Vegetables in general are a healthy source of food and should be an integral part of one’s diet. Vegetables in general are rich in minerals, vitamins, fibre and even provide water.
There is a never ending list of vegetables one can eat but generally these are classified in 9 different types or classes.
- Root-crop: beetroot, carrots, sweet potatoes. Usually grow underground developing roots to absorb nutrients from the soil.
- Alliaceous or bulb: Onions, leek, garlic. Also grown underground. They refer to plants that have strong smell due to their particular compounds
- Brassicaceous or Cruciferous: Cabbage, Kale, Cauliflower, and Broccoli. Rich in fibre, vitamin K and also known as flower plants.
- Solanaceous or fruit plants: Tomato, eggplant, red pepper. The type of vegetables where the fruit that grows out of small tree like plants is eaten.
- Cucurbitaceous or marrow: Cucumber, melon, squash, Pumpkin. Fleshy type vegetables that grow from the ground via a stem plant.
- Leguminous: Peas and beans
- Salad Plants and pot-herbs: basil, marjoram, parsley, coriander and any small plants
- Fungi: all types of edible mushrooms
Hopefully I should have managed to cover a good majority of the enormous variety of existing vegetables!!
The benefits nowadays are known to everyone but it’s never enough to remind that consumption should be regular and varied. Incorporated in a balanced diet, vegetables will aid towards the general good health of a person, increasing one’s immunity system and help fight diseases like cancer, diabetes, gastrointestinal conditions and help maintain good blood pressure a healthy heart, help in weight management and keep proper brain function among other things.
Vegetables are usually eaten as sides to main dishes where they can be boiled, grilled or sometimes even served raw to benefit fully from their nutritional values. Vegetables can also be used as main ingredients of a meal especially in soups and minestrone popular during the winter period, but they can even be taken as snacks in their raw form. This time though I have decided to take a twist to story and will use a vegetable to make a dessert! Follow the recipe and enjoy.
Carrot Cake
Ingredients:
12 ½ oz carrots
2 oz pecans (or readily chopped)
4 oz self-raising wholemeal flour
4 oz plain wholemeal flour
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
8 fluid oz vegetable oil
6 oz soft brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tablespoons golden syrup
Topping: (Optional: On a personal note I rarely put the topping since it adds incredible amounts of calories and I prefer enjoying the cake rather than mix it with the topping)
7 oz cream cheese
2 oz softened unsalted butter
2 oz sifted icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Quantity makes for a 9 inch rounded cake
- Start off by grating the carrots and chopping the pecans. Put to one side.
- Sieve together self-raising flour, and plain flour (both wholemeal) with 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, ½ teaspoon nutmeg and 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda. (Tip the bran bits left in the sieve into the mixture)
- Whisk together vegetable oil, brown sugar, eggs, and syrup. (Heat the spoon well for the syrup to slide off easily)
- Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until it’s nice and smooth. Stir in the carrots and pecans.
- Tip the mixture into a greased lined tin and cook at 160 degrees Celsius for an hour, or until cooked.
- For the topping, mix cream cheese, softened unsalted butter, and sifted icing sugar and vanilla essence until smooth.
Allow the cake to cool and then add the topping
Hope you enjoy
Till next time Stay Strong, Stay Focused and Stay Safe
Neville
