Dinner, May 2, 2012

Our lunch on the go was factory-made fast food. To conclude a happy car shopping day, I decided to have a light yet satisfying dinner with enough vegetables to make up for our oh-so-unhealthy lunch.

• Rice
• Satumaimo no surinagashi / miso soup with mashed satsumaimo sweet potatoes
• Hijiki to konsai no itameni / hijiki seaweed and root vegetables in broth
• Rapini no gomaae, tomato-zoe / rapini in tahini dressing with tomatoes

Satsumaimo is microwaved, mashed, and added to dashi. Its sweetness remains even after miso is added. Surinagashi is a soup in which dashi is added to pureed or ground solid ingredients (vegetables, tofu or seafood) and seasoned with miso or soy sauce. It is basically a Japanese version of potage soup.

For contrasting texture and taste, root vegetables – carrot, gobo burdock root and renkon lotus root -- are diagonally rankigi cut, sauteed and cooked in rather strong-flavored broth. Virtually zero-calorie konnyaku yam cake and hijiki seaweed add additional texture while helping to fill your stomach.

Rapini's tangy bitterness was interesting. I usually add something spicy to gomaae dressing for leafy vegetables, but a plain dressing worked well with rapini. Small tomato squares added a nice color and fresh taste, which worked well with rapini.