Land of the Rising Sun

Main Ingredients:

200 gms crunchy green veggies (either snow peas, French beans sliced diagonally, bok choi, anything that retains its snap even with a flash steaming)

2 orange carrots (sliver them with a peeler to get gorgeous orange ribbons)

4/5 cobs of baby corn or half a cup of corn niblets

½ cup of home-toasted peanuts

½ cup of chopped tofu (silken if you like, but check if you can get a locally made, more rustic version with a lot of bite to it)

Optional: Oyster mushrooms (re-hydrated), seaweed, sprouts, steamed edamame, steamed chicken quickly stir-fried in light soy sauce, ginger-garlic paste and a sprinkling of sugar.   

Transformer Ingredients:

Soy & sesame dressing – 2 tsp light soy sauce, 3 tablespoons tahini or ground sesame seeds, sesame oil to emulsify the dressing (less if using tahini). Optional: ½ tsp of wasabi

Red or white miso Paste – 1 tbsp. Chopped spring onion. Udon, soba or a handful of glass noodles (optional)  

A sachet of ‘Slim a Soup’

Method:

Boil corn until tender. Put raw green veggies into a bowl and pour the water you boiled your corn in over it. Let it stand for about 4 minutes until crisp but cooked through. Drain through a sieve.

Miso Soup: For a delicious breakfast endorsed by the power-mummy likes of Madonna, mix your miso paste into hot (but not boiling water), season with a little soy sauce and pour the miso soup over the combined main ingredients for a nutritious, umami-fragrant start to the day. (Ladies, it’s also very filling and slimming.)

Soy and Sesame Steamed Veg: Toss main ingredients in the soy and sesame dressing for breakfast. You can stir this into noodles and pack this as lunch.

‘Slim a Soup’ with benefits – easiest. Pack the main ingredients in one box and the sachet of soup. At lunch, ask for a big bowl and a mug of boiling water. Empty the dry contents of the packet of soup, then upturn your main ingredients over, slowly pour the hot water and stir gently for about 1 minute. Now try not to look self-righteous as you slowly enjoy your super-healthy, low-fat, high-power lunch.