Description: One of the Japanese traditional dishes. It is nutritious, delicious, and easy to cook. In addition, you can cook a large amount and eat it the next day, or adding it to a bento box would be nice too. You can eat it hot or cold and it goes really well with a pint of beer.
Serves: 2
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• Burdock – chopped into thin strips, 200g
• Carrot – chopped into thin strips, 50g (You may use more carrot according to your preference)
• Mirin cooking wine – 1 teaspoon
• Soy sauce – 1 teaspoon
• Dried Chilli – chopped, 1 piece
• Sesame seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Sesame oil – 1 teaspoon

Method

1. Peel the skin of the burdock and soak it in water for a few minutes.
2. In a non-stick frying pan, add sesame oil and dried chili, then fry the burdock and carrot for a few minutes.
3. Add mirin, soy sauce, and 2 tablespoons of water and cook them thoroughly until the water evaporates.
4. Sprinkle sesame seeds and serve.

Kcal	Protein	Fat	Carbs	Fibre	Sugars	Salt	Saturated Fat	Vitamin A RAE
117.4	2.2g	3.2g	21.6g	4.3g	4.9g	0.5g	0.5g	208.8μg
5.9%	4.5%	4.6%	8.3%	14.2%	5.4%	8.0%	2.3%	34.8%

Nutritional Values Per Serving

Nutritional Tips

I would say this dish is fairly healthy and balanced as it contains some carbs, low fat, and is a good source of fibre. Vitamin A is one of the essential vitamins in our body. It is fat-soluble and required for healthy vision, growth, and cellular differentiation. Deficiency of vitamin A could lead not only to blindness (especially in developing countries aged 1-6 years), but also impaired immune functions causing an increased mortality due to childhood diseases such as measles. In general, adults store vitamin A in their livers so that they can survive in case of a food shortage. On the other hand, the excess intake may lead a higher risk of birth defects such as cleft palate (口蓋裂). Therefore, women of reproductive age should be careful and advised not to take vitamin supplements that contain vitamin A. Also, it can damage the liver and bones, and lead to hair loss, double vision, vomiting, and headaches. It is important to make sure your daily intake of food and supplements doesn’t exceed 1.5mg (https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-a/).

Vitamin A can be found in animal products such as egg yolk, dairy fat, and liver as all-trans-retinol, as well as orange, red, and green vegetables such as apricots, mango, carrots, or red peppers as carotenoid pigments (precursors of all-trans-retinol) mainly known as β-carotene. Dietary sources of retinol are easier to absorb while carrots and dark green vegetables are harder. On average, only 30 percent is absorbed. However, cooking them in fat or puréed would help absorption. This recipe uses a bit of oil, so it is a good step.