Sushi Saturday.

Yesterday it had to be sushi and I made lots of maki sushi with mango, avocado and fried tofu. Furthermore inari-zushi and a miso soup with udon noodles and veggies as a starter.

Chopped coriander roots

Mango. I also made some with mango and coriander

Tofu fried with soy sauce and sesame

Miso soup with garlic, onions, roots of coriander, broccoli, chard, carrots, coriander leaves, shiro miso, soy sauce and udon noodles

Very not matching colours

Beans with tahin dressing.

200g green beans
1-2 tbsp tahin
1/2 apple
salt
soy sauce
mint
coriander


Wash the beans and cut off the ends. Cook in salted water for about 10 minutes, until they're done but still crisp.
Mix the tahin with a little water and 1-2 teaspoons soy sauce. Add some leaves of mint and coriander.

When the beans are done strain them and rinse with very cold water. This will keep the beans' pretty lime-green colour and prevent them from getting grey-ish. 
Cut apple into small cubes.
Put the beans and apple cubes in a bowl and toss with dressing.

Miso Wasabi Pasta Salad. And dinosaurs.

dressing:
- oil
- soy sauce
- miso
- vinegar
- agave syrup
- miso

salad:
- 250g noodles 
- 200g tofu
- one zucchini
- fresh coriander
- smoked salt
- olive oil

Cook the noodles and prepare everything else while they're cooking. I had dinosaur-shaped pasta which is highly recommended. If you poor thing can't find anyone, use regular pasta of your preferred shape. I even think this salad would be wonderful with glass noodles but I haven't seen any cute shaped glass noodles ever, so where's the fun in that?

Whisk some oil (rather neutral in taste, like safflower oil) with the rest of the ingredients for the dressing. I had a tiny amount of wasabi, just enough that there is this hint of its fresh spiciness. Adjust to your taste.
The miso works really well with the wasabi and the syrup completes all this hearty and tangy flavours to a umami deliciousness.

Cut your tofu into very small cubes, the zucchini cubes can be a bit bigger. I had a yellow zucchini but the taste isn't very different to the green ones.
Heat a little olive oil and fry the tofu until it gets slightly brown and crispy. Add some smoked salt and then the zucchini. If everything is almost done, deglaze with soy sauce, then turn off the heat.

If the pasta is done, drain and toss with dressing. Then add tofu, zucchini and coriander, mix well.

I put the warm salad into jars as we were heading for a picnic and it was perfect as it could sit for 2 hours or so before we ate it.

Can you smell that?

Coriander

Morning Glory

Tomatoes

Mint

New kids on the block.

Or in my little garden, to be precisely. As the mixture of flowers for bees and butterflies dried out during the last days, some new plants are now on the window sill of my bathroom. Say hello to: A vietnamese kind of coriander, a nice flower named Chocamoca (ya, seriously) and a morning glory (which I sowed a few days ago).
In other news my avocado is still growing and growing and survived successfully after it dropped onto the floor twice within a week. It only lost one leave and another leave has a small hole in it. Tough avocado.

Coriander.

Coriander and Chocamoca. Left to the coriander the morning glory is very tiny, but growing.

Avocado.

Coriander-Mint-Tofu with Beluga Lentils and Carrot-Hazelnut Salad

100g black beluga lentils

2 big carrots

200g tofu

2 limes

1 tblsp agave syrup

1 tblsp apple cider vinegar

light soy sauce

1-2 tblsp chopped toasted hazelnuts

fresh mint and koriander

Cook the lentils on medium heat for about 20 minutes, add a decent pinch of salt.

Cut tofu in small triangles or any bite-sized shape you prefer and marinate in juice of two limes, soy sauce and some fresh koriander and mint.

10 minutes before lentils are done, grate the carrots, add hazelnuts, agave syrup and some soy sauce. Toss well and set aside. 

Heat 1 tblsp oil in a pan, drain the tofu (keep the marinade for lentils) and fry on medium heat. 

When lentils are done, drain them and rinse with cold water. Mix with the marinade from tofu and the apple cider vinegar. Serve all things together and garnish with some fresh mint. Great combination of flavours! And I bet it's healthy as fuck.

White bean hoummous.

Just blend: white beans, salt, pepper, olive oil, lime juice, cumin, coriander. 

 

Just another miso soup.

With tofu stars, carrots, white cabbage, glass noodles, barley miso and coriander.