Saturday in the country

Back to our country house after two weeks, back to our cats and our garden and my kitchen!!! This morning I boiled some lentil to accomodate with whatever I would find at the market. And it was ice-plant and brocoli sprouts for a big salad, together with fresh snapper just grilled and a bit of greens. Perfect lunch after our tennis game and for friends visiting from Tokyo. 

One plate lunch

Despite being officially spring, this weekend has been rather cloudy and chilly so I wanted to prepare a warm dish for lunch,  I first boiled some green lentils, added with a few coral lentils too hoping the color will sustain, but it vanished in the green (learn your lesson, better boil them separately). Then I prepared some ashitaba (angelica) rolls with pork meat. I find that ashitaba goes very well with potatoes and pork, and also eggs (see my post on ashitaba here).
It’s very simple, you need some fresh ashitaba, thin slices of pork cutlet, one egg battered, bread crumbs. Roll a little bundle of ashitaba into a slice of pork, then pass it into the egg and finish with the bread crumbs. I fixed with a little toothpick and then cook them in a fry-pan with a bit of oil until golden.
For the vegetarian version (the one on the top of the plate in the picture), cut the the ashitaba roughly, mix with the egg and the bread crumbs and make some patties that you cook in the fry-pan too. I served it with the warm lentils and a few tomatoes. Bon appetite!

One-plate salad

This morning the farmers market showed me once again that it is not clear which season we’re in!!! The transition seems to take an unusually long time and daikon and cabbages were lined together with strawberries and new wasabi leaves. It gave me the idea to prepare us a warm/cold salad with warm green lentils from France and thick fried tofu, fresh tomatoes and wasabi leaves, with an olive oil and soya sauce dressing and finished with a few sesame seeds!

Hot soup for rainy day

The weather forecast is not making me too happy: rain, rain, rain for the next 3 days. No tennis, no gardening, no walking out. Being indoor is kind of making me sad… So to cheer up the rainy mood a good vegan soup with fresh veggies and plenty of lentils, barley and beans is just perfect!!! 

Smoked mackerel and salad

Today, for a quick healthy meal, I made a really simple salad. Of course the main base is with seeds (as always), here it’s a mix of lentils, quinoa and brown rice, then I add tomato, avocado, beetroot, balsamic vinegar, goji berries, a few of sunflower seeds and on the top: smoked mackerel. 

Bon appetite.  

Red lentils patties

There are days when I am desperate to find something new to prepare with what I have in the fridge and in my cupboards that goes beyond the usual vegetable tart, the fresh vegetables salad or the pasta with sauteed vegetables. And there are days when you find instantaneous inspiration, when ideas just flow naturally. Today was the former. But hopefully there is instagram and some of the people I follow gave me the perfect inspiration I needed to use these red lentils I had. So thanks a lot cearaskitchen for your post and the delicious idea! Of course I hate to follow recipes so I had to change it and adapt it to what I wanted to eat and it ended up with these delicious 99% red lentils patties, that I accompanied with a tomato-cucumber-ocra salad with no dressing and a little black pepper drip yogurt. For the patties I just boiled the red lentils then drained them, add a little curry powder, a little rice flour to form them and then baked them in a pan with a little of olive oil. So easy! Thanks again cearaskitchen!

New onion vegetable sauté and seeds



Spring is in the air!!! Sunny days are getting a little warmer, in a week daffodils have sprouted everywhere in the garden and new vegetables start slowly to appear. It starts first with onions. They are so sweet and with a taste that is so much the annunciation of warmer days that I love them!!!
This morning there were plenty of new onions at the coop and I bought several and decided to prepare some vegetables sauté with some seeds.
In a wok I put a little of olive oil, peeled and cut in big chucks one new onion, add one carrot cut in sticks, later I added brocoli, small tomatoes cut in halves, sunflower seeds, salt and pepper. Separately I boiled a mix made of some lentils, barley etc…
Once cooked I mix everything in the wok with a little more olive oil, just before serving.




Hot veggie and bean soup for cold evening

Japanese winters are very sunny and dry in Tokyo area. If there is not too much wind day time sun is fairly warm, but as soon as it gets dark the temperature drops and it becomes freezing cold. A hot veggie soup is perfect to warm and rehydrate at the same time.

My classic is a base with 1 leek, 2 big carrots, 2 small potatoes. I diced them and cook them in water with 1 leaf of laurel and a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper.
Then if I want something a little bit more nourishing I add this marvelous Italian mix of lentils, beans and barley that I buy at one of the NYC Eataly shops in Tokyo.

And once all well cooked I serve it with a bit of finely grated parmigiano. Et voila!

  

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