Vegetarian Au Lac Pho

I have never tasted the non-vegetarian Au Lac Pho before, but I had the vegetarian version of it at Loving Hut at Suntec City Mall, Sky Garden. I like the herbs especially the mint leaves in this Vietnamese soupy noodle. Therefore, I whipped up a modified, simplified version and have that for quick lunch … I didn’t have green lime, so I used lemon which I find in my kitchen. As for the vegetarian fishball, I just added one to make it looks nice, it is optional. As for red dates, I used it to sweeten the soup base, omit it if you find using it too ‘heaty’ for the body.

I know just having this for lunch is insufficient and as Vegetarian I must eat well and, have a balanced diet. Just that today, I am real lazy, so I allow myself a break and shall remember to eat well tomorrow.

Preparation: 10 mins Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients (serves 1)
° 200g , blanched rice noodle/Kway Teow
° 25g beansprout, tailed and blanched
° Some basil leaves
° Some mint leaves
° 1 wedge green lime or yellow lemon
° 3 chinese dried mushrooms
° 1 vegetarian fishball (optional)
° 3 seedless red dates (optional)
° 1 slices ginger
° 300ml water or vegetable stock
° 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
° granulated mushroom bouillon (optional), to taste

Chilli Sauce
° 1/4 teaspoon sugar
° 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
° 1-2 red or green chilli padi, sliced

Method
1. Combine the sugar and light soy sauce for the chilli sauce in a small serving plate and mix well. Add in chilli and set aside.
2. Place the mushrooms and water in a pot and soak for 15 minutes. Add in red dates, ginger and bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Season to taste with light soy sauce and granulated mushroom bouillon.
3. Place the noodle, bean sprout, basil leaves and mint leaves in a serving bowl. Pour in the soup. Serve immediately with the chilli sauce and lime or lemon.

Silken Tofu with Cream of Miso

Finally, able to resolve the horrible font issue by re-do them. For the below recipe, it is nothing new, just using ingredients for making the Miso Soup and play around with the amount of ingredients used to create something slightly different.

It is not difficult at all …

Preparation: 5 mins Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 6)
° 1 pack silken tofu (300g), steamed or blanched, cut into 6 sections and drained well
° 250ml water or vegetable stock
° 1 slice ginger
° ¾ tablespoon miso paste or to taste
° 1 teaspoon cooking rice wine (optional)
° 1 teaspoon corn flour, mixed with 30ml water
° some roasted sesame seeds, for garnish
° few slices spring onion or coriander leaves or mint leaves (optional), for garnish

Method
1. Place the water or vegetable stock, ginger in a pot and bring to a boil. Add miso, cooking rice wine and mix well. Stir in corn flour mixture and bring to a boil.
2. Place the tofu on a serving bowl and scoop the cream of miso onto it.
3. Garnish with spring onion or coriander leaves or sesame seeds and serve.

Simplified Vegetarian Dried Pawn Mee

This bottle of Vegetarian Penang Pawn Mee Paste (from Friendly Vegetarian Supplier) comes handy. If you want a quick dried noodle dish, just used it together with vegetarian belacan powder , oil and toss well with blanched cooked yellow noodle/hokkien mee. I added some toasted vegetarian belacan to give it a more robust tasty, omit this if you don’t have any on hand. You can add some water convolvulus/kangkong, if desired.

Preparation: 5 mins Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 200g hokkien mee, blanched
° 1½ -2 tablespoons Vegetarian Penang Pawn Mee paste, or to taste
° ¾ teaspoon toasted vegetarian belacan powder (optional), or to taste
° 1 tablespoon shallot oil or olive oil
° a small handful fresh spring onion or fresh coriander leaves, for garnish
° some deep-fried shallot (optional), for garnish
° 1 chilli padi (optional), sliced

Method
1. Mix hokkien mee with Vegetarian Penang Pawn paste, vegetarian belacan powder, oil and spring onion or coriander leaves. Toss evenly. If it is too dry, just add a little bit of hot water. Divide hokkien mee between individual serving plates.
2. Garnish with deep-fried shallot, spring onion or coriander leaves and serves.

Stir-Fried Silver Sprout

I didn’t cook this dish for many years and it is getting a little difficult to find fresh and beautiful bean sprout that is a little bit longer at the wet market near my place now. Few days back, I just purchased 200g+ bean sprout (S$0.30) from the wet market and removed the head and tail. It is a little bit time consuming but I kind of like doing it. I would sit there and enjoy removing the heads and tails of every single bean sprouts. If you don’t like this task, purchase those bean sprouts with the heads and tails removed.

For this recipe, I didn’t have red or yellow capsicum, so I garnish with spring onion and edamame bean. It is real simple, the secret is high flame and a very quick stir-fry about 30-45 seconds (so get your salt ready!). It does not matter, it look a bit raw in the wok, once you dish it out, it will be just nice and delicious. Seasoning is just salt and the lovely taste comes from the bean sprout with out tail and heads.

Preparation: 10 mins Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2-3)
° 200g beansprout, head and tail end removed
° 1 slice ginger or 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
° 1 tablespoon olive oil
° salt, to taste
° 2 stalks spring onion, cut into 5cm lengths and soaked in ice water
° 1 fresh red chilli padi, for garnish
° some edamame (optional), for garnish

Method
1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the ginger or garlic and fry till fragrant.
2. Throw in the beansprout and stir fry briskly for 30-45 seconds. Season to taste with salt and add in the chilli.
3. Transfer to a serving dish, garnish with spring onion, chilli, edamame and serve immediately.

Edamame Salad in Bread Box

I got the idea from Sunny’s blog - Coffin Shaped Bread (Guan Cai Ban .Well, I don’t have thick toast and therefore I used 3 slices of bread, cutting out a square from 2 slices of bread to make a ‘hole’ and place them on the other slice of bread. I used edamame beans mixed with vegetarian salad cream to make the salad. You can use corn salad or mixed vegetable salad if desired. This is good for tea break and edamame beans are real nutritious. I purchased the edamame from Fairprice – it is known as soya bean salted about S$2.90 per pack (500g). To get the beans, just squeeze them out from pod, it quite fun too.

Preparation: 8 mins

Ingredients (serves 1)
° 3 slices bread
° 75g edamame beans
° 1 tablespoon vegetarian salad cream or vegan mayonnaise, or to taste
° tomatoes slices (optional), for garnish
° mint leaves (optional), for garnish

Method
1. Mix edamame beans with vegetarian salad cream or vegan mayonnaise well in a bowl. Set aside.
2. Place one slice of bread on a serving plate. Cut a square out from 2 slices of bread and put on top of the first slice of bread.
3. Spoon the edamame beans into the little square on the bread. Garnish with tomatoes slices and mint leaves and serve.

Satay Rice with Gochugjang

Well, this is the creation that I mentioned in my recipe Bibimbap from the Sea, – Singapore Variant Bibimbap - using cucumber, onion, satay rice and Stir-fried tempeh with Gochujang chilli paste. I just don’t know how to name this recipe. I used Lotong Rice to replace Satay Rice, in fact, there are almost the same and can be purchased from Supermarket or Wet market.

This is something simple and you do not need to cook, just heat up the Lotong Rice. For a more nutritious one, just add stir-fried tempeh with Gochugjang chilli. Otherwise, this is fine.

Preparation: 30 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 400g Lotong rice, steamed
° 75-100g shredded Japanese cucumber
° 50g onion, sliced
° sesame oil (optional), to serve.
° gochujang (Korean Hot Bean Paste), to serve

Method
1. Cut and divide Lontong Rice into individual serving plate. Arrange shredded cucumber and onion on the Lotong Rice. Garnish with some sesame seeds.
2. Serves with a plate of gochujang and sesame oil.

Cha Soba with Sweet Miso

If you are running out of time to prepare the sauce for cha soba, you can consider using this – sweet miso paste … Toss well, garnish with more shredded nori and sesame seeds before tucking in … Or you can divide this into 4-8 smaller portions and serve that as a appetizer.

By the way, the dipping sauce with grated diakon for Agedashi Tofu goes well with cha soba too. So, unleash your creativity and churn up some new recipes for cha soba! Explore and have some fun …

Preparation: 5 mins Total time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 1)
° 100g cha soba, cooked
° some roasted sesame seeds, for garnish
° some nori shreds, for garnish
° few slices spring onion or coriander leaves (optional), for garnish

Sweet Miso Paste
° ¾ tablespoon miso paste
° 1 tablespoon hot water
° 1 tablespoon sugar
° 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Method
1. To make the miso paste: combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Place the cha soba on a serving plate and top with sweet miso paste.
3. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on it, garnish with spring onion or coriander leaves, nori shreds and serve.

Silken Tofu with Sweet Miso

Another one! Quick, simple plus impressive! If you consume alcohol, you can add sake or few drop of cooking rice wine to this miso paste. This is another dish that you can play with the presentation using different colour sesame seeds, spring onion/coriander leaf or even chilli slice/flake … Just have some fun with it! Next, I am going to use this sweet miso paste with green tea soba for another recipe …

You can do away with steaming, if you love cold tofu or want to save energy. Steaming or blanching the tofu, will make the texture for some tofu softer.

Preparation: 5 mins, Total time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 4)
° 1 pack silken tofu (300g), steamed or blanched, drained well cut into four sections
° some roasted sesame seeds, for garnish
° few slices spring onion or coriander leaves (optional), for garnish

Sweet Miso Paste
° ¾ tablespoon miso paste
° 1 tablespoon hot water
° 1 tablespoon sugar
° ½ teaspoon sesame oil

Method
1. To make the miso paste: combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Place the tofu on individual serving plates and garnish with spring onion or coriander leaf.
3. Top with sweet miso paste, sprinkle some sesame seeds on it and serve.

Instant Vegetarian Satay!

I got this packet of 10 sticks of Vegetarian Satay that come with Satay Peanut Sauce too, from Friendly Vegetarian Food Supplier. The shop assistant recommended that I take this brand – Tian Hock (天福斋供应商). Oh, it turns out delicious.

What I did was place the satay in my oven toaster, brush some oil on it and toast it. Next, I cut some Japanese cucumber, onion (omit, if you desired) and steamed the Lotong Rice that I got from the Supermarket and warm up the Satay Peanut Sauce. The Satay Peanut Sauce is sufficient for the satays, cucumber and Lotong Rice.

And all with 15 minutes, I can enjoy this lovely vegetarian satay at home without much fuss.

As for the price, oh I can’t remember now and this supplier does not have the habit of pasting price tag on their product.

Silken Tofu with Vegetarian Meat Floss

This is real simple and to make it look presentable, just plays with the arrangement of the vegetarian meat floss, spring onion or coriander leaves, chilli and different colour sesame seeds.

Not all things need to be complicated to prove its worthiness. If it can be simplified, why make it complex? Sometimes, I just wonder those special or secret recipes, does all of them need to be special by using so many ingredients? I believe, not all special or secrets need to be in that way.

So for this sauce, it’s real simple, even kids can do it. Just get some good quality light soy sauce and the sesame oil can be replaced with garlic oil, shallot oil, chilli oil, olive oil or no oil! And you may even surprise your family member with this simple and easy to do dish, yet yummy. If the tofu is broken during handling stage, never mind, just mess it up a bit and said it is meant to be in this way to absorb the sauce!

You can do away with steaming, if you love cold tofu or want to save energy. Steaming or blanching the tofu, will make the texture for some tofu softer.

Preparation: 8 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 1 pack silken tofu (300g), steamed or blanched and drained well
° 1 tablespoon vegetarian meat floss
° some nori shreds
° some roasted sesame seeds, for garnish
° few slices spring onion or coriander leaves (optional), for garnish

Sauce
° 2 tablespoons light soy sauce or to taste
° ½ teaspoon sesame oil or garlic oil or shallot oil or chilli oil or olive oil

Method
1. To make the sauce: combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Place the tofu on a serving plate and drizzle the sauce at the bottom the tofu.
3. Garnish with vegetarian meat floss, spring onion, sesame seeds and serve.

Summer Noodles with Vegetable (Bibim Guksu)

Well, Bibim guksu, is a popular traditional cold noodle dish using thin wheat flour noodles called somyeon and a special spicy, sweet and sour sauce. You can cook this in advance since this is a cold noodle dish. This is something like Bibimbap and you can add any vegetable like shredded cucumber or nori shred to it. In here I used dried udon noodle - Kiw Ami Udon which I got from Daiso.

Preparation: 20 mins

Ingredients (serves 1)
° 100g dried udon noodle or wheat flour noodles , cooked
° 25g carrot, shredded
° 25g lettuce, shredded
° 1 (25g) tempeh, diced, mix well with chinese 5 spices salt or BBQ salt and panfried for 1-2 minutes
° 2 shiitake mushrooms, sliced and blanched
° some roasted sesame seeds

Sauce
° 2 tablespoon gochujang (Korean Hot Bean Paste)
° 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
° 1 teaspoon sesame oil
° 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
° 1 tablespoon water
° ½ teaspoon sugar

Method
1. Place all the sauce ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Set aside.
2. Place the noodle on a serving plate and garnish with sesame seed. Arrange shredded carrot, lettuce, tempeh and mushroom. Serve with the sauce.

King Oyster Green Curry

Just a simple pot of green curry with king oyster mushroom which anyone can cook! King oyster mushroom resembles the chicken meat texture and full of nutrients too, and therefore cooked King Oyster Green Curry instead of Green Curry Chicken. Red chilli and tomatoes are added to give it some bright colour. The brand - “Pantainorasingh” contain garlic and therefore not suitable for Buddhist Vegetarian.

Preparation: 10 mins, Cooking time: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 250g king oyster mushroom, cut into chunk
° 1 tomatoes, halved
° 250g “Pantainorasingh” green curry paste, or to taste
° 1 tablespoon olive oil
° 2-3 kaffir lime leaves
° 125ml water
° 125ml fresh coconut milk or soy milk
° small handful basil leaves
° 2 fresh red chilli, seeded and pan fried
° salt and sugar to taste

Method
1. Heat the oil in a wok. Add green curry paste and fry till fragrant.
2. Add in the mushroom and fry for a minute.
3. Throw in the water and bring to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes or until the mushroom are tender. Add in the tomatoes, lime leaves, basil leaves and coconut milk.
4. Garnish with chilli, basil leaves and serve hot with rice.

Asparagus in Sock

After making Asparagus with Special Plum Sauce, I was thinking if anyone does not like plum sauce, the same dish can use other type of dressing or sauce. For this recipe, I use vegetarian oyster sauce (mushroom sauce) and mix other simple ingredients. I am still using Bamboo Fungus, its net like formation, to hold the asparagus together, so it is easier to pick up. They now look like Asparagus wearing white sock.

Preparation: 10 mins Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 8 asparagus, halved diagonally, blanched in boiling water for 30 seconds and drained well
° 8 bamboo fungus/bamboo pith, soaked and blanched in boiling water for 1 minute and drain
° 2 cloves garlic or 1 slice ginger
° 1 tablespoon olive oil
° few wolfberries (optional), soaked

Seasoning
° 1 tablespoon vegetarian oyster sauce
° 1 teaspoon sesame soil
° 60ml water
° ¼ teaspoon corn flour
° ¾ tablespoon cooking rice wine (optional)

Method
1. Put 2 sections of asparagus into each bamboo fungus. Arrange on a serving plate and garnish with carrot slice.
2. Combine all seasoning ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.
3. Heat the oil in a wok. Add the garlic or ginger and fry till fragrant.
4. Pour in the seasoning mixture and bring to a boil. Drizzle over the asparagus.
5. Garnish with wolfberries and serves immediately.