A winter stew and pumpkin with a maple-miso sauce

The idea for the maple-miso pumpkin comes from my Dutch friend Sonya – you can check out her recipe and blog here.

So I cut a big slice of pumpkin and smeared it with a thin layer of shiro (white) miso mixed with a teeny bit of maple syrup and sprinkled it with dried rosemary. I baked it in the oven for about half an hour, in the last ten minutes adding a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds.

For the stew I took a pot and spread some ume plum paste on the bottom. Next I placed a post-stamp sized bit of kombu and one soaked and sliced shiitake mushroom. Then I layered thin rounds of red beet, carrot, turnip and onion. I added about 2 to 3 cm of water and simmered the stew for about half an hour on a low flame and a flame tamer.

The meal was served with a short and long grain rice and oat mixture sprinkled with dulse seaweed.

Arame with almonds and deep-fried dried tofu

This is quite a fancy way to serve arame, especially to people who are not thrilled by the vision of eating seaweed – and there are too many of them! 😀 Adding rich ingredients such as almonds and deep-fried tofu always helps…

First prepare your tofu – you could use regular firm tofu, OR dried tofu, which has both a very different flavour and texture, that I really enjoy –  if it´s prepared properly. First soak the dried tofu for about 15 minutes, then  squeeze out water with your hands, but don´t squeeze too hard, you want the tofu to stay moist, retaining a bit of liquid, otherwise they soak up too much oil. Deep fry the soaked tofu slices until light golden, let them rest for a while on napkinks to drain excess oil and cut up into cubes when cooled down.

Meanwhile you can take a handful of arame seaweed and soak it, also for about 15 minutes, then drain and rinse with fresh water. Sautee onion in a pot with a tiny bit of sesame oil and a pinch of salt, add soaked arame, chopped carrot, curly cabbage and daikon (I used the green variety). Add roasted almonds (I roasted them for maybe 15 minutes in the oven, on a tray with a silicone baking mat). Season with 2 TBSP shoyu soy sauce, 1 TBSP rice vinegar and about half a teaspoon of dried ginger powder. Add fried tofu cubes and enough water to nearly cover. Simmer on a low flame for half an hour, adding water as needed, but only very little at a time.

I served the arame dish with a rice/hato mugi mixture and some raw greens (edible weeds).

Middle Eastern Lentil Soup

First of all I have to say – sorry for the picture! It´s very hard to take pretty pictures of soup unless you have a good camera and good surroundings/lighting – I have none of that! 😀

Better move on to the recipe!

First sautee half of a bigger onion, chopped into half moons, on some olive oil, with a pinch of salt to bring out juices and sweetness. Then add cubed carrot (one bigger carrot should be enough for two people I am guessing) and sautee for a bit longer. Add half a teaspoon of ground coriander, half a teaspoon of ground cumin and some more salt, stir for a minute. Rinse half a cup of red lentils (I also first soak mine for a couple of hours and discard the soaking water) and add to the pot with vegetables. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Simmer the soup until the lentils are soft, usually red lentils totally desintegrate! 😀 Towards the end I added three cloves of garlic, pressed in  a garlic press, and simmered only shortly so that the garlic flavour is distinct, but if you like milder garlic flavour, add the garlic already at the beginning, use less of it or cook it longer at the end…  Blend the soup with an immersion blender or regular blender to get a creamy smooth consistency. Serve drizzled with a little bit of olive oil.

Very simple meal with mustard sauteed veggies

This meal is so simple that it might not even be worth mentioning, yet maybe somebody needs just that little bit of inspiration…

I grated three different root vegetables – celery root, carrot and parsley root, and sauteed them on some pumpkinseed oil, on a low flame for quite some time, towards the end adding tamari and a spoonful of organic mustard (the kind where apple cider vinegar is used).

On the side I blanched some cabbage and sprinkled it with ume plum vinegar. As a grain I had creamy teff.