If you’re anything like me, the space around the holidays is filled with lots and lots of cooking, baking, and merry-making. There are cookies to bake and cookie boxes to assemble! Festive meals to plan, little flourishes to finish, and what were we supposed to take to that potluck again?
Dinner is almost always an afterthought, and my typical plan for having a recovery meal after a ride, or a lunch on lock is too. Enter this Crispy Kimchi Fried Rice – a superfast meal that works just as well as a post-ride/training meal as it does for a quick dinner any night of the week.
The recipe I share here is not the greasy, fat-laden one that we all remember getting a belly ache from when we ordered it at that random restaurant. No. This recipe utilizes a healthy amount of kimchi (always on hand around here!) and a healthy amount of kale wilted to perfection to zhoosh and freshen it up. I also employ bacon here, which can easily be omitted for those of you who don’t eat meat (or don’t keep bacon on hand,) but I highly recommend weaving it in!
Our digestion is highest during the winter, when our bodies draw all available energy into the digestive system to strengthen the agni (digestion,) so that we can process more dense, nutritious foods to meet our energy demands. Our bodies are burning it hot just trying to keep warm, not to mention all the winter activities and training we’re engaging in, and all of the cold that we’re introducing to the system by playing outside!
Winter is the time to enjoy foods with greater nutritional density; foods with higher fat, higher protein, and complex carbohydrates that replenish after chilly workouts are just the ticket. This isn’t the time of year to be eating cold salads and lots of raw vegetables; not only are these nutritionally insufficient to sustain us, but they’re also not growing and not in season! But this IS the time to enjoy hearty winter greens, and to wilt them to help our bodies absorb and assimilate their superpowers.
To meet our energy demands, and to help our bodies to maintain warmth and reduce the stress of their jobs (ie: just keeping us warm!) it’s critical that we eat warm, easy to digest foods with lots of nutrients. Rice, eggs spiked with spices, microbiome-friendly fermented veggies, wilted kale, and a six-flavored sauce that brings your body all of the energetic and nutrient benefits its asking for is pretty much an optimal bowl.
You could! But I wouldn’t recommend it. And neither would your body.
Taking a look outside, it’s easy to see what’s in season – what’s growing naturally in Earth’s landscape. I don’t see any perky greens springing from the ground…do you?
What is springing from the ground, under the warm canopy of our farmer’s hoop houses, are hearty winter greens like kale, spinach and collards. These greens are entirely too fibrous for us to enjoy them raw and doing so will cool our core temperature down, which is the opposite of what we want to do to assimilate the nutrients from our foods! But wilting these greens is a great idea for weaving astringent, bitter flavors into the diet, and to reap the benefit from these foods that help us to clear toxins, reduce inflammation, and balance the alchemy of the body in moderation.
Winter is the time of year when our bodies need fat most. And I’m not talking about the kind of fat you gain – I’m talking about the fat we eat. We need it as lubrication for our cells and organs, to grease the neurons in our brains, and to help keep our bodies warm all winter long. In fact, eating enough dietary fat will help PREVENT us from hanging onto extra pounds during the winter. (If we don’t eat enough fat regularly, our bodies make extra to keep ourselves warm!)
The primary fat source I recommend here is welfare-certified organic bacon, which is quite delicious and a true flavor agent in this recipe. But, if you aren’t a ‘bacon person,’ you could substitute ghee or additional sesame oil instead.
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