Macrobiotic eating

28/06/2023

Baked tofu sandwiches

1 cake tofu
½ sheet nori
Barley miso
Tahini

Cut the tofu into thin slices. Cut the nori sheet longitudinally into thin strips. Divide the tofu slices into pairs. For each pair, spread a thin layer of miso on one slice and a thin layer of tahini on the other slice. Sandwich the miso and tahini sides together. Wrap each sandwich with a strip of nori (moisten the nori ends to stick down). Place the sandwiches onto a baking try and bake in a 180 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

(adapted from Aveline Kushi's Complete Guide to Macrobiotic Cooking)

27/06/2023

'What Is The Macrobiotic Diet – And Can It Help You Lose Weight?'

With recipes for:

Miso soup with daikon and shiitake

Fried rice with tofu and vegetables

on Women's Health South Africa website:
https://womenshealthsa.co.za/what-is-the-macrobiotic-diet-and-can-it-help-you-lose-weight/

📷 Gavin Arnold Goodman from Drawn To Light Productions

Rooted in Japanese culture, the macrobiotic diet espouses the Asian yin-yang philosophy and is all about bringing balance to your plate.

13/06/2023

Tomatoes and other solanaceous vegetables of tropical origin, like potatoes, eggplant and peppers, are too extreme to be eaten regularly in a temperate climate. This pasta sauce, adapted from Aveline Kushi’s Complete Guide to Macrobiotic Cooking, uses carrots, beetroot, and miso to create a deep, rich flavour.

½ beetroot
3 carrots
2 stalks celery
4 cups water
1 large onion
1 ½ teaspoons sesame oil
1 heaped tablespoon barley miso
½ cake tofu

Dice the beetroot and slice the carrots and celery stalks. Boil in the water on medium heat for 1 hour.
Chop the onion and sauté in the sesame oil for 5 minutes. Add the cooked vegetables and mix. Decant the excess water into a bowl and then mash the vegetables with a hand food mill or blend with an electric blender.
Dilute the miso in a quarter cup of the decanted vegetable water. Put the mashed vegetables and diluted miso back into the pot, stir, and simmer for 5 minutes (you can add the remaining decanted vegetable water for a more liquid sauce).
Dice the tofu and boil in a cup of water for 5 minutes. Drain. Stir the cooked tofu into the pasta sauce.

11/06/2023

Eating in season

Yang plants warm the body in the colder months and activate the metabolism, while yin fruit and vegetables have a cooling effect, slowing down the body’s metabolism, when it’s hot. To maintain balance with the shifting atmospheric condition, one should eat plants that grow in season, with their complementary yin-yang energy.

(figure from The Book of Macrobiotics, Michio Kushi)

08/06/2023

Wakame cucumber salad

Wakame becomes very soft when cooked and has a mild flavour. It
is the seaweed traditionally used in miso soup and is also prepared as a side dish or in salads.

Brown rice vinegar, used in the dressing for this salad, is used regularly in macrobiotic cooking to impart a sour flavour to dishes. Naturally-processed rice vinegar is made with koji and aged in earthenware jars for up to ten months.

02/06/2023

Diet and climate

In the colder regions of the world, where the atmosphere is more yin, populations have subsisted on relatively more animal (yang) food, whereas in hotter semitropical and tropical (yang) areas, less animal food has traditionally been consumed and more (yin) spices and indigenous vegetables eaten. In a temperate four-seasoned climate, the diet should consist primarily of whole grains, legumes, land and sea vegetables originating in the same climate, with a small amount of supplementary animal food (from infrequently to several times a week, depending on the person’s condition) and temperate-climate fruit, seeds and nuts. Fish is the least contractive of the strong yang foods and the furthest away from human beings on the evolutionary scale and is recommended over all other animal foods.

(figure from The Book of Macrobiotics, Michio Kushi)

31/05/2023

Blueberry couscous cake

Agar-agar, used in preparing the topping for this dessert, is a
seaweed product used in macrobiotic cooking as a gelling agent. The bars, flakes or powder are dissolved in hot liquid and then combined with other ingredients and allowed to set.

28/05/2023

Red radish pickles

Pickling is a long-established food preservation method. In Japan, pickles were traditionally made by each family and eaten at every meal and at tea time.

Because they are fermented, pickles aid in digestion, and they are particularly useful in assimilating whole grains and vegetables. A small volume of homemade or naturally-processed pickles is eaten daily in the macrobiotic diet.

26/05/2023

Sautéed tofu and vegetables

24/05/2023

Miso soup with millet and butternut

Small and compact, millet warms the body.

It is sometimes dry-roasted before cooking to bring out its nutty flavour. Although the grains plump up when cooked, they can be
dry, and millet is usually served with a sauce or combined with beans, and, in this dish, cooked into a soup.

23/05/2023

Taken during the cooking demonstration for the Advanced Macrobiotic Counselor Training Program at Strengthening Health Institute.

23/05/2023

Arame with tofu and carrots

Dried arame appears as thin black strands. The seaweed becomes
brown when cooked and has a subtle but satisfying sea vegetable flavour.

The kinpira style of cooking is used in this dish, where the vegetables are first sautéed in sesame oil and then simmered in water until tender.