Spinach Gomae | Vegan | Oil-Free

Sometimes I just look at a bag of greens and am overcome with the feeling of ‘get in ma belly’!

Don’t we all have that feeling after the Holidays?

By the way, HAPPY 2017!

It always feels like this is the time to detox and cleanse the temple with a mountain of greens. But, how to get them all in?

There’s so many ways… juice them, blend them, mega-salad them, stir-fry them, steam them…

Gomae-ing them is one of my favourite ways to get through a massive bag of pop-eye’s secret weapon.

Just the other day I found the biggest bag of spinach I’ve ever seen at our neighbourhood grocery store. It just sat there saying “gomae it to me!”, so I did.

Then, I called up some friends to come help roll up some vegan sushi with avocado, cucumber, yam fries, green onion, sprouts and mango.

This gomae is great to make ahead of time, because it’s yummy cold!

Boil

Cool

Strain

Squeeze

Mix in sauce and voila!

The key to gomae is to make sure the liquid from blanching the spinach is outta there. A liquid-y gomae is nobody’s friend.

After a few simple steps of boiling water, blanching spinach, draining and pressing it with a cloth or paper towel, you will have the spinach every gomae loves.

 

Benefits:

~ Spinach is actually packed with plant protein. Greens have a lot more protein that everyone thinks. We can easily get all the protein we need (which is only about 10% of our daily diet), from a vegan diet without even thinking about it! Because of the meat and dairy industries bombarding us with protein myths, we have a huge misconception and fear of becoming protein-deficient. The only way this would happen is if we were starving ourselves. And on the other end of the spectrum, too much protein is stored in fat cells, contributes to the onset of a variety of diseases, like cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease and impaired kidney function. So, stop worrying about protein, and start asking yourself about the nutrient quality and amount of fibre in each of your meals:)

~Miso is fermented! Yay! Eating a fermented food should be a part of each day. Fermented foods are packed to the brim with probiotics. This means your intestinal flora (in your gut), otherwise known as your second brain, will be healthy and happy. This will boost your immunity, improve your digestion and help balance out your good intestinal bacteria.

~ Sesame seeds are packed with copper (helps with rheumatoid arthritis), magnesium (for respiratory health), calcium (to prevent osteoperosis) and zinc (immunity boosting). 

Serves: 4-6

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• Large bag of spinach
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds (black or golden) for garnish

Sauce:

• 1 tbsp miso paste
• 1/2 cup tahini
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp mirin (or organic cane sugar)
• A bit of water to thin the sauce out

Directions:

1. Blanch spinach: bring large pot of water to a boil. Fill up your sink with cold water. When water comes to a boil, put a handful of spinach in there until soft (30 seconds to a minute). Scoop out spinach with a scoop colander, and put it into the cold water sink. Do this until all of your spinach is blanched. Then remove the spinach with the colander and squeeze out liquid. It helps to do this with a tea towel or paper towel.
2. Make sauce: add all sauce ingredients to a food processor and blend (alternatively add miso paste with a bit of water to a bowl and mix with whisk into liquid-y paste, then mix in the rest of the sauce ingredients to form the sauce)
3. Toast sesame seeds: heat pan to low-medium, then add in the sesame seeds. Toast for 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Mix spinach with sauce, then top with toasted sesame seeds.