Vegan Seafood Soup

Ingredients: (3-4 Servings)

1 large daikon radish

8-10 shiitake mushrooms

A hand full of kelp

A hand full of green peas

1 inch ginger

vegan crab cake (optional)

sea salt

olive oil

1. Thinly slice radish, mushrooms and ginger.

2. Put a large stock pot or a large skillet over high heat.

Sautee ginger, radish and mushroom slices for 5 mins.

3. Add water until the food is covered.

Bring to a boil.

4. Add a hand full of green peas and kelp.

Bring to a boil.

Lower the heat and cover with lid.

Let it cook for 10 mins.

5. (Optional)

Add vegan crab cake for some extra seafood flavor.

Let it cook for 5 mins.

6. Season with salt.

Purple Yam Patty

Before:

After:

Ingredients:

2 medium purple yams

1/2 cup Glutinous rice flour 

1. Wrap each yam with foil. Put them in the oven at 400F for at least 1 hour or until they are tender.

2. Peel the yams. Smash and mix them well with 1/2 cup Glutinous rice flour. You can use a pastry cutter. 

3. Make little balls with the mixture. Flatten them out on the pan with a little bit of oil. Brown each side.

Glutinous rice is also called sticky rice or sweet rice. It is widely grown and used in Asia. Because of its stickiness and sweetness, people always use it with yams, radish, pumpkins, red beans or sesame to make sweet treats in China. 

Gluten-free Seaweed Avocado Pasta

Ingredients:

Dry and roasted seaweed 

1 or 2 ripe avocado

2 tbsp. soy sauce

brown rice pasta

1. In a large bowl, shred the seaweed (any amount) as fine as you can. 

2. Add avocado and soy sauce (or soy sauce alternatives, eg: Bragg liquid aminos)

3. Add cooked brown rice pasta

4. Mash, mix and enjoy

Seaweed is easy to find in many stores, like whole foods, sprouts and costco. They usually come salted and roasted already.  I got them from a Korean market because they sell larger sheets there.  

Traditional Beijing Salty Sweet Bean Paste Noodle

Ingredients: (Serving size 3)

2 cucumbers

8 shiitake mushrooms

1 firm tofu

5 green onions (1 bunch)

4 cloves garlic

bean sprouts (or other micro vegetable sprouts)

grated ginger

olive oil

rice cooking wine

salty soy bean paste

sweet noodle paste (see pictures below)

asian style wide noodles

3 secrects of this noodle dish:

1. 绍兴料酒

Shao Xing rice cooking wine

2. 黄酱( a salty fermented soy bean paste)

 pronounce: Huang Jiang 

direct translation: yellow paste

on the left

3. 甜面酱 (a sweet fermented soy bean paste)

pronounce: Tian Mian Jiang

direct translation: sweet noodle paste

on the right

As long as we use these 3 ingredients, we can change other vegetables in the dish and still make authentic Traditional Beijing Soy Bean Paste Noodle.

1. Heat up a pan with oil (larger amount is better). Add cubed firm tofu. Cook 5 mins until they start to brown on one side. 

2. Add chopped shiitake mushrooms, greated ginger and minced garlic. Cook 5 mins.

3. Add cubed cucumbers, 6 tbsp rice wine, 1 tbsp salty bean paste, 1 tbsp sweet bean paste.

Mix them well and cook 10 mins. Stir every 2 mins. 

4. Add chopped green onions 1 min before killing the heat.

5. Pour these veggies over the noodles. Top with some fresh bean sprouts.

Flavored Oil - Green Onion Flavor

Ingredients: 4 bunches of green onions. 1 medium yellow onion. Olive oil.

Chop up the ingredients to 1 inch long pieces. Set aside or wipe with paper towel to remove excess water.

Put them in a medium size skillet. Add olive oil about 2/3 of the height of the onions. The onions will be cooked down very fast.

Put them over medium low heat. This is the key of making this rich flavor oil. High heat will burn the onions, leave them soggy and taste like spoiled onions. Medium low heat drains out the water of them slowly but makes them crispy and brown in the end. 

Let it cook for at least 50 mins or until most of the onions are brown and crispy. It may take over an hour if you want them to be perfectly crispy. 

Save them in a jar and enjoy them over noodles with salt and pepper. 

Triangular Tofu Object

Ingredients: (1 serving)

1 Extra Firm Tofu

some chopped kale leaves

1/4 cauliflower

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)

sea salt

olive oil

1. Arrange tofu in a large pan over high heat without oil. Heat it about 5 minutes to drain the excess water in the tofu. This will help the tofu to get crunchy and golden brown easier. 

2. Add olive oil, cauliflower, kale. Gently stir. Cover the pan. Let it cook about 5 minutes.

3. Flip the tofu over and cook the other side. Uncover. 5 minutes.

4. Add soy sauce, nutritional yeast ( slight cheese flavor) and salt to taste.

P.S. 

There are usually 3 types of Tofu in the market according to the firmness.

Silken tofu

Firm tofu

Extra firm tofu

Extra firm tofu makes very delicious tofu scramble. They stay in shape and absorb more flavor from what you cook. On the other hand, silken tofu makes very smooth tofu soup. They have a more plain taste.

Asian Style Summer Squash Pasta

Ingredients: (2 servings)

4 summer squash, 3 tbs sesame seeds, 1 tbs minced ginger, 1 green onion, 1/2 tsp red chili pepper, salt, olive oil, pasta.

Slice the summer squash, finely chop the green onion.

Heat a large pan with oil over medium high heat. Arrange the summer squash slices in the pan (ideally a singer layer). Sprinkle sesame seeds, minced ginger, red chili pepper and green onion on top.

Cook 3 mins on each side of the squash.

Turn off the heat. Stir in cooked pasta. Season with salt. 

Stir Fried Rice

Whenever you worry about the left over veggies in your fridge are too few to cook a whole new dish, it is the best time to make stir fried rice!

Ingredients in this dish (2 servings):

2 carrots

1/2 firm tofu

some broccoli

some mushrooms

some red chard

some steak fries

white rice

salt

1. Chop everything thinly

2. Stir fry everything until tender

3. Stir in cooked rice and some salt

Unidentified Cabbage & Rice Obeject

It tastes better than it looks!

It's easier to cook than you think!

Ingredients: Cabbage, rice cakes, soy sauce, sugar, minced garlic, olive oil, salt.

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add minced garlic, and saute 1min.

2. Stir in rice cakes, keep on stirring it and cook 5 mins.

3. Add soy sauce, sugar and salt to taste.

4. Add cabbage and a little bit of water (5 Tbs), cover it and cook 3 mins.

5. Enjoy it.

See where to buy and how to prepare rice cakes in my previous post.

Creative Easy Onion Pancakes

Ingredients: Dumpling wraps, green onions, salt, olive oil.

1. Two dumpling wraps, put green onions in between, use a little bit water to close them together(same as closing an envelope).

2. Fry them in the oil until each side is brown and crisp.

3. Sprinkle some salt on top.

Super easy, super fast, and super tasty!

Radish Kelp Soup

Ingredients: 3 medium size daikon radish, kelp, kale, soy sauce, olive oil.

(Serving size: 2)

1. Chop daikon radish to 1/2 inch thick pieces.

Chop a small amount of kale leaves into thin strips.

Sautee radish and kale in a pan for about 8 mins until the radish is browned on each side.

2. Add 4 cups of water, 3 teaspoons soy sauce to the pan.

Add a hand full kelp into the soup.

Cover it, cook about 10 mins until the radish is tender.

Kelp is the best natural source of Iodine. Including some Iodine in our diet can effectively help regulate thyroid function, decrease radiation absorption, aid weight loss and reduce fatigue.

We can find Kelp at most of the Asian market. Kelp we buy from the store is usually dried and salted. But it is very easy to prepare. Usually there is no need to add additional salt to the kelp dishes, and it is very easy to use scissors to cut the kelp into any shape you want. If we cook kelp in a soup then no soaking required before cooking. On the other hand, if we cook it without water, we need to soak it in water until tender before cooking. It usually takes less than 10 minutes.

Reverse Green Onion Pasta

Green onion is not just a seasoning. Let's start reversing your old way of thinking. Let green onion be the leader of the dish. This is based off a traditional Chinese recipe (onion oil noodles/pancakes).

Ingredients: 5 bunches green onions, minced garlic, leeks, 1 medium size zucchini, pasta/noodles, salt, olive oil. 

1. Chop 4 bunches of green onions, 1 inch long,

Chop 1 medium size zucchini,

Chop 1 small leeks into very thin slices, about 1/8 inch,

Mince 1 bulb of garlic.

Sautee them together in a pan about 5 mins.

2. Stir in cooked pasta. Stir fry about 3 mins.

3. Thinly chop another bunch of green onions, 1/4 inch.

Sprinkle them at the last minute. 

Add salt. 

Stir. 

Remove from  the heat.

Chewy rice cakes with green beans

Ingredients: Rice cake, green beans, roasted garlic, soy sauce

1. Heat oil, cook green beans 3 mins.

2. Add rice cakes to it (add more oil if needed), stir them every 30 seconds.

Cook about 5 mins until the rice cakes are slightly brown ( takes more time if the rice cakes are frozen).

3. Add soy sauce to taste, cook 2 mins.

4. Add roasted garlic to taste.

About Rice Cakes:

Also called "Nian Gao" (年糕) in Chinese

Rice cakes can be found in both Chinese market or Korean market. They are usually frozen and come in different shapes. They can be cooked either frozen or thawed. If you want to save cooking time then soak them in warm water for 2 hours before use.

Rice cakes are chewy. Boiling makes it soft. Frying makes it hard, and the longer you fry the harder it gets. But we love their chewy texture. Give it a try!

Celerooms

Celery and mushroom are a very good match!

Cook them together whatever way you like!

Tips: Usually old celery stems are hard to chew. But boiling them for 5 minutes before cooking with other ingredients can solve this problem perfectly! No need to throw away the old ones, yay!

Ground Meef

How to make Tofu taste like ground beef/meat?

You only need: Firm tofu, Soy sauce, Olive oil, Chinese bean paste(your choice).

1. Mash the tofu with your hands. Dry the tofu with high heat for 5 mins.

2. Add olive oil, cook 5 mins till it's yellow.

3. Add soy sauce to make it brown, cook 3 mins. 

4. You can choose to add some Chinese bean paste to make it more flavorful. 

Tip: Bean paste can be found in any Chinese market. It's very inexpensive.