Vegan Kidney Beans Chiliover Mixed Grains Rice

Ingredients
Kidney beans (boiled)
Onion
Carrot
Diced tomato (can)
Shimeji mushroom
Salt

Organic Taco Seasoning
(Salt, Red chili pepper, Cumin, Oregano, Paprika, Garlic, Onion)

Mixed Grains Rice
White rice
Black rice
Wheat grain
Millet
Oats

As this recipe uses mostly pre-cooked ingredients, it is very easy to prepare but the taste is simply delicious. I would recommend to use the bean cooking water as the base for the soup, so don't drain away your water from boiled beans when you rehydrate and cooked dried beans.

Heat the oil in a saucepan, cook onion and carrot in it until onion gets soft. Add shimeji mushroom, boiled kidney beans and diced tomato then mix taco seasoning and salt. Pour bean cooking water into it then simmer them over low heat until slightly reduced about 30 minute. Serve over mixed grains rice.

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キドニービーンズをトマト缶と豆の茹で汁で煮込んでチリを作りました。味付けはコストコで売っているオーガニック・タコミックスを使いました。豆は予め茹でておき、茹で汁をスープストックとして使っています。粗く刻んだタマネギと、やや大きめのサイズに切ったニンジンを炒めてタマネギがしんなりしてきたら、豆、しめじ、トマト缶を加えてタコ・シーズニングと塩で味付けをします。さらに豆の茹で汁を加えて弱火でコトコトと30分ほど煮詰めてできあがりです。7分づきの白米に、黒米、きび、丸麦、はと麦を混ぜて炊いたご飯の上にかけていただきました。

Fried Sweet Potato Salad w/ Sesame Soy Mayonnaise

Ingredients
Sweet Potato
Onion
Almond

Parsley
White sesame seed
Soy Mayonnaise
Vinegar
Soymilk
salt

I love sweet potato and like to cook it in the oven. It's very simple but taste really great. Not so many vegetables are taste as good as sweet potato if it's simply cooked in the oven. I think that is the reason I don't really use sweet potato often for cooking however, this sweet potato salad is really worth a try.

Cut sweet potato rather fat string-like shape and fry them in oil until slightly golden, crispy and tender. Thinly slice onion and soak them in water and drain well. Roughly slice the almonds.

Mix minced parsley, ground white sesame seeds, soy mayonnaise, vinegar, soymilk and salt well. Dress all ingredients with the sauce then serve.

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揚げサツマイモの豆乳ドレッシングサラダを作りました。サツマイモは焼き芋が王道だと思っているので、なかなか普段の料理に使わないのですが、このサラダはとてもおいしくできました。サツマイモをフレンチフライポテトよりもやや太めにカットして表面が少し色づいてカリカリになるまで素揚げします。たまねぎをスライスして水にさらして辛み抜きをしておき、アーモンドは粗くスライスしました。細かくみじん切りにしたパセリ、すりゴマ（白）、豆乳マヨネーズ、豆乳、酢と塩をよく混ぜてドレッシングを作り、全ての具材を和えればできあがりです。

Pan Roasted Potatoes Bagel Sandwich

Ingredients
Potato
Welsh onion
Dill pickle
Soy mayonnaise
Parsley
White sesame
Bagel

Most of the time, I cook potato with its skin because of its nutritional benefits and better taste especially for sandwich making.

Heat oil in frying pan. Place potatoes in the pan and cook until potatoes get tender in slow heat. Add welsh onion and salt & pepper to taste then cook until the onions are golden brown.

Mix soy mayonnaise, minced parsley and white sesame seed for sandwich spread then stuff all with sliced pickle into a lightly-toasted bagel.

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皮付きのジャガイモと長ネギをフライパンでこんがり焼いて、軽くトーストしたベーグルに挟んでサンドイッチを作りました。豆乳マヨネーズ、みじん切りのパセリ、白ごまを混ぜ合わせたサンドイッチ・スプレッドとスライスしたピクルスを一緒に挟んでできあがりの簡単サンドイッチです。ポテトをサンドイッチにする場合は特に皮付きの方が繊維っぽい食感が残るので気に入っています。皮付きのじゃがいもと長ネギの相性もとても良いと思います。

Beans & Seaweed Thick Sauce w/Brown Rice

Ingredients
Green soybean (or any beans / rehydrated and boiled)
Mozuku (Okinawan seaweeds)
Carrot
Onion
Firm tofu
Shiitake mushrooms
Bean stock soup
(cooking water from boiled beans)
Starch
Salt
Soy sauce
Brown rice
(w/Oats, Milletmm, Forbidden rice [Black rice])

"Mozuku" is a native Okinawan seaweeds and winter is the best season for it. It has similar look with Hawaiian Ogo seaweed however texture and taste are pretty much different. The most popular way to eat Mozuku might be with vinegared salad or soup but it can be cooked in a variety of ways.

Stir-fry onion, ginger, carrot in the saucepan until carrots get soft. Mix shiitake mushrooms, green soybean, firm tofu and mozuku then add bean stock soup (pour in enough stock to cover vegetables). Season with salt and soy sauce then mix water dissolved starch, cook until thick. Pour vegetable mixture over top of the brown rice and serve.

Tips: Bean stock soup (cooking water from boiled beans) would be the key ingredients of the vegetable sauce so don't drain away your cooking water from boiled beans.

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冬に採れるもずくが一年のうちで一番おいしいという事を沖縄物産のお店の方から聞きました。「お好み焼きや、炒め物でも美味しいよ！」と教えてもらったので、中華丼風のあんかけを作ってみました。たまねぎ、しょうが、ニンジンを炒めて、ニンジンがやわらかくなったらシイタケ、茹でたひたし豆、木綿豆腐を加えてさらに炒めます。具材がひたひたになるぐらいの豆の茹で汁を加えて塩、しょう油で味付けをして、水溶き片栗粉でとろみをつけて、ご飯の上にたっぷりかけてできあがりです。

Vegan Oden (Japanese Hot Pot)

Ingredients
Daikon
Carrot
Potato
Deep fried tofu
Konjac
Cooking water from beans
Kombu
Salt
Soy sauce
Mirin
Brown sugar

Oden is popular Japanese winter time meal and is very easy to cook. Usually, it contains a deep-fried patty (or ball) of fish paste, boiled egg and sausage and other animal ingredients in soup in general.

Sometimes oden is defined as stew-like soup however, my version of oden has less soup because I aimed to condense and boost natural flavor from vegetables.

Put daikon, carrot, potato, tofu, konjac, konbu in a pot then pour cooking water from beans to cover all vegetables then heat. Once the soup has boiled, add salt, soy sauce, mirin and brown sugar for taste then cook at very low heat until carrot and daikon is tender enough (approx 30-40 min).

Tips: I would recommend to season rather full flavor (but it's up to you).

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豆の茹で汁と昆布だしの野菜おでんを作りました。シイタケだしを使うよりも、豆の茹で汁をスープのベースに使う方が濃厚な味に仕上がるのでおすすめです。ダイコン、ニンジン、じゃがいも、糸コンニャク、厚揚げ豆腐、昆布を鍋に入れて、具材が完全に浸る程度に豆の茹で汁を加えて火にかけます。沸騰したら火を弱めて塩、しょう油、みりん、黒砂糖を加えて弱火で煮込みます。ダイコンとニンジンが軟らか煮えればできあがりです。

Ginger Pumpkin Sauce Pasta with Peas

Ingredients
Shell pasta
Kabocha (sweet pumpkin)
Yellow split peas (boiled)
Cooking water from beans
Soymilk
Onion
Ginger
Olive oil
Salt
Black pepper
Parsley

The combination of kabocha pumpkin and ginger are nigh on perfect to me and I made simple pasta sauce using them. I'm not sure if kabocha pumpkin is available in your place but we have a lot of kabocha pumpkin from Mexico beside locally grown in grocery store. Those orange pumpkin grown in the US and Japanese kabocha pumpkin have really different taste and appearance. kabocha is very sweet and more firm than American pumpkin.

Boil or steam kabocha pumpkin until tender enough to mash. Start cooking your pasta when you have finished preparing pumpkin.

Put chopped onion and grated ginger in olive oil in a saucepan and saute slowly on medium low heat until tender. Mix mashed kabocha, boiled yellow split pea, cooking water from beans, soymilk then season with salt and pepper.

Dress pasta with pumpkin sauce, chopped parsley then serve. If the sauce is too thick, dress along with a little cooking water from pasta.

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甘いカボチャとショウガのソースでシェルパスタを和えました。カボチャの皮が軟らかくなるまで茹でる、または蒸します。カボチャが軟らかくなったらマッシュしておきます。タマネギのみじん切りと、すりおろしたショウガを弱火で焦がさないように炒めます。そこにマッシュしたカボチャ、豆乳、茹でた豆（イエロー・スプリット・ピー）と豆の茹で汁を加えて、塩、コショウで味付けをして、かき混ぜながら火を通します。シェルパスタが茹で上がったらパセリのみじん切りを加えて、ソースとよく和えればでき上がりです。

Potato & Green Tea Leaf Fried Rice

Ingredients
White rice (cooked w/wheat grain)
Potato
Garlic
Green tea (Steeped leaf)
Salt
Soy sauce

I know it sounds unusual to eat green tea leaf but they actually taste very good. Steeped tea leaf is not very often used for cooking however, Matcha, milled green tea leaf powder is often used for Soba noodle, ice cream and other Japanese meals and drinks. Even Starbucks in Japan offers "Matcha Frappuccino" (Green Tea powder blended with milk, ice and whipped cream), so why not using steeped green tea leaf for cooking?

Stir fry striped potatoes and chopped garlic over low heat until potato get crisp and tender. Mix steeped green tea leaf and rice then season with salt and soy sauce. Cook until heated through, then serve.

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緑茶葉とジャガイモのチャーハンを作りました。茶葉はでがらしを使います。スライスしたガーリックと細切りのじゃがいもを焦がさないように弱火で炒め、じゃがいもに火が通ったら緑茶葉とご飯（丸麦入り白米）を混ぜて、塩としょうゆで味付けをして全体に火が通ればできあがりです。わずかに残る茶葉の苦みとニンニクの薫りが、ほんのりと焦げたしょうゆの風味と絡まってとてもおいしくできました。簡単にできてとても美味しいのでおすすめです！

Shitake Soba Noodle

Ingredients
Soba (Dried noodle)
Shiitake mushroom
Shitake Stock (The water used for rehydrating dried shiitake mushrooms)
Wakame
Mitsuba
Soy sauce
Mirin (Or brown sugar)

Soba is very popular Japanese food and can be served both hot or cold. The noodle itself is dairy and animal free however, usually the hot soup and cold dipping sauce contain fish stock and it is the main element of soba dish, so going without fish stock would be very much challenging.

Although soba is recognized fast-food type of food in Japan however at the same time, soba cuisine could be enhanced to the level of art at high-end Japanese style restaurant so there are a variety of ways of approaching to cook this simple meal.

Put shitake in a sauce pan and boil with shitake stock then add salt, soy sauce and mirin then adjust each seasoning to taste. Remove shitake from the saucepan and put aside.

Start preparing your soba according to the package directions. When it done to cook, drain water well then put them into cold water, rinse them briefly and drain well again.

Put the noodles in the soup and heat until just before boiling. Serve with shitake, wakame (boiled briefly) and mitsuba on top.

Tips: To make good shitake stock, put dried shitake in a hot water (120-160F) and leave them about 20 minutes.

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椎茸だしの蕎麦を作りました。先日、テレビで乾燥椎茸を美味しく戻すコツが紹介されていたので、試してみたら確かに美味しいスープができました。乾燥椎茸は水で時間をかけて戻すよりも、50℃〜70℃のお湯で20分ほどの時間で戻す方が味も、風味も美味しくできる様です。鍋に椎茸と椎茸だしを入れて火を通し、塩、醤油、みりんで味を整えます。蕎麦を茹で、茹で上がったら蕎麦を水で良く洗い、再び椎茸のスープを調理した鍋に入れ、温まるまで火を通します。蕎麦を椀に盛り、椎茸、わかめ、三つ葉をトッピングしてできあがりです。

Avocado Wasabi Bagel Sandwich

Ingredients
Avocado
Wasabi
Soy mayonnaise
Lemmon jucie
Soy sauce
Watercress
Bagel

The combination of avocado and wasabi is kind of irresistible taste to me. I mixed them with soy mayonnaise, a little lemon juice and soy sauce then stuffed all with watercress into a lightly-toasted bagel. It's just tasty!

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アボガドをわさび、大豆マヨネーズ、レモンジュース（少々）、醤油（少々）で合えて、軽くトーストしたベーグルに挟んでサンドイッチを作りました。アボガド＆わさびは、パンでもご飯でも美味しくいただけますね。

Spicy Vegetable Chow Mein

Ingredients
Chow Mein
Chinese cabbage
Carrot
Onion
Ginger
Shiitake mushrooms
Dried edamame beans (or any beans / rehydrated and boiled)
Bean stock soup
(cooking water from boiled beans)
Rāyu
Starch
Salt
Soy sauce

Topped a thick spicy vegetable sauce on the crispy and golden noodles.
Bean stock soup (cooking water from boiled beans) would be the key ingredients of the vegetable sauce so don't drain away your water from boiled beans when you rehydrate and cooked dried beans.

Cook rehydrated chow main noodles on the pan for a few min. Spread out soy sauce over the noodles and cook until they are crisp and golden. Set the noodles aside on the dish.

Stir fry roughly crushed beans, carrot, onion, ginger in the saucepan. Mix shiitake mushrooms and chinese cabbage then add bean stock soup (pour in enough stock to cover vegetables), salt, soy sauce and Rāyu then cook until carrot get soft enough. Mix water dissolved starch, cook until thick. Pour vegetable mixture over top of the noodles and serve.

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ピリ辛風味のあんかけ焼きそばを作りました。あんかけソースは豆の茹で汁をベースに、野菜の旨味とラー油の風味が加わっておいしい旨味が出ました。それをカリッと焼いた麺の上にたっぷりかけていただきます。乾麺はお湯で戻してからフライパンで弱火にかけてカリッと焼いてお醤油で軽く風味付け程度に味を付けます。ソースパンでショウガ、タマネギ、ニンジン、荒くつぶしたひたし豆（青豆）を炒めます。ある程度火が通ったらシイタケと白菜を混ぜて、さらに軽く炒めてから塩、醤油、ラー油で味付けをして、豆の茹で汁を野菜がひたひたになるぐらいたっぷりと多めに入れます（茹で汁が足りなければシイタケの戻し汁やお水を加えてください）。再び味をみて（麺と合わせる事を考えて、味付けはやや濃いめが良いと思います）、ニンジンに火が通ったら水溶き片栗粉を入れて、全体にとろみがつけばできあがりです。

Suribachi & Surikogi

I love my Suribachi bowl & Surikogi. Slow but nice and easy that's what I call these traditional cooking instruments. I probably would not make a bunch of Genovese sauce or Hummus from scratch using them however, if you only need to make a little amount of green leaf paste, grind sesame seeds or dried fruit paste for a drop of natural sweeten for your dish, Suribachi & Surikogi must be the perfect tools for you. Yet, you can utilize Suribachi as a mixing bowl directly after you've made paste (what a smart tool). If you plan to get one of these, I would recommend to buy larger size bowl because when you grind nuts and seeds, they will easily pop out of the bowl if it's small size. You might be able to find them on Amazon.

upper left : Suribachi bowl & Surikogi, bottom left : grated parsley
upper right : grated parsley + soy mayonnaise + soymilk + salt
bottom right : Avocado & Onion Salad with Green Dressing

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フードプロセッサーは使うけど、すり鉢は滅多に使わない、あるいは持ってないという人は意外と多いのではないでしょうか。ある程度の量のジェノバペーストやフムスをすり鉢でゴリゴリと作るのは確かに大変だと思います。でも、ごく少量の和え物用ソースや、フィリングを作る場合、フードプロセッサーよりもすり鉢の方が素早くペーストができて、そのまま混ぜ合わせもできるので、使い始めると手放せなくなります。それに、具材にとってはこちらの方がスローで優しいかも知れませんね。小さいサイズのすり鉢だと、材料がけっこう外側に飛び出すので、もし、これからすり鉢を買う場合、大きなサイズのものがおすすめです。

写真はアボガドとタマネギの大豆マヨネーズドレッシング（パセリピューレー）和え

Shira-ae Miso Pasta (Pureed Tofu Miso Pasta Sauce w/Vegetables)

I transformed leftover shira-ae (the latest post), additional miso and soymilk into pasta sauce for dinner. Taste very much like Japanese style and it was very good! I thought next time I'd try replace the pasta to Soba (Japanese noodle). It must be good too and worth a try.

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白和えの残りでパスタソースを作りました。白和えにミソと豆乳を加えてサッと火を通してから、茹でたバスタに絡めればできあがりの超簡単の和風パスタです。白和えにさらにミソを加えて加熱したので、ミソの風味が際立ちました。想像以上に和風な風味でしたが、期待以上に美味しくできました。ひょとするとパスタは蕎麦の方が良いのでは（ソースがノンオイルだからでしょうか）とも思ったので、今度また、チャレンジしてみようと思います。

Shira-ae (Pureed Tofu with Vegetables)

Ingredients
Firm Tofu
Konjac
Carrot
Komatsuna (or any green vegetable)
Ginger
Shimeji (or any kind of mushroom)
Dried Dates (grated)
White sesame paste
Miso
Soy sauce

Shira-ae (it means white mixture) is a traditional Japanese dish that is a pureed or mashed tofu vegetable salad. Normally uses a grinding bowl called "Suribachi" to puree tofu then mix vegetables together in it. Food processors would give pretty much the same result but pulse gently when pureeing a tofu. A Ziploc bag with your hands might be work ok to mash a tofu as alternative way.

Traditionally sweet cooking rice wine called "Mirin" is used to sweeten and gives a depth in flavor but I tried to replace Mirin to pureed dried dates (or could be ok any dry fruit or maple syrup) instead this time.

Add well drained tofu, grated ginger, grated dates, white sesame paste, miso and soy sauce in food processor then pulse gently mix until they become paste-like sauce.

Put sliced carrot, konjac in lightly salted boiled water. When carrots are tender, add shimeji mushroom, komatsuna and boil for one more minute then drain hot water well and cool (keep the drained water from vegetables as soup stock for another dish).

When the vegetables are cool enough to touch, mix them with tofu sauce and serve.

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豆腐の白和えを乾燥デーツ（ナツメヤシ）のペーストで甘み付けをしてみました。デーツの濃厚な甘みは、刻んだり、ペーストにしたり、スープに煮出したり、いろいろな料理で自然な甘みが欲しい時に使えます。木綿豆腐はよく水切りをしておきます。すり鉢かフードプロセッサーに豆腐、デーツのペースト、ミソ、しょうゆ、すりおろしたショウガを入れて滑らかなソースを作ります。スライスしたにんじんが軟らかくなるまで、糸コンニャクと一緒にボイルします。そこに、しめじと小松菜を加えてさらに１分ほど茹でて、水切りをして冷まします（野菜の茹で汁はスープストックとして使えます）。野菜が冷めたら豆腐ソースとよく混ぜ合わせます。

Samosa Style Deep Fried Spring Roll

Ingredients
Yellow dal beans (boiled)
Onion
Parsley
Kumin seed powder
Oatmeal
Salt
Wongton wrapper (Spring roll paper)

This is yet another leftover fusion from my last couple of day's recipes. I combined yellow split beans and wonton wrapper then made samosa style deep fried spring roll. Very crunchy and tasty. It was way more than I have expected!

Put chopped onion, roughly crushed beans, parsley, oatmeal in a bowl and mix well, then season with salt. Add a pinch of cumin seed powder for flavor.

Wrap up ingredients and fry them in low heated oil until golden brown. Serve with vinegar soy sauce dip (or mint sauce dip).

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一昨日のダル豆の残りと、昨日の春巻きの皮の余りを利用して、サモサ風の揚げ春巻きを作りました。荒いペーストにした豆と、タマネギとパセリのみじん切り、オートミール、クミンシードパウダーと塩をよく混ぜて春巻きの皮で包み、低温でじっくり表面がキツネ色になるまで揚げて、酢醤油のディップソースをつけていただきました。できあがりは春巻っぽく見えますが、味はサモサの様な、コロッケの様な、、。表面パリパリ中身はホクホクで、とても美味しくできました。

Wonton Wrapper Potato Lasagna

Ingredients
Diced tomato (Can)
Garlic
Onion
Mushroom
Broccoli stem
Potato (Sliced)
Oatmeal
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Wonton wrapper

Non egg and cheese lasagna won't be easy but it would be challenging.

Put minced onion and garlic in a saucepan and saute in oil until onion gets lightly browned. Add and stir-fry oatmeal, chopped mushroom and sliced broccoli stem for a minute. Add diced tomato, salt & pepper then cook until heated through.

Place the wrapper in your baking dish then spread 1/3 of the sauce mixture with thin sliced potato. Repeat and layer over three times then put the dish in a pre-heated oven until potatoes get soft.

It was ok but I thought was rather so-so recipe. Probably I should replace wonton wrapper to tortilla next time because the wrapper absorb too much tomato juice and made the texture too soft. Good thing is, it doesn't need the wrapper to be pre-boiled so can be cooked easy.

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ラザニア・パスタは卵入りなので、かわりに春巻きの皮でポテト・ラザニアを作ってみました。ニンニクとタマネギのみじん切りを弱火で炒めて、さらにスライスしたブロッコリーの茎（残り野菜）、きのこ、オートミールを加えてソテーします。そこにトマト缶を加えて塩、コショウで味を整えて、鍋底が焦げないように火を通します。耐熱皿に春巻きの皮と薄くスライスしたジャガイモを敷いて、1/3量のトマトソースを広げます。この重なりを３回繰り返してレイヤーを作り、オーブンに入れてジャガイモが柔らかくなるまで調理しました。さて、でき上がりを食べてみたら…。トマト＆ガーリックソースの個性がとても強いので、残念ながら薄くデリケートな春巻きの皮ではちょっと役不足な感じがしました。次回はトルティーアで再挑戦してみたいと思います！

Yellow Dal & Pumpkin Curry

Ingredients
Yellow dal beans (boiled)
Vegetarian curry paste
Pumpkin
Onion (minced)
Gengar (minced)
Broccoli
White rice

I love Indian curry, especially with yellow dal and vegetables one. It's always been a big mystery to me how to mix various spices to create good flavors of indian dish like restaurant style but this vegetarian curry paste made things really easy for me (Made by Mascot and sold some supermarket and Costco in Japan). The result is just awesome!

Put minced onion in a saucepan and saute in oil until onion get well browned. Mix ginger and pumpkin, then add cooking water from beans. Season with salt, add a little curry paste (purpose to season roughly early on) then cook until pumpkin get soft. Mix boiled yellow dal beans, broccoli and rest of the curry paste then cook a few more min. Serve with rice or naan.

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イエロー・ダル（イエロー・スピリット・ビーンズ）とカボチャのカレーです。市販のベジタリアン・カレー・ペーストを使いました。とても簡単に本格的な印度料理ができます。豆はやや多めの水で茹でておきます。タマネギのみじん切りを焦がさない様にキツネ色になるまでよく炒めて、カボチャを加えてさらにソテーします。豆の茹で汁（足りなければお水）、塩、カレーペーストを少し（味をなじませるため）入れてカボチャが柔らかくなるまで火を通します。最後に煮豆とブロッコリーを加えて、味をみながらカレーペーストを足してさらに数分弱火で煮ればできあがりです。