Sunday Shopping at the Farmer's Market and Nature's Basket

I <3 Sundays! Alternate Sundays to be precise. Coz that's when I get to travel to Bandra for the Farmer's Market and Nature's Basket.

At the Farmer's Market, I got my usual supplies of carots, peppers, beets. But also got some cabbage for my mom, and some spinach, ginger and mint - All locally grown, freshly plucked, and all GM-free and organic.

There was also this Gujarati snack shop selling theplas, garo, baat, and dhokla. Garo is some disgusting brinjal dish, dhoklas are a Gujurati snack made of flour, but these ones were made of brown rice, they assured me. Wonder why they are so white in color, then? These were especially good, though, with the chilli chutney that they made.

Baat is another winter time Gujarati remedy made from jaggery, ragi flour, ajwain, and ghee - but this one was completely vegan, since the shop owners said people who come to the farmer's market are finicky about ghee (clarified butter) and hence they best omit milk products. I had one glass there and it was so yummy, I had a whole bottle filled to take home.

And now for my favorite part - Nature's Basket! Always feel like a kid in a candy store there. I've been eyeing a luscious looking bottle of maple syrup there forever, but somehow justified not buying it because of its price. But hey, you just live once! Plus there were bargains on olive oils, found myself a flax seed chikki, and the salad section, for once, was completely decked out with different types of sprouts (got mung bean sprouts), lettuces (got iceberg and endive), and some black beauties called mulberries. Am soo looking forward to mix and matching these to make endless varieties of salads. So, yes, these Sunday jaunts are expensive, but now I am so well stocked, there really isnt any excuse to eat anything rubbish.

Minty Broccoli Soup

I had some really fresh and organic mint that I got from the Farmer's Market on Sunday, and my Reliance-bought broccoli was starting to wilt with shades of acid yellow (That store has the worst produce - I'm never shopping there if I have an option to buy elsewhere).

Nice way to get your kids to eat their greens.

You can have this raw as well - I just needed some heat in my body last nite.

Minty Broccoli Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of broccoli
• 3/4 cup of mint
• 1 inch knob of ginger
• 5-10 black pepper corns, crushed

To make:
Chop the broccoli, ginger and mint roughly and blend it to a puree.

Transfer to a pot and gently heat it on a flow flame.

Add the black pepper.

Garnish with mint leaves (and freshly-in-season mulberry, in my case).

Lemony Quinoa and Pea Pilaf

Quinoa (pronounced Keen-waah) has been on my must-try wish list since the time I embarked on this vegan/raw journey. Its supposed to be this super grain with tons of protein - and that is something most non-meat eating folks desperately need. So, I bought a rather expensive jar of imported and organic Bolivian quinoa from the Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago.

But, I was unsure how its supposed to taste and how its supposed to be cooked or best served with. So, after getting my queries resolved on Foodista, and on a rather chilly night, I had a go at this. You're supposed to use quinoa in any dish that calls for bulgar wheat or rice. And it can be served sweet or savoury.

Lemony Quinoa and Pea Pilaf

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of quinoa
• 1/2 cup of peas
• 1 lime
• 1 spring onion
• 1 small tomato
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1-2 cloves of fresh green garlic (along with the green stem)
• Coriander to garnish
• 5-10 black pepper corns

To make:
In a pot, put about 1.5 cups (twice as much as the quinoa) of water, and the quinoa and boil for 10-15 minutes. I had only frozen peas, and so added them in as well - which was a mistake, coz the peas have lost their right green color, this way. I'd add the peas in last along with the other veggies, the next time.

Add the juice of half a lime and the curry powder when the pot first comes to a boil. Mix well.

Chop the tomatoes, spring onion and garlic.

Turn off the heat after 15 minutes max. Let it cool for 5 minutes. Then add the rest of the veggies. Mix well.

Add the black pepper powder and coriander to garnish along with the remaining lime juice.

It tasted really good and I will definitely be cooking a lot more with quinoa in the future!

Vegan Strawberry Sorbet

Strawberries are finally in season!! So, I bought a carton of strawberries and a 200 mils soy milk box to make a frozen strawberry treat. Well, I was going for strawberry ice cream, but it turned out more like a sorbet.

Vegan Strawberry Icecream Sorbet

Servings: 2-3 scoops

Ingredients:

• 12 strawberries
• 75-100 mils of unsweetened soy milk
• 2 tablespoons of organic cane jaggery (replace with brown sugar, if needed)
• Pinch of rock salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon rasberry food coloring

To make:
Freeze the strawberries for a couple of hours in the freezer.

Take them out, thaw them for a while, then roughly chop them.

In a blender, add the strawberries, jaggery, salt, and soy milk.

Blend well for 5-10 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and the coloring.

Spread the mixture in a bowl and let it freeze for at least 4 hours in the freezer.

After that, put the solid mixture back in the blender (or stir it up roughly by hands). Put back in the freezer for a couple of hours more for a final freeze.
Garnish with strawberries and serve.

Home-Made Sun Dried Tomatoes

I've never been a fan of raw tomatoes and seldom use them in my salads because I dont appreciate the raw tartness of a tomato. So, I was looking for a way to make sun dried tomatoes when, seeing this recipe on PurpleFoodie, I was completely sold over into making these little babies at home.

Mine is a bit different, in that I didn't take the lazy shortcut of putting my tomatoes into an oven to speed up the drying process. Mine are lying in the bare goodness of the sun on my window sill. I'm blessed with over 5 hours of direct sunlight in the morning-afternoon on my window, so might as well use nature's oven than waste electricity or gas. It also used to be my personal tanning bed until a taller building next door sprung up and ruined the fun of having no prying eyes. I used normal tomatoes that we get in India, not the recommended meaty variety, used rock salt, and lastly used basil instead of oregano because basil and tomatoes are best buds, flavorwise.

I do not have pix of the final product yet and I have only just laid out my tomatoes for drying - I'd imagine they'd take about 2 days to dry out in the sun. But am so excited for them - they smell delicious already and I keep using the excuse of stray birds landing on my window to keep checking on my tomatoes, when really, I just want another whiff.

Update on 21st Dec: I now have my gorgeous sun dried tomatoes ready with me - after 2 whole days of the Indian sun to scorch the tomatoes into 1/4th of their original size. But size isn't everything. The flavor is so concentrated!

Sun Dried Tomatoes

Ingredients

• 5 small-medium tomatoes
• Teaspoon of rock/black salt
• 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 4-5 garlic cloves
• 5-10 black pepper corns
• 2 teaspoons of dried basil

To make:
Cut the tomatoes into quarters (If they are really tiny, cut them into halves). You may want to remove the seedy pulpy center of the tomato - I haven't.

Pat each quarter with a tissue to take away any excess moisture.

Pummel your rock salt into smithereens and make about 1 teaspoon of rock salt powder.

Smash up your garlic cloves and pepper corns.

Combine the garlic, basil, pepper, and salt. Add the olive oil and mix well.

Dip each tomato quarter into your oily mixture and lay on a tray.

Cover with a net or fine cloth and lay out in the sun to dry.

After 8 hours in the sun:

After 2 days of sunning:

Next time, I'll make a bigger - much bigger - batch, for sure. My twenty tomato slivers are going to be gone in no time! :)