Broccoli Cheddar soup is not my favorite soup.
But I do love the combination of broccoli and cheddar.
I happened to have my homemade vegan cheddar and seitan steak, and I decided to put together a rice plate for lunch.
Easy, tasty, and super satisfying!
Vegans and plant-eaters.
Who is tired of “subtraction” vegan dishes?
Well, I am.
You go to a restaurant.
Find a dish that says “vegan upon request” and ask about it.
Your server tells you it’s “no problem” to make the dish vegan.
They will just remove this, this, this, and that.
So you’ll end up with something really bland.
Once in a while, the server will go to the kitchen to talk to the chef, and he may offer “substitution.”
Avocado for cheese, or sautéed mushrooms for bacon.
Unfortunately, this happens rarely, and often times I have to initiate the process and make substitution suggestions.
And interestingly, I often get charged for the “extra,” like one vegan item I got in place of five nonvegan items.
The other day I had craving for bibimbap.
I found a restaurant whose website says they accommodate vegans.
When we asked them to make their tofu bibimbap vegan, our server said “no problem.”
He would just take the egg out.
I was not too happy about it, but what could I do at that point.
I was hungry, and when our food came, our bibimbap had this beautifully cooked egg on top.
We had to remind our server that we do not eat eggs, he apologized fiercely and took the dish back to the kitchen.
When he came back, our bibimbap had an empty spot in the middle.
It just looked sad.
That’s when I decided to tell myself, “no more subtraction.”
Each ingredient has a role in the resulting dish.
Egg is an important component of bibimbap, and I simply didn’t want my bibimbap “sans egg.”
It took me a while to come up with this idea, but I decided to try grated naga-imo.
Naga-imo is not a new food to this Japanese girl.
It has a very unique sticky texture, but the flavor is very mild.
I thought this will give the rich creamy component I was looking for.
In this bowl over the rice you’ll find tofu, portobello mushrooms, sesame carrots, sprouts, and zucchini.
It was served with grated naga-imo and gochujang on top.
Naga-imo has a very unique texture and if you’re not familiar with it or you are not a fan of sticky food in general, this may not be for you.
But to me this was DELICIOUS!
Loved the creamy naga-imo mixed together with everything else.
No more subtraction!! 🙂
Instagram is an awesome thing.
I was away from the Japanese food scene for a long time, but now I feel like I’m catching up.
When I saw a picture of a dynamic tofu rice bowl, I knew that was something I wanted to create myself.
Apparently, this is a special dish served at a restaurant called “Otako-Honten” in Japan, and it has been very popular since stories about this dish were picked up by the media a few years ago.
They call this dish “To-Meshi,” in Japanese.
I’m assuming that the “TO” is a shortened “tofu” and “Meshi” means rice.
My tofu was slow-cooked for hours in slightly sweetened soy/seaweed/mushroom-based broth.
At the end of the process the tofu has absorbed all the delicious flavors.
A bowl of miso soup and a small dish of kimchi complete this awesome meal.
Simply delicious.
Grilled unagi rice is one of popular Japanese dish which is unlikely to become big in the Western countries anytime soon.
It’s completely my personal opinion, but I have a feeling that just an idea of eating eel (unagi) does not excite too many people who were not exposed to it at a young age.
Even myself, growing up in Japan, there was a moment when I wasn’t sure if that was something I wanted to continue eating.
Usually people buy pre-cooked unagi, so for a long time I didn’t know exactly what it was.
So the first time I saw how a fishmonger prepping unagi, I was shocked.
I stopped eating for a while, but then began eating again.
Well, it is tasty.
Now I’m not eating unagi anymore, this time because I’m on the plant-based diet.
Luckily, I found a vegan grilled unagi recipe in the cookbook called “Modoki” authored by Ms. iina, a Japanese vegan food creator.
The texture and the taste are pretty close, but not the same as the real thing.
But the great thing about her recipe is that the vegan version is as tasty as the real thing!
I enjoyed it for lunch with a bowl of miso soup and kimchi.
Have a great weekend!
I have a confession to make.
I’ve never been a huge burger fan, and one of the reasons is probably because I don’t like the buns that usually come with.
I’m particular when it comes to burger buns.
I know people talk a lot about how important to get the right meat, but I think buns are as important or more important as the meat.
It’s often hard for me to find the right buns at stores.
So I decided to have a burger, but without a bun.
Burger was not really my plan for lunch, but they were sampling a few vegan frozen foods like this one at Costco today.
I have tried several of Dr. Praeger’s vegan burgers in the past, and the brand was one of my favorite ones for vegan burgers.
This particular vegan burger they were sampling today contains less whole food (veggies) compared to the ones I’ve tried in the past, but probably because of that, the texture of this one is much closer to that of meat burger.
We came home with a box of 12 patties.
What you see here is rice with sesame seeds, Dr. Praeger’s Backyard BBQ Veggie Burger, ketchup, homemade cheddar cheese, tomato/onion slices.
The “burger” was served with salad leaves.
I made this for my husband’s lunch today, and he loved it!
Like I said earlier, the texture is very similar to that of real meat, so it will be a good option for non-vegans who want to try no-meat burgers for the first time.
I’ve seen a video a while ago where they were making sushi like this using an ice-cube tray.
(I don’t remember the source. If you know who is the original creator, please let me know so that I can give credit.)
So glad that I finally got to try this.
I just used the vegetables (and berries) I happened to have at hand.
Beets, radish, cucumber, carrot, and blueberries.
I lightly pickled radish and beets.
It was so fun to make this, and it came out of the tray very easily (I lined it with plastic).
These are so pretty and tasty at the same time.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Sushi has become increasingly popular the past few decades outside Japan.
Rolled sushi is probably the most popular.
Many people also know Nigiri sushi.
And more and more sushi restaurants are putting Chirashi sushi on their menu.
Today I would like to introduce another version, called “pressed” sushi, or “oshi-zushi” in Japanese.
You will use a square or a rectangular mold and literally pressed toppings and rice into it.
My version has rice at the bottom, in the middle there is scrambled tofu, and rice again.
And then it was topped with avocado, pickled radish, and Japanese Shiso basil.
For individual servings, you will simply cut a few small pieces.
Isn’t it pretty?
Sweet soy glaze was drizzled right before serving.
Absolutely delicious!
It’s easy to make, and you can make it as much festive as you can by adding a lot of different colored toppings.
This is a perfect sushi if you’re afraid of making rolled sushi or you are not a big fan of roasted seaweed.
But make sure to flavor the rice to make it “sushi rice” with a mixture of sugar, vinegar, and salt.
I have a small collection of chopstick rests, and these are some of my favorites.
Have a great weekend everyone!
I don’t know why, but any dish that looks green makes me smile.
I guess it’s a happy color for me.
These mini bok choy was from a local Asian grocery store.
It was so fresh, cheap, and delicious!
Broccoli risotto was accented with a little white miso that gave some richness to the flavor.
The risotto was served with sautéed mini bok choy and crunchy lentils which had been flavored with sweet and spicy soy glaze.
Can a healthy food like this be a comfort food at the same time?
Well, I have to say yes.
Our neighbor friend brought us this beautiful pineapple the other day.
I waited for a few days until it became ripe.
I initially thought about making a pineapple upside-down cake because we just got coconut ice cream from my father-in-law.
A pineapple cake and coconut ice cream together sound like a dream treat!
(My father-in-law always gives homemade ice cream as a Christmas gift to all his children, but this year he made ours with coconut milk because we don’t eat dairy. Yes, he is the best!)
But at the same time I didn’t want too many sweets in our house, so I decided to go with something savory.
I’ve seen something like this being served at a Thai restaurant that we used to go to often.
I’ve never tried it myself, but apparently it was one of their specialties, and a lot of people were ordering it.
This sauce from Aldi was a perfect way to finish this dish.
The result was fruity, a little sweet, a little spicy, and delicious.
The best part was that my husband really liked this being served in the pineapple boat!
Well, presentation is important.
I happened to have all the right ingredients for tacos except for tortillas, so I decided to make taco rice.
My taco tofu meat turned out great!
I think I’m getting better and better at this.
I made two kinds of sauce: avocado scallion and cheese.
Got some toppings ready too.
Taco rice was served with refried beans and arugula salad.
Super delicious and nutritious.
