I first fell in love with Nasi Goreng, when eating at a food stall in the back streets of Kuala Lumpur at the age of 14. And to be honest, no Nasi Goreng quite matches up the one served from a dirty wok, out on the street by a man in a katfan. My sister and I came back almost daily for our weekly stay there. 30 years later, I am plantbased and a little conscious about what I put into my body (I’d say the MSG and other preservatives in common traditional Nasi G. seasonings are not kosher), but my craving for Nasi G. persists.
The base ingredients of traditional Nasi G. is rice. As much as I love rice, rice is quite high in arsenic. Arsenic is a metalloid that has been found to be not so beneficial for humans. Frequent long terms consumption of rice, can unfortunately raise human blood arsenic levels. Rice is high in arsenic mainly due to it being grown in water, and water levels used for farming can be high in arsenic. Also many pesticides contain arsenic. The good news is, there are some ways around it. Using organic rice will reduce some of the levels, and boiling rise like pasta (not using the absorption method) and rinsing after, greatly reduces arsenic levels. It seems that the more refined the rice is the less arsenic it contains, so I’d say rice noodles and rice paper are pretty safe. Reducing our general rice consumption is a rather obvious choice, but then we need to finds some tantalising substitutes…hence the Cauliflower Nasi G.
This dish is a glory of prebiotics for your gut, combined with beautiful digestive, antibacterial and circulatory spices, you can rest assured that this dish will treat your body as well as provide you with energy, making it easier for you to reach that platform of ongoing well being.
- 1 medium cauliflower, shredded
- 5 green beans, topped and tailed and cut into small 'coins'
- 6 brown mushrooms, trimmed and fairly finely chopped
- 1 slab marinated tofu (Nutrisoy Japanese), cut into thin strips lengthwise
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 1 knob ginger, finely chopped
- 1-2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- A drizzle of toasted sesame oil
- A generous drizzle of Fysh Coconut Amino Acids
- A generous drizzle of Coconut Amino Acids
- 1 pinch of salt
- A small handful of toasted salt free peanuts, roughly chopped
- 1 baby leek, finely sliced
- 1/2-1 small red chili, finely sliced
- 1/2-1 lime, juice of
- cilantro, leaves to dress the dish at the end
- Heat the coconut oil on gentle heat in a medium sized pan, add garlic and ginger and stir until golden but no chance of burning.
- Add the mushrooms and stir frequently.
- When the water release from the mushrooms has evaporated, add a tiny bit of sea salt and the apple cider vinegar, and stir until the juice has dried up in the pan.
- Add the carrot and saute until a little bit tender (some minutes).
- In a separate pan with a bit of coconut oil, fry the tofu strips on each side so they get a bit of a toasted look to them, set aside when done.
- Add the beans and the cauliflower to the main pan (with carrot in it etc), saute until all vegetables are getting close to cooked.
- Add a little bit more sea salt, toasted sesame oil, Fysh sauce and the coconut aminos, do a taste test here, it is better to under salt than over salt.
- Take the pan off the heat and squirt the lime over all the vegetables, and fold in quickly.
- Serve into a bowl and dress the Nasi G. with the tofu strips, baby leek, chili, chopped peanuts and a wedge of lime and eat straight away.
- The coconut amino and the Fysh sauce are both salty, so care needs to be taken as to not over salt this dish.
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Selamat Makan
