Chow Vegan

This is one of my all-time favorite comfort dishes – it’s sweet. It’s tangy. It’s got great flavor unlike anything else – a little sweet and sourish yet somehow different – more of the savory sweetness and less of the sour.

I can’t quite figure out what to call it though. It definitely has its roots and flavor profile in the Chinese-American Tomato Beef dish but the veggie meat doesn’t look like beef (not that it has to). It’s pale like chicken but not really chicken-tasting. But what kind of name is Tomato Veggie Chicken? Tomato Fake Meat? Tomato Soy Protein? You see, it just doesn’t have the same ring to it, not to mention no one would know what the heck I’m babbling about.

As I’m writing up the recipe, I just noticed it’s not even vegan. How can this be? Apparently, I’m going blind and didn’t see “whey protein” in the ingredient list of the veggie meat when I bought it. But it’s still a very tasty dish, I just need to find a vegan replacement for the “meat” part that would work in the recipe. Stay tuned for the answer to “Where’s the (veggie) beef?”

Noodles make for a quick lunch whenever I’m in a time crunch. Easy to make and in about the same amount of time it takes to run out for fast food but so much better. The quickness comes from using pre-cooked noodles. You can find them in the refrigerated section of the Asian supermarket or at natural food stores for organic versions. For this recipe, I used Ohana House Chow Mein Style Noodles. They’re organic, vegan, fully cooked and have a relatively long shelf life in the refrigerator. They also make buckwheat soba and udon noodles. I didn’t mean to sound like a commercial; I now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Chinese Noodle Soup
Serves 1

3 cups water or vegetable stock
3 small fresh shiitake mushrooms sliced
2 slices 1/4″ round fresh ginger
Salt
2 cups sliced baby bok choy or spinach or other greens
6 ounces cooked noodles
2 slices veggie bbq pork or baked teriyaki tofu julienned
Cilantro for garnish
Soy sauce (optional)

In a wok, add the water or stock, mushrooms, ginger and salt to taste. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer. Meanwhile, wash and slice the bok choy into 3/4″ pieces. Add the greens to the wok and bring up the heat to medium. Cook for about a minute. Add the noodles and cook for 3 minutes or according to the package directions. Spoon into bowl and top with the veggie bbq pork or tofu and cilantro. Drizzle with soy sauce if desired.

No Croutons Required is a new monthly food blogging event hosted by Lisa’s Kitchen and Tinned Tomatoes. Each month bloggers are invited to submit a vegetarian soup or salad recipe; this month’s theme is vegetarian soup. My entry is the noodle soup which not only is no croutons required but you don’t need a spoon either. I like to eat my noodles the old-fashioned way with chopsticks or if I’m in a real hurry with a fork. I usually don’t drink the broth but if you must, go ahead and use a spoon or go old school and slurp from the bowl.

Going to the Asian supermarket is a lot like going on a treasure hunt – you never know what you’ll discover there. In the refrigerated section, I came across fresh soy sheet knots which I’ve been dying to try but I had no idea what to do with them. Then I came across a recipe from TheVeganRonin for Homestyle Vegan Chicken Fingers that I absolutely had to try.

Oh my gosh, it’s sooo good! So much better than those frozen veggie chicken nugget things. Normally, I don’t like to fry anything at home because of the greasy mess it makes, but this recipe is so worth it.

The texture and taste is spot on. I followed most of the recipe but used the fresh soy knots instead of the dried. And I didn’t have the cumin or garlic powder on hand that it calls for so I left it out and added onion powder instead and it still came out great. It has a nice, spicy, Cajun flavor. Add a couple of sides and it really makes a lovely dinner. Or serve as an appetizer at your next party and impress all your friends.

Sometimes it’s nice to be indulgent and have a little decadent something or other. Today, it’s fried wontons and not just fried wontons but cream cheese fried wontons. Made a bit more healthier by baking rather than deep frying and adding spinach to the filling so you can eat up with not too much guilt. For this recipe, I used the Bloomsdale variety of spinach for its excellent flavor and tasty leaves. This is the kind of spinach nice restaurants like to use. I purchased mine at the local farmer’s market.

Cream Cheese Wontons
Makes 16 wontons

1/2 pound spinach
8 ounce package Tofutti cream cheese non-hydrogenated plain
16 wonton wrappers
1 bunch chives roughly chopped
Olive oil
Rice vinegar
Chili garlic sauce (comes in a jar from the Asian grocery store)

Wash the spinach and saute until just wilted, set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Have a small bowl of water handy for wetting the edges. Place 1 teaspoon cream cheese in the center of the wonton skin, add 1 teaspoon of spinach and sprinkle some chives on top. Wet the edges with a finger and fold to form a triangle. Press down to seal the edges, making sure to get all of the air out. I’ve found a simple flat triangle shape works best for baking.

Brush a dark colored baking pan with oil (a darker pan helps to brown the wontons). Place the folded wontons on the pan and brush with oil. Bake for 8-10 minutes on each side until brown, brushing oil on the other side as well.

Serve with a dipping sauce of rice vinegar mixed with chili garlic sauce to taste.

I haven’t had wonton soup for awhile now. Way back when I used to get the frozen pre-made vegetable dumplings, but they were just alright. I think that’s why I stopped buying them. Why was I buying frozen dumplings in the first place? I was busy with work and stuff and lazy too, what with all that vegetable chopping to make the filling. Anyways, since then I had an epiphany. In my previous post, I made a tempeh filling for yellow chile peppers. I don’t know why it never occurred to me before but I could use that for wontons. Duh!

Perusing the Asian supermarket, I found just two brands that make vegan wonton skins. The rest had eggs in them. I’m not sure what’s the difference between the two other than the packaging. It’s labeled that they’re from the same distributor. If I had to choose, I would go with the Dynasty brand. I seem to have better results with that one. Then again I haven’t actually made wontons in years and for the first batch I used the Myojo brand so that could have skewed the results. But either one would work.

Vegan Wonton Soup
Serves 2

Soup Base
4 cups water
4 dried chinese mushrooms, soaked in water until soft, discard the stems and slice the caps
2 cups chinese greens such as baby bok choy sum sliced on the diagonal into 3/4″ pieces or napa cabbage sliced into 2″ strips
2 slices of ginger
Salt

Start the soup base first, so it can simmer while you make everything else. In a pot, add the water, mushrooms, ginger and salt to taste and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to simmer and leave until you’re ready to add the wontons. Just before the wontons are done, add the vegetables and turn up the heat to medium, cook for 3-4 minutes and then turn the heat off.

Wontons
16-20 wonton wrappers, allowing about 8-10 wontons per person
1/2 cup tempeh filling

In a separate large pot, fill with water about halfway and bring to a boil. Have a small bowl of water nearby to wet the edges of the wonton skins. Place 1 teaspoon of the filling off center towards a corner. Don’t overfill the wonton. If you’re too generous with the filling, the poor wonton will spill its guts when they’re cooking and it’s not pretty. Wet the edges with your finger, fold in half and seal the edges. Wet one of the side corners and bring the two corners together in an overlap and press to seal.

Add the wontons to the separate pot of boiling water on medium heat. Depending on the size of the pot, you may need to cook the wontons in batches, do not overcrowd the wontons. When the wontons float to the surface, they’re done. Lift the wontons out with a slotted spoon and drop into the soup base. Serve immediately with soy sauce or chili sauce condiments if desired.

Inspired by the dim sum dishes of steamed, little savory morsels of goodness, I’ve been working on this recipe to create something similar for quite some time now. When it comes to steaming, most people tend to think of the bland, nothing but plain vegetables type of cooking. But in traditional Chinese steaming, lots of different ingredients and seasonings are combined and then arranged nicely on a steaming plate. Moisture is locked in to intensify the natural flavors without drying out the food. Steaming is also a very healthy, low-fat way to cook as very little oil or no oil is used.

Yellow chile peppers are fairly mild as far as chile peppers go, but it’s got enough of a kick to add a bit of hotness to each bite. I usually have to eat mine with steamed white rice to keep it from being too hot. Once again, I’m a wimp.

Tempeh Stuffed Yellow Chile Peppers
Serves 2 as part of a meal

Tempeh Filling
4 dried chinese mushrooms, soaked in water until soft, discard the stems and chopped the caps
3 ounces water chestnuts, chopped
8 ounce package of tempeh, finely crumbled (I like to use Turtle Island Organic Five Grain Tempeh)
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/2 tablespoon ginger, minced
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce

Heat the wok until hot. Add the oil and swirl in the wok to coat. Add the onions and saute over medium heat until translucent. Add the mushrooms, water chestnuts and ginger, if the pan appears dry, add a little bit of water and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the tempeh, water and soy sauce and bring to a boil. Cover and turn down the heat to medium low and simmer until the water is mostly absorbed about 4-5 minutes. Remove from the wok and set aside until cool enough to handle.

Stuffed Yellow Chile Peppers
6 medium yellow chile peppers
1 cup tempeh filling

Wash the chile peppers, cut in half horizontally and take out the stems, seeds and ribs. I always wear rubber gloves so as not to get capsaicin (the hot part of the peppers) on my hands. I didn’t use to before but all it took is rubbing my eye once and never again.

Stuff about 1 tablespoon of the tempeh filling into each half. Arrange the stuffed peppers on a steaming plate. Place the plate on a metal steaming rack in the wok over simmering water, cover and steam for 20 minutes, keeping a careful eye on the water level and add boiling water to the wok if it gets too low. Scoop each pepper out on to a dish and serve.