Brown Rice Arame (Macrobiotic Recipe)
Brown rice arame is a recipe my mum used to make quite regularly growing up. If you know anything about macrobiotic cooking, then this recipe will make a lot of sense to you.
I didn’t quite understand what macrobiotic cooking was until about 18 months ago. However, once I learned macrobiotics, it resonated with me from the beginning. Besides the fish and fermented dairy foods, it’s easily adapted to a vegan diet.
I like the intent of how macrobiotic foods are prepared and cooked. It originated in Japan and has a strong sea vegetable, fermented soy, and vegetable base.
So this I hope gives you an explanation of why I have used arame so dominantly in this dish.
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Simple macrobiotic cooking
My mum first got this recipe from a Croatian macrobiotic cookbook from the 70s. Looking through this book it was all in black and white with no photos.
I feel so grateful for all the cookbooks and recipes online that display images with their recipes. I’m big on visuals and feel like you only display half a recipe when you don’t provide a picture to go with it.
This recipe has been altered from that recipe found in the book. I don’t typically enjoy other seaweeds if they’re a very dominant component of the dish, but this recipe I love! Maybe it’s nostalgia.
You can get lots of different types of dried seaweeds in health food stores and Asian grocers, but for this recipe, you’ll need arame. See the photos below for what it looks like. You have to soak it briefly, so I did a before and after shot of what it looks like.
A couple of tips for making this dish
- You can swap out the tamari sauce for soy sauce, however, make sure to reduce it as soy sauce is saltier.
- If you perfer a milder dish, you can use more rice or reduce the amount of carrots and arame you use.
- Peas are also a wonderful addition in this dish or other vegetables like cauliflower, kale or broccoli. Note I don’t believe that peas are part of the macrobiotic diet.
Other recipes you’ll love:
- 20-Minute Vegan Brown Rice Salad with Greens
- Vegan Red Rice Salad with Tahini Dressing
- Quick & Simple Vegan Lentil Salad
- Spiced Carrot & Millet Salad
- Creamy Vegan Mushroom Risotto
- Healthy Vegan Congee (Savoury Rice Porridge)
If you try this recipe, let me know! We’d love for you to leave a comment and rating below. If you want to go that extra mile, tag us on Instagram or share your photo of the recipe on Pinterest.
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Brown Rice Arame
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4
Description
Enjoy this brown rice with arame seaweed as a flavourful macrobiotic recipe packed with nutrients. Requiring only 6 ingredients, this super simple dish is a great beginner dish.
Ingredients
- 2 cups / 380g medium grain brown rice (soaked for at least 2 hours with a pinch of salt, then drained and washed)
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 30g / 1.06 ounces arame
- 2 large carrots, sliced lengthways
- 5 tablespoons Tamari sauce
Instructions
- Cook the brown rice as per instructions on the packet.
- Add the oil and onions to a pan on medium heat and sauté until golden brown.
- Soak the arame in water for 3-5 minutes. Do not discard the water. See the above photos for reference.
- Add the carrots to the pan and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
- Add the arame with the water just enough to cover all the ingredients and cook for 20 minutes with a tight-fitting lid.
- Take off the heat and add the cooked rice and stir in the tamari sauce.
- Diet: Vegan
Toasted or non-toasted sesame oil? Can I make this without oil?
You can make it with either, but I prefer toasted. Yes, as it’s only a small amount, you can leave it out. It won’t taste exactly the same, but it’s close.
I was given a packet of Arame by a friend. I looked up recipes using it and found this one. It was simple and easy and very good tasting.
This turned out gorgeously! It’s such a comforting dish, with a wonderful umami, kind of seaweed flavour.
I used smaller carrots, and added less arame, using only 2tsp of soy sauce in place of the tamari. I wanted a blander dish I could serve as a side, but this was brilliant on its own too.
I left a photo on Pinterest, if you’re interested to check it out.