Summer Eaaats

Early summer in Japan is brilliant because the weather is dry and the mornings and evenings, cool. It’s mid summer when things go to shit and the insects come out and the weather enters humid hell. Anyways, believe it or not, I have started eating less and lighter and feeling as radiant as summer itself.

From top to bottom: granola (ft. Wild Friends almond butter and ViBERi freeze-dried blackcurrants), BBQ (a common Japanese summer event always ft. fireworks), the vegan nacho salad I made to take to it (the BBQ – with chia-seed chips), more granola this time with passion-fruit (if only you could have shared my excitement when I found the thing in a Japanese supermarket!), wholewheat pasta salad with cherry tomatoes and blue cheese stuffed olives alongside mix seed crackers from The Breadman Organic Bakery all the way from Christchurch (NZ), a simple kidney bean, cougette, cucumber and chickpea salad dressed only in lemon juice with a side of my zucchini banana cake, pay-day treats, vegan black rice sushi and last but not least, today’s bento: asian-style salad of carrot, cucumber, capsicum (red and yellow), peanuts and black sesame seeds dressed with a little soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil next to a humble free-range boiled egg and two purely-decorative flowers which have no reason to be there.

rice paper roll party at mine, who’s coming?

Peanut sauce:
1 tbsp chunk of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp lime juice
Chilli powder, to taste
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup all-natural peanut butter
1/3 cup coconut water (more or less as needed)

Rolls:
rice paper sheets
2 cups cooked prawns
2 medium carrots
2 avocados
1 medium cucumber
1 cup fresh basil leaves
3 capsicums, 1 red,  1 yellow and 1 green (eat the rainbow) 

For sauce: blend or mix together all the ingredients until smooth

For rolls: cut the veggies into thin strips. Dip rice paper sheets in warm water (4-5 seconds) so they soften and become pliable (do this one at a time), then arrange your fillings horizontally on the bottom half. Fold over, then fold over two ends and roll up like a burrito. This may take a few tries to master so don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect on first go.

For consumption: dunk in sauce.