Make Your Own Vegan Japanese Recipes
Learning to cook your own food is a very empowering way to release yourself from having to buy expensive plastic-wrapped ready-meals and takeaways, often made with inferior ingredients. Choose your favourite cuisine, and master it yourself at home. Then every night is restaurant night!
Never eat rice after 24 hours (a food poison hazard). Avoid unpasteurised miso for pregnancy/nursing and weak immune systems. . Use bamboo chopsticks. Before cooking, read up on food safety for people & pets (many foods like onion, garlic and spices are unsafe near animal friends).
Bin allium scraps (onion, garlic, leeks, shallots, chives) as acids may harm compost creatures (same with tomato/citrus/rhubarb scraps).
Vegan Japan is a book of street foods, vegetable sides and adorable bite-sized desserts, along with warming soups and slurp-able noodles.
Japanese French chef Julia grew up devouring all the above, so when she went vegan, was sure she would not give up her childhood favourites. And in this book, shows that Japanese food does not have to be complicated.
Recipes include:
- Kabocha Stew
- Miso Butter Ramen
- Yakisoba
- Onigiri
- Napolitan
- Japanese Potato Salad
- Karaage
- Maguro Don
- Ponzu Sauce
- Mentsuyu
- Japanese Mayonnaise
Also read Vegan JapanEasy, with recipes for:
- Vegetable tempura
- Onigiri
- Mushroom gyoza
- Cauliflower katsu curry
- French onion ramen
- Soy sauce butterscotch brownies
Also read Vegan Recipes from Japan (with inspiration from Zen philosophy to produce food with no waste)..
Key Japanese Cooking Ingredients
Key Japanese ingredients are pretty easy to find in England:
- Tofoo (made in Yorkshire) is organic.
- Miso is another popular ingredient. It’s one of the few foods rich in all the tastes for ‘good umami’ and also good for your tummy! It’s unpasteurised so not for children, pregnancy, nursing or affected immune conditions.
- Seaweed (nori, wakame and kombu) is best to buy, as it’s not sustainable nor safe to harvest yourself and dogs should be kept away from seaweed, as the fronds can dry in the stomach and swell). Avoid seaweed for thyroid issues.
- Look in stores for vegan fish sauce.
How to Make Your Own Vegan Sushi
Forget issues with mercury and by-catch. Easy Vegan Sushi (The Veg Space) offers four varieties, using rice, rice vinegar, ginger and nori sheets. Then just assemble with veggie fillings (cucumber, broccoli, carrots, peppers).
Vegan Sushi (ElaVegan) is a slightly more elaborate recipe, which you can use with your favourite veggies, and even fill with your favourite dairy-free cream cheese.
Moving Mountains sell fishless fillets, which you can use to make vegan sushi (mix with cucumber, pepper, spring onion and vegan mayo, then layer with cooked rice).
Look in stores for Konscious, store-bought sushi made from whole grains, vegetables, legumes and fruits (in four flavours, plus plant-based salmon and poke bowls). Made by chefs, these meals are flash-frozen and ready to thaw at home.
Recycle packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your kerbside does not collect.
This brand was founded by a young chef who cycled across Canada in his youth, and settled in an area known for environmentalism. After creating one of the USA’s first vegan hot dog brands, he’s now turned his skills to making vegan fish!
Inspiring Lessons from Japan
Japan is a unique country, likely most of us has never visited. You may consider Japan as home of lovely buildings, macaque monkeys (who like to throw snowballs in hot springs), but what else do we know about this most unusual of countries?
In fact, it’s home to some of the healthiest people on earth, who regularly live to over 100 with no ill health until end-of-life.
Japan is mostly islands, with only a few urban areas, one of which is Tokyo. But all cities are better at protecting the planet than here, with hardly any litter (like Switzerland).
Animal welfare in Japan is a hot topic right now, after a horse died during a 680-year old Shinto festival. The charity has a long history, beginning after World War II when the founders began to raise money to help emaciated and dying dogs and horses.
Appreciating Our Cherry Blossom (like Japan!)
In Japan, the annual cherry blossom season from the end of March to the end of May is celebrated by everyone, with locals gathering to stop and stare at over 1 million cherry trees for a stunning seasonal spectacle of blooms.
‘Cherry’ Ingram is the Englishman credited with saving cherry blossoms in Japan, after he began to send rare varieties from his own garden to Japan, with help of a network of ‘cherry guardians’.
Cherry blossom trees contain natural cyanide, so keep away from pets, horses & livestock. Read more on toxic plants & trees to avoid near animal friends.
Cherry trees produce stone fruits as well as blossom. Related to plum & peach trees, the flowers produce spectacular blooms that are noted the world over.
When they bloom in England depends on the weather and location, but usually you can find them in full flower in many of the London royal parks, alongside other locations throughout England. With climate change, some trees are now blooming as early as February.
