When I named my website The Colors of Indian Cooking I was thinking about the colors of the many, many spices used in this cuisine, from the gold of turmeric, the deep crimson of kashmiri chili, the sable browns of cumin and coriander and the vivid yellow-orange of saffron. As it turns out, the colors that have been turning up have been the colors of Indian vegetables. These vegetables aren't necessarily Indian, but since they're used in Indian recipes, just roll with me here.
It all started with the blue beans I found at the farmers market. Once I started with that, I was out to discover what else might be out there. That's when I discovered carrots didn't just come in orange.Yellow carrots! There they are sitting next to my gorgeous purple cauliflower which is a whole other story. I had to have them! All of them!
I couldn't wait to cook them and decided that I needed to invite others over to share the colorful veggie wealth. I planned a Summer Sunday Indian Brunch.
One of the best things about Summer in Sonoma is the entertaining. A lot of the time it can involve indoor picnics in the Summer as it can get too hot to be outdoors on some days. This Summer however has been unusually cool. We had a longer, cooler wetter winter and this Summer has been pretty mild if not downright cold some days. This last Sunday however was perfect, sunny and warm with a gentle breeze. Exactly right for dining on the deck overlooking the neighbors' vineyard.
I gathered a bunch of brightly colored vegetables and a bunch of bright friends and decided to see what would happen when I put them all together. I settled on a menu of about 4 dishes. One of the first invloved my lovely yellow carrots.
This was an easy to fix, fast, raw salad, a twist on the Indian cabbage salad that I make all the time. —Kathy Gori
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