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.