juice. Add to the carrot mix and stir through. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds before serving.



 What is your favourite way to serve carrots? I rarely use them in formal side dishes because we so often just have them raw!

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This post is part of my participation in the 2014 Vegan Month of Food. This week I am focusing on main meal options.

Previous 2014 Vegan MoFo posts:
Breakfasts-                                                                      Snacks-
#1 - Vegan French toast                                                                                
#6 - Chocolate coated banana chips
#2 - Apple and strawberry muesli                                                             
#7 - Barbecue inspired nori snacks
#3 - Mango coconut buckwheat breakfast pudding                              
#8 - Carob latte
#4 - Tips for a vegan breakfast on the go                                                
#9 - Tide Tables Café
#5 - Chickpea pancakes with spicy kale and mango                             #10 - Dark chocolate and espresso almonds


Main meal options-
#11 - Moroccan tagine

14 comments:

  1. I also rarely eat cooked carrots since I love them raw so much. My Mum always put a bowl of carrot sticks on the table for us to munch on while she was finishing preparing dinner and now I do the same!
    I know what you mean about the texture of spiralized carrots and usually do them combined with courgette for that reason. This would certainly be a lovely side dish for your teriyaki tofu.

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    Replies
    1. We had carrots to snack on during dinner prep too :-) I also do it now, but don't usually bother with a bowl. I like the idea though - a bit more refined, too!

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  2. can just see this with the tofu teriyaki - esp on a hot aussie summer day. I am interested to hear that spiralising some vegies makes them taste different but not carrot - we eat lots of carrots - I have tried quite a few carrot salads - one I enjoy has dry fried sunflower seeds in it and I think chives - so probably similar to this with sesame seeds but more traditional vinaigrette.

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    Replies
    1. Your carrot salad does sound quite similar. It is odd the way different vegetables lend themselves to spiralizing - my hypothesis is that they slightly more moist ones (zucchini, beetroot) soak up the flavours of any sauce, and do so more when in thin strands than in thicker chunks. Being a bit more solid, carrot didn't seem to do that.

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  3. This is a great side dish for meat or fish! Who would think these are carrots - they look appetising!

    Julie
    Gourmet Getaways

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  4. This looks like a lovely side dish. I do love your spiralizer - it certainly makes food look pretty. I think the mirin and soy and lemon juice would make a lovely dressing for the sesame and carrots xx

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  5. That's a good looking bowl of orange right there - just one carrot, a spiraliser, and your food's as pretty as a picture and tasty to boot. Talking of which, a spiraliser definitely needs to make its way into my kitchen soon.

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    1. Spiralisers definitely work wonders at making things beautiful :)

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  6. Carrots! What a POWERFUL food! Love them! Found you thru the Vegan MoFo Randomizer! Glad I did - great place you have here!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much Jennifer - and I don't know how I missed your comment when you left it, so I'm sorry to be so tardy in replying!

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  7. Sesame seeds and carrots go so perfectly together :-)

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