Good Eat • No Meat
How nice of Lisa from Show Me Vegan to award me with an Excellent Blog Award! Thank you so much Lisa!
I’m passing it onto these excellent blogs:
Food Trance! – Fun eating and drinking vegan in the LA area
The Modern Vegetarian – Lots of yummy recipes from Singapore
Vegan Visitor – Beautiful photos and delicious recipes
Vegan Dad – Awesome food for the whole family
Your Vegan Mom – Tasty recipes with great stories
What do you do when there’s nothing in the house to eat? You open the refrigerator door and to your horror, you realize that in your very busy week, you somehow managed to forget to go to the grocery store. The fridge is absolutely empty, devoid of anything edible, save a few jars of condiments and a carrot that’s been there for who knows how long. And now it’s too late, you’re too tired, and too lazy to go to the store. And you don’t feel like having take-out.
You get creative.
I found some dried spaghetti noodles in the cupboard. Ok, that’s something. And there’s a box of veggie burgers in the freezer – things are starting to look up. So how do I combine them into something tasty? With vegetarian oyster sauce!
Inspiration comes from my Dad, I remember him cooking up a similar dish, Chinese Spaghetti, when I was little. This is my “semi-homemade” vegan version, it’s a very quick and easy meal for those “way-too-busy-and-nothing-in-the-fridge” days.
Chinese Veggie Beef Noodles
Serves 2
4 ounces dried whole wheat spaghetti
2 veggie burger patties
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
Vegetarian oyster sauce (also known as vegetarian mushroom sauce)
2 sprigs of cilantro, chopped
Cook the spaghetti according to the package directions, drain and set aside. Heat the burger patties enough to be able to cut into bite-sized pieces.
Heat a wok until hot, add the oil, swirl to coat the sides of the wok. Add the burger pieces, stir. Add the noodles and stir, try not to let the noodles stick to the wok. Add the veggie oyster sauce to taste, about 2 tablespoons or so. Stir to combine well. Divide between two plates and garnish with the cilantro.
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.