Super Natural Every Day (22 page)
Read Super Natural Every Day Online
Authors: Heidi Swanson
1 teaspoon pine nuts
1 teaspoon sunflower seeds
60 g black sesame seeds
1 ½ tablespoons natural (unrefined) cane sugar or soft brown sugar
1 ½ tablespoons shoyu, tamari, or soy sauce
1 ½ teaspoons mirin
Scant 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Fine sea salt
340 g soba noodles
340 g extra-firm tofu
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 bunch spring onions, white and light green parts, thinly sliced
Toast the pine nuts and sunflower seeds in a large frying pan over medium heat until golden, shaking the pan regularly. Add the sesame seeds to the pan and toast for a minute or so. It’s hard to tell when they are toasted; look closely and use your nose. Remove from the heat as soon as you smell a hint of toasted sesame; if you let them go much beyond that, you’ll start smelling burned sesame—not good. Transfer to a mortar and pestle and crush the mixture; the texture should be like black sand. Alternatively, you can use a food processor. Stir in the sugar, shoyu, mirin, sesame oil, brown rice vinegar, and cayenne pepper. Taste and adjust if needed.
Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Salt generously, add the soba, and cook according to the package instructions until tender. Drain, reserving some of the noodle cooking water, and rinse under cold running water.
While the noodles are cooking, drain the tofu, pat it dry, and cut into matchstick shapes. Season the tofu with a pinch of salt, toss with a small amount of oil, and cook in a large frying pan over medium–high heat for a few minutes, tossing every couple of minutes, until the pieces are browned on all sides.
Reserve a heaping tablespoon of the sesame paste, then thin the rest with 80 ml of the hot noodle water. In a large mixing bowl, combine the soba, half of the spring onions, and the black sesame paste. Toss until well combined. Add the tofu and toss again gently. Serve topped with a tiny dollop of the reserved sesame paste and the remaining spring onions.
SERVES 4
TOFU, KALE, CORIANDER, PEPITAS
 | Here I roast bright orange crescents of pumpkin, tofu cubes, and a few potato chunks slathered with a bold miso and red curry paste. |
It bakes up golden, crusty, and over-the-top delicious. Before serving, the whole lot is tossed with chopped kale, crunchy pepitas, a jolt of lemon, and lots of chopped coriander. | |
This is an easy weeknight meal to prepare, particularly if you’ve prepped some of the ingredients and whisked up the slather ahead of time. Then it’s just onto the pan and into the oven. |
340 g pumpkin, peeled if needed
60 ml extra-virgin olive oil
70 g white miso
Scant 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste
225 g extra-firm tofu, cut into small cubes
4 chat (baby) potatoes, unpeeled, cut into chunks
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
45 g chopped kale, tough stems removed
45 g pepitas, toasted (see
Wholegrain Breadcrumbs
)
30 g chopped fresh coriander
Preheat the oven to 200°C (Gas Mark 6) with a rack in the middle of the oven.
Cut the pumpkin in half lengthways and use a spoon to clear out all the seeds. Cut into 1 cm-thick half-moons.
In a medium bowl, whisk together olive oil, miso, and curry paste. Combine the tofu, potatoes, and pumpkin in a large bowl with 80 ml miso-curry paste. Use your hands to toss well, then turn the vegetables onto a rimmed baking tray and arrange in a single layer.
Roast for 25–30 minutes, until everything is tender and browned. Toss once or twice along the way, after things start to brown a bit. Keep a close watch, though; the vegetables can go from browned to burned in a flash.
In the meantime, whisk the lemon juice into the remaining miso-curry paste, then stir in the kale until coated.
Toss the roasted vegetables gently with the kale, pepitas, and coriander. Serve in a large bowl or on a platter for everyone to help themselves.
SERVES 4
drinks
NINETY PER CENT OF THE TIME,
I find myself drinking water, which doesn’t sound very exciting, and certainly wouldn’t make for an engaging drink chapter. But there you have it: I drink a lot of water.
Water is a drink I actually try to jazz up on occasion. For example, I sometimes infuse a jug of cold water with a handful of hibiscus leaves. I enjoy that, strained, with frozen berries over ice. When winter citrus is in season, I slice a few oranges, lemons, tangerines, and cumquats into a jug and fill the jug with ice and either sparkling or still water. Summer calls for pressing watermelon through a sieve to extract the juice and mixing it with equal parts water. Also refreshing is lemon and cucumber in a jug of water. The addition of a slice or two of ginger doesn’t hurt, either, and a splash of fruit syrup in a well-chilled flute of sparkling water is hard to beat.
Beyond that, I’m a bit particular about drinks. I find myself most excited about light, bright, refreshing beverages. I buy a certain Prosecco by the case and have adopted it as our house wine. I love its subtle tart-apple notes and the way it dances around my mouth. I like to explore different pilsners and also saison-style beers—summery, often enthusiastically carbonated, and easy-drinking. Or, dry French ciders—complex, beguiling, and a fun alternative to sparkling wine. The heavy, super-juicy, high-octane wines with alcohol levels at 15 or 16 per cent just don’t go with my style of cooking, so I generally pass them by.
On the fancy beverage front, my repertoire is short and spritzy, and none involve hard alcohol. I’ve included a handful of those here, alongside a number of favourite non-alcoholic refreshers.
red wine, sparkling lemonade, lemon slices
loose-leaf white tea leaves, water
beer, sparkling lemonade, lemon wedges
tangerine juice, orange juice, lemon juice
ginger, cardamom, lime juice, sparkling water
RED WINE, SPARKLING LEMONADE, LEMON SLICES
| After a week-long trip to Madrid, I came to think of |
This drink goes down easy under a hot sun and is one of the few beverages that just keeps getting better as the ice melts into it. I like to serve |
Ice cubes
1 x 750 ml bottle inexpensive Spanish red wine
Sparkling (naturally sweetened) lemonade or any not-too-sweet lemon-lime beverage
Fresh lemon slices
Fill each glass with as many ice cubes as will fit. Add 120 ml wine and 120 ml sparkling lemonade to one glass, then stir. Taste. It should be light and refreshing and not overly “juicy.” If it is very concentrated and grapey, you’ll need to dilute your
tinto
with a bit more sparkling lemonade. Fill the remaining glasses, stir, garnish with lemon slices, and serve.
SERVES 4–6
