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!!
In winter I like a bowl of hot pasta.
In summer cold pasta sounds good.
Cherry is one of my favorite fruits, and I’m so happy its season has arrived.
The sauce was made very simply, with a fresh tomato, cherries, garlic, sugar, salt, pepper, and extra virgin olive oil.
The sauce is almost like gazpacho, but with the wonderful fruitiness from the cherries.
Scrumptious!
Hope everyone had a great weekend.
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.
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Forgot to talk about this.
I drizzled this truffle oil at the end on my pasta, and it was soooo good!
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!
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.
It’s getting pretty warm in Minnesota.
We had 100 degree weather the other day.
It may sound strange, but I like to eat curry on a hot day.
The spices make me sweat, and getting sweaty on a hot day actually feels good (lol).
I served this curry udon with a vegan egg and grated Nagaimo.
The egg looks like a pretty moon, doesn’t it?
This morning we got up earlier (than usual for Saturday) and went to an outdoor brunch.
After that we visited Minnehaha Falls, and then explored the neighborhood around it.
We visited a few vintage shops, and when we were done with some grocery shopping, we were ready to take a nap.
It was a hot day.
Although we avoided the highest temperature for the day, the heat really got to us.
So for dinner I wanted something fresh and light.
I just placed all my favorite veggies along with freshly cooked Soba noodles and then put hummus on top of the soba.
It was served with non-oil dressing, but it was so good and satisfying as the hummus added wonderful creaminess.
I always liked Carbonara.
Well, in fact I liked eggs a lot.
So it took me a while to get used to the plant-based diet first
But then, I began learning some tricks, and now I can make vegan eggs, and other “egg” dishes including Carbonara.
Okay, this looks more like carbonara right?
This was already tasty, but I wanted to finish it a bit differently this time.
I made black oil by mixing this black garlic puree and truffle oil.
The black oil was drizzled.
And then smoked vegan skirt steak and a vegan egg were added.
For the meat I used Next Meats.
The nice fatty taste and texture from their skirt steak were perfect for this dish.
This was delicious.
The black oil added depth to the flavor.
We just got back from our quick getaway to Milwaukee.
I like to bring from our trip something that I can use to make a new dish.
I found this at the public market, and I thought it would be fun to try it.
It’s pureed black garlic, which is aged and fermented and gives a rich flavor.
I added the black garlic puree to my creamy bechamel sauce.
Because I had time today I decided to make pasta myself.
This eggless “egg” pasta is my favorite.
For two…
3/4 cup all purpose flour, 1/4 cup chickpea flour, salt, 1/4 cup water
Mix, knead, let the dough rest.
Flatten and cut.
Cook for a few minutes in boiling water.
This turned out delicious!
The black garlic puree takes the usual cream pasta to the next level.
It definitely gives a depth in flavor.
I also tried the pasta with just the puree.
It wasn’t bad, but I definitely preferred the cream version.
Later I added red pasta sauce to it, and it became so much better.
In my opinion, this black garlic puree is better when combined with something rather than itself.
