Vegan Wonton Soup

So, I've been writing papers, procrastinating, researching, procrastinating, and procrastinating for these past couple of weeks. In this procrastination, I was stumbling upon various food items. One was an article on the ten or so dumplings from various cultures that you need to try before you die. Now, as a dumpling lover, I swore to myself that one of these days would be a dumpling day. On the very next day, I am panicking because I only have one out of two papers done that was due the next day. Just as I'm panicking about having to do an eight page paper, one of my classmates lets me know that it's not due until three weeks from now. I was kind of ecstatic :D

So, I'm the kind of person who forgets things, makes mistakes constantly, and doesn't really know where she is half the time. Yesterday was one of those instances (including the paper mishap mentioned above). As I'm walking home from work, I notice that my surroundings don't really look familiar. I cut through the wrong park to get to my bus stop. On my way to the next nearest bus, I notice an Asian grocery store across the street. All I can think is, "OMFG WONTON SOUP!!!!!!!!!!" and I go in.

(Ethnic food stores are glorious, because they have crazy awesome products, and because they are super cheap. Everything I bought, including vegetables, spices, oil, and random things I didn't use in this recipe come out to be around $20. Crazyawesome, crazydelicious.)

I get home and decide that I'm going to look up dumpling/wonton recipes on the web, but none of them look all that wonderful. I decide I'm going to do my own thing. Despite being ridiculously delicious, I did make some mistakes that I learned from.

Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

Soup-

1" fresh ginger, cut into eighths
2-3 stalks of chives, sliced horizontally
1 box of vegetable stock
Soy Sauce, to taste
5 spice, to taste
Salt, to taste
2 large carrots, chopped into hearty chunks
1 carton of mushrooms, halved
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tsp sesame oil
Other oil to cover the bottom of the pan

Dumplings/Wontons-

Dumpling wrappers
1 large carrot, grated
1/2 block, or 1 small block of tofu, minced into tiny pieces
8 mushrooms, minced into tiny pieces
1/2 head of cabbage, minced into tiny pieces
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce (or regular, then don't add salt)
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp 5 spice
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
Sriracha hot chili sauce, to taste
1 tsp ground ginger
Salt, to taste

If you like spicy food as much as I do, also add some chili powder or cayenne pepper, to taste.

Directions:

1. Prepare the vegetables and tofu for the wonton filling and combine in a large mixing bowl. I used a grater and a knife, but please feel free to use a food processor.
2. Add all other ingredients to the mixture, mix evenly, and taste. Add more of anything desired. Then mix some more.
3. Lay out a few dumpling wrappers and plop a tablespoon of the mixture in the center of each.
4. Bring up the sides of the dumpling wrapper into a triangle and pinch. Then, lay each corner flat down on the side of the dumpling. Make sure the corners are all laid down in the same direction. Pinch the top closed.
5. Place the finished dumplings on a plate. Make sure they are somewhat separated. They will stick together otherwise.
6a. If you want to steam the dumplings separately, boil pot of shallow water, insert steamer and banana leaf, and arrange dumplings on top. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until the dumplings look ready. This did not work for me because I did not think to buy a banana leaf. Silly me.
6b. If you want the dumplings in the soup, leave the dumplings wherever you placed them and wait until you prepare the soup.
7. Cover the bottom of the saucepan with canola oil/vegetable oil or the oil of your choice. (Just not sesame yet. It burns quickly.) Set the stove to medium heat. Crush garlic into the saucepan and stir for 3-5 minutes.
8. Add mushrooms and carrots. Cook until tender.
9. Add ginger, vegetable stock, spices, and soy sauce and bring to a boil. Taste to make sure nothing is lacking. Add scallions and dumplings.
10. Simmer for 30 minutes.
11. Enjoy!

Makes 4-6 servings

Please note, do NOT stick your dumplings directly onto the steamer. There is no way you can get them off. I'm still soaking mine.

Also, you can fill up your dumplings with whatever veggies you want. Please leave comments on successful combinations you've tried!

Arroz con Gandules

Arroz con Gandules is a traditional Puerto Rican dish that I cannot get enough of. Literally, it translates to rice with pigeon peas, also known as "toor dal" in Indian cooking. This is the only Puerto Rican dish I know of that includes absolutely no meat (aside from ham in some recipes, which is not necessary). To me, it's become a comfort food, so I have to keep watching how many portions I take!

Many varieties on this recipe call for chickpeas, which is how I usually make it, but today, I decided to use habichuelas to see what would happen. It ends up, most types of light colored beans you use are good with this. I also used hot peppers instead of bell peppers to make my own sofrito. Any pepper you've got is fantastic. I promise!

Ingredients:

1 16oz. can of habichuelas
2 tomatoes, diced
1 onion, diced finely
5 garlic cloves, smooshed and minced
4-5 hot peppers/1-2 bell peppers (preferably different colors), diced finely
3 tbsp. of vegetable oil
1-2 tbsp. cumin
Tons of Adobo all-purpose seasoning
1-2 cups of rice, rinsed
Enough water to cover the mixture by 1"


Directions:

1) After chopping up your vegetables, mix the tomatoes, onion and peppers together.
2) Pour oil in the saucepan and add the sofrito mixture. Cook on medium-high heat for 4 minutes, stirring.
3) Add the garlic and keep cooking for 1-2 minutes, stirring.
4) Add the Adobo, cumin, beans and rice and stir for 2 minutes.
5) Cover the mixture with water (usually around 4-5 cups) until the water level is approximately 1" above where the mixture level is.
6) DO NOT MIX. Cook for about 30 minutes, or until most of the water is absorbed.
7) Cover the saucepan and turn to low heat. Let simmer for 1 hour.
8) Enjoy!!!

Serves 6-8. Unless you eat too much in one sitting.

Just so you all know, you are not supposed to mix the rice once the water is added. This is because the bottom is supposed to crust into this amazing, oniony, crispy thingy called, "pegao" and is considered the best part of the dish. It may look burnt, but trust me, you should eat it. Don't worry, if you added the correct amount of oil, it should not stick to the bottom of your saucepan. :)

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

"Today I don't feel like doing annnnnnnnyyyyyyything... I just want to lay here in bed. Don't feel like picking up my phone, so leave a message at the tone cause today I swear I'm not doing anything. Nothing at all!"



That song familiar to anybody? Well, for the past couple of weeks, I was either making food with friends and wanted to get to the eating... and drinking... or just didn't feel like lifting a finger. I've got quite a few recipes and variations for the lazy or inexperienced vegetarian/vegan chef.

My motto for these days (let's-use-the-least-amount-of-things-I-needa-clean days) is, "It'll cook down!" Ha.

Recipe 1:

Shit In-A-Pan (or for my PG-13 audience, Stuff In-A-Pan)

1. Chop up some veggies of your choice. Make sure you've got a nice colorful bunch and some aromatics. If you don't like onions or garlic, try putting good veggie-spice flavor combos together. (Ex. green pepper + mushrooms + salt, pepper & oregano, etc.) Also, the more the merrier. The more shit you throw in, the better this shit tastes.
2. Fry the onions on medium heat, cook down, then add the rest of your shit according to cooking time and water content. (Ex. zucchini before spinach, eggplant before mushrooms, etc. Also, broccoli can cook surprisingly fast).
3. Eat with rice or spaghetti... depending on which spices you threw in and/or what sauce you're pairing with it. No shame in store-bought sauces on lazy days.


Recipe 2:

Onion Garlic Quesadilla

1. Fry diced onions until clear, add smooshed garlic, cook until you get that crusty golden-brown color. Spice with a bit of adobo, or your own salted spice mixture.
2. Put a tortilla on a plate and fill one side with the cheese of your choice (I used mozzarella just now).
3. Place the onion-garlic mixture on the cheese side of the tortilla, fold it over, and fry the shit out of both sides. Yum.

Recipe 3:

Green Bean and Onion Scrambled Eggs

1. Fry the onions until ALMOST clear on high heat... keep them crispy!
2. Add chopped green beans and fry until lightly cooked on all sides
3. Pour scrambled eggs and cook until ... fully cooked?
4. Eat with mantequilla/crema Hondorena. It's a surprisingly crazyridiculous flavor combo with or without it, but try to find mantequilla somewhere.

Recipe 4:

Roasted Veggies

1. Get some seasonal veggies. If they're big vegetables, like peppers, onions, and zucchini, chop into hearty slices. If not, like mushrooms, baby carrots, and garlic cloves, leave them whole.
2. Throw these in an aluminum foil-lined baking dish. Cover with oil, salt and pepper.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.

Recipe 5:

Syrian Fries

1. Dice up a potato into even chunks. Make them small so you can eat them sooner.
2. Toss in a mixture of oil, allspice, and salt.
3. Spread on a foil-covered cookie sheet and cook at 350 degrees for 15-30 minutes (depending on how crispy you like it and how small the chunks are)

Recipe 6:

Monster Veggie Burger Burrito

1. Fry the veggie burger, cutting into chunks with spatula
2. Remove veggie burger chunks, put on a plate, and make scrambled eggs with adobo mixed in. Also, if you have leftovers, like rice and beans, mix this into the eggs.
3. Heat the tortilla and put in all ingredients. Add mantequilla and/or diced tomato.

Recipe 7:

Israeli Salad

1. Dice up some tomatoes and cucumbers and rip up some fresh parsley.
2. Mix it up, pour some lemon juice or vinegar, oil, and salt or feta cheese and mix it again. You can leave it overnight, but whatever is good for you.
3. Eat! When I came back from Israel, this is what I ate for breakfast like every day. Ask my roommates. It was disgusting how many veggies I ended up eating. In a delicious and healthy way.





































"Cook down already, dammit!"

SuperWoweeOMFGEggplant Lasagna

Last week, I went to the Honest Weight Food Co-op, where I was bent on getting affordable, local, organic veggies to make vegetarian lasagna with. The problem is, I'm pretty darn indecisive and therefore decided to buy half the produce section (not just for this recipe, but for others this week as well). Everything looked so good! I even got a block of organic, local mozzerella for this dish. Which was a pain in the butt to grate, but a pleasure to pick at during this ordeal! :p

I'm not here to lecture on the advantages of locally produced anything versus factory farmed, unethical Monsanto GMO, corn-infused, shipped from 8 different countries bullshit, buuuuuuuuuuuuuut, I've always wanted to have my own vegetable garden. Locally grown things usually just taste better to me. Not everything in here is organic because of budget reasons, but I tried. Speaking of unethical, if there's a sugar mama out there who wants to buy me a patch of land and do that for me.... no, just kidding! I watch MTV's True Life waaay too much. :p Back on topic! Here's how it went down:

Ingredients:

1 eggplant, peeled and sliced thinly lengthwise
10-15 mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 onion, diced but with chunkiness
1 green pepper, same as above
1 jar of (preferably) organic chunky tomato sauce (or whatever flavor you'd like)
1 pkg Gimme Lean ground beef style TVP
1 block of mozzarella cheese, grated (or you can buy grated mozzarella if it makes your life easier)
1 tub of ricotta cheese (14-16 oz.)
Ronzoni lasagna noodles
4 boops of balsamic vinegar
Olive oil or vegetable oil to fill Ziploc bag
Adobo all purpose seasoning (or oregano, salt, and garlic mixed)
Garlic powder (or minced garlic)
Oil for frying


Directions:

1. After preparing your eggplant, sprinkle with a small amount of salt and place slices between paper towels on a plate. Let stand for at least 1 hour. Can stand for up to 4 hours. Throw away paper towels once finished.
2. Lightly sprinkle adobo on eggplant slices (I coated both sides, unfortunately, and it came out slightly too salty) and place in a Ziploc bag. Add vinegar and oil and mix around until the mixture isn't separated. Let stand in refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight.
3. Stir Beef style TVP and garlic powder in a mixing bowl until broken down into tiny, ground beef looking chunks. Since the TVP is pretty gooey, this may be difficult. Don't worry. When you get it in the frying pan, you'll be able to chop it up some more.
4. Heat a large frying pan with raised sides on medium heat until oil is crispy. Or splattery. But not too splattery. Whatever. Add onions and saute until clear.
5. Add peppers and cook until somewhat broken down. Then add mushrooms and cook for a couple of minutes.
6. Add TVP mixture and chop with spatula as best as you can. Keep chopping, stirring and cooking for a couple of minutes.
7. Add sauce and garlic, turn the heat down low, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
8. Spread "meat" sauce very thinly on the bottom of the baking pan. Place three noodles over top. Spread ricotta cheese moderately on the noodles and top conservatively with marinated eggplant and liberally sprinkled mozzerella cheese. Add another thin layer of meat sauce and then noodles. You see the pattern. Repeat until you run out of ingredients and/or reach the top of your pan. On the last layer, you should have noodles with meat sauce and/or ricotta on top. Sprinkle with mozzerella.
9. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
10. Slice up and enjoy!

Serves 6-12

P.S. If you're vegan, use daiya cheese and there's another thingy for vegan ricotta cheese. They're goooooood <3

Channa Masala

When I've got close to nothing left in the house, this is generally the easiest thing to make. This is because the recipe includes the great majority of spices I have already. I'm not at home and this recipe was made a week or two ago, but I've made it so many times, I'm pretty sure I've memorized how to make it. My friend, Kunzi, who taught me everything I know about Indian food, would probably yell at me for not using fresh ginger and chiles, but powdered everything is how I can spend less money and not rot things. Therefore, I will provide both the fresh recipe, for those who prefer it, and the cheap one, for those who can't afford groceries! :)

(My friends Amanda and Steph helped me make this, as pictured to the right)

*I will star which ingredients I used for this particular cooking adventure if two alternatives are provided.

Ingredients:

2-4 tomatoes* (depending on size), diced OR 1 can of unspiced tomato sauce
1 large onion, diced
1 can chickpeas (usually 15 oz.)
2-3 tsp ground corriander* OR roast and grind 2 tsp corriander seeds
1-2 tsp ground cumin* OR roast and grind 1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper* OR 1 sliced jalapeno pepper
1/4 tsp chili powder* OR 1-2 sliced skinny red or green chili peppers
1/2 tsp tumeric
Lots of garam masala, to taste
Lots of garlic powder, to taste* OR 5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp ground ginger* OR 1 small piece fresh ginger grated
1 boop lemon juice* OR juice of 1 lemon
Salt to taste
Vegetable oil, for frying


Directions:

1. Saute onions on medium-low heat until clear. Stir constantly.
2. Add tomatoes and saute until tomatoes begin to break down.
3. Add chickpeas and cook for an additional minute while stirring.
4. If using fresh garlic, ginger, and chiles, add and cook until you smell the garlic. If not, add everything else and cook on low heat for an additional 5-10 minutes. If you'd like, simmer on very low for 10-15 minutes. Taste and adjust flavor where needed.
5. Serve over rice and enjoy!

Serves 4.

Marinated Tofu with Broccoli

I just had a foodgasm so ridiculous that I will forever be craving tofu for lunch. I'm not sure if it's because I went to my local food co-op, Honest Weight, and got fresh tofu or if it's the recipe, but this knocked my imaginary socks off. And my imaginary friend's imaginary socks. You get the picture.

So, I was browsing around tastespotting.com when I decided that I needed to figure out how to perfect my tofu making skills. (This is the third time in my life cooking with tofu.) I found this Marinated Grilled Tofu Recipe and decided that it was simple enough, so I'd give it a go. Here's what I did (my version varies a bit from the original recipe due to me lacking ingredients/a grill):

Ingredients:

1 block of tofu (fresh, if available)
1 small handful of frozen chopped broccoli (or fresh, just watch cooking times)
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp garlic powder (less if desired) + 1 pinch for broccoli
1 large pinch of powdered cayenne pepper
1 tsp EVOO + some for coating pan
1 pinch salt

Directions:

1) Drain tofu for at least 10 minutes by placing it on
a plate with paper towels and put your pan on top
to add pressure.
2) Mix together soy sauce, honey, ginger, 1tsp garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and 1 tsp EVOO in a bowl.
3) Put tofu and marinade in a ziplock bag and flip after 10 minutes. Let stand for a total of 20 minutes (or more, if desired).
4) Chop tofu into bite-sized pieces and fry on medium heat until one side is golden brown.
5) Add broccoli to frying pan. Sprinkle a little salt
and garlic powder directly on broccoli.
6) Make sure all sides of tofu are golden brown and remove piece by piece onto dish. When broccoli is ready (I tasted to make sure :p), do the same. With less things in the pan, the slow cooking bits heat up faster.
7) Pour approximately half of the marinade over your completed dish, if desired. And yes, you'll desire to do so.

Serves 1, unless you serve it with rice... then possibly 2.

Boston

Right now, all I've got in my room is a can of chickpeas, peanut butter, rice, tomato soup, spices, and leftover spaghetti with meatless balls. No, they're not leftover from the first post; they're leftover from today. I promise. Anyway, I'm lacking fresh ingredients because I've been away for the weekend visiting my family in Massachusetts. While in Massachusetts, I found vegan/vegetarian menu items that, outside of NYC, I had never been so excited about in my life!

The Yardhouse, the restaurant I went with my family, had a separate vegetarian menu. This is what I ordered:

Appetizer- Bacon wrapped, bacon fat soaked chicken wings with a Caesar dressing dipping sauce... Just kidding!

Seriously, this is what I ordered:

Appetizer- Grilled artichoke served with roasted garlic aoli dipping sauce and house made potato chips

Lunch- Penne with Veggie Chicken- Crimini Mushrooms, Asparagus, and Sun-dried Tomatoes in a Marsala Cream Sauce dusted with Parmesan

I did have trouble deciding on which vegetarian option to take since all of them sound delicious. Also, any burger could be substituted for a veggie burger. I guess I was excited about this because I've never seen it explicitly stated on the menu. For those of you who are interested, here is their website:
http://www.yardhouse.com/menus/gardein.aspx



The other place I went was exclusively vegan. I have never been so excited in my life about a menu (and believe me, I get way too excited about menus ^^;). My brother, who is not a vegetarian, let alone vegan, does not get excited about menus ever, and eats mostly everything, also was intrigued by this restaurant. It is called My Thai Cafe. We shared dishes. This is what we ate:

Appetizer- Golden Triangles- A combination of ground veggie-chicken, onions, mushrooms, garlic, lemongrass, and other vegetables and curry spices wrapped in wheat flour and deep-fried. Served with choice of either duck sauce or peanut sauce. (We got both sauces and mixed the two.)

Dinners-

1) Nam Prik Kaeng Kari (Yellow Curry) with Half Veggie-Duck- Sweet potatoes, coconut milk, onions, pineapple chunks, zucchini, red pepper, string beans, and lemongrass stir-fried with a mild yellow curry

2) Mango Curry Chicken- A half veggie-chicken with onions, red bell peppers, bamboo shoots, snow peas, mango chunks, and coconut milk in a spicy yellow curry sauce

...and, of course, I had my little bowl of chilies on the side to mix in. :D

Drinks (made with coconut milk instead of milkmilk)-

1) Fresh blended kiwi bubble tea

2) Fresh blended avocado bubble tea

And I swear to god, this was the best bubble tea I'd ever had in my life.

Since this restaurant does not have a website, here are some of the descriptions of things I wanted to try:

Tow-Hoo Tod (Crispy Tofu Cigars)- A mixture of tofu, garlic, lemongrass, and spices in a wheat flour wrapping, fired to a golden brown. Served with duck sauce.

Temple Soup- Sweet potato, butternut squash, coconut milk and ground peanuts
(They also had interesting variations of tom yum gai, goong, tow-hoo, and tom kha)

Rice Noodles (Vietnamese Style)- Stir-fried spicy rice noodles with bean sprouts, onions, carrots, scallions, veggie chicken, beef, and shrimp, tofu, and gluten

Hot Sweet-and-Sour Tofu- Crispy dried triangles of tofu with pineapple chunks, tomatoes, onions, celery, basil leaves, and hot chili lemon sauce

The place is a tad sketchy, but once you go in, it's a nicer environment. They're located at 3 Beach Street, 2nd floor, Boston, Chinatown, MA. Online Review.

That's all for now, folks!