I was in the mood for a bowl of soba soup.
The craving comes once in a while, and when I make it, I ask myself why I don’t make it more often.
I wanted some kind of tempura.
Kakiage is one of my favorites.
Kakiage is a medley of vegetable pieces put together, battered, and fried.
This time I added some chickpeas to onions and carrots.
Craving…
Satisfied.
I still had a little Matsutake left.
And again I wanted to keep the dish simple so that I can really enjoy the Matsutake flavor.
Fettucine.
Olive oil.
Garlic.
Crushed red chili pepper.
Thai basil.
Grilled matsutake.
Fresh Kabosu juice.
There are so many great fall foods, and I’m just so excited to create dishes with them.
This is not necessarily “fall” food.
I believe the orange color is from tomatoes, and the green one is from spinach.
But the colors seem perfect for this season.
The cauliflower is from the local farmers market.
And we got mushrooms from the local vendors as well.
They are delicious when simply sauteed with olive oil (and then salted and peppered).
One thing that was also in this bowl but not mentioned in the long title is pea protein ground “meat”, from Ikea, which I like to keep in our freezer.
This dish screams autumn, and I’m loving it.
In Japan we say that the autumn is the season for reading, exercising, art, and eating.
I don’t know much about the rest, but about eating, it makes sense.
In Japan there are certain foods that we associate with fall and cherish, such as Matsutake mushroom, chestnut, persimmon…
And pumpkin is one of them too!
The freshly cooked fettucine was served with creamy pumpkin sauce, sauteed tempeh, Koji tofu “cheese” (previous post), and mushrooms we got from the local farmers market.
These mushrooms were sold as “ugly mix”.
They are past prime but still perfectly edible, and they sell them for a reasonable price, which I think is a great idea because we can avoid waste.
Apparently, they are popular, and when we got to the market, there was only a little left, and we bought everything they had.
We were advised to eat them within the three days, but we cooked and ate them the same day, and they tasted great.
What’s your favorite thing to eat this season?
Spaghetti with meat sauce was one of my favorite dinner dishes when I was a kid.
And it’s still definitely one of the dishes I crave once in a while.
Luckily, today there are several “meat” options for plant-based dieters.
This time I used this ground “meat” made of pea protein from Ikea.
It’s super easy to use.
You keep it frozen and then when you are ready to use it, just get it out of the freezer and cook in a pan.
I don’t bother to thaw it.
I just dump it still frozen into a hot pan, and it cooks just fine.
And my homemade vegan mozzarella cheese was cut into cubes and generously added.
It’s such a great comfort food.
But the addition of the creamy mozzarella takes it to the next level.
I was in the mood for ramen.
When I thought I got everything to make a couple of bowls of ramen, I realized I was out of ramen noodles!
So I decided make noodles myself.
By the way, this is the noodles I usually keep in my pantry.
I get them either at a local Asian grocery store or from Amazon.
I’ve done made this type of noodles before, so I was pretty confident.
But still I was so happy when they turned out well.
For the toppings I chose Ikea ground “meat”.
Ear wood mushrooms (sauteed).
And my homemade vegan egg!
If you have time and do not mind cleaning up the floured kitchen later, I definitely recommend making noodles yourself.
Just like homemade pasta, homemade ramen noodles are sooo good!!
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).
We call this dish “Napolitan Spaghetti”, but it’s really not an Italian dish at all (lol).
You sauté freshly cooked spaghetti with veggies, (ham or bacon if you like), and you add ketchup!
It’s a popular spaghetti dish in Japan.
This Peri Peri sauce is from Trader Joe’s.
I added a little of this to my Napolitan this time, and its fermented flavor does give a great depth.
I just have to be careful because it is spicy.
The lunch was completed with vegan chicken Caesar salad.
Perfect!
I marinated the red currants in the soy-based marinade for a while.
Now they taste so flavorful!
I placed a big spoonful of the V-salmon roe (that’s what I like to call them for the fun of it!), along with natto, avocado, seaweed, and cucumber on freshly cooked soba noodles.
I made this soba dish cold.
Okay, it’s good without the vegan salmon roe, but it definitely makes the dish very special!
I eat a lot of cold noodles in summer.
I make various versions of dipping sauce, but it’s usually a little spicy, and a little sweet.
I usually like to add some milk to make it rich.
This time I used coconut milk because I had a big carton that someone gave to me.
It instantly made the sauce exotic (in a good way)!
This is the somen noodle.
It’s a popular noodle to eat cold in Japan.
I remember that when I was on a summer break, we would have somen noodles almost every day for lunch.
Somen noodles are so thin that they are perfect for dipping.
Never forget veggies!
Or soy curls!
It looks like chicken, and its texture and taste are pretty similar to those of chicken.
So good!!
