Nata De Coco with Passion Fruit

Nata De Coco is a high-fibre, low-calorie and cholesterol-free dessert. The chewy, juicy cubes can be mixed with cocktails or other dessert to create your own treats. In here, I marry Nata De Coco with Passion Fruit!

Bread Sushi

It is fabulously simple!

Trim the crusts of the white bread. Then place the bread on the nori sheet. Spread some vegan mayonnaise or vegetarian salad cream evenly on the bread. Place a Japanese cucumber strip on the bread and start rolling …

Oh yeah, seal the edge with some mayonnaise and cut into 3cm pieces or eat it as a whole roll.

Simple Mayo Cucumber Salad

So easy and no cooking is request. By adding lime juice and onion, this can be a vegan version of Cucumber Raita (Indian Yoghurt Relish). Sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds for garnish, if desired.

Preparation: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 1 (100g) Japanese Cucumber, diced
° 2 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise or vegetarian salad cream, to taste
° salt (optional), to taste

Method
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl, mix well and serve chilled.

Durian Tofu Dessert

Durian

Durian Tofu Dessert

Ah, Durian Tofu Dessert. Durian is a popular fruit here. I just grab a pack of normal quality durian from the supermarket and make this dessert.

Preparation: 8 minutes

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 1 pack silken tofu (300g)
° 100g-150g durian, deseeded
° sugar to taste

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
2. Serve chilled.

Mango Tofu Pudding

After making the strawberry tofu dessert, I decide to try out using mango. This turn out to be like a pudding. So, experiment with different types of fruit to come up a unique tofu dessert. It’s fun. You may opt to replace passion fruit with other fruits, if desired.

Preparation: 8 mins

Ingredients (serves 2-3)
° 1 pack silken tofu (300g)
° 1 ripe mango, chopped
° 1 passion fruit
° sugar to taste

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
2. Serve chilled and top with passion fruit.

Strawberry Tofu Dessert

Mixing tofu and fruit to make a quick and simple dessert. There is no cooking required at all. For those who do not like soy or tofu, this dessert might be suitable for them. The blended tofu’s texture is so creamy just like yogurt and the strawberries lend its sweet taste and freshness to make it so delectable. A great healthy dessert for kids who do not like fruit. Strawberries bits can be added, if desired.

Preparation: 8 mins

Ingredients (serves 2 -3)
° 1 pack silken tofu (300g)
° 200g strawberries, chopped
° sugar to taste

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
2. Serve chilled.

Shredded Salad with Minty Mayo

If you are tire of cooking, you might want to have a light and simple salad like this. To make it more colourful, just add some cherry tomatoes and sprinkle some sesame seeds.

Preparation: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 75g round cabbage, finely shredded
° 25g red cabbage, finely shredded
° 25g carrot, peeled and finely shredded
° 25g lettuce, finely shredded
° 2 slices bread, diced and toasted

Salad Cream
° 50g salad cream or vegan mayonnaise
° 1½ tablespoons peppermint flavoured syrup
° 1 teaspoon lemon juice or rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar, or to taste
° 6 mint leaves, finely chopped

Method
1. Combine all the salad cream ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Mix all the shredded vegetable in a bowl and pour the salad cream over.
3. Mix well and serve chilled.

Vegetarian Ham with Enoki

This is incredibly simple and easy dish. Just place some enkoi mushroom on a piece of vegetarian ham and roll up. Secure with spring onion or a toothpick. Next brush some olive oil on it and toasted them in the Toaster Oven for 10 mins or just bake or grill them.

If you are not a fan of mock meat, just use the vegetarian ham moderately by cutting the vegetarian into 3 portions. If you prefer them raw, just thaw the vegetarian ham and roll up with enoki mushroom, secure them and that’s!

Vegetarian Summer Roll (Goi Cuon)

This is another no-cook dish. I came across a non-vegetarian recipe on summer roll with meat floss. Therefore, I decide to make a vegetarian version summer roll using vegetarian golden pumpkin meat floss and omit the prawn or crabmeat and pork. It is yummy with crisp fresh vegetable plus herbs (the mint leaves, coriander leaves). To speed up the process, you can choose to cut the carrot and cucumber in strips or slices, wrap it just like the sushi hand roll. Oh yeah, never forget the mint leaves, it brings out the flavour of the summer roll.

Preparation: 15 mins

Ingredients (makes 6)
° 75g shredded carrot
° 50g shredded cucumber
° 3-5 tablespoons golden pumpkin meat floss (vegetarian)
° few pieces lettuce leaves
° 18-24 mint leaves
° 6 pieces rice paper

Chilli Dipping Sauce
° 2 fresh red chilli padi, sliced
° 1 teaspoon sugar
° 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
° 1 tablespoon rice vinegar

Method
To prepare chilli dipping sauce
1. Combine all the ingredients and mix well. Set aside.

To prepare wrap spring roll
1. Soften the rice paper sheet in warm water till soft or as per packet’s instruction. Do not over-moisten the rice paper sheet. If it is too brittle, lightly moisten it with some water or wipe with a damp cloth.
2. Place 1 sheet of rice paper on chopping board or plate. Place a piece of lettuce leave, few mint leaves, some cucumber and carrot, and vegetarian meat floss in the centre and roll up.
3. Arrange on a serving plate and serve immediately with the dipping sauce. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent from drying if it is not consume immediately.

Mango and Cucumber Spring Roll

This is a no-cook dish, simple and yet delicious plus healthy. The vegetarian mushroom which is made from mushroom stalks can be purchased from the vegetarian shops. Thaw it prior to cutting or shredding. Steam the vegetarian mushroom, if desired. You can still enjoy this dish if you don’t have the Vietnamese rice paper. Just pour the dipping sauce over the ingredients and toss well.

Preparation: 20 mins

Ingredients (makes 10-12)
° 150g shredded mango
° 100g shredded cucumber
° 100g shredded vegetarian mushroom
° 10-12 pieces rice paper

Dipping Sauce
° 2 tablespoons tomatoes sauce
° 2 teaspoons sugar, or to taste
° 2 tablespoons (4 limes) freshly squeezed kalamansi lime juice, or to taste
° ¼ teaspoon sesame seeds (optional)

Method
To prepare dipping sauce
1. To make the sauce: Dissolve the sugar with lime juice in a bowl. Add in the tomatoes sauce and mixed well. Sprinkle sesame seeds and set aside.

To wrap spring roll
1. Soften the rice paper sheet in warm water till soft or as per packet’s instruction. Do not over-moisten the rice paper sheet. If it is too brittle, lightly moisten it with some water or wipe with a damp cloth.
2. Place 1 sheet of rice paper on chopping board or plate. Place a small amount of cucumber, mango and vegetarian mushroom in the centre and roll up.
3. Arrange on a serving plate and serve immediately with the dipping sauce. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent from drying if it is not consume immediately.

Spring Rolls (Popiahs)

Lately, there is one Thai Eatery, selling deep fried spring rolls with different type of fillings – tofu filling, vermicelli filling etc. It reminds me of the previous recipe - Vietnamese Popiah.

Just that the wrapper is not rice paper but spring roll wrapper which is more suitable for deep-frying. You don’t need any special culinary skills to whip this up, except deep-frying it which most of us have no problem with. Basically, this can be a 'No Cook' dish too.

I bought a packet of plain Fried Been Hoon (rice vermicelli) from a vegetarian stall for S$0.80 (around 300g) which is enough to make 50 pieces. With some salad sprouts, mint leaves and shredded carrot, I started making the spring rolls. After which, I deep-fried them and they go well with chilli sauce.

If you prefer it not to be deep-fried, just roll up and dip with some sauce (plum sauce mixed with lime juice, sugar, chopped chilli and sesame seeds or some other sauces) ,it tastes good too !

Simplified Vegetarian Peking Duck

This is a ‘No-Cook’ recipe. All the ingredients are easily available at the supermarket. Using spring roll wrapper to replace pancake wrapper, golden roasted vegetarian duck to replace peking duck, plum sauce to replace hoisin sauce. Place the spring roll wrapper in the streamer (turn off the heat) for 1-2 minutes to soften it, if desired. You might even add some fruits or salad sprouts, if desired. Remember to serve immediately or cover up with cling wrap to prevent it from drying up.

Preparation: 20 mins

Ingredients (makes 12)
° 12 pieces spring roll wrappers
° 12 slices golden roasted vegetarian duck
° 50g cucumber, cut into batons
° 50g carrot, peeled, shredded and soaked in water
° 1 stalk spring onion (optional), shredded
° 3-4 tablespoons plum sauce
° 2 chinese lettuces leaves (optional), for garnish

Method
1. Place 1 piece of spring roll wrapper on a chopping board or plate. Spread some plum sauce in the centre and around.
2. Fold in one of the corner to the centre. Arrange the golden roasted vegetarian duck, cucumber, carrot and spring onion on it. Fold in the opposite end corner and roll up. Alternatively, just wrap and roll as you desired.
3. Arrange on a serving plate and garnish with lettuce. Serve immediately.

Soy Dessert with Fruits

Ha...ha…, a 'No Cook' Dessert!

Just a bowl of Sweet Soy Dessert and toppled with some mango and pomegranate. That’s! Use any other type of fruits that you love.

Avocado and Mango with Plum Sauce

An easy and quick fruit salad!

Preparation: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2-4)
° 1 (150g) ripe avocado, diced
° 1 (150g) mango, peeled and diced
° 1 teaspoon roasted sesame seeds
° 30g salad sprouts (optional)

Sauce
° 1 tablespoon plum sauce, or to taste
° 1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
° 2 tablespoons warm water
° 1 tablespoon (2 limes) freshly squeezed kalamansi lime juice, or to taste

Method
1. To make the sauce: Dissolve the sugar with water in a bowl. Add in the plum sauce and lime juice. Mix well and set aside.
2. Arrange the salad sprout, avocado and mango in a serving plate.
3. Drizzle the sauce over the salad. Sprinkle with some sesame seeds and serve immediately.

Plum Sauce Achar

This is a quick and easy achar is using plum sauce. This can be served as a side dish to accompany the vegetarian chicken rice. Reduce the amount of vinegar and replaced with kalamansi lime juice, if desired.

Preparation: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 100g cucumbers, seeded and cut into matchstick lengths
° 50g carrot, peeled and cut into matchstick lengths
° 2 tablespoons plum sauce, or to taste
° 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, or to taste
° 1½ teaspoons sugar, or to taste
° 1-2 teaspoons white sesame seeds, lightly toasted
° 1-2 teaspoons coarsely grounded peanut (optional)
° salt (optional)

Method
1. Pour all the ingredients into a salad bowl and mix well. Sprinkle more sesame seeds before serving.

Simple Corn Salad

The simple recipe of corn salad again is to use fresh corn on the cob. Remove the kernels from the corn on the cob, stream and mix well with vegetarian salad cream or vegan mayonnaise. Frozen corn can be used but the result is not that desired.

Preparation: 2 mins, Cooking time: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 2 ears corn on the cob, cut or peeled kernels off the cob
° 2 tablespoons vegetarian salad cream or vegan mayonnaise

Method
1. Put the corn kernels in a heatproof serving plate and steam for 10 minutes. Mix well with vegetarian salad cream or vegan mayonnaise.
2. Serve chilled.

Pickled Green Papaya

Oops, my green papaya going to turn orange soon !

Wow, this is so crunchy, that you can heard the sound when you bit on it. It tastes like the tidbit that I used to eat when I was in primary – yellow sour papaya, which we can just buy from the tidbit vendor on the bike outside the school. Maybe, I am using real unripe green papaya, it is not yellow but whitish green in colour.

Preparation: 8 minutes

Ingredients
° 400g green papaya, peeled, seeded and sliced
° 160ml white rice vinegar or distilled white vinegar
° 80-100g sugar

Method
1. Combine all ingredients in a glass container, mix well and leave to stand for 24 hours prior to serving. It can be kept for few weeks in a cool place.

Simplified “Yu Sheng” Salad

This salad is inspired by the raw fish salad which is commonly served during Chinese New Year in Singapore. This recipe calls for ingredients like the carrot and white radish shreds that are used for the dish. As for the dressing, oil is replaced by using water and salt is totally being omitted. The simplified combination of plum sauce, lime juice, water and sugar work just fine. Feel free to add any ingredients like green mango shreds etc to this dish to make up your own special salad.

Preparation: 10 minutes

Ingredients (serves 1)
° 100g carrot, peeled and finely shredded
° 100g white radish, peeled and finely shredded
° 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
° 1-2 tablespoons peanut power or finely crushed roasted peanuts

Dressing
° 2 tablespoons plum sauce
° 2 tablespoons water, boiled and cooled
° 1½ tablespoon (3 limes) freshly squeezed kalamansi lime juice
° pinch of Chinese five-spices powder, or to taste
° ½ teaspoon sugar, or to taste

Method
1. Mix the dressing ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
2. Put all the vegetables in a salad bowl, drizzled with the dressing. Add sesame seeds, peanuts powder and toss well. Serve immediately.

Green Mango Salad !

This is a vegetarian version of simplified Thai green mango salad. It is a healthy salad and is so appetizing. Any one can just do it, basically it is a no-cook recipe.

Preparation: 8 minutes

Ingredients (serves 1)
° 150g shredded young green mango, chilled
° 1 teaspoon peanut powder
° ½ teaspoon sesame seeds (optional)

Dressing
° 1 fresh red chilli padi or green chilli padi, seeded and sliced
° 3 tablespoons (6 limes) freshly squeezed kalamansi lime juice
° 1 teaspoon sugar, or to taste

Method
1. Arrange shredded mango on a serving plate.
2. Mix the chilli, lime juice and sugar in a bowl. Add more sugar, or lime juice, if necessary.
3. Drizzle the dressing over the shredded mango and top with peanut powder and sesame seeds. Serve immediately.

Sweet and Sour Achar

This is a quick and easy, simple recipe to make crunchy and cool vegetable pickles that can be served as a side dish to accompany any meal.

Preparation: 30 minutes

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 500g cucumbers, seeded and cut into matchstick lengths
° 50g carrot, peeled and cut into matchstick lengths
° 2 fresh red chilli, seeded and finely shredded
° 1 thin slice ginger (optional)
° 2 tablespoons white rice vinegar or distilled white vinegar
° 2 tablespoons sugar
° ½ teaspoon salt
° 2 teaspoons white sesame seeds, lightly toasted
° 2 teaspoons coarsely grounded peanut (optional)

Method
1. Pour all the ingredients into a glass container and mix well. Leave to stand for at least 1 hour in refrigerator. Sprinkle more sesame seeds and grounded peanut before serving.

Tip
1. This time-consuming process of squeezing the excess water out of the vegetables is to produces crunchy achar. If desired, dry cucumber, carrot thoroughly and place in a colander. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons salt to the vegetables, mix well and leave for 15 minutes for the liquid to drain. Rinse and gently squeeze out as much moisture as you can by using a muslin cloth. Increase the amount for vinegar and sugar.

2. How to toast n roast sesameseeds and How to toast nori sheet