Seaweed Soup

By Anne-Marie Keppel

This is a very simple, highly nutritious, and delicious recipe.  It’s perfect to boost your immune system and detoxify your body.  It is vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free.  Of course, it's best if you can use an onion and scallion from your own garden or your neighbor's garden! 

Seaweed soup is delicious on it’s own as a light meal or can be a perfect appetizer, especially as a prelude or accompaniment to a rice dish.

Ingredients:

- One yellow onion

- Wakame seaweed

- Miso brown rice paste

- Sea salt

- One bunch of scallions

- Olive oil

- Tofu (sprouted tofu is best)

Preparation and cooking instructions:

- In a large pot, gently sauté the onion in olive oil until the onion is slightly transparent, but remains crunchy.

- Create broth by adding desired amount of hot water and brown rice paste to the sautéed onion.  Start with a half-gallon of water and 3/4 cup of paste and add more water or paste as needed.  Add sea salt to preferred taste.  Mix well until all the brown rice paste has dissolved into the water.

- Drain and cut the tofu into bite-sized pieces and add to broth.

- Add two cups of dried wakame seaweed. The seaweed will expand and soften in the water.  More seaweed may be added if desired.

- Chop the scallions and add to broth.

Since all these ingredients essentially can be eaten raw, cooking time is minimal. Make sure all the brown rice paste has dissolved, the seaweed has expanded to full size, and the tofu is warm all the way through. It's easy to reheat this soup and add fresh seaweed, so making a large quantity is a good idea. 

*Nutritional note: seaweed contains all of the minerals and many of the vitamins the human body requires for restoring and maintaining supreme health!  Seaweed is known to prevent diseases and enhance the healing process for cancer, heart disease, and immune deficiency disorders.

Vermont Maple Ginger Tofu

This recipe is easy to make and delicious.  It is even well received by meat eaters!

You will need: 

 - tofu or *tempe 

 - Vermont maple syrup 

   (or raw Vermont honey)

 - diced fresh ginger

   (or diced fresh garlic)

Dice the tofu into cubes and put into a skillet (be sure to drain the tofu first). 

Thin out the maple syrup, or honey, with enough warm water to cover the tofu or tempe in the pan while still retaining the flavor of the syrup or honey. This is a very thin watery sauce.   

Add garlic or ginger to taste, and simmer for 1/2  hour. Be sure not to boil. Serve warm over rice with your favorite vegetables.  

So simple but so good!
 

*Tempe can be substituted for the tofu as long as you steam it until tender to remove some of the "footy" taste and odor.  Then, follow the recipe as above.

Delicious Brussel Sprouts

A new spin on the otherwise mushy sprouts you never liked!

- Wash a solid bunch of brussles sprouts, just enough to get the garden soil off.  (Don't remove the outside leaves, since they will become crunchy and a tasty treat in the end.)

- In a big bowl toss the sprouts in a good olive oil and add coarse salt and pepper.  It's nice to add a fair amount of salt so they become salty like french fries.  

- Pour your sprouts onto a baking sheet and broil at 450 degrees for 15 minutes 

- Shake the sheet a couple of times half way through. 

- Remove from oven et voila!  Brussles sprouts so good you will be eyeing your neighbors plate...