Mukimuki Tsumire Nabe

The first dish of this recipe series is going to be tsumire nabe. This dish has vegetables that are great for recovery and full of antioxidants and chicken to help rebuild muscle after a tough workout. Nabe dishes are also soft and easy for you to digest. If you don't want to make the tsumire meatballs then you can find them in the frozen foods aisle. And feel free to use different vegetables you have around the kitchen.

Ingredients (for 2 people)
350g Chinese Cabbage
1/2 leek
4 shitake mushrooms
30g ginger
1 garlic clove

tsumire meatballs
250g minced chicken
1/2 leek
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of starch

stock
2 tbsp of cooking sake
3 tbsp of mirin
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of chicken stock
600 cc of water

Cut the Chinese cabbage into 3cm wide pieces. Cut the leek in half and then diagonally cut it into 1cm wide pieces. Mince the other half of the leek for the tsumire meatballs. Cut off the base of the shiitake mushrooms* and cut in half. Grate the ginger. Dice the garlic.

Add the minced chicken, minced leek, salt, starch, and 1/3 of the grated ginger (10g) in a bowl and mix well until it becomes sticky. Divide into 10 equal parts.

Add the stock ingredients to the pot and bring to a boil. Form the minced chicken into a ball with your hand. Add all 10 tsumire meatballs in the pot, cover and simmer on low heat for 5 minutes.

Add Chinese cabbage, green onions, shiitake mushrooms, diced garlic, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and place the rest of the grated ginger (20g).

Add rice, ramen noodles, or udon to the leftover broth!

*some people don't like the stem of shiitake mushrooms because they can be tough. If you do not like the stem then remove the stem completely and you can use it to make a stock for a soup.

Notes: the nutrition values come from a nutrition calculator and may differ depending on the brand and size of ingredients used.