Evolved summer picnic salads

Purple sticky rice salad

• Add to cool rice...lots of chopped vegies.
• It is key to chop everything to the same cube size.
• I like to use carrots, celery, green pepper, white or red onion.
• Think color...it will pop against the almost black rice.
• Add japanese vinegar to taste.
• juice of half a lemon.
• toasted walnuts.
• tamari (not soy sauce)
• a little olive oil

I took a small bowl and filled it with the rice salad and

turned it over onto the plate...made me think of how

they used serve plain ole white rice back in grade school.

Buckwheat Soba Noodle and Arame seaweed salad 

with edamane

• Soak the arame in hot water for 5 minutes.
• cook the soba for 3 minutes.
• add some sesame seeds.
• shelled edamane soy beans.
• tamari
• cooked carrots ( I had left over ones from grilling)
• a little ginger
• japanese vinegar for tang

For improved igestion, and more nutrients, place a piece of dry kombu (a sea vegetable) in the cooking pot. Kombu contains glutamic acid which acts as a natural bean tenderizer. 

Add a 1” piece of dry kombu for every 1 cup of dry beans.

A small piece of dried Kombu will expand tremendously! No kidding.

After the beans have cooked for awhile add the kombu.

When cooled a bit ,remove the kombu and chopit up and add it back into 

the beans.  I have found that adding the kombu really 

makes the beans easy to digest

Black and white bean salad with Kombu

I usually soak my beans but this time used 

canned organic ones.

• I simmered the beans with the kombu for about 10 minutes.cooled them.
• Took the kombu out...chopped it up and added it back in.
• added fresh chopped tomato.
• some fresh cilantro
• chopped white onion.
• a pinch of cayenne 
• tamari
• and the key spice lots of cumin!