My culinary highlight yesterday was unexpectedly tumbling upon heaps of Asian and other healthy nutritional ingredients in a local supermarket here in Cataluna. I was only after a few tomatoes for our much loved Caprese when my eyes first glimpsed wakame, then nori, followed by heaps more algue-iron-busters – all so important for vegetarians. It got better. Coconut milk made its appearance in the next isle, followed by Mirin (fermented rice wine which doesn’t only bring healthy bacteria to your tummy but also saves every bad dish and makes every good one even better), pure Sesame oil, Miso… I was in heaven.
Riding the culinary highlight wave, we even had access to 220 volts last night (yes, the things one can take for granted…) which is always a welcome occasion to whip some lentil paddies through the blender – in my humble little 1/2 m2 kitchen. They work great for lunches with salad, dinner with some moist veggies like tomatoes or asparagus or as a snack for the little ones. What you need to feed roughly two big and two little people:
• ca 300 g of lentils
• 2 potatoes
• 2 eggs
• A few spoons of chickpea flour
• Spices, salt and pepper. If available, green bits of a couple of spring onions
• Ghee for cooking
Soak lentils for several hours (possibly over night), then boil soft in veggie broth. Grate potatoes. Mix everything together. Form patties sized to your liking, throw in the pan where the Ghee should be heated and cook on both sides until just slightly tanned.
Now enjoy. After all we gotta look after our body as the physical manifestation of our subtler bodies, the gross form of our soul, especially when one is travelling and voyaging!
Sailing Yoga Family 
Delicious vegan food is one reason why the number of vegans has doubled in less than 3 years. Here’s a video to help everyone understand why so many people are making this life affirming choice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKr4HZ7ukSE
21-Day Vegan Kickstart http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/kickstart/kickstart-programs
Awesome video link – please everyone watch, vegan or not… think what you eat… can you be at peace with yourself? x
Those look so good! I’d love to know what your go-to references are for vegetarian recipes. Also interested to learn more about cooking with seaweed. I am keen (both with what we can buy, and what we can forage) but find seaweed is underserved by the books I have on board. While I’m at it on the veggie questions- how about tips for vegetarian cooking when you have no access to fresh vegetables? That’s where I get stumped in particular: when we’ve been at sea and are down to our long-term stores, the freshies having long since been eaten or gone off.
Seaweed – I always throw in a bit of kombu or wakame when I cook grains, beans or anything similar – it’s like a natural veggie broth cube, adding not only flavour (can replace salt!) but also iron. Else you can spread if over salad. Noah and I love nibbling away on pure Nori. Our poor/lazy dinner is rice with nori and furikaki (Japanese spice mix with algues etc) and maybe an arvo on top – very basic sushi if you want. Also love soaking wasame, for example (any other algue would do the job too I guess), and mix it with a bit of nutritional yeast and nut spread – amazing spread or dip for a quick snack during shift change, lol;)
Re veggie at sea – lentils,beans, grains,nuts of all shapes and forms are all easy to store long term. Sprout them, cook them, blend them (like in those patties), mix them… incorporate in pasta sauce, with rice, or couscous, mixed in a a tomato sauce. That’s just a few ideas on the top of my (still sleepy) head. Hope this is useful. And then you can always mix it with the tinned veggies…
Lastly, check mynewroots.org – amazing veggie recipes.
thank you for these great ideas! I need to start a separate recipe folder for myself that helps me think in a veggie centric way. My New Roots looks amazing.
We do eat a lot of nori (a favorite snack, especially the toasted/seasoned Korean style) but I’m just not used to working with other kinds of seaweed. I would love to be better able to recognize and harvest what we see in the ocean as well. ❤ I can definitely stand to expand my sprouting also… we tend to just do the lightweight salad-like sprouts, but heartier things like chick peas can be so satisfying. I will do almost anything to avoid tinned veggies!
I know what you mean about tinned veggies… but after weeks at sea it’s still sometimes better than none. Everything else coming first (eg sprouties etc). xo