Cooking Vegetarian in Oaxaca

Vegetarian Cooking Class

This morning, our second to last day in Oaxaca, we were going to learn how to make Mexican vegetarian food.  We got up early and walked to the class.  We arrived early at a restaurant and were asked to sit in the back and wait for our chef.  The cooking experience was developed by a project called “@Etnofood which is a social platform that works with young people from different communities in Oaxaca to promote good, clean, and fair food”. Our chef, Martin, arrived on time and we were taken upstairs to a kitchen on one side and a working area on the other. We were surprised when another person joined us because we thought we were the only students.  The other person was Greg.  He was from London and was traveling with his girlfriend who was taking a Spanish class.  Greg’s main interest was food preparation in different cultures. He had a lively personality and was always ready with a joke. Martin talked to us about the program and himself and then asked us questions about our cooking experiences.

After the discussion session, we gathered up our cameras and followed Martin to a few small, local markets and then to a much larger market.  We took some photos as we walked along and in the markets. It seemed like we walked a long time gathering the ingredients for our meal but we finally finished and went back to the cooking place above the restaurant.

Cooking and Preparing Our Vegetarian Lunch

He took us to the very small kitchen and we all washed our hands and lower arms thoroughly.  There was a cook in the kitchen so I guess he was helping us or working for the restaurant downstairs.  Martin set us to work right away doing different tasks.

We all enjoyed ourselves – prepping and cooking.  It was a lovely day so we ate outside on the patio. The best dish was the peanut mole, unfortunately, I did not see the chef blend it all up in the blender. The fruit and some of the vegetables went into the salad. The fried mushrooms were crispy and delicious and the tortillas and cheese were also very tasty especially dipped into the spicy salsa.

The lunch was delicious and very healthy and everyone enjoyed the cooking experience. It helped to enrich our Oaxaca adventure.

 

Next Post – Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca and a bit more