Sushi Night and Miso-Glazed Fruit Topping

Tonight’s recipe is a super-simple vegan dessert (sneak-peek on the left!). Three ingredients, minimal babysitting, and tons of flavor….but more on that in a few paragraphs.

 

 

This week has been a good one so far (all 48 hours of it). Monday started out with my deliveries from Door to Door Organics and Conveniently Natural. I had customized my organic box to accommodate a Monday night gathering: Sushi night with Amber (Almost Vegan) and Hannah (Wayfaring Chocolate). In addition to sushi, we made a big batch of raw kimchi straight out of Amber’s cookbook, Practically Raw, and I brought a bunch of greens to juice. 

 

 

 

My juice was made from kale, cucumber, romaine, spinach, parsley, lemon, ginger, and green apple. The flavor is surprisingly mild, especially for the amount of kale used. Thank’s to Amber’s juicer (Amber may have helped a little/lot), I made out with a full half-gallon of green juice. Once I was home, I added a bit of sea salt to help preserve it and put 3/4 of it in the freezer in leftover Shatto milk bottles. In the photo, you can see one of the bottles of green stuff, as well as two of my jars of kimchi-in-the-making. 

 

 

 

As you probably guessed, we also made sushi. Or, at least, we tried. It was a bit of a comedy of errors as both the nori and soy wrappers we rather intolerant of the raw jicama/parsnip “rice”. The sushi rice fared better, but most of that ended up inside of very forgiving (and delicious!) inari. Hannah and I each made rolls with store-bought kimchi (Korean fusion rolls!), and the rest of the rolls were stuffed with random combinations of baked tofu, red bell pepper, avocado, and carrot. With sriracha and coconut aminos mixed with wasabi powder for dipping, I’d say our dinner rivaled that of many sushi houses. Plus, we had the added benefit of bonding over the use of knives, some rather phallic shaped vegetables, and good, old-fashioned, giggly girl talk. I feel pretty confident in saying a good time was had by all.

 

 

 

Tonight I made use of the theme for the Conveniently Natural menu this week: Bar-be-que. This is KC, so vegan BBQ isn’t exactly mainstream, but this is one of my favorite menus from the meal delivery service. We had vegan BBQ vital wheat gluten, cole slaw, macaroni and cheese (which I added a bit of sea salt and nutritional yeast to, as I just can’t seem to acquire a taste for Daiya “cheese” items), and German potato salad. In the photo, you can also see a jar of my homemade pickles with garlic and jalapeno. This was a very filling meal with tons of flavor that had the approval of both spawn.

 

No BBQ is complete without some sort of fruit-based dessert. I’ve had the idea of miso caramel floating around my head for awhile now, and tonight I finally put it into practice.

By combining coconut nectar (you may also use honey) with the salty goodness of miso paste, an extra depth of flavor is added to what can often end up as a sweet-on-sweet profile. I used the miso glaze on nectarines tonight, but I can see this working with many fruits such as mangoes or strawberries. Pears would be especially lovely draped in this glaze.

I won’t necessarily limit this glaze to dessert. I think with a bit of ginger and cracked black pepper, this would make a fabulous glaze for salmon. Actually, I think this will have to happen now. Stay tuned!

Miso-Glazed Fruit Topping

Ingredients:

• 3 tbs coconut nectar or honey
• 1 tbs miso paste
• 2 medium nectarines, cored and sliced into wedges

 

Directions:

1. Heat the nectar in a medium sauce pan over medium low heat. Whisk in the miso paste until it’s well-incorporated.
2. Add the peaches and toss to coat. Increase heat to medium and allow to simmer 15 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and allow to rest 5 minutes or until the syrup has thickened. Stir again to evenly coat fruit. Serve over ice cream, short bread, or eat on its own.

Serves 4. Calories: 79, Fat: 1g, Carbs: 18g, Fiber: 2. Protein: 1g.