by : Reiko Asian Food, Main Dish, Soup/Stew

Vegan Red Thai Curry
Vレッドタイカレー

When my husband bought this Massaman curry paste https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2024/09/18/, he also got the same brand’s red curry paste.

As the Massaman curry, the red curry paste has whole-food plant-based ingredients without preservatives.

https://siam.recipes/collections/curry-pastes

Once you cut up and sauté your choice of vegetables (and meat if you like; I used fried tofu), you just add the paste, water, and coconut milk.

Continue to cook, and when all the vegetables are cooked through, it’s ready to serve.

So easy!

I just added a little sugar and salt, but otherwise it was perfect!

It was creamy, rich, and delicious.

We had some leftover, and I look forward to red curry meal number two!

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Bread, Gluten Free, Main Dish

2022 Thanksgiving
２０２２年感謝祭（サンクスギビング）

This year my mother-in-law came to join us for the Thanksgiving meal.

Some of the dishes were typical Thanksgiving ones, and others were not.

I wanted our meal to be tasty but not too heavy.

I like to have enough veggies to fill about a half of my plate.

I could skip mashed potatoes, but it is my husband’s favorite, so it has to be on the table.

I made garlic mashed potatoes.

The garlic adds extra flavor, so it doesn’t need too much butter.

The past several years I’ve made vegan roast from scratch, but this year we decided to try the Fieldroast’s product called Celebration Roast.

My husband even cooked it for me in the oven, and it turned out great.

It came with gravy, so the whole meal prep was super easy for me this year.

(I did not do a good job with adjusting my November work schedule this year, so I had to work long hours the day before…)

Vegan/gluten-free oatmeal rolls with Italian herbs.

We enjoyed the meal very much.

My mother-in-law, who is not vegan, is really awesome, and as usual she tried everything we served and even told us that she liked everything.

For the dessert, well, we didn’t have a pie.

Come back to see my next post to find out what we had instead.

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Main Dish

Vegan Cheeseburger Crunchwrap
ヴィーガンチーズバーガー・クランチラップ

It was at the local vegan restaurant where I had my first crunchwrap.

I’m not a huge wrap person, but I found the crunchwrap delicious.

I had Beyond burgers, so I decided to go for a big meal.

Don’t worry, I never forget about veggies.

And we have to have mayo ketchup.

I thought it was a good time to try a new vegan bacon.

We saw it at Whole Foods, sitting next to the Hooray one.

I was going to pick up the Hooray (we had tried it before and liked it), but my husband wanted to try this one to see if we would like it.

This is what it looked like when cooked.

It gets super crispy and worked well for this dish.

This one is salty just like the real bacon, probably a bit saltier than the Hooray.

So happy with how it turned out!

Super crunchy!!

This was a great lunch.

I may like this better than a regular burger with a bun.

Oops!

Saved (lol).

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Beans/Lentils, Main Dish, Rice/Grains

Indian Bowl – Inspired by Forage Kitchen’s Thai Bowl
インディアンボウル、あるお店に刺激を受けて作ってみたよ。

I liked the Thai Bowl I had at Forage Kitchen in Wisconsin, and I wanted to create something similar to that.

One of the things I really liked about their bowl was black rice.

So, I went to a local grocery store, Fresh Thyme, to look for it and this is what I found.

It’s sold as “purple” rice, but based on my google research, purple and black rice seem like the same thing.

It was cooked beautifully.

The inspiration for the lentil balls also came from their bow.

Mine turned out really good, and I was happy with the result.

The restaurant had sweet potatoes, but I decided to use my favorite Japanese Satsuma potato.

As indicated in the title, my sauce was not Thai but Indian, and I had a little help for it.

I found these at Aldi, and for this bowl I used the Kashmiri sauce.

It’s really tasty IF you add a little sweetener (I just use sugar).

If you are interested, Kashmiri is tomato-based, and Madras is pepper-based.

Creating this bowl was fun.

I really enjoy a project like this.

Traveling is great because it gives me opportunities to get inspired by something new, mostly food in my case (lol).

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Main Dish, Noodles/Pasta, Vegan Cheese

Vegan Sausage Mushroom Cheesy Lasagna
ヴィーガンだけど”チーズ”たっぷりラザニア

We had my in-laws for dinner last night.

It’s packed with vegan sausage, mushrooms, and homemade tofu ricotta, and topped off with homemade cashew cheese cream.

Yes, it was a bit time-consuming to make two different kinds of cheese, but it’s so worth it!

On the other hand, I used Beyond sausage instead of making my own vegan meat.

I’ve started to cook smart especially when I have non-vegan guests for dinner by utilizing store-bought products if that makes sense.

Our dining room is occupied by my puzzle at the moment, so we ate at the kitchen counter.

(The pictures of the individual plate were taken the next day at the dining table.)

The lasagna was served with roasted veggies, salad, and homemade crusty bread (parsley and cinnamon-cranberry).

The planned dessert unfortunately failed (I was planning to make fran, but I burned the caramel…).

(It was supposed to be like this ↓）

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2021/08/15/truly-amzing-vegan-flan

So, we went with Plan B.

I sent my husband to the local grocery store for ice cream.

My in-laws liked my vegan lasagna!

They probably don’t know they ate tofu (a lot of it!) today, but that’s not important (lol).

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Asian Food, Gluten Free, Main Dish

V-Meat and Veggie Jeon (Korean Savory Pancake)
元気もりもりチヂミ

I’ve tried various types of savory pancakes, and at this point I have to admit I like them all (lol).

This Korean version is packed with a lot of vegan meat (Next Meats) and veggies.

Like I need cabbage for the Japanese version, for the Korean version I have to have “nira”.

I was surprised to find it at the local Asian grocery store.

It’s got wonderful garlicky flavor.

I would strongly recommend if you’ve never tried it.

As you can see, the batter is very thin.

I made the batter with rice flour this time, and it turned out perfectly fine.

Doesn’t it look great?

I enjoyed it simply with a mixture of soy sauce and vinegar.

Tasty!!!

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Japanese Food, Main Dish, Rice/Grains, Vegan Egg

Vegan Salmon Roe Sushi
ヴィーガンいくら寿司

What do you think?

Regardless how close to the real thing they look, they were pretty nonetheless.

Don’t you agree?

When I got these red currants from my mother-in-law’s backyard, I knew there must be some great way to showcase their jewelry-like beauty.

And then this idea came to me!

Salmon roes!

They were marinated in a mixture of soy sauce and sugar.

They look exactly the way I wanted them to look on the sushi rice.

Along with the “salmon roe”, I also made a few other versions.

Turmeric tofu.

Or vegan “egg”.

Vegan “tuna”.

Can you tell what it is?

Okay, these do not taste like salmon roes, but they are as juicy and delicious!

Do you eat your sushi with your hands or chopsticks?

I always enjoying making vegan sushi, because I get to be creative.

I’m really cutting down on sugar, and instead I’m eating more fresh fruits.

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Main Dish, Noodles/Pasta, Vegan Meat

Fettuccine with Vegan Meat Sauce & Salad
Vミートソースパスタ＆サラダ

I was so hungry tonight, and I wanted something rich and “meaty”.

So I decided to make “meat” sauce with my super hard tofu from Costco (this tofu works great to make ground “meat” because of the firmness).

For the sauce I just used marinara sauce from Aldi.

Speaking of Aldi, this is our recent favorite, vegan Parmesan.

This was sprinkled on top of the pasta.

By the way, as I announced yesterday, I went to pick currants at my mother-in-law’s yard today.

They are so pretty!!

I made dressing using some of the fresh currants.

It turned out super tasty, but I wasn’t sure about this color…

This color reminds me of gum balls for some reason.

I hesitated, but my husband said there was nothing wrong with the color, so I did pour the dressing.

I’m still not sure about the color, but the salad was delicious.

It turned out to be a great Saturday dinner.

By the way, how much pasta is a regular portion for an adult?

I used to eat at least 100g (dry) and I would be stuffed.

Now I measure my pasta, and after trials and errors, I think 65g (dry) for dinner and 70g (dry) for lunch work the best for me.

With that I’m full and satisfied, but not overly stuffed.

ーーーーー

Forgot to talk about this.

I drizzled this truffle oil at the end on my pasta, and it was soooo good!

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Main Dish, Noodles/Pasta

Vegan Beef Stroganoff
ヴィーガン（って分からない）ビーフストロガノフ

My husband doesn’t cook much.

But he does make a few things.

One is pizza.

And the other is “Hamburger Helper”.

Since we don’t eat meat anymore, I should say the other “was”.

I’m usually not a big fan of box food, but when you are the cook 99% of the time whatever someone else makes for you tastes so good.

And he was a good “Hamburger Helper” maker, and I liked his Beef Stroganoff a lot.

Well, it’s been a long time since I made beef stroganoff.

But I just recently realized Next Meats vegan meat is perfect for this dish because it is a fillet type.

This turned out scrumptious!

Fettucine was perfect, in my opinion.

(I am a long pasta kind of person.)

Well, I like vegetables for every meal.

The figs from Trader Joe’s were perfectly ripe and DELICIOUS!

Leave a comment
by : Reiko Asian Food, Main Dish, Uncategorized

Vegan Beef & Broccoli (and Mushrooms)
ヴィーガン・ビーフ＆ブロッコリ（アンド・きのこ）

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.

Leave a comment