A tale of mental warfare with my farmers market vegetables

Ingredient inspiration: gorgeous farmers market vegetables

Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you got ambitious about eating healthy and bought too many gorgeous seasonal vegetables? Now they are sitting in your fridge and every time you open the fridge, they are staring back to you. They bore into your soul with questions. Will they realize their full potential by turning into a tasty meal you devour? Or will they slowly rot away in the cold until you toss them into the garbage bin, without making any eye contact? Yes, you have been in this situation before? Many times? Please tell me I can’t be the only one who finds herself in this mental warfare with my vegetables every few weeks.

I love grocery shopping (one of my free-styling advantages), especially at my local farmers market on Saturdays. I love going to each vendor’s cart, looking at all the lovely seasonal fruits and vegetables sparkling in the sun, trying samples, and inevitably buying too many things (much to the annoyance of my partner). In my defense, how can the multi color carrots be ignored? I can imagine their sweetness on my tongue when I look at them. What about the vibrant little green trees (broccoli) that is begging to be steamed or roasted for a crunchy bite? Why is the purple cabbage so mysteriously inviting, especially when placed next to it’s green colored sibling? Since I have no self control, I must satisfy all these curiosities in my mind. The only way to do that is to buy all the vegetables. So, I did.

Now it’s Tuesday evening after work. The enthusiasm of Saturday morning has been replaced by fatigue of a workday evening. The carrots, broccoli, cabbages, cucumbers, mushrooms, chard, eggplant, okra, green beans all stare back at me from the fridge, daring me to ignore them for yet another day. After a crazy work day, I almost wanted to. But I also started to feel a bit guilty and pathetic for aiding the vegetables to victory. I tried to drown out these thoughts and emotions and instead bring one thought from the back of my mind to front and center: cooking always unwinds and relaxes me. I imagined myself chopping the veggies, seasoning them, developing their flavors, marrying them in a bowl, and imagining their taste and texture in my mouth. This visualization technique definitely did the trick and provided me with the motivation to cook.

But I wanted to keep things simple. Roasting vegetables is a great simple way to develop their flavor without being hands-on. I roasted the broccoli with onion, lemon, and salt. I roasted the carrots with some garlic and salt. While these beauties were roasting in the oven, I started a quick pilaf of basmati rice and lentils on the stove. As the rice was bubbling away, I made a thinly sliced cucumber pickle (salt, lemon juice) as well as a green and purple cabbage carrot slaw (salt, ginger, lemon juice).

All of this took ~45 mins, give or take. The trick is a pre-heated oven and the timing and sequence of events (get things in the oven/stove immediately and then tackle veggies that don’t need cooking). The only thing left was to build the bowl. It started with a bed of lentil rice, adorned with crunchy roasted lemon broccoli, roasted garlic carrots, fresh bright cabbage slaw, quick pickled cucumbers, and feta cheese. I also added a dollop of tomatillo green salsa that I found in the fridge.

This bowl turned out quite delicious with flavors that were simple and complex, textures that made each bite interesting, and visual appeal that came from various colors and shapes. A great way to gobble up many veggies! That said, I think the bowl was begging to be topped with some lean protein such as grilled salmon or grilled chicken breast or grilled tofu, which I didn’t have at home (next time!).

I think I won this round of the Andee vs. Vegetables war. I have certainly lost many such battles in the past and I am confident will do so again in the future. Especially since I cannot control myself in the face of bountiful seasonal vegetables lining the carts at farmers markets where I momentarily forget about the fatigue of workdays. While this will be a never ending war for life, my only hope is that I win more rounds than I lose! Savoring delicious and nutritious meals is a tempting silver lining after all.

Dish Debrief:

• Is this my winner or disaster? leaning towards a win

• How would I rate this dish out of 10? 7 out of 10

• What would I change next time? Add a protein (e.g. grilled salmon or grilled chicken or grilled tofu), add another type of sauce (e.g. tahini sauce or garlic yogurt sauce)

• Would I make this again? Most likely