Trying to convince a teenager to take a salad for a school lunch can be difficult, unless you can call it a ‘deconstructed salad’. Somehow then it’s cool. I give you my deconstructed sushi salad. Guaranteed to keep you full all afternoon, and never be boring.

For 4 serves:

2 cups cooked brown rice (or sushi rice)

Approx 5 tablespoons sushi seasoning, check bottle for amount

1 cup shredded cabbage

2 carrots, grated

2 radishes, thinly sliced

3/4 cup frozen edamame beans

1 spring onion

1/2 packet tempeh or tofu

2 sheets nori

4 little bottles soy sauce (I keep the ones from sushi shops, but you could fill up little pots from your bottle in the fridge

Optional extras: sliced avocado, wasabi mayonnaise

 

Cook the rice according to packet instructions, cool, and season to taste with sushi seasoning. Layer in the bottom of 4 containers/bowls.

Layer the vegetables over the top. I just chuck the edamame beans in frozen; they’ll be defrosted by lunchtime, promise.

Lightly fry the tempeh or tofu in a pan until brown on both sides. You might want to splash some soy sauce on while cooking for extra flavour. Add this to the salad.

Lightly toast the nori sheet; I hold mine over the gas hob until it goes crisp. You could toast it in a frying pan. Roughly rip this into pieces and put on top of the salad.

Tuck a little bottle of soy sauce in, to be added to the salad just before eating. Yum!

*Meat eaters might like to add some cold chicken or tinned tuna. You can make this salad to order.

 

 

The more studies that are done into diet and health, the more the evidence seems to suggest that a mainly plant-based diet is the way to go. The whole food plant based diet is based on a massive study done over several years in China, called The China Study, which concludes that “the closer people came to an all plant-based diet, the lower their risk for chronic disease.”

But isn’t cooking without animal products complicated? Isn’t it impossible to make meals interesting and tasty without meat or cheese? And don’t I need to carefully work out my protein requirements if my diet is vegan? Well, no! When you eat a diet based on fruit, vegetables, tubers, whole grains, and legumes you naturally get the levels of nutrients your body needs. And planning meals using vegetables as your starting point allows for so much creativity!

I’ll be sharing some of my whole food plant-based recipe ideas over coming weeks. They are by no means spectacular, but are quick and easy to make, and satisfy a busy, active family. I also try to make extra servings of my dinners which can double as packed lunches the next day. Bonus!

First up:

San Choy Bau, vegan style

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like most of my recipes, this doesn’t have specific amounts, or even ingredients! You can mix it up depending on what you have in the fridge. For instance, this night I had a bowl of leftover coleslaw in the fridge, so I filled my lettuce cups with that. Have fun experimenting!

1/2 iceberg lettuce

200 grams noodles (I used kelp noodles, but soba or vermicelli are also good)

1 packet silken tofu

2 cups raw mixed vegetables, e.g: shredded cabbage, bean sprouts, grated carrot, courgette, radish, avocado, capsicum….

3-4 tablespoons hoisin sauce

1/4 cup toasted seeds or nuts (optional)

 

Gently pull the inner leaves from the lettuce, and arrange in cups on a big platter. I work with 2 per person, but you might want to do more.

Cook the noodles according to packet instructions, drain and cool. Share evenly among the lettuce cups. Fill the cups with your choice of vegetables, then sprinkle over the crumbled tofu. Drizzle with hoisin sauce. It can be nice to sprinkle over some toasted sesame seed or cashews to add extra crunch.

Pick up the lettuce cups and eat with your fingers. Keep napkins close by!