Vegetable stew with smoked tofu and sauerkraut

Here goes another “complete macro plate”! A very warming filling meal great for any cold day…

I first sauteed some sliced onion on oil with a pinch of salt and then added roughly chopped veggies – carrot, burdock root and green savoy cabbage, and sauteed them all for a while together, in a heavy cast iron pot. Then I added cubes of smoked tofu and a substantial amount of sauerkraut. I filled the pot with enough water to almost cover the vegetables, sprinkled some dried thyme and tamari soy sauce on top, put the heavy lid on and let the stew gently simmer for perhaps half an hour. Towards the end I heated oil in a pan and after it warmed up I stirred in a couple tablespoons of corn flour to create a base for a simple thickener for the stew. Once the flour starts turning golden and emitting a roasted smell, you can carefully pour in some water until you get a thick creamy sauce. Stir well to prevent lumps from forming while cooking the sauce  for a couple minutes. When the stew is ready, mix the sauce into the veggies and tofu and cook all together for another five minutes or so. Done!

I also had some steamed chinese cabbage to balance the heavy grounding energy of the stew, served with a sauce of white (shiro) miso, tahini and lemon (you could eat the sauce raw, or let it come to boil in a little pan, that way the miso will be easier on your digestion). There was also pressure cooked brown rice with roasted sesame seeds.

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.

A perfect cold weather meal featuring Parsnip-millet mash

First of all, sorry for the not appetizing picture, taking pics in the evening light of my dark kitchen sucks :-p

Nonetheless, this dish should not totally escape your attention, as I think it´s really great for those cold days when you just want something soothing, yet not bland!

The thing that looks like mashed potato is a variety of the popular “millet mash” which is usually made with cauliflower. Instead I cooked a cup of millet with a roughly equal amount of chopped parsnip, a pinch of salt and three cups of water, for about half an hour on a low flame and under a lid. Then I mashed it up with a potato masher (actually, I might have used the wooden pestle for making gomasio as I often do! :-D) and seasoned with some fresh cracked black pepper and nutmeg. I topped the mash with shiso leaf powder (shiso is the leaf used when pickling umeboshi plums) – but I think I must have sprinkled it on top after taking the picture 😀

I baked pumpkin with three different toppings: salt only, salt+thyme and salt+ginger juice+cinnamon. Yes, playing around 😀 The pumpkin bakes for about half an hour on 180°C but that really depends on your pumpkin (and oven)!

And I made a lovely stew of sliced cabbage, onion and carrot, simmered gently in a liquid made of diluted white (shiro) miso, apple juice and organic mustard 🙂

Root stew with white miso and cilantro

The main part of this meal was a root vegetable stew:  first I sauteed sliced onion with a pinch of salt on some pumpkin seed oil, then added medium-sized chunks of carrot, parsley root, red beet, celery root and daikon radish and stirred for a while to coat with oil, adding dried thyme as well. Then I covered the veggies with diluted white miso, there should be enough water so that the vegetables are at least partially submerged. I cooked them until soft on a low flame (the water shouldn´t evaporate totally, but also the stew should not be watery) and at the end garnished them with a generous amount of fresh chopped cilantro.

The other parts of the meal were: chickpeas with pumpkin (pumpkin chunks cooked until soft and then add cooked chickpeas and tamari to season), carrot tops fried until crispy on a bit of pumpkin seed oil with salt, and rice/amaranth mixture sprinkled with roasted dulse seaweed. I used dulse flakes, which are really convenient and roast very quickly – just be careful not to burn them, so keep the flame low 😀

Baked pears stuffed with tahini-miso filling

This dessert is so amazing!! And prepared so quickly at the same time! If you like baked apples or pears, you will surely appreciate it…

Just cut a pear in half, scoop out the intestines  😀 and create “holes” big and deep enough to put some filling inside. Place the pears with the peel down into a baking dish with maybe half a cup of water in it, to prevent burning.

Mix one teaspoon of tahini with one teaspoon of rice malt and half a teaspoon of sweet white miso. Spoon the filling into the prepared holes. You can cover them with some of the scooped out pear flesh so that less of the filling spills during baking.

Cover the dish with tin foil and bake covered for 30 minutes on 190°C and then 15 minutes uncovered on just 175°C. The pears should be very soft, with a melt in your mouth quality 🙂 It might be a little bit messy with the filling, but I actually like a bit of a messy dessert 😀