Sea vegetables - My Wholefood Romance

Salads, sesame and top 10 health tips.

March 11, 2013 By Meg With 2 comments

It’s been a super hot week here in Melbourne, so there have been salads galore. They are the perfect thing for a hot day, and also to use up any left overs that are hanging around. I usually work on a basic principle of combining a protein source with some crunch, and a fun dressing. So whatever I have in the protein stakes (tofu/tempeh, fetta, haloumi, chickpeas, lentils, quinoa etc), with some fresh leafy items, crunchy veg, some nuts or seeds to round out the protein, and a dressing including a lovely healthy fat of some kind (olive oil, flaxseed oil, tahini/nut butter, you get the idea). Including protein and good fat in your salads this way will keep your blood sugar regulated and will keep you feeling full for longer – creating a legitimate satisfying meal. Fab!

On Friday I was lucky enough to be featured on Jess Ainscough’s website The Wellness Warrior as a Friday Foodie. If you haven’t visited Jess’ site, make sure you check it out. She is an absolute inspiration and a wonderful person, and her site is full of educational and inspirational posts, videos and books, along with my favourite weekly inspiration board.

I decided to make this nutrient packed sesame noodle salad. The noodles are made up of buckwheat noodles, arame, and spiralised carrot and zucchini; combined with marinated tofu, fresh veg, coriander/cilantro and pepitas. The dressing is a ripper. For the full recipe, check out the post but do me a favour – add 1-2 tablespoons of lime/lemon juice to the dressing (a bit of a typo…). I also forgot to write the clove of fresh garlic for the tofu marinade in the ingredients section, but we won’t go there, I’m sure no-one noticed!…

If you have any left over dressing, it

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Sea Vegetable Love Part Three: Nori, plus fast pickled ginger.

July 4, 2012 By Meg With 6 comments

Nori is probably the most recognisable form of sea vegetables to many of us, used in sushi hand rolls and the like. Weighing in the heaviest in protein of the sea veg family (almost 30% – whoa!), the accolades for nori don’t end there. How about a hefty helping of calcium, iron, zinc, B vitamins, and vitamins A, C and E? Yes please!

Today I thought it would be cute to make little nori squares, as opposed to the traditional rolls. You can of course use this same method to make rolls if you prefer, but the Food Matters Project‘s recipe for this week - Updated Tea Sandwiches, inspired me to make my nori into mini sandwiches. Check out what the other FMP members came up with here.
This makes about 6-8 rolls worth.

You will need:
Nori sheets
1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa (I used quinoa instead of rice to pack an extra protein and nutritional punch, but you can use rice again if you prefer).
Seasonal vegetables of your choice to fill your sandwich or roll.
2 tbs brown rice vinegar
1 tbs water
1 tsp honey
1 tsp sea salt

1. Whisk together the last 4 ingredients and stir through the slightly cooled quinoa (keep a very small amount to dress your kale cabbage combo if using).

2. Cut up your nori into the size and shape you require. HOT TIP: keep the size small enough to fit into your mouth in one bite, or big enough to be able to pick up and handle easily.

3. Spread the quinoa onto one side of your nori.

4. Top with all sorts of wonderful fresh produce. I love to use a mix of kale and cabbage. I will not apologise for how much I

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Romancing the Sea Vegetable Part Deux – a Cauliflower Soup

April 30, 2012 By Meg With 5 comments

Dulse magic!
Dulse is a luscious maroon coloured, fabulously versatile seaweed that is bound to steal your heart.

On top of the health and nutritional benefits mentioned previously, dulse is exceptionally high in iodine and manganese, and has been used as a remedy for sea sickness, herpes and scurvy – what more could you ask for?! It’s salty flavour makes it a great salt substitute, but you may like to start slowly and build up as your body adjusts to the flavour which can be overpowering if you overdo it!

You can buy dulse as larger pieces, or in flakes as pictured. The flakes really are next level awesome as you can add them to almost anything (I haven’t tried with sweet things, but why not throw some into a carrot cake mix?). They are a vitamin and mineral injection to any meal you add them to, and because they are so conveniently flaky you can feel free to sprinkle into soups, stews, pasta sauces, meat dishes, salads, onto vegetables, you name it – you dulse it!

The larger dulse pieces can be used as spinach or other leafy veg, or sauteed and eaten as a snack or a side. I crisped some up on a really low heat in the oven to eat – they are intense this way, but would be a fun and healthful addition to your normal array condiments!

Today I have used the flakes in this week’s Food Matters Project recipe – Roasted Asparagus and White Bean Soup, chosen and hosted by Adrienne. Asparagus is not in season here at the moment, so I have made a different version of the soup using cauliflower and kale, loosely inspired by Heidi Swanson’s Cauliflower Soup. I have kept the recipe dairy free, but it would …

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Vegetables of the Sea

March 20, 2012 By Meg With 8 comments

Sea vegetables are such wonderful friends! For thousands of years they have been called upon for their healing, disease preventing, life prolonging properties, and they come in many colours and varieties, so there is bound to be one that suits you just perfectly!

Sea vegetables contain 10-20 times more minerals than land plants, and because these minerals have been integrated into a living plant/seaweed, they are beautifully absorbed and assimilated by our bodies.

Each sea vegetable has a specific set of qualities, but generally speaking they all contain protein, vitamins A, B, C and E, super amounts of iron, calcium and iodine, are detoxifying, alkalising and anti-inflammatory.

To prepare sea vegetables they need to be rehydrated. Cover with water and soak for 5-15 minutes – they will expand to at least twice their original volume.

Cooked Arame

SEAWEED OF THE MONTH – ARAME

I will feature a little special each month on each sea vegetable in turn, giving them all a time to shine. This month is arame. Arame grows in fronds which is then cut into stringy ‘noodles’, partly cooked and dried. It is rich in iodine, high in iron and calcium, and is traditionally used for normalising high blood pressure, treating female reproductive conditions, mouth afflictions and encouraging growth of glossy hair.

This week on the food matters project the recipe was Seared Bean Sprouts with Beef and Sesame Orange Sauce (check out the original version here). I adapted this to a vegetarian meal using tempeh, and added the arame and served it with quinoa – delicious!

I also changed the marinade a little, making it a version of the one Jude Blereau uses with her pan-glazed orange tofu. Here’s what I did.

Orange Pan-Glazed Tempeh with Bean Sprouts
225g/8oz tempeh
2 tablespoons coconut oil (or olive …

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