Chow Vegan

Cantonese-Style Vegetable Chow Mein

June 3, 2009 By chow 20 Comments

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.

Berry Soup With Cake Croutons

May 20, 2009 By chow 10 Comments

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.

Roasted Tofu Cubes from Vegan Soul Kitchen

May 9, 2009 By chow 20 Comments

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.