Oh man… this was SO good!  I had to exercise great restraint to keep from eating the whole pot and then licking it clean.  I’ve made this coconut curry before, but I thought I could thin it out a bit with some extra veggie stock to make it into a soup.  I think it’s actually better as a soup than it is a curry dish.  Anyway, the basic recipe is Carrie’s, but I did make a few changes so I will post it here.

Coconut Curry Soup

1 package Asian noodles (I used udon)

1 package extra firm tofu, patted dry and cut into bite sized cubes

2 TB canola oil, plus an extra drizzle to fry the tofu

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, chopped

1 zucchini, chopped

1 summer squash, chopped

2 cups green cabbage, chopped

1 cup green beans, frozen

1 cup peas, frozen

1 cup broccoli florets, frozen

1 1/2 tsp Thai Red Curry Paste

1 can light coconut milk

2 cups veggie stock

2 TB brown sugar (firmly packed)

2 tsp turmeric

2 TB soy sauce

Juice of 2 limes (the more, the better I think- feel free to add more if you like)

Cook the noodles per package directions.  In a large skillet (preferably non-stick) over medium high heat, drizzle a tiny bit of canola oil and pan fry the tofu cubes on all sides.  In a (separate) large soup pot, saute the onion in the canola oil over medium high heat.  After a few minutes, add the zucchini, squash, and cabbage to the soup pot and cook for about 5 minutes.  You want the vegetables to get a little bit of color to them, so don’t worry too much about stirring them constantly.  The idea is that the vegetables are sort of stir fried before the broth makes the dish into a soup.  Anyway, so after a few minutes, add the garlic and the curry paste and cook until the curry paste becomes fragrant.  You will have to mash it up with a spoon as it’s cooking to get rid of the big clumps.  Add the coconut milk, veg stock, brown sugar (be sure that it is firmly packed when you measure it), turmeric and soy sauce.  Stir and bring it up to a boil.  Add the broccoli, green beans and peas.  Reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes.  Stir in the cooked noodles and lime juice.  Taste for seasoning and add salt, if needed, or more lime juice.  Garnish with chopped cilantro or basil and some chopped peanuts.

So, so, so delicious!  The perfect blend of sweet, spice and tang.

The other night, I ended up making the teriyaki quinoa recipe from ED&BV.  We had some leftover, so I decided to grill up some veggies and tofu to go with it.

Veggie Marinade

1 TB dijon mustard

1 TB toasted sesame oil

2 TB rice wine vinegar

1 TB grill seasoning

1/4 cup olive oil

3 cloves garlic, smashed

1 inch piece of ginger, cut into chunks

Combine all ingredients in a large baking dish and throw in your favorite veggies.  Marinate for as long as you can.  I was only able to marinate for about an hour, but they were still really good.  If using an indoor grill, be sure to remove the battery from your smoke detector before firing it up! 

Amy was so thoughtful to bring us a bunch of fruit from her travels and I decided to grill up the pineapple she brought us for a little sweetness.  I did not marinate the pineapple, nor did I marinate the tofu (didn’t want it to stick to the grill), but I did brush some of the marinate onto the tofu once it was done grilling.  We didn’t have a huge selection of vegetables in the fridge, so I ended up using some red and green bell peppers, a yellow onion, green onions, and a summer squash that Amy brought us.

This will definitely be added to our list of regulars.  I’ll have to remember next time to open up all the windows and turn on the fan before beginning to grill everything.  It gave the tofu a really yummy smoky taste and almost meaty texture that even non-tofu eaters may enjoy.  I was less excited about the quinoa.  It was just OK– nothing special.

Since I had a head of cabbage in my fridge hanging out with my excess phyllo dough from the party, I thought I’d whip up some faux “egg” rolls for dinner last night.

But what to go with them???  Hmm… I had some cabbage and carrots, but nothing else by way of fresh veggies.  I did have some frozen green beans, edamame, and frozen broccoli, so how about a fried rice?  Perfect!

I cooked up a batch of sticky (sushi) rice- just one cup of uncooked rice- which I guess yielded about 2 1/2 cups of cooked rice.  When it was done cooking, I let it cool a bit while I chopped up the veggies.

Vegan Fried Rice

2 1/2 cups cooked rice, any kind will do

1 medium onion, diced

1 medium carrot, diced

1 cup cabbage, shredded

1 cup broccoli florets (I used frozen)

1 cup green beans (I used frozen)

1/2 cup edamame (I used frozen)

1 inch piece of ginger, minced or grated

3 cloves of garlic, minced or grated

1/4 cup of soy sauce (or more, if needed)

1/4 tsp hot sesame oil

Chopped green onions and cilantro, for garnish

Heat a large nonstick skillet or wok over high heat.  Add about a tablespoon of canola oil and stir fry the onions.  After about two minutes, add the carrots.  After about a minute, add the cabbage, ginger, and garlic, being careful not to let the garlic and ginger burn.  When the cabbage has cooked down a bit, add the edamame (still frozen), green beans and broccoli and let them cook for a few minutes.  Scoot the veggies over to the side of your pan and add the cooked rice.  Fry the rice, being sure to separate any clumps, then stir the rice in with the veggies.  Pour the soy sauce and sesame oil over the top and mix well.  Give it a taste and add more soy, if needed.  At the last minute, stir in the green onions and cilantro.

This rice is so awesome!  I have made it a lot of different ways, but I definitely prefer white, sticky rice to brown rice.  I know, I know- I’m going to hell for advocating white rice over brown- but everything in moderation, right? 

I have to admit that I have been in a cooking rut and, consequently, a blogging rut lately. I just can’t come up with many creative meals lately. We were in pretty bad shape grocery-wise, so I turned to New Vegetarian Cooking for inspiration. I came across a recipe that I’ve made before, Soba with Green Soybeans. I didn’t have any soba noodles on hand, so I substituted udon and it came out pretty good. The recipe is basically the noodles, mixed with lots of green onions, edamame and a dressing made from soy sauce, sesame seeds, toasted sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and a sweetener (I used agave nectar). It turned out pretty good, but I every time I’ve made this, I realize afterwards that the recipe calls for way too many green onions. I will make a note to cut back on those next time. Just for some extra zing, I thew in a small handful of chopped cilantro.

To go with my noodle dish, I went with Carrie’s brilliant idea for faux “egg” rolls. I pretty much followed her method for making them, except I used my own concoction to make the tofu marinade and dipping sauce:

Dipping Sauce

Equal parts fresh lime juice and soy sauce (or to taste)

splash of rice wine vinegar

splash of water

a small handful of each – chopped fresh cilantro, mint and green onions

a pinch of red pepper flakes

about a 1 inch piece of ginger, minced or grated

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced or grated

I made two separate batches of this- one went into a small baking dish to marinate the tofu and one went into a small bowl for dipping. To the tofu marinade, I also added about a teaspoon of red curry paste. I used half of a block of tofu, reserving the other half to make my pan-fried tofu triangles. I cut up the egg roll tofu into small strips and dunked them in the marinade for about 2 hours. Meanwhile, I got my veggies ready, which didn’t take too long considering we only had green cabbage and carrots as suitable egg roll stuffers.

To assemble the egg rolls, I took 1 sheet of phyllo, brushed it ever so lightly with olive oil and topped it with another sheet of phyllo. I did this until I had 3 sheets of phyllo in a nice stack. I cut it in half lengthwise and the two halves each made one egg roll. Nothing scientific about it- throw in some carrots, cabbage, and tofu and roll it up! I used a little bit more olive oil to seal the edge and then I brushed the entire roll with the oil. I baked them on a baking sheet line with parchment paper in a 350 degree oven until they were golden brown (about 10 minutes). These were yummy! I love that you can still get the crispiness of a traditional egg roll without the deep frying and extra calories (and without the egg). I will definitely be making these again- actually, I have them planned for later this week.

The pan-fried tofu triangles are just as easy to prepare. I took the rest of my tofu, cut it into triangles (for Emma- I don’t know why that shape for food appeals to her) and patted them dry. Heat a very large, non-stick skillet to medium-high heat and put in a tiny drop of canola oil (like probably 1/8 to 1/4 of a tsp is all you need). The trick is to use a non-stick skillet for this or you will end up with a big mess. Swirl the oil around the pan and add in the tofu. Cook the tofu on both sides until it is golden brown. Serve with the same dipping sauce as the egg rolls. I make this all the time, especially if I’m not sure whether or not Emma will eat what I’ve already prepared for dinner. She loves them! She wasn’t as fond of the egg rolls or the noodles, but did manage to eat a few bites of noodles after picking off the onions and cilantro. She said they were “dirty.”

It was yet another night last week where I was completely unmotivated to make any dinner. The Orange Sesame Tofu from the night before was a bust, and I had so much of it leftover (and rice too!). What to do, what to do???

Just then, I remembered reading a post on Carrie’s blog for a stir fry with an orange chili sauce and voila! My problem was solved. I took my leftover tofu and rinsed off the congealed orange sauce and patted it dry. Then I cut it up into smaller triangles. Why triangles? Well, Emma loves triangle anything (toast, quesadillas, etc) so, whenever possible, I try to cut things into triangles to make them more appealing to her. I fried the tofu in a nonstick skillet in the teeniest bit of canola oil until it was brown on all sides. I removed the tofu from the pan and added a diced onion, some carrots and a green bell pepper and cooked those until they were almost tender. Then I added some frozen peas and frozen green beans and put the tofu back into the pan. I poured the sauce over the tofu and veggies and let it reduce down.  I used the leftover coconut lime rice as the base, and I topped it all with some sliced green onion, purple basil and mint.  This was SO good (and such a good save for the tofu since my other option would have been to throw it out).

I was totally unmotivated to make dinner one night last week… and I had no idea what to make. I was flipping through ED&BVlooking for inspiration when Dreena’s recipe for Orange Sesame Tofu caught my eye. I had everything on hand and thought it sounded pretty good. To go with it, I also made Dreena’s Coconut Lime Rice and, just because I had some organic green beans in the fridge, decided to also make Dreena’s Lemon-Broiled Green Beans. I followed all recipes exactly, except that I used orange juice in place of the lemon juice on the green beans (since I had a bunch of oranges already juiced).

I like the flavor of the orange sesame sauce on the tofu, but the gelatinous texture was off-putting. I don’t mind that the texture of tofu is a little squishy, but when paired with a squishy, gelatinous sauce, it just didn’t work for me. This was my last favorite part of the meal.

My second least favorite part of the meal was the rice. It wasn’t bad, just kind of blah. I think it’s better paired with a stir fry or curry- anything with a spicy sauce to give it some zing.

My favorite part of the meal was the green bean dish. They were so easy to make and so tasty. I ended up making them again later in the week when my parents came over for dinner.