Low Fat Vegetarian Recipes

Ingredients:

1 each text file

Instructions:

The best resource on Miso that I know of is Shurtleff and Aoyagi's book
_The Book of Miso_. It's quite a complex subject. The differences is miso
can be attributed to a variet of factors, from the proportion of
ingredients, cooking techniques, and duration and temperature of
fermentation. The redish color comes from long fermentation times (or in
cheap imitations, from dyes). The whiter misos are generally fermented for
short times, and often made with rice in addition to soybeans. Reds are
generally saltier and whites sweeter.

Misos vary widely in fat content (like most soy products) and generally
range from .25 to 1.5 gram of fat per tablespoon (and from about 6%CFF to
over 30%CFF). Some varieties, like peanut miso, obviously have even more
fat. Since it is rare that a dish has more than 1 T miso per serving, miso
does not generally add appreciable fat to a dish. Many of the white sweet
misos clock in at the low end (.25 grams per T, 6-10%CFF) so if you do want
to use more miso, these kinds can be added liberally to a dish (and since
their taste isn't as strong or salty, they do become many dishes in greater
quantity).

I find the dark, hearty misos make great gravy starters. Add a bit of
water/stock, some nutritional yeast, spices and a thickener to some miso
and voila, instant delicious gravy. A favorite miso-potato recipe follows.

~- Michelle Dick artemis@rahul.net

On miso, you just have to try different kinds & brands. There are numerous
styles of miso. Red misos tend to be more "savory" and white ones are
usually more "sweet". Country-style (Inaka) is made grainier on purpose.
If served as a sauce on veggies, probably it's not straight miso but mixed
w/sugar and some rice vinegar. BTW a warning to vegetarians, some misos
come "dashi-iri" which includes fish-based stock. I think the ingredients
label in English will mention fish, but not sure (since I can read the
Japanese, I don't usually check the English), so check the ingredients
carefully. There is kombu-dashi (I even found some granulated packets)
which is vegetarian, but most dashi is from bonito flakes (I guess it must
be cheaper).

Aiko P.


From Fatfree Digest April-May 1994, Formatting by Sue Smith (using MMCONV)

Servings: 1