Secrets from My Macrobiotic Kitchen with Julie S. Ong

Eat better. Live better. Love better.

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A Light at the End of the Migraine Tunnel

As much as you can eat healthy, it’s also important to remember to drink healthy, too. Tea is very healing.
~Kristin Chenoweth

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Do you ever experience headaches or migraines? Are you ready for a whole health approach to healing? If you’ve ever experienced migraines, you know how debilitating they can be. While the conventional approach to health focuses on eliminating pain, wholistic methods view the body as an interconnected whole that can be healed on many different levels. In this article, we’ll introduce you to the macrobiotic approach to healing migraines and provide wholistic alternatives to conventional pain relieving treatments.

In the Asian concept of the human body, there is an energy system, the life force or chi, which allows organs to communicate with each other to nourish or control the activity of other organs. This energy system connects organs through energy channels called meridians, which can become blocked or damaged through congestion or over activity. Blocked or disruptive energy can cause problems in organs, such as the brain, resulting in migraines or headaches.

Asian cultures have used healing brews for thousands of years to help relieve migraine pain on an energetic level. Let’s explore this wholistic perspective to relieving migraines with these three healing teas:

1. Ume Sho Kuzu Tea

Migraines may be caused by excess consumption of strong expansive foods, like sugar, alcohol, and fruit. These foods have upward rising energy which are attracted to the front (cognitive) and left (intellectual) side of the head, creating instability in areas that are usually more grounded. This healing beverage helps relieve pain in these areas by grounding and stabilizing the upward expansive energy.

1 teaspoon kuzu root starch
1 1/4 cup cold water
1/2 to 1 umeboshi plum (salted pickled plum), chopped
1/2 teaspoon shoyu soy sauce

  1. Dissolve kuzu in 1 1/4 cup cold water. Pour liquid into a saucepan and bring to boil, stirring constantly to prevent clumping.
  2. Turn down flame and simmer until liquid becomes translucent (about 2 minutes).
  3. Add umeboshi plum and shoyu.
  4. Simmer 2 minutes. Remove from heat and serve.

2. Apple Kuzu Tea

Strong contracting foods, like meat or salt, are attracted to the rear, center (primitive), and right (intuitive) side of the brain. Over consumption of foods with downward contracting energy can disrupt the normal flow of energy in these areas. The upward expanding energy in Apple Kuzu Tea helps relieve headaches in these areas by balancing the inward, contracting forces.

1 teaspoon kuzu root starch
1 1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup apple juice

  1. Dissolve kuzu in 1 1/4 cup cold water.
  2. Add apple juice.
  3. Pour liquid into a saucepan and bring to boil, stirring constantly to prevent clumping.
  4. Turn down flame and simmer until liquid becomes translucent (about 2 minutes). Remove from heat and serve.

3. Dried Daikon Shiitake Tea

Excess consumption of greasy oily foods, such as potato chips, fries, or nuts, blocks the natural upward movement of liver energy. When liver energy becomes stagnated, migraines can occur on the sides of the brain. Dissolving oil in the body with Japanese daikon radish and shiitake mushroom can help relieve pain in these areas.

1/2 cup dried daikon
1 shiitake mushroom, soaked and then sliced (save soaking water)
2 1/2 cups water (including soaking water)

  1. Add dried daikon, shiitake, and water to a saucepan. Bring to boil.
  2. Lower flame and simmer 15 to 20 minutes.
  3. Strain. Remove from heat and serve.

Remember that pain can be a healing messenger, indicating where there are blockages of energy flow in the body. Understanding how to clear areas of stagnation with wholistic remedies can help relieve pain and bring your body back to its natural state of harmony.


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Want to strengthen your immune system this winter?

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.
~Edith Sitwell

Winter means snuggling up in front of a crackling fire, building snowmen on the lawn, and gathering family and friends together for a holiday meal. Imagine snowflakes falling softly, bright red berries on branches, aromatic herbs and seasonings, and warming soups and stews. Because the energy of winter slows down and turns inward, this is an ideal time to nourish your body deep inside and build up your immune system.

Seasonal cooking will help your body stay attuned to the order of the universe, becoming stronger and more resistant to illness. The key to achieving this balance is cooking according to the seasons. For example, in winter time, avoid eating cooling foods, like salads and frozen desserts. Instead, you want warming, strengthening dishes like the following recipe, which includes hardy winter greens.

Emerald Sauté with Cranberries and Pecans

This delicious side dish infuses rich flavor and color to any holiday meal. Bitter winter kale nourishes heart function and expands the heart’s capacity for love and joy. Rich in calcium and antioxidants, kale also protects against macular degeneration and osteoporosis.

Serves 4

1 bunch kale, chopped
2 teaspoons untoasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons spring water
1/4 cup toasted pecans, chopped
1/3 cup dried cranberries, fruit juice sweetened
lemon juice, to taste
shoyu soy sauce, to taste

  1. In a skillet, sauté greens in oil 2 minutes.
  2. Add water. Bring to boil, lower heat, and simmer, covered, 2 minutes.
  3. Season with lemon juice and shoyu. Garnish with chopped pecans and dried cranberries.

Food is not just about nutrition and calories—it’s also comprised of life force energy, related to the energy of the seasons, the time day, and your moods. When you balance your inner energy with external forces through seasonal cooking, you’ll not only have a stronger immune system, but also a more balanced life.


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Can sea veggies boost sexual vitality?

Want to increase intimacy in your relationship? Look no further than the food on your plate. The secret to boosting sexual vitality can be found in the healing powers of sea vegetables.

Mineral-rich sea vegetables are used in macrobiotics to strengthen the main conduit in the body, the spine. This allows universal energy to flow through the main energy centers, or “chakras,” that run up the center of the body – a simple, nutritional way to harmonize the reproductive organs and strengthen sexual vitality.

Sea vegetables have unique compounds that bind to toxins and remove them from the body, boosting overall health as well as sexual vitality. Wakame, for example, is good for the uterus and helps cleanse dairy congestion from the reproductive organs. Sea vegetables also keep blood vessels flexible and strengthen the cardiovascular system. This allows more love to flow in your relationship.

So, increase intimacy and sexual vitality by adding nutrition-packed sea veggies to soups, stews, and sautés. Use them in gravies, pickles, and beans. And use roasted sea veggies, like dulse for bacon flavor, and roasted nori for sushi. Here’s a simple recipe, using a mild tasting sea vegetable called arame:

Arame with Carrots and Red Onion

Arame nourishes the spleen, stomach, and pancreas and is especially good for female reproductive organs. Because it contains mannitol (a non-caloric sugar), this sea vegetable helps keep blood pressure and blood sugar levels balanced. For variety, include other vegetables, like green beans, corn, and beets.

Ingredients
Serves 4

1 medium red onion, half moons
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup arame, rinsed
1/2 cup carrots, matchsticks
1/4 cup spring water
1 tablespoon shoyu, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon mirin (rice wine), or to taste
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

  1. In a frying pan, sauté onion in oil until translucent. Add arame on top of onions and carrots on top of arame. Add water and cover. Bring to boil, lower heat, and simmer 20 minutes. (If needed, add more water to prevent the pan from drying out.)
  2. Season with shoyu, stir, and continue to cook 2 minutes, uncovered.
  3. Season to taste with mirin. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds.


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Summer Solstice Pancakes

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.
~Albert Camus

As the seasons unfold through the year, your energy shifts to mirror the natural rhythms around you. Spring freshness inspires the birth of creativity and the germination of seeds of ideas. Summer radiance turns these ideas and inspirations into action. In Fall, you are in a safe, productive state of mind, enjoying the harvest of your labors. Winter is a time for hibernation, a chance to let go of things that are wearing you down.

Including seasonal foods in your meal plan can help you live in harmony with this natural order. To celebrate the solstice, cornmeal pancakes is a perfect dish for an outdoor summer breakfast with loved ones. Upward, expansive energy of corn and other summer foods can help you develop more nurturing, loving relationships. Corn contains fire energy, which fuels the flame of passion in the heart, expanding its capacity to experience joy and love. Corn’s energy also balances the heart’s ability to regulate mental activities and relieve stress. This allows you to open your heart to give and receive love.

Summer Solstice Pancakes

Makes about 5 pancakes.

3/4 cup spelt flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 cup rice milk
1 tablespoon kuzu root starch
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon brown rice syrup
2 tablespoons olive oil plus 5 tablespoons olive oil

  1. Combine spelt flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cornmeal in a large bowl.
  2. Combine rice milk, kuzu, vanilla, brown rice syrup, and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a small bowl.
  3. Stir liquid ingredients into dry ingredients until just mixed.
  4. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in skillet over medium heat.
  5. Pour three tablespoons batter onto hot skillet and cook until brown on bottom. Flip pancake over and brown other side. Remove pancake to plate.
  6. Repeat with remaining batter. Oil pan between pancakes to prevent sticking.


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Romancing Your Food

If a man be sensible and one fine morning, while he is lying in bed, count at the tips of his fingers how many things in this life truly will give him enjoyment, invariably he will find food is the first one.
~Lin Yutang

Eat with the fingers, drink with the nose.
~Joseph Delteil, ‘La Cuisine paleolithique’ (1964)

In some countries, like India, the art of eating with your hands is viewed as a sensual experience. By involving as many of the senses as possible–sight, touch, smell, and taste–you not only deepen your relationship with food, you can also reconnect with your partner on a sensual level.

Next time you sit down to a meal with your partner make it “fingers only.” Reconnect with each other on a more intimate level by feeding each other healthy finger food. Here are three finger foods to romance your lover:

1. Sexy “finger food” includes desserts and elaborate fruits

  • Vegan chocolate covered strawberries
  • Peeled grapes
  • Vegan coconut macaroons
  • Chopped dates rolled into balls and covered in coconut

2. Healthy bite sized “finger food” includes appetizers and snacks

  • Mushrooms stuffed with grain and nut pilaf
  • Pita pizza baked with squash sauce and veggies
  • Whole wheat crackers spread with walnut and roasted mushroom pate
  • Greens rolls or sushi filled with grains and veggies
  • Spring rolls and dumplings
  • Bite sized tempeh sandwiches

3. Foods that are dipped into a savory sauce or dressing

  • Veggies dipped in pumpkin seed sauce
  • Spring salad greens dipped in vinaigrette
  • Green or black olives dipped in hummus

This Valentine’s Day, design a romantic “lovers only” meal using finger foods. You will not only enrich your connection with your food, you will also nurture a more intimate relationship with your partner.


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The Aphrodisiac Twig

While sensuous aphrodisiacs like rose or chocolate take center stage on date night, twig-like burdock root has largely been ignored. Growing deep in the earth, burdock’s downward gathering energy nourishes the lower half of the body, including the reproductive organs. But unlike stimulants that activate the adrenals temporarily, burdock provides healing benefits that are long lasting. When your reproductive organs are healthy, so is your sex life.

Adding meat-like flavor to this beautiful kinpira dish, burdock root is cut into brown matchsticks.

Deeply strengthening to the intestines, kidneys, and reproductive organs, burdock root is also used in the macrobiotic diet to purify the blood and cleanse the liver. Its meaty flavor enhances sautes, stews, soups, and gravies. A traditional Japanese healing dish called kimpira uses braised burdock and carrot. Because it contains volatile oils, saute burdock a few minutes to allow oils to evaporate before adding burdock to a dish.

Burdock, Carrot, and Caramelized Red Onion Kimpira
Serves 6

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 cup burdock root, matchsticks
3/4 cup carrot, matchsticks
1 pinch sea salt

  1. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, add red onion and saute until caramelized. Remove onion from pan and set aside.
  2. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and burdock and saute over medium heat 5 minutes, stirring often.
  3. Add carrots on top of burdock. Add enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. Bring to boil, lower heat, and simmer 20 minutes, covered, or until vegetables are tender. Add water if necessary to prevent pan from drying out. Season with salt. Continue cooking, covered, 2 minutes. Remove cover and cook until water is evaporated. Top carrots and burdock with caramelized red onion.

Whether you are feeling lethargic or just want to improve your sex life, burdock is a natural way to increase youthful vitality in all the right places–without pills or surgery!


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Essence of Spring

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
~John Muir

Imagine seeds sprouting in the earth, buds opening on branches, and bright yellow daffodils smiling in the sun. The air is light and refreshing, as life stirs and awakens to the dawn of spring. You can harmonize with this essence of spring by including foods with upward rising energy in your macrobiotic diet: wild plants, sprouts, fresh baby greens, lightly fermented foods, lentils, fresh peas, and grains like barley, wheat, oats, and rye. Cooking styles for spring also include light cooking such as blanching, quick saute, and light pickling.

Because the liver is the organ for spring, this time of year is ideal for cleansing the liver. Along with upward growing plants, sour flavor supports liver function in digesting fats that have accumulated during winter. You can nourish your liver by including sour condiments, such as sauerkraut and umeboshi plum. Or enhance your dishes with a splash of lemon juice or grated lemon peel (zest).

A colorful and delicious recipe that supports liver energy is Essence of Spring Salad. This refreshing salad highlights spring plants like sprouts, herbs, and edible flowers. Edible flowers were used for centuries by Roman, Chinese, Indian, and Middle Eastern cultures in cooking. Bring your garden indoors by adding edible flowers for color, flavor, and texture to your dishes. (Consult a reliable source to make sure they are edible before consuming.) Use fresh herbs to alleviate symptoms and improve physical and emotional well-being.

Essence of Spring Salad

You can include freshly-picked, delicate herbs like basil and tarragon. However, harder herbs such as rosemary, lavender, and savory have stronger flavor and are tougher to chew. Grated orange, lemon, or lime peel (zest) also adds color and flavor to your salad.

Serves 6

1/2 bunch organic flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 cup organic sprouts (kohlrabi, red cabbage, tatsoi, mizuna, & arugula)
1/2 cup sprouted beans (garbanzo, pea, aduki, & lentil)
2 medium scallions, sliced thin or 1/2 bunch chives, sliced thin
1/2 cup organic edible flowers (nasturtium, pansy, borage, or lavender)

Dressing:

1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
sea salt, to taste

In a bowl, add herbs, sprouts, and flowers. Whisk together dressing ingredients. Drizzle dressing over salad and serve.

Enjoy this salad at the end of a hearty meal to balance heavy energy, cleanse your palate, and aid digestion.


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A Taste of California Sun

Imagine sitting in a citrus grove, the warm California sun beating down, and the smell of orange blossoms wafting in the breeze. This warming beverage will take you there.

Orange Peel Tea has been used for centuries by the Chinese for clearing out congestion in the lungs and large intestine. This brew is very helpful for soothing bloating, gas, nausea, or indigestion. It also improves blood and lymph circulation, promotes digestion, and eliminates excess fluid in the body. (If you were wondering about remedies for too much New Year’s Eve partying!)

Orange Peel Tea

1 tablespoon organic dried orange peel
2 cups spring water

  1. In a saucepan, add orange peel and water.
  2. Bring to boil, lower heat, and simmer until one cup liquid remains.
  3. Strain.
  4. Drink one cup everyday until congestion clears.

Cheers!


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Enjoy This Warm Winter Treat

Are you ready to snuggle up by the fire with a warm winter treat? Then you will want to try this holiday favorite.

Roasted Chestnuts are a fun and easy snack that satisfies your sweet tooth. They are a low-fat healthy alternative to candies and sweets usually served this time of year.

Roasted Chestnuts

This recipe serves 1. If you have a group of 12 people, you’ll need 24. If it’s just you and your sweetheart, you’ll only need 4. The amount is up to you.

2 chestnuts

  1. Cut an X on the bottom of each chestnut.
  2. Place chestnuts in a shallow baking pan with the X pointing upward.
  3. Roast chestnuts in 425 degree F oven for 20 minutes.
  4. Peel and enjoy.

If you prefer the traditional approach, you can also roast chestnuts over an open fire. You will need a chestnut roasting pan and something to support the pan above the fire.

Even if Jack Frost isn’t nipping at your nose, this is still a great holiday treat.


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Divine Pumpkin Custard Pie

Does your mouth water when you think of biting into a luscious pumpkin custard pie? Every Thanksgiving, I make this delectable dessert that entices guests back for more. Because I am so grateful for my friends, the secret ingredient in this divine pie is my loving intention to send them abundant blessings from the universe.

Divine Pumpkin Custard Pie

This recipe makes two delicious pies: one for your guests and one for yourself. Because it requires one day to set, make this recipe the day before serving. This is a creamy spicy filling.

Wet Ingredients:

2 cans pumpkin or 3 cups fresh cooked thick pumpkin puree (drain fresh cooked pumpkin several hours in cheesecloth until thick like canned pumpkin)
2 1/2 cups Eden Blend rice/soy milk
2 tablespoons molasses or barley malt syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup maple sugar
8 tablespoons tapioca starch
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt

2 pie crusts

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk wet ingredients together in a large bowl.
  2. Mix dry ingredients together in another large bowl. Pour wet ingredients into dry and blend.
  3. Pour mixture into two pie crusts. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Refrigerate overnight until set.

Happy Thanksgiving!