Ingredients For Marinated Seaweed Salad & Fennel Salad
Kombu or Alaria Seaweed
Lemon and/or Umeboshi Vinegar or vinegar of choice
Sesame Oil
Honey or Agave, preferably dark
Toasted Sesame Seeds#
Holy Basil
Since the terrible, mind & heart wrenching events of the Japanese earthquake, tsunami & subsequent nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant in Japan on March 10th, 2011 we have decided to really pump up our nourishment with each & every meal. We have also added daily doses of freshly prepared Kombu, marinated in a lovely vinaigrette which tenderizes the seaweed & delights the palate. I must admit, we're getting hooked on seaweed!! Yum!
Just add a cup of nettles & red clover tea with this meal & you'll double your benefits in protecting your health after exposure to radiation or to prepare your immune system for whatever the future may hold.
Start with dried Kelp or Kombu from a reputable supplier such as Maine Coast Sea Vegetables and cook as directed.
I like to either marinate before or after cooking. I've had great results both ways. Check the kelp for little pebbles or rocks & wipe them off. Then place the kelp, barely covered with filtered water in a small pot & bring to a boil. Lower heat & simmer for about 8-12 minutes or until just barely tender.
Then place the kelp into a mason jar or other clean glass jar & add marinating ingredients to taste. Add a healthy dash of tamari sauce or umeboshi plum vinegar. Add a healthy dash of a good quality sesame oil, cold pressed, toasted is preferable. Add a dash of agave or honey if you like & mix together well. Once the kelp has cooled, place it in the refrigerator to chill. Serve chopped & topped with very lightly toasted mixed black & white sesame seeds. The seaweed can be added to the top of a mixed green salad or eaten as a side dish. It also goes very nicely with cooked brown rice or with cooked greens.
Fennel Salad
Ingredients:
Fennel Bulbs
Carrots
Black Olives, Oil Cured ideally not brined or vinegared
Toasted Anise Seed or Fennel Seed
Balsamic Vinegar, Lemon and/or Umeboshi Vinegar or vinegar of choice
Slice fennel very thinly using a mandoline if you have one, or just in thin slices after taking out woody core from base of bulb. Slice a carrot also on the mandoline or in equally thin slices.
Get your toasted anise or fennel seed ready. (see note to prepare this)
After slicing fennel & carrots, saute together in a very hot skillet using a high heat oil such as safflower or a low grade of olive oil. Add a dash of high quality sea salt. After mixture begins to cook, add a half teaspoon of toasted fennel or anise seeds. Saute until barely tender or to taste.
Then place fennel & carrot mixture in a bowl & add a dash of umeboshi vinegar, balsamic vinegar or lemon to taste. Add pitted black olives cut in two or whole. Set aside or chill. Best served at room temperature.
Peas & Salad Assembly & Ingredients
Snap Peas
Lettuce Washed* & Dried
De-String Peas in the Pod also known as snap peas. Make sure they're from a reputable farmer or organic produce supplier, as peas are one of the more ubiquitous GMO foods on the market & are also one of the most heavily sprayed with pesticides. Then steam VERY lightly until just barely cooked. They should appear bright green & taste SWEET!! One way to insure you have a sweet snap pea is to go to your farmer's markets locally, then purchase your springtime gift of peas & cook them the minute you get home. Peas, like corn will turn their sugars to starch the moment they leave the vine!
The best way to preserve their crunch is to place the cooked peas into an ice water bath. Plunge them into a bowl of cold filtered water which has ice cubes in it, when cool to the touch, drain quickly & eat! To store an abundance, place into a glass container with lid & refrigerate. Use liberally until you finish them!
Then take a plate, place a well washed organic lettuce leaf on it or two or three & create your salad medley.
Splash a bit of good quality olive oil & lemon or vinegar of choice over the lettuce.
Pictured here are a bowl with lettuce leaves, fennel-carrot salad, fresh cooked peas & topped with a healthy portion of marinated kelp. Garnish with chopped herbs--Holy Basil would be ideal here as it is believed to protect from radiation due to its anti-inflammatory effect.
Holy Basil or Tulsi has a 5000 year history of healing benefits in India It is a delicious part of Ayurvedic Medicine & can be taken quite easily in tea form. We are blessed to have it growing in our garden here, a gift from a fellow in our meditation group.
Or use any fresh fragrant herb such as basil, lemon balm (great anti-viral), cilantro or any other fresh organic seasonal herb. Cilantro is another helpful herb as are so many with volatile oils. These oils in fresh herbs often have anti-viral, anti-bacterial & even anti-parasitic effects and also enliven the palate, getting your saliva going which in turn will help you digest your meal!
Note: When faced with a choice of local very fresh looking herbs which are NOT organic or organic herbs which have traveled hundreds or thousands of miles, ALWAYS choose the local over the long traveled, very unsustainable organic ones. If you can get local organic, that's the best way to insure the health of yourself & your family!
Preparing Your Produce
*Washing Your Produce: some people recommend using a very dilute solution of "Clorox brand" bleach, but I cannot bring myself to do that. I use a half dozen drops of grapefruit seed extract into my filtered wash water for greens & all veggies. Let them sit for a few minutes into a mix of the GSE into VERY cold water (for lettuce), then swish around, rinse with flitered water, then spin, then lay the leaves onto clean dish towels. Cover with another clean dish towel, place into a plastic bag & put into the refrigerator until dried. This shouldn't take more than a few hours. Then unwrap, place washed lettuce into a good air tight glass container (or ideally for freshness, but not the best for health) put into a ziplock plastic bag, get the air out & you'll have clean fresh lettuce which will stay fresh & crisp for at least 4-5 days.
Toasting Sesame Seeds
#To toast sesame seeds, toast each color (if you have both black & white) separately as they cook at different lengths of time. Place a single layer in a shallow frying pan or skillet & toast on top of the stove over a medium to medium low heat. Every half minute or less, shake the pan so the seeds don't stick. If you start to smell the seeds toasting, take them off the heat quickly & pour onto a plate, so that they can cool quickly. Once cooled, place into a jar with a lid & keep on hand for garnishing rice & vegetable dishes, salads & soups or anything which strikes your fancy! Toast the white sesame seeds until you see them very slightly start to turn golden. If you see smoking, you've probably burned them. . . an easy thing to do, so keep your eye on what you're doing when you're toasting these little seeds.
Read our articles on radiation & Fukushima here:
Stocking Your Cupboard in the Nuclear Age by Jane Sherry
Surviving Radiation the Wise Woman Way by Susun Weed
Anti Radiation Main Course Meal of Tofu, Sweet Potato & Collards over Brown Rice by Jane Sherry
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Jane Sherry, one of the Founders of Satya Center is a Reiki practitioner/teacher, spiritual counselor, creator of healing art talismans, healing gardens & loves to cook! She has a background in the visual arts before moving into the healing arts and has been a longtime lover of herbs & spices & cooking. She newly resides in Boca Raton, Florida, about one hour north of Miami. She works the Satya Center healing practice with co-founder and husband, Curtis Lang and co-operates the Satya Center Crystal Gallery and web portal. New gardens are being birthed now, here in the Florida sunshine, well watered by lots of tropical rains. You will always find crystals in among the herbs, flowers & vegetable gardens!