A bunch of baby beets, baby carrots, asparagus in recipe

7 years ago

I found and read a GW post from 2015 on the subject of bunches, but I need more help to have this recipe turn out as best it can be, since I plan to use it for a group of 10 to 12 friends. The recipe as I got it from the internet serves 6, and there were no reviews to help me. It's "Baby Vegetable Salad with Ricotta" from RecipesPlus. I'm not enough of a cook to judge how much to include in the bunches in order to not overwhelm the various vegetables--do I need more of some and less of others? Any guidance will be greatly appreciated! Anne

1 bunch baby beets

1 bunch baby carrots (trimmed and washed)

1 bunch asparagus (ends trimmed)

4 ounces green beans (trimmed)

4 ounces snow peas (trimmed)

1-1/2 cups ricotta cheese

2 T chives (finely chopped)

2 T lemon juice

1 T EV olive oil

1 T balsamic vinegar

https://www.yummly.com/recipe/Baby-Vegetable-Salad-with-Ricotta-1404361

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jimandanne_mi
Original Author

7 years ago

Thank you plllog and louiseab for additional useful information. I'm hostess for the luncheon, but my co-hostess will be making this salad for the group--I was just testing it out. She lives in a larger town with multiple speciality and veggie/fruit places, so she will probably be able to get the baby versions. Therefore, plllog, your specific sizes are definitely helpful and I will pass this info on to her after I equate them with my quantities along with my comments about the recipe.

I made the salad and it is very colorful and fresh looking. I think half the ricotta would have been enough, and goat cheese and the chives scattered on the salad instead of using the ricotta would be better. It was a bit bland (the only change I made was to add an extra tablespoon of lemon juice) and I'm not sure what I should have done to adjust the seasoning. My co-hostess friend is a much more experienced cook than I, so I will suggest that she add more carrots, beets, and snow peas, and any seasoning, at her discretion.

Thank you all so much for helping me provide my friends with a tastier lunch!

Anne

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Comments (12)

colleenoz
7 years ago
Does your grocery/fruit and veg supplier not sell these vegetables in bunches?
sheilajoyce_gw
7 years ago
I would guess that for 6 servings, you would need another bunch of the baby beets.
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jimandanne_mi
Original Author
7 years ago
I haven't seen bunches of baby beets or baby carrots at my 2 small town grocery stores, so I'll have to use the smallest beets in a regular bunch (4, which I weighed at 8 oz) and the skinniest carrots, (7, in an organic bunch which weighed 12 oz). The 1 lb of asparagus will probably result in about 8 oz when the ends are broken off. I'm just not sure if the baby beets and carrots come in similar bunches weight-wise, so am unsure of the proportions.
Olychick
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
I don't think it will matter too much. It is likely if you keep the proportions of the main veggies pretty equal, you'll be fine. So if you use 20 small slender carrots (which would be 2 per guest), then I'd use enough small beets cut in quarters maybe to mimic baby beet size, to equal 20 pieces. Same with asparagus...figure 2 or 3 pieces per guest. I wouldn't just add another bunch of beets without increasing the other ingredients. It looks like the pea pods and green beans are intended to be more auxiliary than stars, keep those less than the others, but more than 4 ounces since you're doubling the # of servings, so maybe double those to 8 oz. Then double the ricotta ingredients, too.

Glad to see you'll use real young carrots instead of those insipid "baby" carrots sold in cello bags.
jimandanne_mi
Original Author
7 years ago
Olychick, sheila, and colleen, thank you for taking the time to respond to my post.

I will try the recipe tomorrow Olychick, since you have given me such good specific information on the proportions--just what I was looking for. And I completely agree with you on the packaged "baby" carrots!

Sheilajoyce, I love beets so may add an extra one or two in!
plllog
7 years ago
Olychick's recommendations sound good to me. Just to answer the specific questions:

Baby beets come about five or six to the bunch, each about an inch in diameter.

Baby carrots come about six or seven to the bunch, and need to be cut to a similar size. They should be pencil to fat pencil around. Bigger and they're not baby, but you can substitute slightly larger carrots so long as they're still small and sweet (i.e., not horse carrots!).

Asparagus usually comes in the same sized bunch whether there are many fewer fat ones, or many more skinny ones. That makes about the same weight, but very different amount in your salad. The bunch is about 2.5"-3" in diameter. If you get very small ones you might want to use a bit less.
Louiseab
7 years ago
Really good advice here. I would only add that get more and you can add if it doesn’t look like enough. Some of our friends and family eat way more than we do so for me it’s always hard to tell.
plllog
7 years ago
Bland might be a simple need for more salt. Or pepper. The next most common culprit is lack of acid, so the extra lemon juice only helped. The trick if it's about the S&P is to adjust very slowly. The difference between bland and overseasoned can be very small.

It sounds like you're getting a good handle on things. Good luck with the party.
lindac92
7 years ago
Sounds like a beautiful salad....and I would suggest a drizzle of balsamic to combat "blandness"....white balsamic to keep the fresh color.
And I agree....skip the ricotta and go for some chevre instead.
jimandanne_mi
Original Author
7 years ago
plllog and lindac92, thank you so much for the additional information, which I did not know and which will help me when preparing other future dishes. I am basically a novice due to many years of being too busy working and raising kids to think about cooking many different dishes, and am now enjoying a variety of food in my cooking group.

Anne
jimandanne_mi
Original Author
7 years ago
HU, thanks for the recipe, which looks yummy, but actually I am trying for a non-greens based substantial salad with some ricotta.

For our group's luncheons, we usually have a theme. Earlier this year when I was looking for a recipe online to use up some ricotta cheese, I found quite a variety of interesting ones and decided my theme would be "Gotta Lotta Ricotta" for our mid-October get-together. I have been trying the various recipes and have settled on the first three below, and am finalizing the salad decision. In the interest of having a tastier salad, I will cheat a little and substitute goat cheese for the ricotta in the recipe above, and let the members know that it originally had ricotta as the cheese. Also, one member can't have cow milk based cheese, so I'll substitute goat cheese in each of her dishes, and for anyone else who let's me know she doesn't like ricotta.

A more appealing title for the recipe below would be "Lasagna Cups with Chicken Sausage and Mango Chutney." Since these taste better as leftovers, I'll make the sauce the day before. With one serving ("cupcake") per person, and the other selections, the salad will need to be more substantial than usual, and the recipe in the original post is appealing because of the multiple vegetables.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/lasagna-cupcakes-with-sausage-and-mango-chutney-recipe-1925693

I made some changes to this one--will grill whole grain flatbread, and use regular almonds, since marconas are SO expensive (members have to contribute to the cost of the meal, which we try to keep within a certain range) and hard to find at times.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/geoffrey-zakarian/snow-pea-and-ricotta-crostini-2482381

For dessert:

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/roasted-peaches-with-ricotta-buttercream-and-breadcrumbs

I'm going to try this cookie recipe today. It's listed as "healthy", but I'd sure like to find one with lower fat. Don't know if I should substitute low fat ricotta here, since I don't know if lowering the amount of fat would change the taste/texture when baking to a not very great cookie.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/lemon-ricotta-cookies-with-lemon-glaze-recipe-1950241

Anne

A bunch of baby beets, baby carrots, asparagus in recipe

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A bunch of baby beets, baby carrots, asparagus in recipe

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