Japanese like noodles, and there are always noodle dishes they enjoy every season.
Somen (cold dipping noodles) is one of their favorites during the summer time.
Noodles are served in an ice water, usually with ice cubes to keep the noodles cold.
And dipping soup, which is also cold.
They are usually served with various toppings.
Some of the popular ones are wasabi, scallion, Shiso leaves, and Nori roasted seaweed.
This time I decided to go with diced tomatoes, ground sesame, and scallion.
I like any type of curry, and Thai curry is not an exception.
Garlic chives are one of the things I look for when I go to an Asian grocery store.
The other toppings other than the garlic chives you will find in this beautiful bowl are tofu crumbles, sprouts, and hemp seeds.
Another dish showcasing the strawberries I picked from the local farm.
I wanted this dish to have some level of sophistication, and I decided to make pasta myself.
It’s always a good idea to make pasta yourself if you have time.
Every time my husband tells me how much he likes homemade pasta ( and so much better than the store-bought one).
The freshly made and cooked pasta was served with olive oil-sauteed garlic and red onion, spiced-roasted crispy chickpeas, homemade vegan goat cheese, fresh strawberries, and spinach chiffonade.
Plus a drizzle of balsamic-soy glaze.
This is another great example that strawberries can be enjoyed in a meal as well!
I like cream type pasta as much as tomato-based pasta.
But it can be a bit heavy.
So I like to add lemon to my cream pasta, which gives nice freshness.
Simple Bechamel sauce with fresh lemon, peas, kale, and and shredded V-“chicken”.
To tell the truth, this was the inspiration for this dish today.
This protein product was found today at Costco.
I’m not a huge fan of vegan “product” in general because I like to stay as close to whole food plant as possible, but variety is always good.
This is frozen, but it’s so easy to use.
No soaking in water is needed.
You just put it directly into a pan and cook for a few minutes.
It works great for dishes where you would use chicken.
Decent for a weeknight dinner.
Lasagna always makes the dinner time exciting.
I like how it looks.
Lasagna looks like a dish that you’ve spent hours preparing.
The lasagna pasta sheets, homemade vegan ricotta cheese, vegan meat, mushrooms, tomato sauce, and kale were layered and packed to create the deliciousness.
I added some cumin and curry powder to the sauce to make the dish a bit special.
Dry ramen is not only easy to make, but also perfect for this time of the year.
It’s served at the room temperature or cold, along with the acidity in the sauce is refreshing.
Happy Friday.
I had craving for ramen for a while, and I finally had time to make one.
Ramen is one of the “YES” meals.
When I ask my husband if he wants ramen, his answer is always “Yes.”
Today I made rich soup.
I’ve tried different types of soup, but this is probably our favorite.
By the way, “Kotteri” means “rich (flavor)” in Japanese.
I make a noodle bowl like this often.
I just add whatever I have in the fridge.
Sometimes I have only a few items and other times there are multiple items.
This one is pretty close to my ideal set of toppings.
Natto.
Perfectly ripe avocado.
(I struggle with the ripeness timing of avocado. When I need it, it’s not ready, and when it’s ready, I have no plan to use it!)
Wakame seaweed.
This has been my recent favorite.
I keep a dried package in my pantry all the time.
In this bowl you’ll also find kimchi and diced tomatoes.
The amazing base recipe is from https://www.instagram.com/neruko_diet/ (in Japanese).
She posts “diet” recipes, but many of her recipes simply use simple “healthy” ingredients, which I like.
Since I wanted to make it like “Parmesan” I swapped a few ingredients.
This is how I made this.
I used about 2/3 package of soft tofu.
Mix with nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt, and mash the mixture roughly.
Spread the mixture very thinly on a parchment paper lined microwave-safe plate.
The recipe said cook in the microwave oven (600w) for about 7 minutes.
My microwave is 1200w, so I cooked at the power level at 5 for 7 minutes.
But it was not crispy at all, so I cooked for another few minutes at 5 and then full (1200w) for another few minutes.
I strongly recommend that you closely watch so that it doesn’t burn.
It does go quick from not crispy to very crispy.
These are not only crispy but also delicious!
Hard to believe it’s made of tofu.
There are so many ways to enjoy these crisps.
This is Kale Caesar.
I even made croutons myself.
I actually used the GF baguette (previous post) for it.
This turned out so good too!!
This is great to serve with pasta as well.
I haven’t gone back to the Korean grocery store I recently discovered, but I’ still enjoying making Korean black bean sauce.
It goes with everything, and I usually make a big batch to keep in the fridge.
You can add anything to black bean noodles, but this time I went with tofu steak, garlic chives, and walnuts.
When I want something protein and crunchy, I like to use walnuts.
It works well not only in baked goods, but also in savory dishes.
It turned out to be such a tasty meal.
