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I realilse that still-life photography is as boring as batsh%t to most people, but it is a relatively easy way to improve lighting and compositional skills.
Here, I gave myself a challenge:
-using available light, in fact strong side lighting
-earthy tones, no bright colours
-variable light readings across the pic
Here is the result, 50mm f1.4 at f16, exposure 1 second (click pic for larger image):

great attempt Cricketfan,
but i think you could add a bit exp on the right side which looks kinda dark.(add a white cardboard reflector, it not breaking your rules right?)
not sure but it looks like the basket is sharper than the vegetables

Thanx for the reply, redline. Some good thoughts.
I tried the reflector & didn't like the result - I preferred the light to drop off across the pic.
You may be right about the focus. I manually focussed on one of the onions at the back. It may have been better to focus more to the front of the vegetables. BTW, for anyone with the Nikon remote, if you are shooting in low light, you may be better focusing manually and setting the camera to AF-C. If you use AF-S, the camera may hunt for focus for a while, particularly if there is not a lot of contrast or straight lines in the subject matter.

you could also turn on some lights or use a torch to assist the af then turn them off again once you have focus.

Just my opinion, cricketfan, but I feel that this particular subject needs relatively sharp focus all the way front to back. Maybe softening at the back.

A reflector might not have worked, but something is needed to spice up the lighting on the right side a little.

It's a kind of dull looking right now. Partly focus, partly lighting. The arrangement itself I find pleasing, though. Keep working with it!