Circular Recipes & Stories From The Kitchen: Nasi Ulam by Megan
Low carbon footprint foods for any occasion
Looking for a dish to share this holiday season—or for any occasion?
Try this Nasi Ulam recipe by Megan, one of Living Soil Asia’s Research Fieldworkers! Nasi Ulam is a light and refreshing dish made with lots of herbs and lots of love! With its low carbon footprint, it’s a gift not just for your table but for the planet too—a small, nourishing act of care for our shared home.
Food and kitchen stories hold history in every bite, brewing memories and meaning into what’s shared on the table. 🍃 We can never get enough of how food stories bring people together, and we’d love to share more of it!
So, read along Megan’s journey and discover what Nasi Ulam brings up for her…
“I like to cook. Sometimes I literally fill the pot with water – to make soup, or a braise, put it on high heat and let it all evaporate. I take for granted the water that comes from the tap and the fuel that comes from the stove. Before they existed as purified tap water (in Singapore) and cooking fire, they were something else. From somewhere else, in a different form.
So I wonder, how can I cook?
How should I cook in Singapore?
What do I use? Electricity or stove-top fire?
Do I use charcoal? My grandma likes to cook soup or braised dishes over charcoal. In the past, they would use chopped up wood but now that’s not easily available so charcoal became the alternative. If we do cook with charcoal, we would also get to utilise 火灰 (ashes) to wash dishes. That’s such a powerful kitchen cleaner and such a top-notch knowhow my grandma uses. Everyone who tries that is blown away but its magic. But then, of course, you need to think about how you wash it away. If it’s down the drain or into the ground – soil. Our kitchen environment inevitably also influences how we cook and clean up — what we use to cook, what we cook, where we cook and how we clean up makes a lot of difference.
But the production of charcoal comes with its problematic processes too. Electricity, stove-top fire, and charcoal all come with their own environmental baggage.
So what can I use?
A few months after I first started penning this down, I found somewhat of an answer to this bizarre question.
To live, is to be surrounded by death. The clothes that keep me warm were what was once alive. The food that I eat, were all once alive. I even chew on life as I eat fruits and raw vegetables. I live in what was once alive — a house made of cement, clay, wood (I don’t really know) but they all came from somewhere and were then transformed, and we forget what lives they once were. Perhaps some are still alive but stuck in a different form. Electricity, fuel and charcoal were all what was once alive. Their production, delivery to our homes, assisted by all forms of death — the death of Earth material when extracted to make machines.
So what I can do now is to cook and eat knowing I am consuming life, and perhaps eat with an intention to regenerate life.
So here I have Nasi Ulam, the first of our circular plates. For the process of preparing and cooking Nasi Ulam presents us with the choice to reduce our carbon footprint. We reduce the amount of energy from fuel or electricity used in the cooking process and we are presented with an opportunity to increase our carbon handprint.
Nasi Ulam has its own special history for me. Apart from it being a cultural dish, I frequently enjoyed Nasi Ulam with my Living Soil Asia folks~ at Green Circle Eco farm, spontaneous cooking sessions and now it’s so popular on social media!
My recipe for Nasi Ulam, inspired by all the Nasi Ulams that I’ve experienced~
Step 1: Harvesting and gathering from the garden or the market to start:
Ulam to be added to the rice:
2 stalks of daun kesum (laksa leaves or Vietnamese Coriander)
1 daun kunyit (turmeric leaf)
1 knob of kunyit (turmeric), thumb-size
2 stalks of serai (lemongrass)
2 daun limau purut (kaffir lime leaves)
1 bunga kantan (torch ginger flower)
5 daun pegaga (gotu kola)
3 daun kaduk (pepper leaves, not betel leaves)
5 stalks ulam raja
2 kacang botol (winged beans)
*I’ve included the Malay names primarily as I realised those may be more accurate when purchasing them from a market or gathering from a garden.
Other ingredients:
1 cup of uncooked Jasmine or basmati rice
Fresh desiccated coconut
Toasted desiccated coconut
Toasted dried shrimp
Toasted dried fish
White pepper
Salt
For garnishing:
Cranberry hibiscus leaves
Hibiscus flowers
Butterfly blue pea flowers
Calamansi
It’s really quite a buffet of colours and nutrients on a plate but also a reflection of what’s available around you and definitely what you like. I quite struggled with adding specific numbers because it’s also quite hard to estimate the amount – of leaves on a stalk or how thick a lemongrass is. So take the numbers loosely~
Step 2: Preparation of ingredients
Give your herbs a quick rinse if necessary and leave them to dry a little.
Once a little dry, carefully pluck the leaves off the stems. At this stage, I like to pluck the leaves and identify stems that can be propagated. The rest goes into a bigger bowl for compost.
The more the merrier makes julienning sweeter so get everyone to help out especially if you are making a big portion and would like help. It’s a great party activity! Or at least one that I like hehe
If you would like to make coloured rice, dissolve turmeric powder or soak freshly sliced turmeric in water. With blue butterfly peas, add a handful to a cup of hot water. Set aside.
Step 3: Start to cook!
Cook your rice accordingly.
Toast your fresh coconut if you like
If you would like to steam your freshly grated coconut, add them to the rice once it’s cooked. Let it steam with the residual heat for a few minutes.
For making coloured rice, strain the liquids and spoon the coloured water over the cooked rice and let it continue steaming with the residual heat too. I learned this method from Oi Lian and you wouldn’t need to cook separate batches for colourful rice, especially if you are making a small portion. If you need to make a few batches of rice for a bigger portion, you may add in turmeric slices or powder and the butterfly pea flowers directly into the pot to cook. Adjust the amount of turmeric and flowers you need to achieve the colour you want.
Cook with your hands
Scoop out the rice into a large bowl or on a flat plate.
Use a spatula to gently fluff up the rice, giving it a few seconds to cool down just slightly.
Add the julienned ulams into the warm rice. Adding them to warm and not steaming hot rice will help the oils and scents of the ulams to infuse better.
You may also add pounded dried seafood, pepper, salt as you wish.
Using a spatula or your hands, mix them together gently.
Taste and add more pepper or salt as you wish.
Step 4: Eating
Enjoy with your eyes, the vibrancy of your garden or the produce available to you. Enjoy with your heart and mind, the effort you have put into the dish, the gift of life from the Earth to you. Enjoy with your mouth, the nutrients and energy that will transform in your body that gives you life.
Step 5: Composting and Cleaning Up
With cooking and eating, there’s always what is not eaten and what is left. Instead of throwing uneaten ulams away, they can be regenerated into compost.
Compost what you have, either in a compost bin or layer them on top of a garden pot or bury them.
The water used to wash the plates, spoons, pots, board and knives can go to the soil, as long as there's no soap. (Question: Is it okay to water plants with water that has soap made from plants?)
Step 6: Growing a Nasi Ulam garden
With the possibly propagated stalks, root them or stick them in the soil.
With your compost, add them to the soil.
Over time, you might sprout your very own Nasi Ulam garden and harvest produce to make your very own seasonal and circular plate.
Photo above: Nasi Ulam made at Green Circle Eco-Farm. Try to figure out what we added to the Nasi Ulam!
Nasi Ulam made recently with a simpler mix of lemongrass, turmeric, turmeric leaves, laksa leaves and a little mint. With basmati rice, it was really fluffy!
Video above — Chopping, mixing as handcooking.”
Subscribe for more recipes and stories coming next year! And, if you happen to make this Nasi Ulam, snap a photo and tag us on Instagram, @livingsoil.asia. 🌿
Written by Megan Sin, one of Living Soil Asia’s Research Fieldworkers