Corned Beef with Caramelized Cabbage, Roasted Potatoes, and Carrots: Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
The traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal? Of course, it’s “Corned Beef and Cabbage.” And it usually has carrots and potatoes thrown in. It’s a beautiful dish that satisfies three of the five taste elements: sweet, salty, and umami (the other two are bitter and sour). Umami is an elusive flavor that is rarely present in a meal. It can be described as a pleasant “brothy” or “meaty” taste with a long-lasting, mouthwatering, and coating sensation over the tongue. In this meal, the corned beef is the source of umami. This meal is irresistible, and one of the only occasions when I’ll breakdown and eat red meat.
Now, you may be thinking, “Katherine, isn’t red meat bad for you?” It absolutely is! But my motto is, “every food fits.” You see, you’re protected from the damaging effects of the red meat by the array of vegetables containing antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory nutrients in the meal. They help neutralize the negative aspects of the cured, red meat. Plus, if you rarely eat red meat, that makes a huge difference, too.
If you’d rather not eat red meat, roasted salmon or chicken can be delicious substitutes.
I maximize the natural flavors and sweetness in the vegetables by stir frying the cabbage, and roasting the carrots and potatoes until they are golden brown and caramelized. Both stir frying and roasting exposes them to open heat. That heat caramelizes the sugars within, and mellows strong flavors into rich, multilayered perfection, adding depth and complexity to the overall dish.
When vegetables are prepared using these methods, they taste like candy, I promise. They are definitely tastier french fries!
Clink my links for the easy “recipes,” that are, actually, more like simple preparation instructions, with only one pan to clean up!
