Remember how I love Delica so much? Delica is that awesome Japanese delicatessen located in the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

I finally figured out their recipe for the Spicy Burdock Root Salad. Their salad has lotus root, but I was all out. I subbed in water chestnuts instead. Theirs also has mizuna (a salad green), but I didn’t have that either so I just left it out. The ingredient list looks long, I know – but it’s really very simple. Texture is really important here, so make sure the onion and celery are both sliced very thinly. My mandoline helped me achieve the awesome textures, but a grater would work just as well; so would a lot of patience with a knife.

I kid you not – this will be the best salad you ever make.

FYI: Konnyaku is a Japanese yam… it’s the base of shirataki noodles. A block of konnyaku has 0 calories (just like true shirataki noodles – not the tofu kind). It’s great for digestion and overall health. I get mine at my local Asian markets. It’s next to the miso. I would also check near the tofu, or near the refrigerated noodles. If you can’t find it, I guess you could substitute a different veggie or maybe some seitan.

Maggie’s Spicy Burdock Salad

Ingredients (serves 4-5 normal people… or 1-2 crazy salad eaters)

• 2 cups of burdock, sliced up (I used a mandoline)
• 1 block of konnyaku, cut in small slices (or a different veggie or seitan)
• 1 small can of water chestnuts (6 ounces)
• 1 tablespoon oil (sesame)
• 1 inch of ginger, grated
• chili powder and/or chili flakes, to taste (optional)
• 1 medium onion, finely sliced (mandoline)
• 4 stalks of celery, finely sliced (mandoline)
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tablespoon stevia (or other sweetener, to taste)
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons Bragg’s liquid aminos (or soy sauce)
• salt & pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Boil the konnyaku slices in water for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse.
2. Heat the oil in a pan (wok) over high heat. Add the ginger and saute for 1 minute. Add the burdock, drained konnyaku slices, water chestnuts, and chili powder/flakes. Saute for about 5 minutes. You can reduce the heat to medium-high if you’re nervous about burning. When the burdock is tender enough to chew, remove it from the heat and let it cool.
3. Mix together the water, vinegar, and stevia. Soak the sliced onion and celery in the mix for 5 minutes, then drain.
4. Combine the burdock mix, the onion/celery mix, the carrot, sesame seeds, Bragg’s, and salt and pepper. Top with more sesame seeds, if desired. More sesame seeds are always desired by me.

Om nom nom. Bobby and I devoured this. He actually said it was *better* than Delica’s salad. You MUST make this. If you are scared of any of the ingredients (burdock! konnyaku!) – don’t be. Burdock is amazing for you. Burdock health benefits: it’s good for the reproductive system, the skin, the digestive system, and it’s even anti-cancerous. Other burdock or konnyaku recipes:

• Carrot Burdock Kinpira
• Lemon Garlic Okra & Sweet and sour Konnyaku
• Hijiki salad
• Vegetable sukiyaki

I adore Asian/Eastern food. I love eating with chopsticks (way cooler than forks). If it were up to me, I would probably eat Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Thai food for every single meal. Oh wait… I pretty much do The only difference is that I eat oatmeal or oat bran instead of rice, and I eat squash every single day. (Sounds kind of like a cool vegan lady I know.)

What are your weird food quirks? What is your favorite food (cuisine or dish)?

Stay tuned for a silly picture and updates from this weekend’s apple picking adventures!

I have a bunch of new recipes to share, and some important thoughts, but I don’t want to forget about the rest of my salads! Here we go.

Salsa’d Salad Creation:

• Base: weird Asian greens
• Toppings: beets, heirloom tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, red peppers, kohlrabi
• Dressings: Herdez GREEN salsa, liquid gold elixir (mixed together before adding)

Shirataki Craziness:

• Base: iceberg and romaine lettuces
• Toppings: beets, kohlrabi, bamboo shoots, shirataki noodles
• Dressings: Herdez RED salsa, liquid gold elixir

Recipes: later this week.

Deep thoughts: some now; some later. As most of you know, I’ve been eating a lot of raw food the last few weeks. A few aspects of it have helped me a lot; others: not so much. Here are some things I really really like:

1. Juicing! Obviously.
2. Eating a lot!
3. Fruit.
4. Rebounding.
5. Salads.
6. Avoiding soy. I really, really, hate beans.

Here are some things I really don’t:

1. No peanuts.
2. Acne.
3. The main meal is at night.
4. Food combining rules are too restrictive.
5. Not enough squash.
6. Limited grains.

Notice how my negatives list is comprised of things that I “can’t” have. I’m working on rethinking my motives for following the raw diet (mainly improved digestion – I suffer from IBS). The diet’s not really helping with digestion that much anymore.

Here’s my new list.

1. Throw out the list.

And instead, enjoy myself and have things like this, in moderation of course…

This is Lemon Sorbetto with Crunchy Noodles (!) from Whole Foods. Bobby got it. It was $5 for that stinking little container, but it’s pretty delicious. It’s from a local company, so I doubt that you can get it if you’re not in the Bay Area/Sacramento Area. We had sampled it about five months ago and thought it was delicious; I think I was having too much trouble with moderation at that point to buy it. Ever since then this flavor has been absent from Whole Foods; yesterday it appeared again. So we got it.

Anyway. Enough chat. I’ll talk more about my list-less life later. I’m going to go wake up Bobby and see if he wants to come to Japantown with me. Have a great Sunday!

I made a very cool and very Japanese/Macrobiotic dinner last night in an attempt to declutter my kitchen and use up pantry items.

I started with this Soba Noodle & Umeboshi Dressing recipe that I’ve been obsessed with, but I had to make a few adjustments.  This was soba noodles topped with julienned burdock and carrot (frozen).  I had a few shirataki noodles for bulk, but it was mostly soba.

Then I made miso soup for each of us (from a packet, but again… trying to use up pantry items).

And I also grilled some frozen Rex Sole that I’d gotten at the Korean grocery a few weeks ago.  The sole was actually really delicious (I ate my whole piece plus part of Bobby’s - he’s not really a whitefish person) and now I want to buy more of it.  So that was a fail at pantry cleaning (unless I resist the temptation to buy more).

I’ve actually managed to use up some other pantry items – I made chocolate/raisin/sunflower seed/oatmeal cookies for bobby (oatmeal raisin is his favorite) with the rest of my instant oatmeal (it’s sweetened, and I just can’t deal with that much sugar… I tried), nuts that I never eat, and raisins and chocolate that have been waiting to be cooked.  He took them to work with him so they’ll probably disappear soon.  I also sent him in to work with a big bag of granola bars so he’s going to try to have them for snacks.  I’m totally over bars, and have been for a while.  Just not my thing.

The point of cleaning out the pantry is to use up all those things that I bought at one point and then discovered that I didn’t really like, or didn’t like as much as I thought I had.  I’m making good progress I think.  By the end of the month a decent amount of the excess food will be used up.

I just found out what my summer schedule is going to look like – I’ve decided to teach full-time for a few months instead of taking classes at community college.  I’ll be teaching summer classes for SAT prep, Algebra 2, and Trigonometry.  Fun!  I hope it will be

My mom comes tomorrow night!  I can’t wait to make her eat green oatmeal and kabocha.  Have you ever made your parents try something that they thought was kind of crazy?

One of the only type of noodles that I love is soba noodles.  They’re Japanese buckwheat noodles and they’re delicious.  I like them cool/room temperature, and one of my favorite ways to eat them is Zaru Soba.  Bobby introduced them to me because his mom (an amazing cook/eater) loves them.

One Japanese food that I usually dislike is umeboshi (pickled plums).  They’re bitter and tart, and they ruined a salad that I once made (evil!).  I actually discovered these before I tried macrobiotics (again because of Bobby’s mom), but never really wanted to like them until I bought some myself and had to use them up.

But, I found a way to eat umeboshi plums that’s delicious!  If you puree them in a dressing they’re wonderful.

Delicious Soba with Onions & Umeboshi (Macrobiotic)

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 3 servings soba noodles
• 1 medium white onion, sliced up
• 6 garlic cloves (I’m a garlic lover… you don’t have to use this many), crushed and minced
• a few teaspoons olive oil
• optional; not macrobiotic (Bobby had this; I didn’t): leftover meat sauteed in sesame oil, sesame seeds, and chili powder; I used a hot dog and some leftover rotisserie chicken (he loved it)

Dressing (this will keep for a few days; you’ll probably have extra)

• 2-3 teaspoons sesame seeds, toasted
• 3 umeboshi plums (or 1 tablespoon umeboshi paste)
• 2ish tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
• juice from 1/4 lemon (1-2 tablespoons?)

Directions

1. To make the dressing – toast the sesame seeds.  Heat a skillet/saute pan to high heat, and shake the seeds until they start to brown and smell delicious.  Put them in a food processor and pulse a few times.  (Alternatively, you could crush them with a mortar and pestle.)  Add the plums, shoyu, and lemon juice.  Blend some more.

   

   The dressing will actually be kind of thick, not watery.  I was originally going to add a sweetener, but it didn’t need it.

2. Prep the soba noodles.  Boil water (unsalted) and add the noodles.  Reduce to a simmer (not a rolling boil as you would with pasta) and cook for 7-8 minutes.  Rinse immediately with cold water.  Continue to rinse until the noodles are smooth and the floury smell goes away (otherwise they get gummy as they cool).  Let the noodles cool.  (I used two different brands to use up one box which is why they’re different colors.)



3. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a skillet/saute pan.  Add the garlic; saute for 1 minute.  Add the onions and saute for another 2-3 minutes.



4. Top the cold soba noodles with the onions and lots of dressing.

I had one serving and Bobby had 2; I added shirataki noodles to mine and he added meat to his.  The soba noodles were better than the shiratakis (never thought I would say that).  Inspiration for this recipe comes from Just Hungry.

Check out Shelby’s Neon Green Oats – she followed my recipe!

Don’t forget about the BSI – corn! (I need to get on this.  Don’t worry Sophia, I’m making something!)

Happy Friday!  I’m seeing Up! with Bobby tonight.  Have you seen it?  Good?