Chow Vegan

A few months ago, I tried a Vietnamese sandwich, bánh mì. All I can say is where have I been? And why didn’t anyone tell me about them before! If you’re like me and wondering what is a bánh mì, well then, let me tell you so that you too may be enlightened.

Originating from Vietnam, the bánh mì combines French influence with Vietnamese ingredients and flavors. Consisting of a crusty French baguette and filled with some type of meat, pickled carrots and daikon, cucumbers, cilantro, jalapeños and mayonnaise. These can of course be varied according to individual taste.

What I find so appealing is the many flavors and textures – the spicy and the sour, the savory, the crunchy and the chewy – it’s all there. Inspired to try it at home, I made mine with sliced smoked seitan with pickled carrots and daikon, fresh cilantro and mint, spicy vegan mayo on a toasted sourdough micro baguette, served with sweet potatoes fries.

I don’t have much of a recipe, after all it is a sandwich. And I basically bought most of the ingredients ready-to-eat except for the pickled carrots and daikon. For that, I just took a vegetable peeler to the carrot and daikon to get the extra thin strips and dunked it into a mixture of 1 tablespoon salt, 1 1/2 tablespoon sugar and a 1/4 cup of rice vinegar. Let chill for about an hour until ready to assemble the sandwich.

At the farmer’s market this week, I came across the RawDaddy Foods booth. I’ve been meaning to try out their food so I was pretty happy to see them there. It must have been fate. They’re usually at a different market that’s much further away from me.

RawDaddy offers up various flavors of raw, vegan food stuffed in a crunchy flaxseed cone. They have savory as well as sweet flavors like berries and ice cream.

I had my eye on the Forest and Earth Mushroom Polenta Cone – corn polenta, portabella, oyster and brown mushrooms in white truffle oil and sea salt marinade and topped with mustard vinaigrette. Unfortunately, the vinaigrette had been forgotten and was en route to the market.

So I got the Spicy Thai Salad Cone instead – cabbage, mango, herbs, and cashews tossed in a creamy dressing and topped off with tamarind sauce (pictured above). Bright, fresh and full of Thai flavor – it was so good! If all raw food taste like this, I could actually be persuaded to give up cooked food.

I grew up eating Cantonese-style chow mein, where the noodles are pan-fried to be crispy and served at the bottom of the veggies. Today, most Chinese restaurants deep fry the noodles which I don’t care for at all.

Which leaves me with only one choice if I want the crispy goodness – make it at home. But I’ve always resisted cooking it at home because of the mess to pan-fry the noodles. That is until I discovered that the noodles can be baked in the oven to get the crispiness without the mess or oil. Woo hoo!

Cantonese-Style Vegetable Chow Main
Serves 1 as a meal or 2 as part of a meal

3 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked in water until soft, then sliced
2 garlic cloves, smashed, coarsely chopped
1/4″ piece fresh ginger, minced
2 ounces sliced water chestnuts
6 stalks yu choy or bok choy or other green vegetable, trimmed and sliced
2-3 ounces snow peas
1 cup bean sprouts
6 ounces noodles (I used O’Hana Organic Chow Mein Style Noodles)
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 stalk green onion, chopped for garnish
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon soy sauce or to taste
Salt to taste
Corn starch dissolved in water

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Heat water in a medium size pot to boil. Add noodles for 1 minute. Drain and toss with 1 teaspoon oil. Spread noodles out onto a baking sheet.

Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, flip over, bake for 8-10 minutes on the other side until crispy. Pull apart the noodles and place on serving plate. Another option is to set aside the noodles and add to the wok at the end so it’s mixed with the cooked vegetables instead of being at the bottom.

Heat a wok to hot. Add a teaspoon of oil and heat to hot, then add the mushrooms, garlic and ginger, stir-fry for about a minute. Add the yu choy, snow peas and bean sprouts – always add in the order of the quickest cooking last, cook until crispy-tender.

Add the water, soy sauce and salt, seasoning to taste (If you like your chow mein with sauce, add most of the water and more if you really like a lot of sauce. I prefer a lot less sauce, so I only used about half of the 1/3 cup water).

To thicken the sauce, slowly add the corn starch mixture and stir to desired thickness. Serve on top of the noodles and garnish with the green onions.

With all of the amazing berries hitting the farmer’s market lately, I feel like I should do something more than just eating them out of the carton. Perhaps a soup would be nice.

On my first try, I plopped yogurt in and it came out way too much like a smoothie. I don’t want to be eating a smoothie out of a soup bowl with a spoon, I want to clug-a-lug it out of a glass.

Back to the kitchen for version 2.0 – I’m looking for a cool, refreshing and brightly colored soup. So no yogurt and basically just berries this time.

Berries are so good right now, they don’t really need much else. For an extra fancy treat, top with mint and cake croutons ( I used Amy’s frozen Orange Cake, no need to bake in a hot kitchen, just defrost).

Berry Soup With Cake Croutons
Serves 2

1 pint ripe fresh strawberries
1/3 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon agave nectar or to taste
2 sprigs fresh mint, julienned
2 slices cake, cut into cubes

Blend together the berries, orange juice and agave nectar until smooth. Chill until ready to serve. To serve, spoon into shallow bowls and top with the mint and cake croutons. Serve immediately.

No Croutons Required is a monthly food blogging event hosted by Lisa’s Kitchen and Tinned Tomatoes. May’s theme is berries in a soup or salad. No croutons required but this dessert soup has it and is my contribution to the event.

I couldn’t resist trying another tofu recipe from Vegan Soul Kitchen, this time it’s Rosemary-Roasted Tofu Cubes. It’s now officially, my new, absolutely, favorite way to prepare tofu.

I love roasting vegetables but somehow I never once thought to try it with tofu. It’s so good – crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. And so unbelievably easy and quick. No need to press the tofu, just season it and throw in the oven.

It’s such a great cooking method for tofu that I’m now experimenting with different spices. I’ve substituted the rosemary for Chinese 5-spice and I’m going to try salt and pepper next.

I’ve written about eating a whole pound of tofu in one day before, with this recipe there’s no doubt I can easily put away two pounds without even trying.

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Recently, a large crate of fruit arrived at my doorstep, courtesy of The FruitGuys, a company that delivers mostly locally grown, organic and conventional fruit to offices and homes nationwide.

From across the room, I can smell the fresh fruit and it was still in its box. Opening it up, I’m hit with a kaleidoscope of brilliant colors. It’s like a farmer’s market in a box.

It doesn’t come in just any ol’ box, it looks like a custom-made box with very convenient handles on the sides (totally recyclable of course). And the fruit was well-protected for their trip in their own little compartments.

As for taste, each piece of fruit was sweet and full of flavor. From delicious strawberries to crisp apples to juicy citrus, it was all fresh and tasty. I don’t think there was a bad one in the bunch.

You’re probably thinking, why not just go to the farmer’s market for fruit? You could but sometimes there isn’t one nearby or it’s not open year-around or you’re just too busy to make it to the market.

In fact, I’m signing up my mom for the service. I think it would make a perfect Mother’s Day gift. Mom doesn’t like to drive all that much nowadays so it’s a challenge for her to get good fruit. A fruit delivery is nice and healthy and something besides the usual flowers or candy.

While dawdling in the refrigerated section at Whole Foods, I spied a row of new products that I’ve never seen before. What’s this? Could it be a new yummy food to try? Especially if said product is on sale.

It’s All Good has quite the line-up of veggie meat products – from Veggie Beef Skewers to Veggie Chick’n Breasts and Veggie Pulled Chick’n. I decided on the Veggie Chick’n Good Stuff since that one looked the most interesting.

There’s two servings in the box; they come in individually wrapped pieces. Heat just two minutes in the microwave. The bag gets all puffy which I assumed trapped all the moisture in as it’s not dry at all. See how juicy it was when sliced, I also poured the remaining sauce in the bag on top.

I thought the Veggie Chick’n Good Stuff was deliciously savory, well-seasoned with just the right chewy texture in a good flavorful sauce. Served with leftover rice and a quick sauté of greens, it’s a tasty, easy meal on the table in just a few minutes.

I admit I’m not much of a baker, I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. I can’t bake to save my own life. The best I can managed is brownies. Even at that, it has to be pretty much a fool-proof, any-idiot-can-do-it type of brownie recipe.

Lucky for me, Amy’s Kitchen recently introduced their new frozen cakes. Just take out of the freezer and let thaw in the refrigerator for a few hours. Voilà! You got yourself a lovely loaf of cake.

That’s all there is to it – no baking, no mess, no wondering what the heck went wrong. And it taste great! Moist and chocolatey. And totally vegan.

Topped with fresh strawberries and Purely Decadent coconut milk ice cream, there’s no need for frosting. It’s a super easy treat and I don’t have to subject other people to my pathetic attempts at baking. Thank goodness.

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