Chow Vegan

I had intended to serve roasted red potatoes with the Chicken-Fried Tofu I made last week. But I was wavering between mashed potatoes or something else. I decided roasted potatoes would be good but then the oven was busy with the tofu.

Both taste best hot right out of the oven when they’re nice and crispy. If only I had a fancy kitchen with two ovens, but I don’t so I didn’t make the potatoes until later and had it as a snack.

Roasted Red Potatoes
Serves 2 as part of a meal

1 pound red potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Wash and scrub the potatoes with the skin on. Cut into 3/4″ – 1″ wedges and put into a mixing bowl. Add the olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper to taste. Toss well to coat each piece, then pour out onto a baking pan.

Roast for about 15 – 20 minutes on each side, flipping over the potatoes about halfway through until the potatoes are tender on the inside and nicely crisp and golden on the outside.

Earlier this month, I posted about Spicy Baked Potato Chips. Crystal over at The Modern Vegetarian commented about using sweet potatoes in the recipe. I thought that was a great idea and finally got around to trying it.

I prefer the chips to sweet potato fries. I’ve tried the fries both in restaurants and the frozen kind. For all I know, the restaurant kind could have been using the frozen kind. Anyways, the chips are a bit firmer and not so floppy and greasy.

The sweet potatoes I had on hand were on the small size, it’s probably better to find bigger ones that are more uniform in size, so they’ll cook more evenly. That and a mandoline would have been very helpful as thinner slices would make for a crisper chip.

Spicy Baked Sweet Potato Chips
Serves 1

2 small or 1 large sweet potato
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Peel the sweet potatoes and thinly slice crosswise into 3/8 inch thick slices. The more uniform the slices, the better. If you have a mandoline, use it.

Place the sweet potato slices in a bowl. Add the olive oil, cayenne pepper and salt to taste and mix well. Spread the slices out on a baking pan in a single layer. Bake about 12 minutes on each side. Carefully checking to make sure the smaller or thinner pieces don’t burn (that’s why it’s better to have uniform shape and thickness). Serve immediately with your favorite condiment.

Ranch Dip

I made just enough ranch dip to try with the chips. I had a tiny bit of fresh silken tofu left over in the fridge and a very sad looking half of a lemon. I kinda just winged it, so I don’t have the measurements to write out a proper recipe for the dip.

Basically, it’s just silken tofu, lemon juice, onion powder, dried parsley, and salt. Add everything to taste in a bowl and whisk until it looks like a dip. The key is taste testing and adding small amounts until it comes out to your liking.

Whenever I travel, it always seems like I don’t get to eat enough leafy greens. I feel out of sorts when that happens. There’s no leafy greens in burritos, none on the pizza or veggie burgers, which I had twice on this last trip. (I reserve the eating of veggie burgers for traveling only as most restaurants have them nowadays and I don’t want to overdose by eating them at home.)

So as soon as I return, I must have some greens. I’m a little tired of the usual kale, spinach and swiss chard. But at the Asian grocery store, I saw red leaf amaranth also known as yeen choy or Chinese spinach. Sometimes they’re also available at the farmer’s market; they’re in season from spring to fall.

The leaves are dark green and tinged with red. Like red swiss chard, when cooked it’ll color anything it comes in contact with a pinkish red. It came be substituted in any spinach recipe but I prefer a simple stir-fry.

Stir-fried Amaranth with Garlic
Serves 2 as part of a meal

1 pound of red leaf amaranth
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup water
Salt

Wash the amaranth in several changes of water, trimming off any old leaves and tough stems. Let dry in a colander or if you’re in a hurry, spin dry the greens.

Heat a wok over high heat until hot. Add the oil and swirl to coat the wok. Add the garlic and stir-fry for a few seconds. Add the amaranth and cover. After about 30 seconds it’ll start to wilt down. Stir bringing up the amaranth at the bottom to the top. Add the water and salt to taste and cover. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until the stems are tender. Serve immediately.

I’ve been guilty of eating a whole bag of potato chips in one setting on more than one occasion. In my defense, the bag wasn’t really all that big. Yes, that’s a flimsy excuse so I’ve been working on kicking my salty junk food habit.

Now when I get the munchies, I make my own potato chips in the oven. They’re a lot thicker than store bought chips and have much more of a potato taste. It’s quick, spicy and satisfying.

Spicy Baked Potato Chips
Serves 1

1 russet potato
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Seasoned salt

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Thinly slice the potato crosswise into about 3/8 inch thick slices. I hand-cut mine but if you have a mandoline, you can probably get them thinner. If you do make your slices thinner, you’ll need to adjust the cooking time and/or temperature so the chips don’t get burnt towards the end of the cooking time.

Place the potato slices in a bowl. Add the olive oil, cayenne pepper and seasoned salt to taste and mix well. Spread the potatoes out on a baking pan in a single layer. Bake about 12 minutes on each side. Eat immediately with ketchup.

Recently, I found these huge king oyster mushrooms at the grocery store. They’re similar to the Trumpet Royale™ variety used in the King Oyster Mushroom Salad but humongous. Humongous! They’re not just a little bigger, they’re a lot bigger.

If you saw them in the store, you would be a little frighten. They look like mushrooms on steroids with their thick, meaty white stems and their tiny tan caps (they’re not really on steroids, that’s just how they are). But they taste oh so good.

They’re the largest species in the oyster mushroom genus, Pleurotus. When cooked, they have a texture similar to that of abalone, which is probably why they’re also known as almond abalone mushrooms. In the stir-fry, crisp snow peas provide an excellent contrast to the soft mushrooms.

I also used another ingredient you might not have heard of – salted turnips. They’re not usually served in dishes at Chinese restaurants as they’re considered more for home cooking.

Found only at the Asian grocery store, they provide additional flavor and texture to the dish. It’s a little bit crunchy and even though it’s preserved in salt, it has a sweet flavor. But if you can’t find it or if you don’t feel like putting in some weird new ingredient you’ve never seen before in your life, you can leave it out. It’s not a recipe breaker.

King Oyster Mushrooms With Snow Peas
Serves 2 as part of a meal

1 pound snow peas
1-2 large king oyster mushroom
2-3 pieces salted turnip, rinsed off
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt

Wash and trim the snow peas. Slice the salted turnip crosswise at a diagonal. Wash the mushrooms and slice into 1/8″ rounds on the diagonal.

In a wok, heat until hot and then add 1 teaspoon of the oil. Add the mushrooms and salt to taste, sauté until slightly wilted and the mushrooms have changed to a smooth texture, about 3 minutes. Remove and set aside.

Heat the wok again, add the remaining oil, salted turnips and snow peas. Stir and then cover for 30 seconds. Add salt to taste and a splash of water if the wok appears to be too dry. Cover until snow peas are cooked. They should be crisp yet tender, about 2 1/2 minutes, stirring and checking a few times. When snow peas are cooked, return the mushrooms to the wok, stirring to mix for a few seconds. Plate and serve.

Sometimes the best way to cook something is to just keep it simple, nothing fancy, no special equipment, no exotic ingredients. This is my favorite way to cook spinach. I like getting the fresh organic bunch of spinach with the stems still on. A couple of times while washing the spinach, I’ve found a ladybug on a leaf. Each time I just open the back door and let them go on their merry way. For awhile there, I was buying the spinach in the cellophane bags, prewashed no less. But I missed the stems, they’re the sweetest, most tender part of the spinach.

Sauteed Spinach
Serves 2 as part of a meal

1 bunch of spinach with stems still attached
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
Salt
White sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Wash the spinach in several changes of water, making sure there’s no dirt or grit left, cut off the root part and separate the leaves. You don’t need to dry the spinach.

Heat the wok over high heat. Add the olive oil and swirl to coat the wok. Add the spinach and cover. After about 30 seconds the spinach will start to wilt down. Stir bringing up the spinach at the bottom to the top. Add salt to taste and stir again. Cover for 30-45 seconds until all of the spinach is cooked and wilted. Do not overcook. Garnish with the sesame seeds.