large amounts of spinach (NOT CLICKBAIT…REAL!!)

Hello friends of the internet, this week I stuck to my tried-and-true formula of rice, a vegetable, and tofu. I will post a picture of it tomorrow but since no one really reads my blog I’m sure no one will notice lol. I added pickled ginger and sesame seeds on top to jazz it up a little, and they look really good! Can’t wait to eat them this week.

rice and spinach: I usually don’t include anything about rice because everyone kinda has their own way of doing it and their own preferences, but also because I had never really made a good batch of rice in my rice cooker and I didn’t want to give any advice on something I was still figuring out. BUT this week I finally cracked the formula for my particular rice cooker, so I’m including a little thing about that. Keep in mind though that this is specific not only to my rice cooker but also to the type of rice I used, so you might have to figure out on your own what works for you, but this is a good guideline.

First off, I used white Jasmine rice. My mom always used to make brown Basmati rice, so lately I’ve been trying other types to see what I like best. This one was pretty good, but I do really like the flavor of brown rice.

Here’s a rundown of everything I can think of:

• Always rinse your rice. It just turns out better and doesn’t take that much effort. I feel like this is the kind of thing that everyone always says to do but no one ever does but honestly it’s worth it.
• 1:1.5 rice to water ratio. More water and it’s too mushy, less water and it’s still crunchy. No one wants crunchy rice.
• Avoid removing the lid until it has finished cooking.
• unplug the rice cooker as soon as it finishes unless you want to keep it warm for longer. Safer, and it won’t dry out.
• Once it finishes, give it a couple minutes for the last of the water to evaporate and then fluff it with a fork.

Spinach: my rice cooker has a nifty steaming basket attachment which is really handy!! I use it for all my vegetable steaming needs and it’s super easy, especially if you’re already making rice. Figure out how long it’ll take for the vegetable to steam and then put it on the rice cooker at the end of cooking so that it’ll have time to cook while your rice finishes up. Then you have two parts of your meal done at once! Spinach requires literally a minute or so to cook, so I put it in right at the very end and it works super well. Spinach cooks down A TON so what looks like a whole bunch of spinach always ends up as like a tablespoon. Here’s a meme to illustrate:

LOL dont hate me pls

Anyways, I used about two large handfuls of spinach which yielded maybe a fourth of a cup per day aka a cup of cooked spinach, maybe less (I didn’t really measure on this one, I just stuffed in as much as would fit into the steaming basket). I didn’t put anything on it because the sauce from the tofu and the ginger were enough for me, but definitely add some vinegar if you’d like (lots of people like that) or garlic…

I used 1 cup of rice and 1.5 cups of water, which yielded approximately 3 cups of cooked rice.

Fake Teriyaki-ish Tofu: by no means accurate to the actual recipe but it’s tasty and easy!

• 1 block firm tofu
• 2 tbsp soy sauce (I always use low sodium)
• 2 tbsp sugar
• dash of sesame oil
• 1 tsp garlic chili sauce
• Oil for frying (I used olive oil)

Drain the tofu and wrap it in paper towels or a clean dish towel. Weigh it down with a heavy pan or something for about 5-10 minutes until the moisture has drained out. The dryer the tofu, the crispier it will be. Meanwhile, mix the rest of the ingredients (except olive oil) in a small bowl.

Once the tofu is ready, cut it up into small pieces. Mine were probably about centimeter-sized cubes. Heat the oil in a pan over medium low heat. Add the tofu (careful not to overcrowd…I did, and it didn’t end very well). Let it cook until crispy, then flip onto the other side (mine all stuck 😦 sad day, but they turned out ok in the end…it be like that sometimes). Once the tofu is cooked and crispy, lower the heat to a very low flame and add the sauce you mixed earlier. Mix around and then let simmer for about 5-7 minutes until it’s thickened a little and all the tofu has some on it.

Once everything is ready, portion out the rice, about 3/4 of a cup per container (I did that math in my head!), the spinach (again, about 1/4 cup per container), and the tofu. If there’s any sauce left in the pan, pour it over the tofu. NO FOOD WASTE!! To each container I added about a tablespoon of pickled sushi ginger for extra ~flavor~ and I sprinkled some sesame seeds on everything. YUM

It was tricky to figure out the price for this one because it was communal spinach that my roommate bought in a wildly large quantity but my best estimate for this whole lunch is $1.50 per portion.

Stay tuned for pictures!!

Hope you all have an amazing mid-November week! Stay safe with all the smoke Berkeley friends…