For the past couple of weeks I’ve been nursing a very sick kitty. My little Simon (and by little, I mean 23 pounds!) apparently has an affinity for elastic hair ties and decided to consume a boat load of them. Twenty (give or take…) trips the veterinarian and $1500 later, he seems to be on the road to recovery. And, interestingly enough, the whole experience has confirmed a very important lesson that I try to instill in all of my clients, friends and family – and myself: Be conscious of what you put in your body because you will pay for it in the future.

There are moments when it’s so easy to justify scarfing down stuff like big slabs of gluten-y, milky, eggy cake. Sometimes I start thinking things like, “Oh, I’ll be fine. I won’t get that sick. It looks so good. Once in a while can’t hurt, right?” But the truth is that once I let myself go, I can’t just stick to ‘once in a while’. I slowly start to allow myself pieces of crusty baguette in restaurants, gelato date nights, and cheesy enchiladas. Before I know it I’m sleeping 12 hours a night and in a constant state of not-okay-ness.

So, taking note from Simon’s painful indulgence, I decided that instead of choosing an instantly gratifiying, but ultimately destructive meal, I would eat something that would nourish me and help me feel like a million bucks for more than five minutes.

This dish is packed full of all kinds of incredible foods. Wakame, kombu, and spinach, are all known to alkalize your body and provide huge loads of trace minerals and calcium. Miso and tamari are both fermented soy products that are also great for alkalization and helping the ol’ digestive tract stay in tip-top shape. When I make this dish for myself, I replace the soba noodles with rice noodles since most soba noodles still contain wheat flour.

For more information on the benefits of including seaweed in your diet, check out these articles:
Eating Seaweed May Help Keep Your Boobies Healthy
Seaweed Keeps Ya Svelt
A Seaweed Primer
Elise’s Yummy Seaweed Recipe

MISO NOODLE SOUP WITH WAKAME AND SPINACH
serves two

Call me crazy, but to me this is the ultimate comfort food. Filling, satisfying and yet so light you don’t feel weighed down and sleepy afterward. In fact, I usually feel supercharged. Kombu, wakame, and bonito flakes should easily be found on the Asian aisle of any well stocked grocery store. Bonito flakes are not vegetarian, so to make this dish vegan, use a light vegetable stock in place of the dashi.

For the Dashi:
1 cup bonito flakes
6 cups water
2 pieces kombu

1. Combine water and kombu in a medium sized pot. Bring almost to a boil. Add bonito, remove the pot from the heat, cover and let sit 30-45 minutes. Strain.

For the Miso Broth:
3 cups dashi
1 Tbs. white miso
1 Tbs. red miso
2 Tbs. wheat-free tamari, or to taste
1 scallion, thinly sliced

1/3 pkg. (4 oz.) soba noodles or Asian rice noodles, cooked according to package instructions
4 oz tofu, pressed and cut into 1/2″ cubes
2 Tbs. dried wakame, rehydrated according to package instructions
2 handfuls fresh baby spinach

1. Combine miso and tamari in 1/4 cup of the Dashi. Heat remaining heat the dashi over low heat. Whisk the miso mixture into the heated dashi. Add tofu and half of the scallions. Add spinach, stir and cover to wilt.

2. Place half of the noodles into each warmed bowl and ladle the soup over the noodles. Top with the wakame and remaining scallions. Add tamari as needed.