Week 5 assignment

QUICK-BRAISED VEGETABLES

For this week's assignment, I decided to choose a quick recipe that included braising as a cooking technique. I could have chosen a meat dish, but I felt like it'd have taken longer, and this week, I don't have lots of time availability. That doesn't mean that a quick dish can't be healthy. In fact, it turned out being a tasty meal. I found the recipe online, by fine cooking, in the following link: https://www.finecooking.com/recipe/quick-braised-vegetables

Ingredients

- 2 medium carrots

- 1 celery rib

- 8 oz of mushrooms

- 2 cups of vegetable broth

- 3 cloves of garlic, minced

- 4 tblp EVOO

- 2 tbsp lemon juice

- 1 tbsp cumin

- 1 tbsp chili powder

- Salt and pepper

Process

I started trimming the vegetables in stick shape sort of, at least the carrots and celery. I sliced the mushrooms and mixed them with celery and carrots. I heated up some oil in a medium-size pan and sauteed the minced garlic for 2 minutes. Immediately, I added all the veggies and spices and let them cook for 15 minutes until they got a brown color. Once they reached that color, that's when I incorporated the broth and covered the pan with a lid. I let the food simmer until the broth was evaporated, mixing continuously. I had to pour some extra broth because I wanted the ingredients to get a bit softer. I repeated the process and then tasted the veggies to check if it needed more salt. That's the step when the vegetables get braised, which means that you cook a dish with a liquid. I finally sprinkled some lemon juice once the meal was prepared. 

For this recipe, I changed some parts from the original method. They use chicken broth instead of vegetable broth: use green beans instead of celery, and use mustard instead of chili powder and cumin. I adapted it to the ingredients I had in my pantry, and eventually, it was good. I also added a larger amount of broth than the one they use.