Planning a Menu for a Macrobiotic Cooked Meal

Series Summary

Macrobiotics is a dietary regimen that uses grains and locally grown produce, root vegetables and beans as its primary ingredients, although many people also use Japanese ingredients, like ginger and seaweed as well. Another key component to the macrobiotic diet is the manner in which the food is consumed, such as eating smaller portions in a particular order and chewing the food thoroughly before swallowing. The earliest recorded mention of macrobiotics can be found in the writings of Hippocrates. The macrobiotics dietary program typically consists of 50% cereals, 25% fruits and vegetables, 10% beans, 10% soup, and 5% seaweed. As with many diet regimens, concocting tasty recipes can be a daunting task, but Expert Village offers these free videos to show you how to effectively prepare delicious meals that adhere to the macrobiotic lifestyle.

In these instructional cooking videos, Gayle Stolove demonstrates macrobiotic food preparation and cooking tips. She will teach you what type of cookware to use for the macrobiotic diet, including stainless steel pots and pans, and natural wooden utensils and cooking appliances. She shows you how to make miso soup, how to blanch greens, how to cook beans and various vegetables, as well as a recipe for oatmeal cream sandwich bars. After all, who's going to stick to a healthy diet that doesn't offer a little dessert?

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village my name is Gail Stolove with Holy Macro in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Today we're going to talk about cooking the macrobiotic way. So here we are in the kitchen preparing to cook the huge variety of macrobiotic food. So the first thing you need to do when you begin cooking for the meal or the day is to plan the menu. You have to think about what you're going to be making, you have to have a plan, it has to be organized and I find it helpful sometimes to have a theme. It's not completely necessary but you kind of want to stick to a theme, like if you wanted to have an Asian flavor, an Italian flavor, a Caribbean Latin type flavor. Today we've decided to do a Caribbean Latin type theme and so we'll follow that theme as our general plan for the recipes for today."