Vegetarian Spices LunchBots Bento

Vegetarian Spices LunchBots Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

So today we are starting a week of unseasonally warm temperatures over here in the Bay Area; today was predicted to be the warmest, and it reached the upper 70s in my 'hood. It was a fantastic harbinger of summer! I decided I wanted to not-cook tonight, and just have salads, in honor of the heat and also the fact that it's Earth Day. I almost did no cooking, but I did griddle up some veggies to go with the chickpea salad. It didn't take long, though. I sliced some eggplant, zucchini, shallots, tomatoes and garlic, and fried in olive oil until tender. I drizzled honey and sprinkled oregano to taste -- very simple. The chickpea salad is simply fork-mashed chickpeas tossed with sliced onion, cilantro, cumin, lemon, salt and pepper. The next section has grated carrot and beet salad (tossed with cider vinegar, pomegranate juice, a sprinkling of ground ginger, salt and pepper), beside the pickled cucumbers, daikon, baby turnips and kumquats. I also added pickled red onion since she likes that. Some fresh farmers market strawberries and a little sprig of broccoli for color round out this fresh vegetarian bento for TinySprite. Happy Earth Day!