My Meatless Monday (Okinawan) meal

I haven’t shared my meatless meals for a very long time now, so here’s today’s!

To our friends who are fasting, you can prepare this for sahur or iftar. 

This is black rice. I read that in ancient China, it was reserved for the Emperor and the royalty only. Hence, it was also known as “forbidden rice”.

Black rice, also known as purple rice or forbidden rice, can refer to more than 20 varieties of Oryza sativa rice high in anthocyanin pigment, the same antioxidant pigment that gives eggplants and blackberries their deep color.

I cooked it as recommended by a Singaporean medical doctor who uses food as medicine for his patients, with a lot of water, then I pour away the water. So the rice is a bit wet. The reason for putting a lot of water and pouring it away is to get rid of the arsenic in the rice. Also, black rice must be soaked overnight. All rice contains arsenic, but more in brown and black rice.

Washing and cooking rice with plenty of clean water can help reduce the amount of arsenic present. This method works for both white and brown rice, with one study showing it has the potential to remove up to 57 percent of the toxic element.

The video from the Singaporean doctor: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=367690661539517 (from 5:32). He’s Dr Chan but no relations to me.  

And that’s nutritional yeast flakes on top of my rice as a natural Vitamin B.

There’s also miso soup with purple sweet potato, carrot, radish, cabbage and tofu, sprinkled with seaweed flakes.

So I’ve got 4 of the recommended 5 ingredients for a basic Okinawan diet – purple sweet potato, daikon radish, seaweed, miso and an oily fish (no fish, it’s a meatless meal). Silly me overboiled the soup – oops!

In case you are wondering why there are no leafy greens, I ran out this morning and had no time to buy, so I took this for breakfast:

It is Focus Foods’ Daily Supergreens, a supplementary green food I’ve been taking daily for years now. Love it! I added a pea-based plant protein to it. I know it’s the lazy way, but then, I AM a very lazy cook. I wish AI would just invent a nutritionally-complete pill for us to swallow then I don’t have to spend time cooking. I could just swallow a pill and spend more time doing other things!

But I am definitely not lazy in other areas in life, just cooking, sorry! So this is a very, very simple meal that anyone can prepare. Preparation time to cook the rice: 25 minutes. Soup: about 20 minutes. So do it together and put the timer on your stove. But please remember to put the tofu last and only stir in the miso after the soup is ready.

Happy Meatless Monday, folks!

Let’s save the animals, save the planet and save ourselves!

This is from Focus Foods’ newsletter (https://www.focusfoods.co/).

When to take Daily Supergreens, Sahur or Iftar? 

(Even if you’re not fasting, the information below helps answer should you take it in the morning or night)

If taken during Sahur (morning):
– fiber increases fullness

– phytonutrients keep you nourished through the day

If taken during Iftar (evening):
– fiber helps stomach ease into food and digest better

– phytonutrients help replenish nutrients

 

Comments are closed.