Creamy Spring Pasta クリーミー春パスタ

 

日本語のレシピは　ビーガン、ベジタリアン情報満載の　Hachidory から　ご覧下さい。

Nothing is forever.

The spring has almost entered the last chapter.

The cherry blossoms, peach blossoms and rape flowers have gone.

 

But I can still meet the various kinds of spring wildflowers during my walk.   They are not as obvious as the blossoms of the tress and often show their faces rather modestly as if they do not wish to be found by humans.

I love those tiny wild flowers.

I may love them most of all.

They always make me happy.

I often think I want to belong to them, and

I sometimes feel like I can belong to them sooner than later.

Anyway at this moment, I must embrace this precious season before it’s totally gone.

The blessings of the nature are not only those flowers but also the plants that please our palates and fill up our tummies. 

“Takenoko” are born every day.

 

The above Takenoko was born in this bamboo grove near my home.

The word, “Takenoko” is translated to “bamboo shoots” in English, but actually it is a baby bamboo. 

Once it penetrated the soil of the ground, it grows soo quickly and becomes a child in a few days and a teenager in a week.

The bamboo can be eaten only when it is a baby, so you can’t postpone digging it to the next day if you want to enjoy this delicacy.

During this season I am busy with the preparation of Takenoko as it is crucial to cook it as soon as possible in order to enjoy it at its most. 

I added the newly harvested onion to today’s pasta.

 The Japanese new onions are also delicacy.

It is juicy, sweet and it has silkier texture than the old hard onions.

And lastly but not least, the dandelions play an important role in this pasta recipe.

The dandelions are everywhere, and they are so energetic.

Unlike most of the other wild vegetables, they do not taste bitter, so they are easy to prepare, are versatile for various kinds of cooking.  On top of that they can add the brilliance to the food as a decoration.

Not to mention, their nutritional values are considered amazingly high.

These are rare native Japanese dandelions.

Most of the dandelions we see now in the fields are non-native species as they easily prevail the local ones.

But luckily, I know the spot where most of the dandelions appear in spring season are native Japanese species.

Proceed to the recipe and enjoy the leaving spring before it will be out of your sight.

 

 

 

Creamy Spring Pasta

Ingredients (for 1 serving)

80g pasta of your choice

100g boiled bamboo shoot – lower part

1 freshly harvested onion

20 pcs dandelion leaves – sub : other types of green leafy vegetables such as kale, spinach and choy sym

2~3 pcs dandelion flowers

1 garlic

2 tsp olive oil

20g sakekasu/sake lee – sub: cashew nuts or plant based yogurt or creamy tofu cheese 

*”sake lee” is sake(rice wine) pulp, and it gives the cheese like texture.

100g soy milk

1 tsp vegetable bouillon

Herb salt to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure 

1.    Soak sakekasu/sake lee in 30g of hot water for 5~10min and then blend to the paste using the electrical blender.  If you are going to use cashew nuts instead, soak them overnight and blend with the water for a few min in the blender.  

If you are going to use creamy tofu cheese, just mash it with the fork without adding water, this tofu cheese is already salty, so you need to adjust the amount of salt that is to be added at later stage. 

2.   Slice the bamboo shoot, the onion into thins strips, put aside a few pieces of dandelion leaves for decoration, and cut the rest of the leaves into big pieces, chop the garlic into small pieces, wash and dry the dandelion flowers. 

3.   Start cooking pasta of your choice following the instruction of the package or the way you like.  Try to adjust the timing in accordance with the finishing of the cream sauce. 

4.   Sauté the garlic and onion with the olive oil. 

5.   Add the sliced bamboo shoot when the onions are soft, and sauté some more. 

6.   Add sakekasu paste (or cashew cream or creamy tofu cheese) and soy milk.

7.   When the above sauce started boiling, add the herb salt, salt and pepper, and dandelion leaves, and cook for a few min.

8.   Drain pasta and transfer to the serving plate.  Pour the sauce over it.

9.   Pull apart the petals from a dandelion flower and sprinkle them on top of pasta.  Garnish with the other two whole flowers and the leaves.

 

 

 

Notes

l  I skipped the procedure of preparation of the bamboo shoot.  You can either purchase the ready made boiled bamboo shoot or refer to somebody’s YouTube to learn how to prepare the whole bamboo shoot.

l  This is my favorite pasta, quinoa penne.  If you are not tolerant to the gluten, maybe you can try this pasta too.

l  Sakekasu/sake lee is so useful, healthy and wonderful ingredient and is indispensable for my vegan cooking.  If you live in Japan, give it a try to this undervalued ingredient in this occasion.  I guess it is not easy to find it outside Japan.  If so, replace it with the things I introduced in the above process.

l  I sprinkle the nuts or seeds whenever I eat pasta or salad for the better balance of nutrition.

l  The vegan parmesan cheese that I introduced a few years ago is also recommended as a topping.

 

The dandelion dishes that I made recently....

Dandelion leaf salad topped with the three kinds of seeds and carrot dressing sauce

 

Simmered tofu, aburaage/ fried tofu and dandelion leaves seasoned with shiokoji

 

Britto with the dandelion leaves and other ingredients.  

( You can see what those ingredients are in the Instagram.)

 Here’s another recommended recipe of newly harvested onion.

You can also reach to the movie recipe from this post.

Happy cooking!

 

タグ：Bamboo Shoot Japanese Spring dandelion recipes onions wild plant recipes takenoko macrobiotics Vegan Gluten-Free wholefood plant based gluten-free pasta タケノコ 竹の子料理 新玉ねぎ たんぽぽ パスタレシピ グルテンフリー ビーガン ヴィーガン マクロビオティック 山菜料理