Have you tried dipping noodles?
I’ve always liked this type of noodle dish.
I made the dipping sauce and noodles cold, and it was perfect for a hot Minnesota day.
I made the sauce with tahini and miso.
So it’s a rich sauce.
You can use any type of noodles.
Can you see how well the sauce sticks to the noodles?
Or if dipping is not your thing, you can always put the whole noodles in the bowl and enjoy it this way too.
Chinese food is something I crave for regularly.
When we lived in the suburbs there was a Chinese restaurant five minutes from our house from where we would get a takeout probably every other week.
Unfortunately, since we moved to the city (and we started the plant-based diet), we have not been able to find “our” Chinese restaurant.
That means I have to make it whenever I want to eat Chinese food.
Since we still have Next Meats vegan meat, I decided to make Beef and Broccoli.
But then I also added mushrooms (who else feels beef and broccoli needs more veggies?).
Wait!
I had a few take-out boxes I had bought a while ago.
For some reason Chinese food tastes better when it comes from the container (lol).
I quickly cooked the store-bought (frozen) egg rolls in the toaster and also sauteed some peppers.
This was super tasty!!
Next Meats’ meat is already sliced, so it’s super convenient and works particularly well for Asian dishes.
For this I used their short ribs.
I loved oatmeal gnocchi so much
https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2022/02/24/oatmeal-gnocchi-with-v-cheese-sauce
https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2022/04/11/oatmeal-gnocchi-with-garlic-seaweed-butter
that I decided to try the topokki recipe (Japanese),
https://www.instagram.com/p/CbkNG9_AK9o/
This is when I just added the oatmeal topokki to the sauce.
The sauce thickens while the topokki cooks.
For my version I added corn and Shiso leaves, and I used my homemade vegan cheddar for cheese.
This turned out amazing!
I loved the oatmeal topokki, but that was expected because I loved the oatmeal gnocchi.
The sweet and spicy sauce mixed with the rich V-cheddar was so tasty that I licked the plate shamelessly!
I was going to make a simple rice bowl with “meat”.
Because I still have Next Meats!
But you know me, I love vegetables
If I want to add a lot of vegetables, Bibimbap would be perfect!
In addition to the usual suspects (carrots, bean sprouts, spinach, kimchi), I added Japanese Nagaimo for an interesting texture.
For this I used Next Meats short ribs.
Doesn’t it look great?
And lucky me.
I just made fresh vegan “eggs”.
This turned out great!
Rice, “meat”, and veggies, and “eggs”.
Who would have thought this is possible as a plant-based meal!
It’s not quite summer yet.
But I know once winter is over, summer comes quickly here in Minnesota.
The soup is cold.
Spicy.
Sweet.
And a bit sour.
It’s also got texture, from onions, ginger, and sesame seeds, which cling to the noodles so well.
In addition to a lot of veggies, I added vegan omelet (homemade) and vegan mini egg rolls (from Costco).
I have a feeling that I will be eating this a lot for the next several months.
I haven’t made egg rolls for a long time.
One of the reasons for that is that I typically avoid frying.
I’ve been posting some dishes using this leafy veggie, Shungiku, and an Instagram friend, Ms. rose, told me that it’s good when made into egg rolls with avocado and grated garlic.
It sounded so interesting that I decided to try.
I wasn’t sure if I could find vegan egg roll wrappers, but I did!
I’m not the best roller, but I think I did okay.
They looked so good!
I actually made two kinds.
One: Shugiku, Avocado, Garlic
The other: Shungiku, Avocado, Garlic, Sun-dried Tomatoes, Homemade Vegan Cheese
They both turned out great!
They were tasty with just a sprinkle of salt or with a mixture of soy sauce and vinegar as a dipping sauce.
I was in a mood for ramen noodles with rich soup.
I happened to have cooked ground “meat”, and I thought dandan noodles would be perfect.
The vegan “meat” is made of tempeh and super firm tofu.
I like the combination of these two, as they create interesting texture.
I also added something unusual for dandan noodles, sunddried tomatoes!
I roughly chopped the tomatoes into small pieces and added them along with extra oil.
The combination seems a bit strange, as the noodle dish is Asian, and the sundried tomatoes are considered Italian.
But hey, if they taste good together, it doesn’t matter where they originated.
Wood Ear mushrooms are hard to find.
They have a unique texture and flavor, and I’ve always liked them.
So when I see fresh ones at the local Asian grocery store, I buy them.
It may be more popular to serve Mapo Tofu with rice, but personally I like it over noodles.
These A-Sha brand’s flat noodles are delicious and convenient, and I like to keep them in our pantry.
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*I also have an Instagram account. ↓ There I post some pictures and videos that you don’t see here at the blog. If you followed me there as well, I would love that! When you stop by, say “hi! I would love to hear from you. Thank you.
I enjoy putting together two dishes that originated in different parts of the world.
It doesn’t always work well, but when it does, it creates a unique fun dish.
I started with creamy polenta.
I like to mix V-butter into polenta, but I also like to put a small piece on top right before serving.
I make my vegan eggs with different ingredients and methods.
This particular vegan egg was made with soy milk, sugar, salt, Kanten-agar for the white* and mayo, ketchup, and cumin for the yolk.
*This time I only used soy milk for the white, but I like it better when I use soy milk and water instead of soy milk only, better taste, texture, and color.
This egg is so pretty.
And here is the magic salt.
Sprinkle this Kala Namak black salt, which makes it taste just like an egg.
Creamy polenta with rich beef and broccoli on top.
This unique combination turned out so good!
Today, I want to show you how I made my vegan “beef”.
I use this recipe ↓ as usual.
https://lovingitvegan.com/vegan-steak/
(You can see my other go-to recipes here ↓
https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/recipes-ive-tried-and-liked/)
Anyway, the main ingredient is vital wheat gluten.
People, who are not familiar with vegan-cooking, always ask me what vital wheat gluten looks like.
Well, it looks like this.
It’s fine powder.
This is where I just added the gluten to a mixture of wet ingredients.
You combine them well and form a piece like this.
Then you stretch it into this rectangular shape.
It’s crazy, but it really does look and feel like meat already.
I usually double the recipe and get eight pieces.
This is how they look after steamed.
The recipe says “steam for 20 minutes”, but I usually steam mine a lot longer (about 20-30 minutes longer) because mine don’t look fully cooked only after 20 minutes.
I stop at step 4 (at the completion of steaming) of the recipe.
I usually wrap each piece with plastic wrap when they are cool and freeze them.
When I’m ready to use, I microwave it unwrapped to thaw.
I slice it thin.
I hardly ever eat it as a large piece of steak.
I usually cook the pieces over medium-high heat without oil until very crispy, both sides.
And I add water and other flavoring ingredients (often soy sauce and sugar), just enough to let the meat absorb it.
Then, add oil and fry them, both sides.
The picture above is where I was frying them with oil.
It’s delicious just like this.
But you can use this to create a more complete dish, like the “beef and broccoli” I made for this post.
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*I also have an Instagram account. ↓ There I post some pictures and videos that you don’t see here at the blog. If you followed me there as well, I would love that! When you stop by, say “hi! I would love to hear from you. Thank you.
When we moved to the city, several people told us about this Tibetan-Nepalise restaurant.
Everyone said we had to try their momos.
So that was how I got to try nepali dumplings for the first time.
And I loved it!
I had been in the United States for many years now, and I thought I had tried all the ethnic foods available in this country.
But I was wrong.
I’ve only tried vegetable version, but it was so good that I didn’t even want to try the meat version.
Last weekend I was in the mood for momos.
We usually get them from our favorite restaurant, but since I had a lot of time that day, I decided to make them myself.
I like my dumpling filling simple.
I’ve experimented with different things, like tofu, mushrooms, vegan meat, etc, but I always preferred my simple version.
Garlic, onion, cabbage, and green onion.
That’s it.
This time I used Napa cabbage and an addition of kale just because I had some of these I needed to use up.
It worked beautifully.
To tell the truth, this was my second time making momos.
The first attempt was not very successful.
I made a mistake and made the wrappers too thick.
I didn’t know it gets puffy when steamed.
They were mostly fine, but the top part where the wrapper was gathered turned out to be too thick.
I still remembered the mistake, so this time I was careful when I flattened the wrappers and folded them.
I think I did a pretty good job this time.
They look so good!
And they tasted awesome!
This time I made the sauce, too.
Garlicky and gingery.
A bit spicy.
So good.
Oil, garlic, ginger, crushed red chili pepper, tomato paste, fresh tomatoes, water, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, salt, cashew nuts (for thickening).
