College Vegetarian Cooking_ Feed Yourself and Your Friends - Megan Carle [20]
Place the filling in a bowl and serve with the lettuce leaves, cucumber, bell pepper, peanuts, and remaining sauce on the side. To assemble, place some of the filling inside a lettuce leaf. Arrange some of the cucumber and bell pepper over the filling. Sprinkle with some of the chopped peanuts, drizzle with the sauce, and wrap up like a burrito.
Cooking 101:
Chili paste is a blend of hot chile peppers, garlic, and oil and is used in many different Asian dishes. You can find it by the Asian foods in most grocery stores. If you’ve never used it before, start with a little and add more to suit your tastes.
Teriyaki Tofu with Vegetables
Teriyaki Tofu with Vegetables
I love teriyaki sauce. For me, anything can be made better with teriyaki sauce, which is why I was totally in favor of the tofu in this recipe, much to my sister’s surprise. The tofu soaks up a light teriyaki flavor, but not so much that it becomes overly teriyaki-y. I made that up, but it should be a word. –J
Serves 4
1 (8-ounce) package baked tofu, any flavor
½ cup teriyaki sauce
1 small head bok choy
2 stalks celery
1 carrot
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
Cooking spray
1 (8-ounce) can sliced water chestnuts
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 cups cooked white rice
Cut the tofu into bite-size pieces, place in a shallow bowl, and pour in the teriyaki sauce. Let stand, stirring occasionally, until ready to use.
Rinse the bok choy and cut both leaves and stems into ¼-inch-thick slices. Trim and discard the ends of the celery and cut it into ¼-inch-thick slices. Peel the carrot and onion and cut into thin slices. Peel and finely chop the garlic or pass it through a garlic press.
Generously spray a large skillet with cooking spray and place over medium-high heat. Add the garlic to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds. Add the bok choy, celery, carrot, onion, and water chestnuts and cook, stirring frequently, for 4 to 5 minutes, or until the carrot is just tender. Add the tofu to the pan, reserving the teriyaki sauce. Combine the cornstarch and teriyaki sauce, stir until smooth, then stir in to the pan. Cook, stirring constantly, for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the sauce comes to a boil. Take the pan off the heat.
Spoon some of the rice onto each plate, top with some of the tofu mixture, and serve immediately.
Food Trivia:
You may have heard that eating celery burns more calories than it contains, making it a “negative calorie” food. Although that is technically correct, don’t get your hopes up that you are going to eat your way thin. The negative calories are due more to the fact that there are so few calories in celery than that you burn off so many eating it.
Eggplant Curry
I never realized that there were so many ways to make curry until a few of my friends got into a discussion of the virtues of the different types. There’s red, made with red chiles; green, made with green chiles; and yellow, made with turmeric. Countries all across Asia, from India to Malaysia to Thailand (and Mongolia!), have dishes called curries—all spicy. Then there’s the wet/dry divide, which has to do with how much sauce the dish has. In case you’re interested, this is a dry, yellow, Indian-style curry. –M
Serves 4
4 green onions
1 large eggplant
2 potatoes
1 large onion
1 red bell pepper
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
3 tablespoons curry powder
1 cup water
½ vegetable bouillon cube
Salt and pepper
2 cups cooked jasmine rice
Trim the green onions, discarding the ends, and cut the white and about 1 inch of the green part into thin slices. Trim and discard the stem of the eggplant, then peel it and cut into 1-inch cubes. Peel the potatoes and cut into ¾-inch cubes. Peel the onion and cut into ½-inch pieces. Cut the bell pepper in half, remove the stem, seeds, and membranes, and cut into ⅓-inch pieces.