Need to add more vegetables to your diet and brighten your dinner table with a healthy and colorful dish? Don’t miss out on this simple and nutritious vegetarian treat. Roasted baby carrots and Indian eggplants combined with wheat berries and tossed with maple syrup, pomegranate kernels and cilantro make a delightful warm salad or a side dish that you can serve with any grilled or roasted meat or on its own as an entrée.
For this recipe, I suggest roasting the carrots and eggplants. But grilling will work as well. Roasting or grilling your vegetables will make them tender and caramelized. Their flavors will intensify and acquire that characteristic taste we all appreciate from roasting.
Baby Carrots
Buy baby carrots that are firm (not flimsy), long and skinny. These young carrots are sweeter and juicier but not tough or woody compared to full-grown carrots. You can find them in most grocery stores sold in bunches with their greens still attached. No shaving or scrubbing is required. Most of the goodness in carrots is in, or just below, the skin.
Just don’t confuse them with the “Manufactured baby carrots”. Those mini cut and peeled “Manufactured baby carrots” are what you see most often in the shops packaged into small plastic bags. In fact, they are carrot shaped slices of peeled mature carrots invented in the late 1980’s by Mike Yurosek, a California farmer, as a way of making use of carrots which are too misshapen for sale as “attractive” full-size carrots.
Indian Eggplants
If you are lucky enough and spot these mini beauties in a farmers market or your local grocery store, just buy and roast/grill some with their skin on to experience for yourself that Indian eggplants can be eaten with their skin on.
Indian eggplants are often labeled as baby eggplants in commercial markets due to their small size. They are similar in appearance to the popular Italian variety but smaller in size and much sweeter in flavor. Indian eggplants are an excellent source of fiber and contain some vitamin B6, vitamin K, and potassium. They also contain anthocyanins, which have antioxidant properties.
Wheat Berries
Wheat berries or wheatberries can be purchased at health food stores or health sections of general grocery stores. Cooked wheat berries are a bit chewy and have sweet and nutty taste.
Wheat berries are whole, unprocessed wheat kernels in their most natural form. They are extremely nutritious and offer a crunchy texture. Wheat berries offer all of the nutrients of a whole grain as they contain the germ, endosperm and bran. All wheat products, such as wheat flour, are made from wheat berries.
Wheat berries, like most whole grains, have abundant health benefits. They are an excellent source of dietary fiber, protein and vitamins. I use them in salads, side dishes and hearty soups.
Nutrition Facts
4 servings per container
- Amount Per ServingCalories271
- % Daily Value *
- Total Fat
11.58g
17%
- Saturated Fat 1.63g 5%
- Trans Fat 0.006g
- Cholesterol 0mg 0%
- Potassium 820mg 24%
- Total Carbohydrate
43.1g
15%
- Dietary Fiber 11.9g 44%
- Sugars 18.06g
- Protein 6.23g 12%
- Vitamin A 80%
- Vitamin C 13%
- Calcium 6%
- Iron 10%
- Vitamin E 18%
- Vitamin K 27%
- Thiamin 22%
- Riboflavin 23%
- Niacin 22%
- Vitamin B6 28%
- Folate 21%
- Phosphorus 23%
- Zinc 16%
- Selenium 28%
- Copper 42%
- Manganese 102%
* The % Daily Value tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
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