I Bought a Zoodle Maker

I made this lovely dish with it:

1 large zucchini per person

1/4 C uncooked rice per person (basmati or jasmine pair well)

1 tb peanut butter per person

Soy sauce to taste

Sriracha to taste
(You can add ginger, lemongrass, Thai basil, or whatever flavors you like most)

Cilantro for garnish

Steam the rice according to the package's instructions. Zoodle the zucchini and set aside. Add PB, soy sauce, and sriracha (and any extras) to a sauté pan and blend together. When the mixture comes to a simmer, add the zoodles and stir to soften them. When it looks done, it is. Serve with rice and garnish with cilantro leaves. 

I'm guessing the Zoodler would take well to carrots, mole, curry, or even sweet and sour sauce. If you're on the IC Diet, omit the sriracha and soy, try my Asian sauce from this blog post, and sub cilantro with greens you can tolerate.

Summer Rolls

1 package of rice paper (banh trang)

Lettuce leaves

Watercress leaves

Thai basil leaves

Mint leaves

Tomato slices

Avocado slices

Carrot shreds

Cabbage shreds

Cucumber slices

Bell pepper slices

Tofu (grilled, fried, baked, dried, etc.)

Other protein like wheat gluten, seitan, or tempeh

When I make these, I usually make a huge cake box Tupperware size amount because everybody wants to eat them, but nobody wants to make them. I really don't know why though, they're easy to make and are very refreshing on a hot day. 

This is my set up: a container to hold finished rolls lined with cling wrap and wet paper towels, a big pie plate or salad bowl filled with water to soften the rice paper, a selection of my favorite veggies and fillings, a cutting board to work on, and a towel to dry my hands and wipe up water.  Making these goes easier if you have your fillings precut and set aside to use as you roll. 

Soak a sheet of paper in water until it begins to soften. When you can move it it hour cracking it, but before it gets soggy, place it on a flat surface to roll. Fill with about a small palmfull of veggies.  If you use sauce inside, drizzle between veggies or between protein and veggies so it doesn't soak through the wrapper too much. Put your filling about a third of the way down, fold the bottom edge up over the filling, fold the sides over about one inch, and roll everything over until you have what looks like a tiny burrito. Soak the next sheet while you make the roll and it should be ready when you're done. It's time to change the water when the sheets take longer to soften than the previous sheet. Place in your lined container, sprinkle with water to keep moist, and cover with more wet towels and cling wrap. Refrigerate to chill, but can be served right away.  

These can be made with anything you like. Cutting your ingredients into sticks and tearing leaves from stems helps keep the filling from poking holes into the wrapper.  They'll keep for a few days as long as they're moist. Use anything you like as a dipping sauce:  soy, sweet chili, sriracha, sambal, teriyaki, peanut sauce, etc.  

IC Friendly Noodle Salad

Salad
1 large head of Napa, sliced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
2 C shredded carrots

Sauce
2 Tb molasses
2 Tb sesame oil
1/4-1/2 C water
Salt
Pepper

3 bundles of soba, cooked, rinsed, salted, and chilled

First, cook the noodles according to the package, season and set them aside.  Next, add the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and microwave for about 5-15 seconds to make the molasses easier to whisk into a dressing.  Put all the chopped veggies into a huge mixing bowl and toss in the sauce.  Add the noodles being careful to separate then as you toss, they will want to clump together.  Chill and serve.  

Some other ingredients that work well in this:  sesame seeds, sliced almonds, cashews, peanuts, celery, broccoli and water chestnuts.  You could also add tangerine zest to the sauce if you know you can tolerate it.  If you don't like the napa ribs, cut them out and save them for stir fry or veggie broth.  

Serves 8, keeps crisp for about 2 days. 

Miso Ramen

I do not at all claim to be knowledgeable about the subtle art of Japanese cuisine.  This soup is my Asian inspired version of American comfort food.  Miso Ramen at a proper Japanese restaurant will be made with dashi, miso, and good noodles.  I don't eat seafood so I made my own broth:  bouillon cubes, ginger, soy sauce, sesame, white pepper, sometimes I use lemongrass too.  Usually I prefer white miso for this because it's sweet and mellow.  Your toppings can be anything you like, here I used LightLife Smart Bacon, greens, and peas.

If you use dry noodles, soak them in cool water to rehydrate them and remove some of the sodium and starch.  Make sure to separate the noodles so that they can absorb as much as possible and change the water if it gets cloudy.  If you use fresh noodles, they should probably be blanched before adding to the soup, but follow whatever instructions come on the package.

Make your broth and bring to a boil.  Add miso and stir to dissolve.  Add the noodles and warm them through.  Serve the noodles in a bowl and pour broth on top.  Add warmed toppings and slurp away the cold weather.

Asian Dinner

Hosted a dinner party, made some tasty food, had a great time.  Some of these dishes were bought pre-made, like the gluten with peanuts, snap peas, chile peas, sea cucumbers, preserved tofu, and chile bamboo shoots.  The vegetable bao were also pre-made, but I deep fried them.

The napa salad had shredded napa, watercress leaves, and a sesame soy vinaigrette I made with chopped chiles, sesame oil, crushed ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar, salt, wite pepper, and raw sugar.  The tofu in brown sauce required a little planning.

Brown sauce:

Vegetarian oyster sauce, soy sauce, veggie broth, raw sugar, white pepper, and cornstarch slurry in rice vinegar.  Add everything but the cornstarch slurry and bring to a boil, stirring.  When it does start to boil, add the slurry and stir until thickened.  I made this ahead of time and warmed it back up when the tofu was fired.

Fried Tofu:

Drain the tofu overnight, then soak in soy sauce to season.  Make your favorite cornstarch beer batter Mine didn't come out well :(  Deep fry in oil at 350 until golden brown and drain on paper towels.

Cover in brown sauce, top with cilantro and pecans.  Nom Nom!! :D

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiquibuttons/10241759195/" title="Asian Inspired Vegan Dinner by chiquibuttons, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5545/10241759195_d8bd60bb59.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Asian Inspired Vegan Dinner"></a>

You can see the rest of the photos here.

Udon--My Favorite Comfort Food When I Have a Cold

When you're sick you want something hot, nourishing, soothing, and nutritious.  Udon is easy to make if you have access to an Asian market or your local grocery store has a good selection of Asian goods.  A large pot of this soup makes 4-6 servings.

2 packages of individually portioned Udon noodles.

If you don't use the included seasoning packets, 2 cubes of Vegetarian bouillon and water to cover noodles and fill a soup pot a little more that half way, or broth in the same quantity if you don't like bouillon.

Soy Sauce to taste, maybe a splash.

Rice Wine Vinegar to taste, also a splash or two.

Ginger, your choice of fresh sliced or chopped.  You can also use dried or candied slices.  I like to use Christopher Farms jarred ginger.

Something sweet, like agave or raw sugar, just a touch.  If you used candied sliced ginger there is no need to sweeten any further.  If you're not a vegan used honey.

Black and white pepper to taste.


After bringing the stock and noodles to a boil, turn down the heat to warm and add:

1 C baked tofu slices or cubes.
3 fresh red chiles, sliced.  Seed if you don't like searing heat.
1/2 small head of napa cabbage, sliced.
2-4 C small baby bok choy, well rinsed and halved.
1 box of sliced mushrooms, cooked separately or fresh.
Bean sprouts, for topping when you serve the soup.

This soup does not keep well overnight.  The noodles get soggy and the vegetables wilt.  If you are making this only for yourself, make the stock ahead of time and freeze the extra.  Buy and prepare less of the other ingredients and only add what you are going to eat at that time to the stock and save the rest for later.  I know it's hard to buy fresh veggies in small quantities, but napa keeps well if you peel the outer layers and save the heart.  Baby bok choy will keep longer if you don't wash it until you're ready to use it.  The noodles will keep well; some brands are shelf stable.  Chiles keep well in the fruit bowl and baked tofu can always be washed and scrubbed by hand if it gets a little slimy.  

The Asian Market

There are so many interesting things for a vegetarian to try at the Asian market, like fruits ad vegetables not found in a regular grocery store, lots of different soy products, gluten products, sauces, and deli foods all made without animal ingredients.  Last week I had a craving for Banh Mi so off I went to buy my ingredients.  I make my sandwich with a thai flavor profile, but you could use any combination of produce and sauces you like.

Baguette
Chicken Sauce (sweet chili sauce in a bottle with garlic and chile chunks, and maybe shredded carrots and radishes)
Vegenaise (from +Whole Foods Market )
Romaine leaves
Tomato slices
Thai basil
Dried beancurd (It's with the jerky, but check the label for ingredients, or sub with baked or fried tofu)

I had enough leftover basil to make Mint Leaf Chicken by adding the leaves and more chicken sauce to a package of +gardein Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick'n, minus the orange sauce.