It was a beautiful day to step outside and soak some sun. So Agam and I biked to downtown and grabbed our cup of cappuccino at Red Rock before hitting the farmers market.
Fresh vegetables, fruits and flowers delight me 🙂 I just love walking down the alley with smell of fresh oranges, apples, berries, herbs, bakeries and charcuteries criss-crossing mid air.
We got some fresh carrots and cauliflowers, strawberries, seasonal flowers, cabbage, jams and preserves. The usual stuff. As I biked back home my mind started toying with the idea of cooking something simple and nutritious for lunch. I got home and searched my cook books for a nice recipe that would put my freshly bought ingredients to good use. And voila I came up with a stew. The original recipe was a Chicken Stew, but I modified it (as usual) and came up with this – Veggie Stew
Small Cauliflower – cut into florets
Green Peas – 1 cupCarrot – 1 large, chopped
Mushrooms – chopped into quartets – 1 cup
Green beans – 1 cup chopped
One tomato – chopped into small chunks
1 medium onion – sliced
Bay leaves – 2
Whole spices – Cloves, Pepper corns, Star anise, Cinnamon stick
Ginger – 2 tbsp chopped
Curry leaves – about 10
Whole red chili – 2
Green chili – 2 slicedCoconut milk – 8oz can
Salt
Water
Sugar – 1 tsp
Lemon juice from 1 large lemon
Five spice powder
Steps
Take a large pan and add some oil. Add bay leaves, whole spices and whole red chili.
When the species begin to splutter, add ginger and green chilies to this. After some time add the curry leaves.
When the ginger begins to turn color, add onions. You don’t need to wait for onions to cook all the way through. As they turn pink, add the carrots, beans and cauliflower.
Once they begin to cook, add the peas and mushrooms. Cook them together for a few minutes and then cover the pan with a lid and let the veggies cook. Add some salt and pepper at this point.
After 5-7 minutes, add the coconut milk to this medley. Add some water to make it thinner.
Add 2 tsp five spice powder to this and add the lemon juice at this point too.
Let the stew boil and after 5-7 minutes add 1 tsp sugar.
Now add tomatoes to this. Add freshly chopped coriander to the the stew and let the veggies cook in the coconut milk.
Stir the coriander and let the stew simmer for a few minutes.
Serve hot with brown rice 🙂
*Five spice powder is available at any Asian grocery store in the spices section.
Shivi 