March looks to be the hardest month on Masanobu Fukuoka’s seasonal cycle, and so, taking carrots as a pivot, I fell back on a fusion dish, some o-nigiri – adaptable to any season – and which is surprisingly hard to learn how to make, finally a slight cheat with carrot and coriander soup.

Soba

I’m indebted to Abel & Cole, the organic veg box company I used to get seasonal organic veg from in the UK for this recipe. They sent out each box with a recipe that correlated to the ingredients inside, and I managed to grab a handful of these sheets that had Japanese ingredients listed on them before I left the UK. Within reason, the vegetables could be substituted for whatever you have at hand.

Method

1) Make the sauce by whisking the ingredients together until well blended, then season to taste with salt and pepper, set aside.
2) Cook the soba noodles, drain, and rinse with cold water.
3) Heat cooking oil in a large wok, add the ginger and stir for 30s
4) Add the asparagus and carrot and stir fry for about 2 mins
5) Add the white parts of the onion and mirin and stir fry for 3 mins
6) Add the tofu and stir until heated through.
7) transfer to a large bowl and toss with the sauce, sprinkle with peanuts and the green parts of the onion and serve

konomi o-nigiri

o-nigiri is a Japanese staple – the Japanese sandwich. As such, it is infinitely adaptable, and only limited by your imagination. It is however, surprisingly tricky to get the hang of (o-nigiri bloopers to follow). My biggest piece of advice is to wait until the rice has cooled properly! In any case, if you are finding yourself buying sugar filled bleach-white bread and plastic cheese… as new arrivals seem doomed to do, get out the rice cooker and master this quick healthy meal option.

Method
1 ) After cooking the rice, measure your portion size by putting the amount of rice you want to eat into a bowl.
2 ) Put the rice into a larger bowl, and leave to cool a little (this is important!)
3 ) Prepare a bowl of cold water to protect your hands and reduce stickiness
4 ) Use the rice spatula to gently chop the rice with the sesame o-nigiri mix. Be careful not to squish the rice.
5 ) Now that the rice has cooled (important!), wet your hands lightly in the cold water and take a handful of rice and shape it into a triangle. This is done by the cupped shape of both your hands fitting together.
6) Make a small hole in the middle and add filling.
7) Cover with rice and pat in to shape again, maintaining a gentle touch.
8 ) Wrap in a piece of Nori and eat!

Carrot and Coriander soup

This is a standard recipe that you can find almost anywhere. The only thing to note is that finding stock cubes in Japanese supermarkets can be a challenge. Since the chances of having an oven in Japan are 0 to minimal, making stock the old fashioned way doesn’t tie neatly in to the roast dinner lifestyle of the UK. Hats off to you if you make the stock from scratch, otherwise head for the condiment aisle, and look for a packet like this, called consommé, rather than stock, (or コンソメ）. This one is by Ainomoto.
Coriander on the other hand can be easily grown on your balcony and should be available to purchase at a neighborhood plant shops. Herbs on my south-facing balcony seem to be pretty resilient, growing quite happily from late March / April through to November or December. Well the winter weather is lingering this year so I used a heavy dose of the dried stuff.

Method

1) Heat some cooking oil in a pot and saute the onions until translucent
2) Add the carrots and potato and fry for a few minutes
3) Stir in the ground or fresh coriander
4) Add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Simmer until the vegetables are softened.
5) Leave chunky or put in the blender.

Soup Garnish

Making soup gives me the opportunity to make use of any bread that didn’t get eaten, so for some fresh croutons try this:

Method

1) Cut bread into cubes
2) fry in the olive oil with with herbs and salt and pepper, put on top of soup.

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