Tag: healthy

Warm soup for cold day

Since I was in France in November when it snowed in Tokyo, today was the first snow of the winter for me. It only snowed to be cold, wet but not white, but I don’t mind because we ste going to the mountains soon and we will have plenty if snow and white there! But damn, how this rainy-snowy weather plus A. Away make me feel cold and gloomy!!! I needed a warm colorful soup to cheer me up before my late night meeting. So after browsing the fridge I decided to prepare a warm soup with some fresh sunny taste. I used coconut oil, fresh ginger and a zest of lemon for the sunny and warm side, together with a red carrot and two leeks for the winter side. And because I’m busy running here and there, I added some green lentil. That’s it! So simple to cook. In a large heated pan I put 1/2tsp of coconut oil,agg the leek cut in small sticks, then add the carrots cut in small sticks too. Then 2 large zest of lemon, and a piece of ginger peele and cut in small pieces. When the water comes to a boil I add 2 small handfuls of green lentils, a pinch of salt. Cook for 10min (the lentils must not be over cooked and too soft, it’s better if they are slightly undercooked). Serve and eat rigt away!!!

Empty fridge cooking

Or what to do with 3 old branches of celery… because when the weekend comes I usually start to run out of fresh vegetables, waiting for the weekend in the countryside to refill. So last night my fridge was looking really sad with a few old branches of celery, a piece or parmigiano and a pack of gnocchi. But that was just enough and perfect for a late dinner. Boiling the celery and blending it to a thick cream, adding olive oil, salt and pepper. And serving with gnocchi and gratted parmegiano. Have a beautiful weekend!

Regressive pasta

There’s been a lot of pasta here these days. That goes together with a busy agenda, a need for energy to combat winter cold weather and because it is just too good!!! After the vegan spinach-tofu pasta, that was quite simple, here is an even more regressive version with spinach and ham, served with Sicilian ring pasta. Delicious on the spot, cold or reheated in a pan, topped with cheese or not, with olive oil or butter. Choose your own version, all is needed is pasta of your choice (I find spinach suits better short pasta), fresh spinach and delicious ham. Cut the ham and the spinach, boil the pasta. In a fry pan greased with olive oil or butter cook the spinach (the water from washing them should be just enough), add the ham, the drained pasta, salt and pepper, stir and serve. Simply perfect when in a rush! 

A little soup

With some yellow carots, red carrots and normal carrots, some lotus root, some potatoes, and with some Italian beans soup mix that I cooked for lunch, I made for dinner this warm and rich vegan soup. Very very simple and so quick if you have cooked the beans before (optimally leftovers). In a large pan I put the cooked beans, water, quite a lot, and then cut the veggies and add them. I like both when it’s overcooked and veggies melt in the mouth, or when they are still crunchy, in particular the carrots, so I adjust the insertion time in the pan and the cooking time depending on that. I served warm, optionally with some gratted parmegiano, a good preparation foe our stay in Sicily!!!

Simple pasta

Friday evening and Sunday evening we usually have dinner rather late and I like to have something that can ready quickly with short cooking time, yet still with fresh vegetables. Pasta and gnocchi are usually my best picks for their short and simple cooking, and their versatility in terms of topping and arrangement. Recently I’ve been attracted by green leaves, but not necessarily spinach, and by trying novel associations. So here are two recipes of gnocchi and pasta that use greens. The meat is optional and can be easily removed for the gnocchi recipe and replaced by hard tofu in the pasta recipe for a vegan option.

Gnocchi with rucolla, basil and grilled bacon: for 2 people as a one-dish meal, you need a bundle of fresh basil and a bundle of rucolla, in Japan that would be a bag of each since they come conditioned in bags. You need fresh gnocchi for two (for homemade one check the recipe here), olive oil, salt pepper and additionally bacon and gratted parmegiano. Boil water for the gnocchi. In a pan grill the bacon if using any. Wash the rucolla and the basil, remove hard parts and cut roughly with scissors. One the gnocchi are boiled, in a large bowl add the gnocchi, the greens, olive oil, salt pepper and the bacon, stir well, serve immidiately. Add a bit of gratted parmegiano if you like.

Mizuna and chicken fettuccine: for this recipe for 2 you need: 2servings of fettuccine (fresh or dry); a large pack of mizuna fresh leaves. The younger the better. 100g of grounded chicken breast or 100g of drained hard (momen) tofu, olive oil, salt, pepper. Boil water for the pasta. In a pan heat some olive oil and cook the chiken or the tofu to obtain small crumbles. Wash the mizuna, remove the hardest parts. Cut in 3cm length segments. Add the mizuna in the pan, start with the bottom parts, keep the leafy parts for the end since they do not need so much cooking, add salt and pepper. Drain the pasta serve and add the topping. Add olive oil, salt, pepper, parmegiano to your liking. Have a good week!!!

Quenelles sequel

So once you have made some oven grilled quenelles, the next thing you can do is a green soup.  for that green soup, as I mentioned yesterday it is very simple, green leaves of any kind work perfectly: spinach, radish tops, turnip tops, salad… and since I found beautiful radishes with perfect green and yound tops, I simply used that. After washing thoroughly the leaves to remove soil I boil them in a 3/4L of salted water. Once well boiled I blend them thinely and add some cream (vegetal or not), some pepper. I slice the quenelles add them to the soup and cook for 10min. Then serve. The dish, because of the quenelles is quite rich and is a full dinner for me if you count one quenelle per person.

Back to “normal”

After one full week of reunited Tokyo Paris sisters, it is time to part again, not for too long, since we’ll reunite with our whole family for another Christmas in Sicily, which I am very much looking forward too!!!

Shibamata
Shibamata

One week with guests at home and usual work is always quite intense. Dining out, waking up earlier to spend sometime together in the morning, and using our days off to travel the city. Yesterday was Culture day 文化の日 and we had quite a full day to enjoy the beautiful autumnal weather: we went to Shibamata to see some old shopping street and beautiful temple, then head to the new Otani hotel for a teppanyaki lunch and stroll in the Japanese garden. Spent part of the early afternoon at Dailanyama T-site, stopped on the way back at the Aman hotel, and finish shopper in Asakusa for some order-made paper lantern P. wanted for a very long time. Back home just in time for sunset and mount Fuji!!! (Don’t think of this kind of schedule if you are not motorized!)

And then by dinner our guests were gone, going back to Paris. And a sudden emptiness and quietness st home! Time for us to catch-up with our regular habits and in particular with our veggie-based dinner! So I prepared a very simple soup with butternut squash, potatoes, burdock, lotus root, cabbage, a large piece of konbu for the broth and finished with a little of soya sauce and sesame seeds. So simple and very Japanese in flavors.

My new favorite desktop lunch

After reading that the trend for avocado as an healthy food (like we didn’t know that before, stupid magazines that said for so long it was too fatty… pfiuu) and the resulting worlwide frenzy for avocado toast and other recipe based on avocado  (stupid magazines again), is causing deforestation in Mexico, one of the major producers of avocado, and as caused local avocado prices to skyrocket, I had to change my 7 year long habit of eating a lit of avocados. It is not easy to compete with such ingredient: super easy to find, super easy to prepare, versatile and delicious. But recently with the chilly autumn days I’ve started to use mushrooms quite intensively. Mushrooms are good raw or cooked, they require little preparation and are quite versatile too. Right now my favorite lunch is rice with melted cheese and mushrooms sliced on top, finished with a few pumpkin seeds, salt and pepper. 

To prepare that lunch I usually use leftover rice I’ve cooked for dinner. If I opt for a warm option, to cook the mushrooms I use a microwave (though I hate microwave, that’s the only “cooking” gear I have at work). I wash them and slice them, then cook them for one minute in a plate in the microwave, remove the water (don’t cook them directly while warming the rice, you’ll end with a rather disgusting soup!!!), warm the rice and cheese, add the mushrooms, salt, pepper and pumpkin seeds. It’s ready in less than 5min, warm, melty, crunchy, tasty!!! What is your favorite desktop lunch in autumn???

Vegan light curry

Nature has not plan for us to eat alone! Most of the fruits and vegetables are so large that if you want to it several sorts you need to be more than one person or you need to eat the same food over and over! I don’t even mention how we humans have even forced that tendency with packaging by almost only offering the option to buy food in buddles.  Luckily, in Japan this bundle sale is less common and it is possible to buy one apple, one carrot, one kiwi or 3 slices of bread! Yet cooking when you are alone snd want to eat several types of veggies is not simple, and A. is not back before tomorrow night… 

Last night I was really tired after the intense time at work, so I prepared myself some vegan curry with a can of chickpeas , carrots, eggplants, sweetpotatoes and anise seeds. Of course to keep a good bslance with the amount of chickpeas I had to add 2 carrots, 1 sweet potato and 5 tiny eggplants all cooked in coconut oil. And so I made a lot more than I could eat… And it’s goung to be lunch for two today for me and my friend D. who is still visiting my lab.

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