Raw shopping at Russel market

How colorful can it get? Imagine you are going to get all those colors along with their vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants into you! Your life will get as colorful & radiant as these vegetables & fruits!

How true .. food is your medicine & medicine your food.

Where did I buy all this ? I went to Russel market in Shivajinagar one early Sunday morning. This was my first visit and I should say it is a heaven for raw foodists. You need to go very early like before 8am to get  Lettuce, Asparagus, Bok-choy, Brussel sprouts, Zucchini etc. All these are sold to the restaurants in bulk so by 8am these veggies go out of stock. I was the only retail buyer here.

Coming to fruits there is a shop solely for butterfruits (Avocados)! You also get seasonal fruits like mangoes, pears, grapes and some exotic ones like Mangostean, Figs, cherries, plums, Kiwi. There are lot of fruits I still need to discover here.

The more local veggies that can be eaten raw like Beetroot, Carrots, Bell peppers(Capsicum), Kohlrabi are also available. While selecting vegetables and fruits include a lot of variety and color. Include green, red and yellow Bell-peppers. Green and Yellow Zucchinis.

You also get a wide variety of local greens but I restricted from buying them because I don't eat non vegetarian food and there is a meat market close to this. However, I could not resist from buying fresh Lettuce, Chinese cabbage as I don't get it easily else where in Bangalore.

Kohlrabi salad

• Select tender Kohlrabis. The bigger ones have rough fibers in them.
• Peel the Kohlrabis and slice them finely like matchsticks (half the height of matchsticks).
• Add grated coconut, finely chopped chilli and salt.
• If you are still not used to eating raw, heat a teaspoon of coconut oil, add some mustard, few chana dhal & urad dhal, some curry leaf and a bit of Asafoetida. Add this to Kohlrabi.
• If you want 100% raw, then add a teaspoon for coconut oil and a little lime.
• Mix well and serve!

Kohlrabi is know as Navil Koos in Kannada, Nool Kol in Tamil. It is also know as knol-khol.

Asparagus soup

Chop the Asparagus tips finely. I boil the remaining shoots so that is smooth. You could keep it raw. Make a smooth paste out of it by adding a little salt. Add freshly ground pepper. Add some lemon juice or a little curd. Add the finely chopped asparagus tips. It tastes yummy!

Raw carrot and asparagus soup

This is a simple and tasty soup.

Ingredients

• 2 carrots
• 5-6 asparagus
• 2 cloves of garlic and a small piece of giner
• sea salt
• pepper
• milk (optional)

I chop the tender tops of asparagus and keep them separate.Boil the harder shoots below separately (if you want you can use them raw too). Clean and chop the carrots.

Grind Carrots, asparagus, garlic, ginger and salt in a food processor by adding water as required.

Add freshly ground pepper and a little milk.  You can warm it a bit if required. Serve!

Vegetables,greens, seeds and nuts that can be eaten raw

Most of the raw foods mentioned on the Internet are not found easily in India. Even if they are found, the local names differ. Recently a lot of foods like Zucchini, lettuce is found in supermarkets. Below is the list I've compiled. I'm still investigating and trying out what veggies and greens available locally can be eaten raw. Thanks to my parents, we used to eat quite a few greens and veggies raw at home.

I'll give names in local languages and keep updating it as my knowledge increases.

Vegetables

Cucumber (sautekai, vellri kai)
Onion
Tomato
Carrot
Capsicum/Bell peppers
Chilli
Beetroot
Radish/Mool (Mulangi)
Kohlrabi (Navil koos)
Cabbage
Chinese cabbage

 Brocolli
Chayote (Seeme Badane kai, chow chow)
Turnips
Zucchini

Peas
Sweet corn
Baby corn
Ash gourd
Pumpkin (in small amounts)
French beans (very tender ones in small amounts)


Greens/Herbs
Methi greens (menthay soppu)
Lettuce
Spinach (Palak) (Cant eat too much because of the oxalic acid)
Dill (Sabaske soppu)
Coriander
Pudina/Mint
Celery
Tulsi/Holy Basil
Ajwaan leaves
Kale
Basil

Sprouts / Molake Kalu
Green gram
Mataki
Chana (in small amounts)


Seeds
Flax seed (Agasi)
Ground nut
pumpkin seeds
cucumber seeds
watermelon seeds
Sesame (yellu)
Poppy seeds (khas-khas,Khus Khus)
Ajwan seeds

Nuts and Dry fruits
Almond (Badam)
Pista
Cashew
Walnut
Dry grapes (Manuka)
Apricot
Dried fig (Anjeer)
Dates (fresh and dried) (Khajur)
Cacao beans (I'll keep the cacao story for another post)

Other foods
Ginger
Garlic
Honey
Rock Salt (Sede lon, pade lon)
Sea Salt (kal uppu)

Go to the market and discover the wide variety of raw foods that you can eat! I had read a lot about Flax seeds and I was wondering whether it would be available. I found it in the usual grocery shop and in all super markets!

I'll update on fruits in the next post.