Omkari Wholistic Living         

After years of playing with my food as a macrobiotic chef, I've come across three secrets to making macrobiotic food taste great.

1. Sauces

By using sauces, you can turn a meal from ho-hum to gourmet, by amping up the color, taste, and texture.  Gravies can be quickly made by sauteing onions and adding water, tamari and kuzu.  Dressings are easy to make by grinding roasted pumpkin seeds with water, ume paste, and scallions. 

2. Flavor

Check the flavors on the plate: Are all five tastes apparent?  To activate all areas of the palate and balance the energy of the body, include sweet, sour, salty, pungent, and bitter tastes.  Sweetness supports the spleen, panceas, and stomach organs, and usually comes from the complex carbohydrates in sweet vegetables, such as butternut squash and cabbage.  Sour flavor, which balances liver and gall bladder energy, appears in the sauerkraut or lemon juice in dressings.  Salty taste shows up in the gomashio or other salty condiments and heals the kidney and bladder energy.  Pungent foods, such as grated daikon or mustard greens, energetically support the lungs and large intestine.  You can also include bitter flavors to nourish the heart and small intestine, using bitter greens, such as kale or dandelion greens. 

3. Be Creative

Food that is visually appealing attracts the senses and nourishes the soul.  When the plate looks appetizing, it probably is, and you can feel life energy emanating from it.  I suggest using a variety of vegetables and cut them into matchsticks, rounds, half-moons, or cubes.  You can wrap sauerkraut in a steamed collard leaf or even create sushi rolls with rice and nori.  Imagine that your plate is the canvas and your food is the pigments you will use to create your nutritional masterpiece.