1. Prepare to Love Your Vegetables
Preparing vegetables for your macrobiotic diet is much like preparing vegetables in other diets. Prepare the vegetables so that you serve a meal that incorporates sweet, sour, bitter, salty and sharp; this combination is a macrobiotic cornerstone. Choosing the best cooking method for each vegetable and deciding how much of your vegetables to eat raw and how much to cook also are important considerations. You should cook all vegetables in your macrobiotic recipes in a way that enhances their flavor, retains nutrients and helps with your digestion. Prepare vegetables that are in season. Macrobiotics tell us that eating vegetables in season tunes us into our inner and outer environment so they work in unison.
2. To Cook or Not to Cook
You cook about 67% of your vegetables in a macrobiotic diet and eat the rest raw in the form of salad or pickles. 25% to 30% of your macrobiotic diet will consist of vegetables because they are high in nutrients. Boiling is the primary method of cooking vegetables in macrobiotics but steaming, frying, baking and sauteing will keep your palate satisfied with wonderful vegetable recipe choices. Don't worry that you are cooking out all the vitamins and nutrients on your macrobiotic diet; vitamin C and beta-carotene are the only heat sensitive nutrients, and you get those readily in raw foods on the diet. Most other vitamins and nutrients are fairly stable and cooking will not decrease the content by much.
3. Pickle Pleasures
Eat pickles, the cucumber type, but also consider the enormous variety of other pickled foods to spice up your macrobiotic diet. Pickling covers the sour ingredient needed in a macrobiotic diet and is an easy process to learn for beginners. Most vegetables can be pickled, but if you haven't tried broccoli, cauliflower and okra, run down to the store and get some, or, better yet, pickle your own. Asian markets carry pickled foods that can add a kick to your macrobiotic diet. Pickled plums, kim chee and ginger are just a few Asian pickled choices.
4. Raw Pleasure from Vegetables
One third of your vegetables will be prepared raw or pickled. Salads are a staple and the vast variety of leafy greens, ground and root vegetable combinations will insure that you never become bored with salad. Wash a leafy green, like spinach, bok choy, arugula or a lettuce, and add other sliced vegetables, such as cucumbers or broccoli, for a completely raw salad. You also can grill vegetables to add to a leafy green salad.
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