Meal Number One

Brown Rice with Roasted Dulse

Aduki Beans with Squash

Waterless (“Nishime”) Carrots

Lacinato Kale and Cabbage

Marinated Cucumbers

Radish Pickle

I call this Meal Number One, or the human reset button. It’s the meal (of which there are many variations) we need to experience in order to have any understanding of balance. This meal or a variation of it is always the first of my four-day Heart Healthy series at Francis Tuttle.

I’ve served this type of meal to a great number of people over the last 33 years and have seen many responses to it.

Jose, U.S. Air Force Captain and husband of my best friend in Okinawa, cried (in agony, not in pleasure) after eating the first of what was to be a 30-day program to address his high cholesterol. He’s from Guatemala and was used to spicy food. By the third week he was enjoying the simple fare (thought my cooking had improved dramatically!) and dropped his cholesterol almost 100 points.

Dr. Davis, a chiropractor in Port Townsend, Washington, tried a sample meal from me and was terrified. When I came to pick up my dishes he was at a loss as to what to say, and could barely look me in the eye. I never heard from him again.

Sherman Vance, an acupuncturist, wrote me a note after this meal and said the food was like having an acupuncture treatment without the needles. 

Dr. Douwe Rienstra, GP, signed on for weekly meals after his sample meal and referred many people to me.

Juelie Dalzel, County Prosecutor, wrote me daily notes expressing her gratitude during the six months she got food from me after experiencing the life-changing effects of this simple meal.

Even if you’re used to simpler food, it can take a conscious effort at times to get yourself to slow down enough to enjoy this centering meal. It’s the same as with prayer time. If you’re out and about, driving all over town, or have had a busy day at work and still have unresolved issues churning around in your head, it takes a little time to get yourself in the right frame of mind for prayer at times, even if you know that prayer is what you want most, and what will put everything into its proper perspective.  

So, whether you’re used to simple food or not, if you feel some resistance to eating this meal, you can start slowing down by noticing all the colors, shapes, textures and flavors. Before you even start to eat, notice the different colors and shapes on your plate. And then take a bite of rice and notice its chewy texture and how it becomes sweeter the longer you chew. The aduki beans are creamy soft and extremely sweet, the carrots add more sweetness and the cucumbers offer a satisfying crunch. Notice the effect of the sweet aduki beans after you chew and swallow them - they seem to enter you and then radiate throughout your body to create a profound sense of satisfaction and calm. The radishes are pungent as well as salty and slightly sour, the cucumbers are slightly bitter as well as salty and sour. All the flavors and textures create a calming meal that leaves you completely satisfied.

What a difference between that meal and a plate of pasta and salad, delicious as that is. I can eat a bowl of pasta the size of my head and still get up from the table looking for more. I feel full but not satisfied, unlike the way I feel after Meal Number One.

I think about food in correspondence with seasons, and not just spring, summer, fall and winter. As an Orthodox Christian, there are feasting and fasting seasons of the year, and within the week there are fasting and non-fasting days, and then a mini-Pascha every Sunday. There are also seasons of life when our food can change according to our level of activity, or our age and so on. On any given day, all these seasons are contributing to our food choices.

In our household, two of us (John and I) work at home for the most part, and our two sons have jobs with schedules that change every day, and they sometimes work on weekends. Still, Monday is the beginning of the week, the day we want to re-set after a weekend of pasta and olive oil :). 

If you're the one doing the cooking, you'll begin to slow down as you cook simpler food. All of the dishes in Meal Number One require time, but not much in the way of fiddling once you've put the ingredients in their respective pots. Except for the greens, all the dishes are long, slow-cooking dishes. The result is a meal that relaxes and soothes. 

Pressure Cooked Brown Rice                    

2 cups organic short grain brown rice

3 cups water

Pinch sea salt or ½ strip of kombu

1. Pick through rice to check for small rocks and clumps of dirt. Wash the rice in cool water and place it in a pressure cooker. Soak over night.

2. Add salt or kombu, secure the pressure cooker lid and bring to pressure over a medium high flame.

3. Place a heat deflector under the pressure cooker and reduce the flame to medium low. Cook the rice at pressure for 45 minutes.

4. Remove pressure cooker from the stove and let it stand a few minutes before releasing the pressure.

5. Remove the pressure valve and release the pressure. Open the pot and let the rice stand another 10 minutes to allow the bottom rice to be loosened from the pot.

6. Spoon the rice out with a wooden rice paddle into a wooden or ceramic rice bowl.

Roasted Dulse

½ cup dulse

Heat a cast iron skillet and add dried dulse. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the dulse becomes crisp, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle over rice.

Aduki Beans with Squash

2 cups aduki beans

1 kabocha or butternut squash, cut in 2 inch cubes

1 one-inch strip of kombu

1 tablespoon shoyu

1. Pick through beans for rocks and wash. Soak for 6 hours or over night.

2. Place kombu on the bottom of a heavy pot and add the drained beans. Add water to just cover the beans and bring to a boil. reduce the flame to medium-low and cook, covered, for 3 hours.

3. As the beans cook, check the water level and add water as needed to maintain the level.

4. After the beans have cooked for 2 ½ hours, add chopped squash and cook, covered another 30 minutes until the squash has become soft.

5. Season with shoyu and gently mix the squash into the beans. Place them in a serving bowl.

Waterless (“Nishime”) Carrots

1 small onion, large dice

1/4 cup green cabbage, cut in 1/2" chunks

5 carrots, cut in roll cut

1 one-inch strip of kombu

1 tablespoon shoyu

1. Place kombu on the bottom of a heavy pot. Layer onions, then cabbage, then carrots.

2. Add 2 tablespoons of water, a pinch of salt sprinkled over the top and bring to a boil with the top on, then reduce flame.

3. Cook, covered, about 40 minutes over a low flame until all the water is boiled off and the carrots are soft.

4. Season with shoyu and gently shake the pot to coat all the carrots with shoyu.

Lacinato Kale and Cabbage

1 blunch lacinato kale

¼ cabbage

Brown rice vinegar (optional)

1. Cut the stems off the kale and slice the leaves in 1” slices along the veins.

2. Cut the cabbage in ½” strips.

3. Bring water to a boil and add the cabbage. Simmer for 2 minutes, remove with a slotted spoon and place on a plate or a colander.

4. In the same water, simmer the kale for 2 minutes and drain.

5. Mix the cabbage with the kale and sprinkle with brown rice vinegar.

Marinated Cucumbers

1 English cucumber

2 t. shoyu

2 t. brown rice vinegar

1. Cut off the ends of the cucumber and, with the end, rub the open ends to draw out the bitterness.

2. Slice the cucumber lengthwise and then in thin diagonals. Place in a bowl

3. Add shoyu and brown rice vinegar and mix. Let the cucumbers sit for an hour and serve. These quick pickles will keep for a few days in the refrigerator in a covered container, but will begin to lose their crunchiness after the second day.