Snap peas & shiitake mushroom

At the beginning of May, my mother and I went to Shirawaki Branch of JA Topia Hamamatsu Farmers’ Market. It is right across from Muhammadi Masjid Hamamatsu in Minami-ku (South Ward) and has big signboards in front of its parking lot.

In a farmers’ market, you can find local fresh flowers sold at reasonable prices.

Now is the season for snap peas and green peas.

I bought a bag of snap peas and got a bag of fresh shiitake mushroom from my mother.

With them I made two kinds of vegan dishes. First, I strung some snap peas and broke off the stems from the mushroom caps.

Then I cut the caps, sauteed them with snap peas with sesame oil, grated garlic and salt, and sprinkled black pepper. According to the recipe on the Internet, you should saute them with olive oil, but I thought it was also good with sesame oil.

Another dish was miso soup. Usually, Japanese vegan broth is made from dried shiitake mushroom (or kelp), but I used the stems of shiitake mushroom instead. I boiled snap peas and sliced stems in 200 cc of water for about 5 minutes and added a tablespoon of miso.

I found this miso soup was satisfactory. Maybe some other ingredients such as leek can make it tastier.

Farmers’ markets are nice places for vegans to visit. In addition to fresh vegetables, you can also find seasonal fresh sweets. My mother and I ate kashiwamochi or a rice cake wrapped with an oak leave in the car before we left. I introduced kashiwamochi several days ago in this blog, but this one from the farmers’ market was also delicious. It may not be as good-looking as those in confectionery stores, but it had a hand-made feel with much adzuki bean paste in it.