Did you know you could cook with spent tea leaves and herbs? Absolutely delicious (and tangy), nutritious and reduces waste!
Here’s a recipe for a very simple dish using spent green tea leaves which you can whip up in no time.
Ingredients
Green tea leaves (with lots of umami) from your teapot (spent leaves)
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon roasted white sesame oil
Sesame seeds
Shichimi/togarashi (optional)
Boiled rice (jasmine Thai rice or basmati)
Method
Use soft green tea leaves which have lots of umami, such as sencha, jukro, gyukuro, aracha, longjing. Drain the spent green tea leaves and toss with rice vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil (although you can tweak the ratio to suit your own taste). Layer the tossed leaves on a bed of boiled rice and sprinkle with sesame seeds and schimi for some spice.
Here’s one we made earlier:
