Category: Vegan

Recovery food

As I was telling you on Monday, I was pretty down with pollen allergy and vertigos. I am very rarely feeling bad so I am not used to it and it annoys me a lot to be reduced in any of my activities.  Because of the vertigos I could only eat industrial butter rolls, the one sold in all the combinis, and drink coca-cola. What a diet for me!!! So as soon as thing got better I prepared a very simple recovery recipe with fresh vegetables and little star pasta. I prepared two versions of it, a dry one and a soup one. In the dry version I use 1 new carrot and a bundle of mizuna, a bit of olive oil, that’s it. I cooked it until all the water was gone. In the soup version I added 2 little sweet potatoes, a few snap peas and curcuma. Very easy to prepare, very easy to eat! A perfect dish to recover!

Dry version of the recipe
Dry version of the recipe

Green chahan

Lunch is all like the weather today! Sunny, warm and nice! With tones of fresh greens: mizuna, spinach, snap peas; sesame and tofu and freshly cooked rice. It is so simple to make that even shooting a video of it was easy and quick! So today the recipe is in the movie! Enjoy your Sunday!!! 

Itosho – いと正

Mochi rice fried seasonal vegetables  
Mochi rice fried seasonal vegetables  

Last year I tried Daigo and a temple that serve Shojin-精進 cuisine. This time it is the turn of the Michelin one star Itosho in Azabu juban. The number of restaurant serving this kind of cuisine seems to be slightly increasing but Itosho is one of the long runner, since it started almost 50 years ago. And it has been run by chef Ito, a nice little character that serves himself the dishes he prepares. The place is in a small street of Azabu juban area and it is much less luxurious than Daigo, but the private room simplicity (all classic Japanese style seating) and neatness is perfect to make a time shift and appreciate the cuisine. Of course Ito uses fresh seasonal products, and it is perfectly delicious. Paired with some sake from Takayama, his region of origin. The tofu is amazing and the use of egoma is just right. And honestly it is quite affordable. Booking is mandatory and choosing the size of the menu also. We picked the middle one (I thought my father would complain with the smallest one) and it was quite a huge amount of food already!

Itosho – いと正 

3-4-7 Azabu-Juban, Minato-ku, Tokyo; (03) 3454-6538

Open daily for lunch 12-3 p.m. and dinner 5:30-9:30 p.m. Cash only for payment.

Colorful vegetables

Well after taking a bit more time and cooking for 4 people it’s now back to crazy at work and coming back home late, working weekends. So dinners have become simpler. It goes together with a typical March weather, when one day is rainy and cold and the next is warm and sunny. When you crave for spring vegetables but it feels like winter. In these times my best dinner solution us a plate of olive oil sautéed vegetables: sweet potatoes, new carrots, beet root and some boiled chick peas. Add a bit of curcuma, and a few snap peas for spring greens and it is ready. Simple, warm, colorful and vegan!

Japanese style pasta

And here we are with a new recipe of Japanese pasta. Honestly I didn’t think I would like this combination so much but in the end I prepare some more than often after the one with pickled cabbage. So this time I prepared a vegan  base with new onion, canola, snap peas, fried tofu, to which you can add some bonito flakes. Served with spaghetti or liguine, and a few drops of soya sauce. Simple and delicious! Have a nice weekend!

Kumquat and carrot salad

Fresh, simple, delicious and just a Japanese twist for the white miso dressing for this salad, that was inspired by my IG watching. 

You need a few carrots, a few kumquats, a tbsp of white miso, and a bit ofkonbu dashi or water. Slice or grat the carrots, cut the kumquats in quarters, and stir the carrots and the kumquats in a bowl. In a small bowl, mix the miso with a tsp of dashi or water. Add with the vegetables, and stir. Ready to eat!

I wish you a very good week! 

Risotto “fond de frigo”

Sometimes there are a few things remaining in the bottom of your vegetables drawer in your fridge, and you don’t know what to do with them… typically a leek, a little piece of kabocha, a tomato, a little piece of cauliflower… well it makes a very nice base for a vegan risotto. 

First, a bit of olive oil in a large frypan, add the leek cut just the way you like, and stir at low-medium heat until it is all soft and melty. Add the riso: arborio or carnaroli and raise the heat. Stir. Once the rice is translucent add water to cover the rice and salt and pepper, some herbs if you like: thyme or rosemary. Cook at low heat. When the water is half gone add the kabocha cut in small bites and the tomato, diced. When there is almost no water add the cauliflower (I personally like it crisp rather than too soft), and finish the cooking under cover. Serve and season with pink pepper, you can additionally add grated cheese. Have a nice weekend!!!

Japanese spikenard – 山ウド

Japanese spikenard – 山ウド is one of the mountain wild vegetables that sprout in spring together with fukinoto, kinome, taranome, kogomi (fiddlehead fern) etc… it is very tasty and ressembles artichokes, chards or cardoons. I find it really delicious eaten cold with a miso and vinegar mix. So here is my recipe.

Japanese spikenard with sour miso and kumquat: 

– 1 Japanese spikenard (like on the picture)

– 2tbs of miso of your choice

– 1tsp of sugar  

– 1tsp of vinegar (white wine…)

– 2 kumquats

Peal the spikenard and cut it in 4cm long pieces, then cut them in the height in 2mm thick pieces. Blanche once, then change the water and blanch again. Then drain and wash in cold water. In a bowl mix the miso, the vinegar and the sugar. Add the juice and a bit of zest of the kumquats (zest is hard to get!). Mix and add the spikenard. It’s ready!!! 

I served it with some tofu, pickled vegetables and white rice.

Cauliflower

How do you like your cauliflower? For me it’s raw, steamed, boiled, grilled, in gratin, in soup, in purée, with olive oil, with butter, with lemon juice, with just a pinch of salt… yes, you’ve got it. We love cauliflower at home, as well as his friends broccoli and romanesco and it is just the pick season for these versatile and easy to cook vegetables in Chiba. So I’ve got some beautiful ones at the farmers market, youpi!!! The question was what will I do with them, how could I cook them? Because I came back from work very late and it was very cold I wanted a very quick solution so I decided to cook (steam and grill) them with spices.

 Spicy romanesco and cauliflower:

I wash and cut the romanesco and the cauliflower and put them in a pan and I grilled them at high heat then I add 1mm of water. Add a tsp of curcuma powder, 1tsp of curry powder, 1tsp of cardamom powder, salt and black pepper. Serve and eat while hot! 

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