Hive Creative Contest - Shades of Luscious Orange

February 2021 · 4 min read · KwaZulu-Natal

Summertime and life is good again; the beaches are open and the Covid numbers that became names thankfully are now becoming numbers again, and those numbers are slowly dropping!

We've learned many lessons with this pandemic and one of them is how immune boosting foods can play a huge role in helping one overcome illnesses, but we're not going to delve into that today, no; we're simply here to enjoy everyday South African cooking with the focus on the colour Orange.

We are blessed indeed to have access to the best fruits and vegetables in our country, so I will firstly share various shades of Orange fruits and vegetables with you that we can use in salads, soups, main courses, desserts and even teatime treats.

I will end off with a real easy recipe for a hearty chunky Vegetable Soup for my friends in the northern hemisphere.

Fruit

Here in our country we're currently going through a hot hot summer so we'll start off with a delectable Fruit Salad, using:

Orange slices
Mango cubes
Papaya cubes
Gooseberries

Nasturtiums which are edible for those who didn't know it, as well as Chamomile flowers were used as a garnish.

Oranges of course being the most famous Orange fruit - used for Juice, to make Marmalade and its zest adding flavour to desserts as well.

More Orange I could not find in my library of photos, many already stored here on the blockchain forever!

Vegetables

There are many vegetables in all shades of Orange, and besides my favourite standby the Carrot, there are many Squashes; I will show you a couple below - Hubbard Squash, Butternut and Hokkaido Pumpkin.

Carrots & Hubbard Squash with its bright orange flesh

Hokkaido Pumpkin - one can even eat the skin, absolutely delicious!

One of our traditional dishes are Pumpkin Fritters; dipped in a Sugar & Cinnamon Mix, these are sure to make you keep on reaching for just another one;) I made these a while back for the regular plantbased challenge FruitsAndVeggiesMonday which sadly came to an end, but here is the LINK if you wish to try and make it yourself.

Non-vegans would use regular hen's eggs of course;)

Grandma’s Spicy Pumpkin Fritters — Grandma's Spicy Pumpkin Fritters

Carrot Cupcakes

Carrots have been the cause of many a battle between Moms and the kids; but who would have thought that someone would one day use this orange vegetable to make cake!

Another recipe that's stored forever here on the blockchain is Carrot Cupcakes, these are spicy and really scrumptious.

Golden Vegetable Soup

We had most welcome cooler days here likely a result of the tropical storm Eloise that's been causing havoc here in South Africa, but it's back to a hot night suddenly.

I however made this simple nourishing plant-based soup yesterday and it was much enjoyed.

I put together a couple of bottles of dry soup mixes to give as gifts; this really comes in handy as it makes an excellent soup base; one only needs to add fresh vegetables or whatever else takes your fancy.

It's quite something to see how the colours changed once it was cooked.