I was inspired by the Sansai Udon Noodle dish I usually order at my favorite restaurants. All you need is miso and some key ingredients and you're good to go. I cheated by using Trader Joe's instant miso soup, which by the way is very yummy on its own.
Ingredients:
Miso (instant soup from Trader Joe's)
Broccoli
Shiitake Mushrooms
Canola Oil
Somen or Udon Noodles
Optional:
Panko Flakes
Preheat oven 400º before chopping broccoli and slicing mushrooms. Place veggies on oil lined pan dashing with some canola oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for about 20 minutes. Prepare one packet of miso soup. Boil the soup then place noodles in soup. Cook until noodles are done. Noodles should absorb most of the liquid.
Take out crispy vegetables from the oven and top the noodles in the miso base. Sprinkle with panko flakes for extra flavor.
Wow, I'm just now coming up for air. I was working 12 hour days right before the holidays. I still have to post my Thanksgiving feast, but first try this light (as in not how heavy Thanksgiving food can be) dish that's simple and easy to make. Good especially if you're tired of cooking and eating Thanksgiving leftovers. Or if you just want a break from rich food. All you need are a few ingredients.
Ingredients:
Shiitake Mushrooms
Broccoli
Somen Noodles
4 Tbsp Vegetarian Oyster Sauce
1 Cup Vegetable Broth
1 Tbsp Canola Oil or Sesame Oil
Boil somen noodles in vegetable broth. Prepare broccoli and shiitake mushrooms. Slice and chop. Take a pan and sauté mushrooms and broccoli in oil. Sauté until broccoli has soften and turned bright green. Mushrooms should soften as well. Cover for a few minutes while you drain the somen noodles. Make sure to keep about 1/4 cup of vegetable broth to add to the noodles once you are finished with the vegetables.
Uncover veggies and add oyster sauce. Stir until ingredients are mixed well. Place noodles in a bowl, stir in veggies, add in broth. Add additional amounts of oyster sauce as needed.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Here's a simple Chinese style stir-fry that can be made very quickly. You could also use this for the inside ingredients to a spring roll.
Ingredients:
1 Small Cabbage
3 Large Shiitake Mushrooms or if you can only find small ones - use about 12-15
Peanut Oil
Fresh Ginger
Sea Salt
1 Scallion
2 Tbs of Vegetable Stock
Optional: Black Pepper
Julienne the cabbage. Slice mushrooms. Take the green part of the scallion and slice. Take about 1/2 inch of ginger and chop into really small pieces. Heat large pan or wok for 30 seconds. Pour in 2 Tbs of peanut oil in your pan. Throw in ginger and salt. Coat your pan with spatula. Keep cooking on high heat until some smoke starts to appear. Toss in cabbage and mushrooms. Stir-fry for one minute. Add 2 Tbs of vegetable stock. Mix well. Cook for 5 minutes or until cabbage softens. Add one more Tbs of vegetable stock. Add scallions. Add more salt and even pepper for taste. When the scallions turn bright green the dish is ready to serve!
A lot of people including vegetarians will ask me, what is tempeh and how do you cook it? Tempeh is made from fermented whole soybeans and comes in a cake-like form. Although made from the same ingredients as tofu, it has different nutritional properties. The texture is very different as well. Here's a picture of what it looks like in it's raw form:
I bought this block of regular flavored tempeh at Whole Foods and cut it in half lengthwise. Then I sliced it horizontally.
Required: Garlic powder, Soy sauce, Tempeh, Shiitake mushrooms, Chili oil, Canola oil or Sesame oil if you're feeling brave
Optional: Rice, Broccoli
Slice shiitake mushrooms and tempeh as shown above. Prepare pan by placing 3 Tbsp of canola oil and 1 Tbsp of chili oil. You may need to add more oil depending on the size of your pan and tempeh block. Tempeh can easily turn dry, so you want to make sure that you add enough oil.
Place pan on high heat with oil. Add tempeh and mushrooms. Add a few splashes of soy sauce for taste. Let the tempeh cook for a minute until it absorbs the soy sauce. Tempeh is good at absorbing soy sauce and will turn a brownish color (see top picture). Do not stir yet. The other reason you don't want to stir too soon is that the tempeh will start to crumble. You want the tempeh to get brown! Have I made my point yet? Keep cooking. If it looks like you need more oil, put in more.
After you see the tempeh get a bit brown, you can then start to stir. But please do it gently. Take a spatula and lift up and down. Add a dash of garlic powder. Stir again.
You can serve this over rice and/or with broccoli. (See broccoli recipe).
Tempeh is high in protein and yummy!
I was inspired by the Sansai Udon Noodle dish I usually order at my favorite restaurants. All you need is miso and some key ingredients and you're good to go. I cheated by using Trader Joe's instant miso soup, which by the way is very yummy on its own.
