Sesame Spinach with Vegetarian Soboro Rice

I really like soboro rice and it is actually quite easy to make, but as we are trying to eat less meat. Here is a vegetarian version.

Recipe from Just One Cookbook

https://www.justonecookbook.com/spinach-with-sesame-sauce/

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 5 mins

Total Time: 15 mins

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 lb or 225g spinach

  • pinch kosher/sea salt

Sesame Sauce

  • 3 Tbsp (25g) toasted white sesame seeds

  • 1.5 Tbsp soy sauce (reduce to 1 Tbsp if you skip sake and mirin)

  • 1 Tbsp sugar

  • 1/2 tsp sake (skip if serving this dish for children)

  • 1/2 tsp mirin (skip if serving this dish for children)

Instructions:

  1. Gather all the ingredients.

  2. [Optional] For the sesame sauce, put sesame seeds in a frying pan and toast them on low heat. When 2-3 sesame seeds start to pop from the pan, remove from the heat.

  3. Grind the toasted sesame seeds with a mortar and pestle. Leave some sesame seeds unground for some texture.

  4. Add soy sauce,sugar, sake, and mirin to the ground sesame seeds and mix all together.

  5. Put lightly salted water in a large pot and bring to boil. Once boiling, add the spinach from stem side (takes longer to cook) and cook for 30-45 seconds.

  6. Remove the spinach from the water and soak in iced water to stop cooking with remaining heat. Alternatively, drain and run the spinach under cold running water until cool. Collect the spinach and squeeze water out.

  7. Cut the spinach into 1-2” (2.5-5 cm) lengths and put in a medium bowl.

  8. Add the sesame sauce and toss all together. Serve at room temperature or chilled. You can keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 days or freezer for 2-4 weeks.

Vegetarian Soboro Rice

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 20 mins

Total Time: 30 mins

Servings:2

Ingredients:

For Ground “meat”

  • 1 Tbsp neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, canola, etc)

  • 1/2 lb or 227g vegetarian or vegan mince

  • 1 tsp ginger (grated, with juice)

  • 1 Tbsp sake

  • 1 Tbsp sugar 

  • 1 Tbsp mirin

  • 2 Tbsp soy sauce

For Scrambled Eggs

  • 2 large eggs

  • 1 Tbsp sugar (optional, if you don’t want the dish to be too sweet then omit)

  • 1 Tbsp neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, canola, etc)

To Serve

  • 2 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice

  • 1/4 cup green peas (defrosted, omit if cooking sesame spinach)

  • pickled red ginger or pickled vegetables (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Gather all the ingredients.

  2. Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan on medium heat, and cook the chicken until no longer pink. Using a wooden spoon, break up the meat into small pieces.

  3. Add sake, sugar, and mirin.

  4. Add soy sauce and continue to break up the meat into smaller pieces.

  5. Grate ginger and keep the juice. When the meat is broken up to pieces, add the ginger with juice.

  6. Cook until the liquid is almost gone. Transfer to a bowl and set aside and wash the frying pan.

  7. Beat the eggs in a small bowl and add sugar. Mix well until sugar is completely dissolved. Prepare several long cooking chopsticks.

  8. Heat oil in the frying pan over medium-low heat and pour in the egg mixture.

  9. Hold several chopsticks in one hand and break the egg into small pieces. When it’s cooked, transfer to another bowl.

  10. Now you have three ingredients in separate bowls.

  11. Serve steamed rice in serving bowls and put the three toppings on top of the rice as you like. Garnish with pickled ginger (kizami shoga). Enjoy!

I like the combination of the sesame spinach with the soboro rice, however I found everything in combination a bit too sweet. So next time i will add slightly less sugar to both the vegetarian mince and spinach, i will half the QUANTITY. In order to balance out the sweetness this time around we added some japanese red chili pepper. the sesame spinach can be made to accompany other dishes or even served cold as an appetizer. easy, SIMPLE, FILLING and healthyish dish that can be made in less than 45 minutes, so it is a great option for a weekday dinner.

cooking, japanese, vegetarianJackie Wongsoboro, rice, sesame, spinachComment