Vegetables with arame and lemony kuzu sauce from Sweetveg

Today I am just going to link to a post from one great macro blog with recipes you should definitely try! This time the Sweetveg blog inspired me to try a modified version of the “Vegetables with arame and lemony kuzu sauce“.

I followed it quite closely, except I didn´t have celery stalks, so I just omitted those, and instead of the rutabaga (which you cannot find here) I used parsley root. I also used dried/soaked lotus root slices and dried/soaked/sliced shiitake mushrooms (both are suggested at the end of the original post to be used in this recipe). I´m not sure which cabbage was used in the original recipe, but I had the “curly” savoy variety which works great in stews. I  didn´t have daikon so I used black radish, which is just another member of the radish family and has a more sharp and earthy taste than the daikon.  The sauce I followed exactly. As a sidedish I made a rice/amaranth mixture with roasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

Chestnut mochi kanten

Ok, three things to say up front: finding a name for this recipe was really tough, it could also be called chestnut-mochi-kuzu-agar agar dessert. But I spared you and chose a simplified version 😀

Second, this dessert is ugly. It really is. It looks like wet grey concrete. Somehow chestnuts, at least the dried ones, don´t make for a pretty dessert. But who cares, right? It´s the taste that matters…

Third, this dessert is absolutely guilt-free. It´s even healthy! There is not a gram of added sweetener, no rice malt, maple syrup, fruit, nothing. Just chestnuts to make it sweet (which are really healthy for your blood sugar levels). This also means that this dessert is very mildly sweet. But for us who have sensitive taste budes and who are on a restricted diet with zero or very few desserts, this is still a blessing 😀

Now back to business. You just need to soak (preferrably overnight) about half a cup of dried chestnuts (add water to make the cup full). The next day pour it all into a pressure cooker and add about 1/4 cup of sweet brown rice. Add a pinch of salt, water to cover, bring to pressure and cook on a low flame and on a flame tamer for about an hour. Transfer to blender (you should have enough liquid, but adjust as needed) and puree. Bring back to the pot, add 1 tsp of kuzu diluted in a tiny bit of cold water and 1 tsp of agar agar powder (if using flakes or bars, you need to follow package instructions for the amount used). Bring mixture to boil while stirring, let simmer gently for a few minutes and then serve warm or let cool down and solidify. The texture is amazing…….

Vegetable stew with seitan and kuzu

My first time trying seitan, yay!! I had gluten sensitivity for a couple of years, but thanks to the macrobiotic diet my gut has healed to a large extent, so I´m venturing a bit more into the realm of glutinous grains. Seitan is a type of faux meat (if you wish to see it that way, anyway :-D) made from pure wheat gluten, which is a protein obtained from wheat flour with all starch removed. And if you flavour it well (or purchase a well-flavoured ready to eat seitan) it´s really tasty! I had seitan that was already quite flavourful, but I still had to add some soy sauce.

First of all I placed a 4 cm piece of kombu in the bottom of a heavy pot, on top of the kombu I put chunks of seitan, then one onion cut into large pieces, one carrot cut into large chunks as well, a couple of pieces of yellow kohlrabi and  finely cut celery root, 2/3 cup of water, a generous sprinkle of dried italian herbs (basil, oregano…) and 2 tsp of shoyu soy sauce. I covered the pot with a lid and brought the content to boil, then I simmered the veggies on a lower flame until soft. At the end I added a teaspoon of kuzu root starch dissolved in a tiny bit of cold water and stirred it in quickly, avoiding lumps. I brought the stew to boil and simmered for  a few minutes more until it thickened considerably and added a nice glaze to the meal. I served the stew with rice/amaranth mixture and some spring onion.

Roasted cauliflower in kuzu cream

I´ve noticed that the internet is quite full of recipes for roasted cauliflower, which I never tried before, so I wanted to give it a go…OF COURSE, all those recipes use oil and spices to cover your cauliflower florets with, before you pop them into the oven. Nope, ain´t gonna happen. So I had to think of an alternative, otherwise it would probably come out all dry and blah. Thus the idea of kuzu cream instead of oil was born…Yes, it could still use some improvement, and no, it doesn´t taste like oil, but I quite liked the funny crust that the kuzu starch provided! 😀

Just divide your cauliflower into smaller pieces (preferably smaller than mine…), arrange in a baking form (I used a silicone baking form). Bring to boil half a tablespoon of kuzu starch diluted in half a cup of cold water, with about 1/4 tsp of salt. After the mixture clears up and thickens, you can take it off the stove and pour evenly over the cauliflowers. Place the form into an oven preheated to 200°C and bake for at least half an hour, flipping over half way, until the cauliflowers get a bit of a brown crust and the kuzu is not gooey anymore.

I served this dish with rice/amaranth/gomasio and some blanched cauliflower leaves for extra fiber.

Cinnamon-almond rice milk pudding with kuzu

 

This is really an indulgence of indulgences!! 😀 Warning: although this could pass as a macrobiotic dessert (it uses a grain milk and no sugar or dairy), it doesn´t mean it´s “healthy” and you should be eating it on a regular basis, it´s really a special treat for those in good health 😉 I shouldn´t actually be eating it either, but hey, I needed to use up the rice milk which was hiding in my cupboard for months! This is REALLY simple, but not so quick and you need to watch it a bit while cooking…

1 litre rice milk (or other non-dairy milk)

about 3 tbsp almond flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

1 tbsp kuzu starch diluted in a tiny amount of cold water

Pour milk into a large pot (in case your milk starts bubbling too much…) and bring slowly to boil on a medium flame. It should be boiling only gently! Add salt and almond flour, stir well. Keep watching the milk as it boils down to about 1/4 of the original amount, stirring occasionally, especially towards the end when the almond flour starts sticking to the bottom. Mix in cinnamon and diluted kuzu, stirring constantly so that the starch doesn´t make lumps. Bring back to boil and allow to thicken. Pour into bowls, eat warm or let cool down. You can garnish the pudding with additional almond flour or almond flakes, or cinnamon or anything…

Makes two servings