LearningHerbs Blog

Nourishing Nori Salad

Since our herb of the month on HerbMentor.com this month is seaweed, I wanted to share my favorite seaweed salad recipe with all of you.

This recipe is adapted from the Sushi Salad recipe in Eleanor and John Lewallen’s book Sea Vegetable Gourmet Cookbook and Wildcrafter’s Guide.

We use Nori (Porphyra spp.) in the salad. The Lewallen’s note that “nori is by far the highest protein sea vegetable.”

Nori also contains many amino acids, calcium, iron, iodine, and phosphorus; and it is high in vitamins A, C, and B1.

They go on to say that, “there is almost no fat in nori, but it is rich in unsaturated fatty acids, which have been shown to help regulate metabolism and prevent hardening of the arteries.”

It can also help lower cholesterol levels, and prevent gallstones. Most seaweeds are very nutrient rich and healing foods, well worth adding to your diet on a regular basis if you’re seeking optimum nutrition.

So, here’s one way to start - Nourishing Nori Salad.

The recipe in the book uses many summer vegetables, but I did not have them on hand this time of year so I made a more winter version this time.

To make it you will need:

• 1/2 to 1 cup flaked nori (You can get Nori here)

• 1 1/2 cup dry white basmati rice, cooked (simmered in 3 cups of water until all the water is absorbed) and cooled

• 2 grated carrots

• 1 Tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

• 4 Tablespoons diced red onion (or green onions if you have them)

• 1 Tablespoon grated ginger

• 1 cloves of garlic, crushed

• 4 Tablespoons tamari

• 1 Tablespoon honey

• 2 teaspoons sesame oil

• 1 teaspoon vinegar

• 1 Tablespoon parsley

• 1/2 green pepper, sliced thin
  
  

To make it...

Cook and cool the rice.

Grate the carrots and the ginger

Also...Peel and crush the garlic.

Dice the red onion.

Chop the parsley.

Slice the green pepper.

Toast the sesame seeds.

Cut up the nori with kitchen scissors if necessary (We harvested this nori ourselves, so this was an important step for us.)

Mix everything listed in the recipe except the parsley, green pepper and 1 or 2 Tablespoons of the nori (however, put most of the nori in) together with the rice.

Mix it all up really good. Put into a serving dish, sprinkle the chopped parsley and small bit of nori you put aside on top.

Lay the sliced peppers over all and serve!

Enjoy this tasty treat!

-Kimberly

P.S. You can get Nori here OR gather your own. Just watch the video below to see how. :)

Ginger Cookie Recipe

Are you looking for a healthy treat that you can bake with your children this holiday season? Well, Hailey and Rowan and I had fun making these ginger cookies from Lesley Tierra’s A Kid’s Herb Book. We love making cookie-cutter cookies, and this recipe made with sucanat and fresh ginger becomes a warming, nourishing treat.

Ginger is a wonderful warming herb that adds a nice spicy flavor while also aiding digestion. It’s great to add it to soups, teas, cakes and pies as well as cookies this time of year when the air is growing colder. It will warm our insides.

For the cookies you will need:

• 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)

• 3/4 cup of sucanat (or white sugar if you like)

• 2 eggs

• 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

• 1 tsp. baking soda

• 1 and 1/2 tsp. powdered ginger

• 1 tsp. cinnamon

• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1 Tablespoon fresh, grated ginger.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Blend the butter and sugar together until creamy. I just do this with a spoon, mashing them together.

Beat in 2 eggs. I used an electric mixer for this, but am sure you could do it with some heavy mixing with a regular spoon.

Sift the flour and spices into the bowl with your other ingredients. Stir.

Stir in the tablespoon of fresh grated ginger root.

Chill the dough for 1/2 hour in the refrigerator.

Roll out the dough (about 1/4 inch thick) and use cookie cutters or your hands to create ginger cookie shapes.

Bake on buttered cookie sheet for 16 – 20 minutes.

Enjoy your healthy holiday treat, or encourage your children to give them as gifts to your friends and family! It’s always fun for them to be able to give something they made themselves.

-Kimberly

Making Blueberry Soda

The more fermenting of food I do, the more I love it. My current passion is creating lacto-fermented sodas. Since it’s fruit season, I’ve been experimenting with simple fruit sodas, and will share my recipe for homemade blueberry soda with you.

Recently I served some of my lacto-fermented soda at a potluck and people were so excited to drink it. One woman spoke about how alive it tasted and how energetic she felt after drinking it.

This is the truth about the origins of sodas. These drinks that have become such a detriment to modern health started out as health tonics. That’s why you would see soda fountains in pharmacies. The sodas were a way of harnessing the vitamins and minerals stored in the roots or other plant matter and putting them into a tasty drink.

When we use the practice of lacto-fermentation to create our sodas we are not only pulling the vitamins and minerals from the plant material, we’re also adding the healthy microorganisms that help our bodies break down and assimilate food. The fermentation process can also create new nutrients such as B vitamins.

These sodas truly are a wonderful health tonic to add to your diet!

So, let’s get on to the recipe. This is adapted from my experience in a soda making class taught by Jennifer Sundstrom and an article called Artisanal Home Soda Fermentation by Charles Eisenstein that can be found on the Weston Price Foundation website.

The process takes a couple of weeks; so don’t get started just before leaving on vacation.

The first step is to create your soda culture.

To do so you will need:

• A 2 to 3 inch piece of ginger root

• About a half a cup of sugar (white sugar is fine or you can use sucanat or maple syrup…)

• And a quart mason jar 3/4 full with water
  
  

Fill the mason jar to 3/4 full with filtered water (it’s best if you can remove the chlorine).

Add 1 Tablespoon of ginger and 2 teaspoons of sugar.
Stir well.

Cover with cheese cloth and allow to sit out for 24 hours.



Add 2 teaspoons of ginger and 2 teaspoons of sugar and stir well each morning for a week.

If possible stir 2 or 3 times per day.

After a week it should become slightly bubbly and pleasant smelling. At this point it is ready to be used in your soda making. If you are not going to use it all right away, you can cap it and keep it in your refrigerator until you are ready to use it.

---

The next step is to create your syrup.

To do this with blueberries you will need:

• About 6 cups of blueberries

• 1 gallon of filtered water

• 1 1/2 cups of sugar

• 1 cup of soda culture

• a gallon jar and a large pot
  

Put 1/2 gallon of filtered water in a large pot. Bring the water to a boil. Stir in your sugar or other sweetener.

(Remember that the microorganisms are going to consume this sugar during the process of fermentation and transform it. This is what creates the soda’s fizz. So white sugar is not as bad a choice as it is for non-fermented foods.)

Add your blueberries to the pot (these can be fresh or frozen and other kinds of fruit can be substituted for the blueberries – peaches, blackberries, etc.) and bring the water back to a boil. Allow them to simmer in the water for about 10 minutes.

Taste what you’ve created. Does it taste fruity enough? If not maybe you want to add more berries or simmer a bit longer. (This is not an absolute process.)

Pour this hot liquid plus the berries into a gallon jar. (The hot liquid will help sterilize your jar. You may want to put a knife or other clean metal object into the jar to help draw some of the heat to keep the jar from breaking.)

Fill the jar almost to the top (you’ll need to leave some space to add your cup of culture) with cool filtered water, and allow the liquid to cool to room temperature.

Now add your one cup of culture (don’t worry if some of the ginger gets into your brew – it won’t be enough to add it’s flavor).


Stir well. Cover with cheesecloth and allow to sit out on your counter. Leave the brew to sit for 3-7 days, stirring well 2 or 3 times a day. The longer it sits the more it will ferment and the more of the sugars will be consumed. If you want a sweeter soda stop the fermentation earlier. For my blueberry soda I only let it sit until it started bubbling – about 3 days. Taste your soda after 3 days and see if you like it. Bottle it when you are ready.

To bottle the soda, strain it and then pour it into some kind of bottle that can seal. You can use these fancy sorts of bottles or simply well cleaned bottles with screw tops – the options are many. Leave the bottles to sit out overnight (or longer if it is not fizzy enough after one day). The fermentation process will continue and the closed bottles will trap the bubbles, so your soda will turn out nicely carbonated.

Use caution when opening your sodas. It’s great to put a bowl over the top and a bowl underneath, in case they fizz over the top of the bottle. If your sodas are as fizzy as you like in the morning, put them into the fridge to slow the fermentation process.

Be aware – bottles left too long on the counter can explode if the pressure builds up too much. Also, the fermentation process will continue in the fridge, though much more slowly. Bottles left too long in the fridge may also explode. So don’t forget to drink the soda after you’ve made it.

Pour into a glass with ice and enjoy, or serve to your eager children or guests. It’s wonderful to provide such a healthy, delicious drink to your friends and family!

Enjoy!

–Kimberly

Lemon Balm Popsicles for a Hot Summer Day

Well, we just made up a batch of lemon balm popsicles.

Not only are they delicious and cooling they are also soothing and calming.

With all the excitement and activity of summer, some lemon balm can help bring the kids’ energy down a bit and allow them to settle into a quiet afternoon activity.

To make them, simply cut some fresh lemonbalm. You can use 4 tablespoons on dried as well.

I cut up enough for two loosely packed cups of plant material and added it to a half-gallon jar.

Then simply fill the jar with boiling water, and let it steep for about 20 minutes (for dried as well).

 

Strain and add honey to taste. I added about 2 tablespoons.

Pour into popsicle molds or simply into ice cube trays.

Freeze for a few hours and enjoy!

Enjoy!

-Kimberly

Edible Feast!

I had a GREAT time teaching at the Wilderness Awareness Residential Program this year. Our final class together culminated in a wild edible feast. We picked over 20 plants and made an incredible meal.

We had dandelion flower fritters, a wild salad with dandelion vinaigrette dressing, a stir fry featuring cattail shoots, nettles, water leaf and many other herbs...and to top it off... knot-weed crisp! NOT TO MENTION the dandelion root coffee and cedar tea. It was surely the best edibles feast I have ever been a part of making. Truly delicious and inspiring.

THE BEST PART is that Kimberly and I get to do it all over again at the Wilderness Awareness School Wild Plants weekend coming up this Friday. We'll be cooking many of the dishes in the Wild Foods for Every Table eBook we are now selling on LearningHerbs.com.

Enjoy your spring greens!

-John

Teaching Nettles & Making Soup

Last Friday I taught an entire day at the Wilderness Awareness Residential Program on herbal nourishment and nettles.

Wild foods abound, and Kimberly and I are excited to release a new Wild Foods book later this week. You can make all the tinctures and salves you want, but eventually you'll get pretty bored. Making meals with wild edibles is extremely healthful and is a wonderful way to learn about herbs.

It's simple! Find an inspiring recipe, harvest the plants and cook up your dish! This book we are going to carry has wonderful recipes and is really SIMPLE... the way we like it at LearningHerbs.com.

This is a photo from last Friday of Heather harvesting some nettles.

AND... here is a recipe for creamy nettle soup... (it's in the book we'll have for sale by the weekend)

Creamy Nettle Soup

• 8 oz young nettles (use only the top few inches)
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 pound potatoes
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
• Dulse flakes or sea salt to taste
• Black pepper to taste
• 4 Tablespoons sour cream

Wash the nettles and chop coarsely. Melt butter in saucepan, cook chopped onion until clear. Add nettles and simmer for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cut potatoes into thick slices. Add stock to the nettles, heat & add potatoes, dulse flakes & pepper. Simmer on low until potatoes are soft. Cool slightly & puree in a blender. Stir in sour cream & serve.

Ready for the flu?

Lots of folks around here are grounded with the flu.

I tell ya, I swear by the chicken broth and miso every morning. (you can see all our cold and flu suggestions on our web site right here)

There was a workshop in Seattle the other day I went to by Kathy Abascal, who wrote a new book called Herbs & Influenza. It was a bit of a lame event, but it was worth it to meet Kathy and get a copy of her book. She is an extremely knowledgeable herbalist and a very nice person. A true elder-herbalist. It was only a little lame for it was more of a loose discussion based on the book than any info I could take home and use.

The books is all about how herbs used is the 1918 Pandemic can be effective today. Whereas this is a fascinating account and has some good herbal info, for most folks on this site, I recommend Stephen Buhner's Herbal Antibiotics (NOW....I know antibiotics are not for viruses, however the many of the herbs in his book are anti-viral and immune building). It is way simpler and has lots of recipe ideas. However, for those truly interested in studying the virus and strong herbs you can use for it, you might give Kathy's book a shot. (not a flu shot) :)

I tell ya though... preventative medicine is the key. Lots of broth/miso, garlic, etc.. in your diet. OH! You know what was interesting, Kathy said in the 1918 flu, there was no decline in flu cases in Mediterranean areas, which is where you would expect people who would eat a lot of garlic to live. I dunno...interesting.

All in all, it's good to have lots of garlic on hand..AND water, Gatorade...whatever you like to have and need if a flu should strike. She actually said the best way to prepare was to have a good earthquake kit... (meaning it has food and water, etc) She said in Texas in 1918 many people died because the sick people were to weak to get up and their neighbors were too afraid to help.

So... have some supplies on hand and concentrate on maintaining a healthy immune system... good stress management, great whole foods diet, nourishing herbal brews, exercise... and you have an excellent chance of not catching this years bug. Of course, a deadly flu pandemic like in 1918 is a whole 'nother kettle of fish, BUT for the usual flu that comes around, this is sound advice.

And flu shots? They are based on speculation using computer programs. They hardly ever work as we know. Why pollute yourself for no reason?

All you can do is focus on a healthy immune system and be prepared. Stay well!

-john