Chow Vegan

I had a butternut squash languishing in the refrigerator for weeks before I finally got around to cooking it. Poor little thing, it sat in the fridge for far too long. I had to hack off the moldy parts but the rest of it was still good. I was surprise the squash lasted as long as it did, what a trooper.

I made a rich, creamy butternut squash soup, with a nice, spicy kick from the fresh ginger and cayenne pepper. So yummy for the end of winter, so happy for the beginning of spring.

Butternut Squash Soup
Makes a generous 2 cups

1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 small onion, minced
1 med carrot, sliced
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes
1/2″ fresh ginger, minced
2 cups hot water
1 cube vegan vegetable bouillon dissolved in the water
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 heaping tablespoons silken tofu
1 stalk green onion, chopped
1-2 pieces baked tofu, cubed

In a large pot, heat the oil until hot, add the onions and saute until translucent. Add the squash and carrots and saute for about 30 seconds. Add the water, ginger and spices.

Bring to a boil, cover and turn down to low. Cook for about 18 minutes or until the squash is soft. Add the tofu and puree until smooth. Ladle into bowls and garnish with green onions and baked tofu croutons if desired. Serve immediately.

Last week, we finally got some much needed rain here in Northern California – perfect weather for making a stew. Something that’s hearty and full of flavor, something warm and comforting, something with star anise, perhaps?

I love the very distinct licorice taste and aroma of star anise, it’s one of the very few spices used in Chinese cooking. You may recognize the taste as it’s the primary flavoring in Chinese 5-spice powder.

Normally used in slow cooked meat dishes, I decided to try star anise with seitan and root vegetables in a kind of red-cooked dish. Red cooking or Chinese stewing is a Chinese cooking technique that turns ingredients a deep red-brown color by braising in a dark soy sauce flavored broth.

With no meat, it cooks fairly quickly, basically it’s done when the veggies are soft. Makes for a quick, satisfying weekday meal and like most stews, it’s even better the next day when the flavors combine even more.

Asian-Styled Seitan and Vegetable Stew
Serves 2

2-3 pieces whole star anise
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon water
Salt and pepper to taste
Dash of cinnamon
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2″ piece of fresh ginger, minced
8 ounces seitan chunks
3 medium red potatoes
1 medium carrot
1/2 medium daikon
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 green onion stalk, chopped

Combine the first 6 ingredients in a bowl, mix well and set aside. Peel and slice the carrot at a diagonal, peel and cut the potatoes and daikon into 1″ chunks, add to the sauce bowl along with the seitan. Mix, making sure everything is well covered in the sauce.

Heat a wok until it’s hot, add the oil, swirl to coat the wok. Add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry for a few seconds. Add the bowl ingredients, give it a few quick tosses and add water to just barely covering. Cover and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the water is absorbed and the vegetables are done, about 20 – 25 minutes. To serve, discard the star anise pieces and garnish with the chopped green onions.

As a symbol of family unity and harmony, tang yuan is traditionally served around Winter Solstice, right around the time when families get together for the holidays.

The little round dumplings are made of glutinous rice flour and can be white or colored, sweet or savory. They don’t really taste like much, except for what it’s cooked with. The texture is smooth and a little chewy.

It’s funny to look back at my first post about yuan, when I first started up the blog. Last year, I had cut the daikon and tried my hand at making yuan. This year, I got demoted to just peeling the daikon and cleaning the mushrooms. But I don’t mind as no one can cook like Mom can.

And this year, I finally managed to get down my Mom’s recipe, adjusted to be vegan of course.

Savory Tang Yuan
Serves 2

Stock
5 cups vegetable stock or water
3 cloves garlic, smashed
Garlic salt to taste
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 medium sized daikon, peeled and julienned

In a large pot, add the first four ingredients and bring to a boil, then add the daikon. Bring to a boil again and reduce the heat to low and let it simmer while you prepare the rest of the soup.

To make the yuan
1 16 ounce bag glutinous rice flour
1 1/2 cups water

Pour the bag of rice flour onto a clean smooth surface. Make a well in the center and add the water a little bit at a time to the center, mixing the flour with the water. Save a little bit of the flour to use for dusting.

Knead the dough mixture until soft and smooth and the dough is well-mixed. Flour the work surface and hands. Twirl the dough between the hand into a log shape, break off about an 1/2″ size chunk and roll between the palms to make it into a ball shape.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the yuans, a few at a time, do not overcrowd the pot. Bring to a boil, when the yuans float to the top about 4-5 minutes, take the yuans out.

Finishing the soup
2 cups napa cabbage, julienned
3-4 dried chinese mushrooms, soaked until soft and sliced
3 1/2 ounces veggie meat
1 green onion, chopped
1 sprig cilantro, chopped

To the stock, add the napa cabbage and mushrooms, cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the veggie meat. Add the yuan and bring to boil. Serve, garnish with greens onions and cilantro.

Once upon a time, in the very distant past, I tried soup in a bread bowl. It seemed a little weird to me back then.

Do you eat the bowl or not?

I think I tried to eat the whole thing but it was way too much, I’m sure I didn’t even come close to finishing it. It just seemed like such a waste of food. I haven’t tried it since.

With the upcoming cooler weather, I feel like giving it a try again. But this time, instead of a giant bread bowl, why not a cute miniature one?

Besides the large loaves of sourdough bread at the bakery, now there’s also small and medium sizes. Get whatever size you like, the smaller ones for an appetizer, the medium ones for a bigger serving.

Inspired by VeganDad‘s post on Mixed Vegetable Chowder, I adapted my usual corn chowder to include different vegetables. It’s got a slightly different taste and flavor yet it’s still comfortingly familiar.

Vegetable Chowder In Mini Sourdough Bread Bowl
Serves 2 – 4

2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 small white onion, chopped
1 small leek, sliced
1 medium carrot, sliced
2 medium red potatoes, cubed
1 cup vegetable stock
1 cup soymilk
1 garlic clove, minced
6 fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 medium or 4 small sourdough bread loaves or rolls
Cayenne pepper to taste

In a large pot, heat 1 teaspoon of the oil until hot, add the onions and leeks, sauté until translucent. Add the carrots and potatoes, sauté for a few minutes. Add the vegetable stock and cover. Bring to a boil and cook over low to medium heat for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a wok until hot, add the remaining oil. Add the garlic and mushrooms and sauté until cooked. Set aside.

Add the mushrooms and soymilk to the soup and simmer for 5 minutes. Puree 3/4 of the soup in a blender, return to the pot, and mix well.

Slice off the top of the bread and hollow out the inside, saving the bread for another use. Ladle the soup into the bread bowl and top with cayenne pepper.

No Croutons Required is a monthly food blogging event hosted by Lisa’s Kitchen and Tinned Tomatoes. October’s theme is hearty vegetarian soups that will warm the body and satisfy a hungry tummy. In my book bowl, that’s chowder and my contribution to the event.

This is not an authentic Vietnamese pho soup nor is it a traditional Chinese soup. What is it then? It’s my interpretation of the two meeting in a tasty bowl.

Like those old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercials where the two ingredients collide and it taste great. But instead of chocolate and peanut butter, it’s a delicious blend of Vietnamese seasonings/garnishes and Chinese ingredients.

I use fresh flat rice noodles (ho fun) usually seen in Chinese stir-fry dishes. Made from rice flour, wheat starch and water, they’re actually great in soups and feels more substantial than the thinner types of rice noodles. If you can’t find them fresh, dried rice noodles can also be used.

Rice Noodle Soup
Serves 2

Soup Base
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 serrano chile pepper, thinly sliced crosswise
3-4 fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1/2 ” piece of ginger, sliced
1 clove garlic, smashed and roughly chopped
4 cups water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Salt

1/2 pound fresh thick rice noodles
10 small tofu puffs, can be substituted with baked tofu
1/2 pound Bloomsdale spinach or 2 cups sliced baby bok choy
1 lime, cut into wedges
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped

If the rice noodles were refrigerated, they may be stuck together in a large block. Gently separate the noodles pieces into smaller pieces. It doesn’t have to be down to each individual piece as they’ll separate more when they cook.

Heat a wok until hot, add the oil and swirl to coat. Add the chile pepper and stir for a few seconds. Add the mushrooms, ginger and garlic, stir-fry for about a minute. Add the water, soy sauce and salt to taste, bring to a boil.

Add the rice noodles, when it comes to a boil, add the tofu puffs and spinach. Cook until the noodles are soft about 1-2 minutes more. Divide between two bowls and garnish with the cilantro, basil, and mint as desired. Serve immediately with the lime wedges to be squeezed into the soup to taste.

Jook, also known as rice porridge or congee is my idea of comfort food. It reminds me of Mom, home-cooking and all things good. For other people, it’s mac ‘n cheese, chicken noodle soup, buttery mashed potatoes or fill-in-the-blank.

It’s purportedly good for whatever ails you. Got digestive problems? Eat jook. Feeling under the weather? Have some jook. Have a hangover? Here’s a bowl of jook. Fortunately, I’m not dealing with any of those issues at the moment, I just like to eat jook for jook’s sake.

I make mine home-style with all sorts of goodies to flavor the jook while it’s cooking. It’s endlessly adaptable – add whatever ingredients you like, leave out the ones you don’t. My Mom likes a variety of ingredients in her jook, one of which is gingko nuts. I don’t like gingko nuts. I will actually pick them out of my bowl. Mom carries on that they’re expensive, I generously offered mine to her but she didn’t want them. Sorry Mom.

Restaurant-style jook is cooked plain and then topped with your choice of various condiments and garnishes. Sometimes I like to top mine with French’s French Fried Onions for a nice crunchy texture.

I learned to make jook in a large pot, nowadays, I use a fuzzy logic rice cooker with a porridge setting. It makes it super easy. I don’t have to monitor the rice cooker like I would with the pot and it’s a breeze to clean up.

Jook
Makes about 5 1/2 cups

1/2 cup long-grain white rice
4 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked until soft, then chopped
2 1/2 tablespoons Tianjin preserved vegetable, rinsed
1 tablespoon minced ginger
3 ounces baked tofu, chopped
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 green onions chopped
Soy sauce

Cooking directions is for use with a rice cooker with a 5.5 cups capacity. Using the inner pot of the rice cooker, rinse the rice well in several changes of water until the water is clear. Add water to the marked level on the pot according to the rice cooker’s directions.

Add the chopped mushrooms, preserved vegetable, and ginger. Select the porridge setting to begin cooking. The rice cooker will do its thing while you relax. Occasionally, give the pot a stir. After about an hour and a half the rice cooker will beep that it’s done.

Add the tofu, sesame oil, and vinegar to the rice cooker. Press the reheat button to cook another 5 minutes, it’ll beep again when time is up. Ladle into bowls and garnish with green onions. Drizzle with soy sauce to taste.

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.

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.