Ripen Green Mango with Salad Cream ...

My green mango ripen! Gosh! I totally forgotten I bought a green mango in the wet market and it was sitting quietly in my fruit basket. This type of incidents happened quite often.

When green mango ripen, it turned greenish-yellow on the skin, it is a little bit of sweetness but it is not as sweet as those ripen mango that we get from supermarket.

In fact, it tastes better if you don’t really like too sourish green mango. It can still used to make Thai green mango salad with sugar reduced, if you desired or mixed with sour plum powder with/without chilli or just simply goes with salad cream like in the photo …

Thai Green Mango Salad and Thai Green Papaya Salad are popular salad in Thai Cuisine. One thing that I haven’t really featured out is why isn’t there a combination of Green Mango and Green Papaya for the same salad? Or maybe there are, just thatI don’t know or it could be it just makes no sense to have 2 types of ‘green julienne” in the same salad …

Rooty Veggie Yusheng

Time Flies! It is long past Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) and I just had “Yusheng” ! Isn’t “Yuseng” mix ONLY available during Chinese New Year period? At the moment, Yes!

And I just really can’t understand why it can’t be served all year round just like Rice Dumpling for Dragon Boat Festival (Duan Wu Festival in Mandarin). Salad lover will like this I guess and it is definitely good to share such lovely stuff with other Vegetarians/Vegans around the World.

I don’t know, maybe, having it as a daily affair, it loses its “special occasion kind of feeling”. Just like we lost the great enthusiasm toward Chinese New Year when we don’t have to wait till Chinese New Year to feast and don nice clothing …

Back to this Yusheng - How did I have this “Yusheng” Mix? In fact, I bought it in February early this year, as one of the surprise special gifts to someone who came over to Singapore from Italy in March. We were supposed to meet, but we were at the same meeting place and at the same time, but missed the chance of meeting each other.

Therefore, this pack of Yusheng Mix (expiry: end of 2009) was still with me until few days back when I finally decided to do another different type of Yusheng (not the Traditional Yusheng or Fruit Yusheng) but using ONLY root vegetables (Beet Root, Yam Bean and Lotus Root). It was appetizing …

Beet Root strained the other ingredients, what can be done here is to cut the root beet into shreds and leave it in the refrigerator to “dehydrate” it a little, so that it is not so "watery".

As for the Lotus root, slice them thinly (the hole pattern looks so beautiful) and put them in water with a few drops of vinegar added, if desired. You can also deep-fry it to make Lotus Root Chips that can be eaten on it own or use it for garnishing or add to a bowl of piping hot Ramen cooked with scrumptious Herbal/Vegetable stock …

Let your creative juices flow, look around the kitchen, mix and match the ingredients, and having unique and delectable dishes is so simple, easy and full of surprises …

The Universe of Vegetarian Cuisine is so vast and yet undiscovered …

Rooty & Fruity Pink Salad

Another simple salad using beets which has been identified as a nutritional powerhouse and high in folate, manganese and potassium. The beet root will strain the yam bean, therefore making this salad pink (2 different shades) after mixing. Replace green mango with Japanese cucumber, if desired. The sweet pineapple gives a refresh sweet and sour taste to it. And adding mint leaves gave a different favour. For this salad, I added rice cereals too!

Preparation: 8-10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 25g beetroot shreds
° 25g green mango shreds
° 25g yam bean shreds
° 10g pineapple shreds
° 3 tablespoons rice cereals
° few mint leaves, finely chopped

Salad Dressing
° 1 tablespoon vegetarian salad cream/ vegan mayonnaise, to taste
° 1 tablespoon vinegar, to taste
° 1 teaspoon sugar, to taste

Method
1. Combine all salad dressing ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.
2. Arrange the beetroot, green mango, yam bean, pineapple in a serving plate. Garnish with mint leaves.
3. Add the salad dressing and sprinkle the rice cereals over it. Serve immediately.

Veggie & Fruity Salad

We had this simple yet wonderful salad at KMSPKS. We like it. We re-create it. We share it. The salad we had, have some grapes too, add them or any other fruits you desired. I omit vinegar/lemon juice, salt or sugar totally, as I find the salad cream after mixing with the fruit had the just nice consistency.

Preparation: 8-10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 100g green apple dices
° 100g red apple dices
° 75g carrot dices
° 75g Japanese cucumber dices

Salad Dressing
° 2-2½ tablespoons vegetarian salad cream/ vegan mayonnaise

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Serve chilled.

Potato Salad with Avocado Wasabi Cream

I was looking at those ripe avocado and potatoes at home, not knowing what to do with them. Out of sudden, Sunny who I have never met before, came to my mind, I don’t know why. She loves avocado and wasabi! Usually, we would use mayo for potato salad. To make this recipe healthier, I use avocado to replace mayo. Since Sunny loves wasabi, I use it to give it a different twist. So, this recipe is for her. And this also look like Egg Mayo Salad!

Preparation: 10 mins Cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients (serves 2-3)
° 200g potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks and steamed

Avocado Salad Cream
° 1 avocado, peeled and stoned
° 1 tablespoon mayonnaise/vegetarian salad cream
° 1 tablespoon freshly squeeze lemon juice
° ¼ - ½ teaspoon wasabi or to taste
° salt to taste

Method
1. Combine avocado, vegetarian salad cream, lemon juice, wasabi, salt in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Place the potatoes in a salad bowl. Add the avocado salad cream to the potatoes and mix well.
3. Set aside to cool in the refrigerator and allow the flavour to develop.
4. Serve chilled.

Green Apple with Tempeh Salad

Just whip this up this morning … In fact, I wanted to make little cup using wonton skin for the salad, but I am just too lazy! You can add some mango if desired.

Preparation: 8-10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 100g tempeh, diced and toasted
° 1 green apple, diced

Salad Dressing
° 2 tablespoons vegetarian salad cream/ vegan mayonnaise
° 1 teaspoon sugar
° 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
° ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper or curry powder (optional)

Method
1. Combine all the salad dressing ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Add in the green apple and tempeh and mix well. Serve chilled.

Enoki Salad

Want some mushroom salad! Here it is, simple and crunchy. The core ingredient is enoki mushroom, you can added shredded carrot or shredded green mango to gives it some colour! Drizzle the dressing ONLY when it is ready to be served … Use Chinese plum sauce instead of Thai plum sauce, it is not that watery. So, have fun and create your very own unique enoki salad …

Preparation: 8 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 200g enoki mushroom, base trimmed
° 25g shredded carrot
° some coriander leaves
° ½ teaspoon black and white sesame seeds (optional)
° ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper

Dressing
° 2 tablespoons plum sauce
° 1 teaspoon (1-1½ limes) freshly squeezed kalamansi lime juice
° sugar to taste (optional)

Method
1. Mix all the dressing ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.
2. Arrange enoki mushroom, carrot and coriander leaves on a serving plate. Garnish with sesame seed and crushed red pepper.
3. Serve with dressing.

Vermicelli Salad

Another healthy and easy salad dish, almost no-cooking required except for blanching the Brown Rice Vermicelli in boiling water. Brown Rice Vermicelli is high in fiber and good for our health. You can add some oil (sesame/shallot/garlic/ginger) to it to prevent it sticking together and at the same time add some fragrant to it. I added lettuce leave here to up the fiber intake. Again the amount of carrot and cucumber shreds and herbs to be added depends on individual preference. Remember to add mint leaves, it is A MUST. You will understand what I mean if you taste it …

Preparation: 15 mins

Ingredients (makes 2-4)
° 150g blanched brown rice vermicelli, mixed with 1 teaspoon olive or fragrant oil
° 25g shredded carrot
° 50g shredded cucumber
° few onion slices (optional)
° 1 lettuce leave (optional) for garnish
° some mint and coriander leaves
° some toasted/roasted sesame seeds

Chilli Dipping Sauce
° 2 fresh red chilli padi, sliced
° 2 teaspoons sugar or to taste
° 4 tablespoons light soy sauce
° 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar
° 1 teaspoon olive oil (optional)
° 5-6 kalamansi limes, freshly squeezed

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients and mix well. Set aside.
2. Place the brown rice vermicelli, carrot shreds, cucumber shreds, onion slices, mint leaves, coriander leaves on a serving plate. Garnish with sesame seeds and chilli slices.
3. Serve with the dipping sauce.

Mango and Veggie Salad with Wasabi Salad Dressing

Lately have been busy with other stuff that I didn’t spend enough time on this recipe blog and those things on my January To-Do List. So last night, I decided to create this recipe at 8pm. It is real simple as I love to say. It has to be simple yet nutritious to be done at home by anyone, anything that required more works; let’s enjoy them at the vegetarian eateries. Maybe it is a little bit costly, but just takes that as the price for the manhour if we have to do it ourselves and we can relax and dine in a different ambience … Be a little compassionate and pamper ourselves once in a while by having a nice meal at the vegetarian eateries …

Back to this recipe, adding mango to the veggies salad gives a different taste – natural sweetness.! The amount of mango or carrot or cucumber to be used depends on individual preference. For the salad dressing, I added Wasabi! Sunny had left comments on my blog that avocado with wasabi is her favorites, I think. So, I happened to pass by the sushi counter at Cold Storage @ Bugis, so I brought 2 little pack of wasabi at 10 cents each. By adding wasabi to the salad cream, it gives a totally new flavour and it is nice, but you have to taste it before adding more wasabi, if not …. : )

Oh yeah, just to share this new piece of information from Health Promotion Board (HPB) - A Vegetarian’s Guide to Eating Right Share with ALL your friends (veg*n and non-veg*n)….

Preparation: 8-10 mins

Ingredients (serves 1-2)
° 75g mango shreds
° 50g carrot shreds
° 25g Japanese cucumber shreds
° 1 lettuce leaves (optional), for garnish
° some toasted/roasted sesame seeds (optional)

Wasabi Salad Dressing
° 1 tablespoon vegetarian salad cream/ vegan mayonnaise
° 1 teaspoon sugar
° 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
° ¼ - ½ teaspoon wasabi or to taste

Method
1. Combine all the wasabi salad dressing ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.
2. Arrange the mango shreds, carrot shreds and cucumber shreds on the lettuce leaves. Garnish with sesame seeds.
3. Serve with wasabi salad dressing sauce.

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.

Asparagus with Special Plum Sauce Salad

Happened to attend the Yummy Veggie Vegetarian Cooking Demonstration at Peranakan Museum last Sunday. The Vegetarian Food Demo was by a Non-Vegetarian Eatery – Coriander Leaf. Due to no open fire allow, the session I attended show how to make simple salad. One of the salads is Asparagus with Plum Sauce – click here to see it ! The surprising thing is many non-vegetarians attend this cooking demonstration and so eager to learn. Could it be it was the Chef of Non-vegetarian eatery doing it? Or people in this conceptual age are more open minded, begin to realize healthier eating is important and vegetarian food is not that boring after all. I don’t know.

I decide to improvise it and omit some ingredients like mustard seeds, chilli oil and added some other things. I make used of bamboo fungus net like formation, to hold the asparagus together, so it is easier to pick up. And the bamboo fungus also served as a sponge soaking the sauce to make the asparagus tastier. Give it a try, it isn’t difficult at all and in fact, just blanching and you can treat it as “doing art with food”. Add some fun ingredients into it, you will then enjoy …

I omitted the ice spa after blanching the veggie, as I have lesser veggie to do and I shorten the cooking a little bit to allow some buffer for ‘over-cooking process’. It is really simple and you can spend a little bit of time decorating it, it will looks fabulous, like some art piece or what being served in the restaurant ... Those little carrot bits are left over when I cut the carrot slices into flower shape and I throw them on the asparagus.

Preparation: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 4 asparagus, halved diagonally, blanched in boiling water for 30 seconds and drained well
° 4 bamboo fungus/bamboo pith, soaked and blanched in boiling water for 1 minute and drain well.
° 4 carrot slices (optional), cut into flower shape

Dressing
° 1 tablespoon Chinese plum sauce
° ½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
° ½ teaspoon light soy sauce
° ½ teaspoon sesame oil
° ½ teaspoon sugar
° ¼ - ½ teaspoon dried chilli flake, or to taste
° ¼ teaspoon roasted sesame seed (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 dressing ingredient in a bowl and mix well. Drizzle over the asparagus and serve.

Vegetable Coleslaw

Same ingredients as the Vegetable Sandwich Spread and Vegetable Dipping Sauce! By playing around with the amount of ingredients used, I now have another new dish – Vegetable Coleslaw!

Preparation: 8-10 mins

Ingredients (serves 1-2)
° 100g round cabbage, finely chopped
° 25 carrot, finely chopped
° 25g onion, finely chopped
° 25g red/yellow capsicum, finely chopped
° 25g Japanese cucumber, finely chopped
° 1 strawberry (optional), chopped for garnish
° 2 tablespoons vegetarian salad cream/ vegan mayonnaise
° 1 teaspoon sugar
° 1/8 teaspoon salt or to taste
° 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Method
1. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Chilled and garnish with strawberry.

Crystal’s Green Mango Salad

Salad mixed with dressing and ready to be eaten!

Healthy salad! A new twist to the common vegetarian Green Mango salad. You can add pine nut or some crispy stuff such as Yu Sheng Bok Chui Biscuit, if desired. See, we don’t have to stick to the non-vegetarian Thai Mango Salad, we can let our imagination run wild and come up with different ideas to make our vegetarian dishes exciting and interesting. Be a pioneer and dare to be different.

This salad can be served with Vegetarian Chicken Rice. You can make this salad one day in advance by mixing the dressing with green mango and carrot. Sprinkle peanut powder or grounded peanut, sesame and chilli flake prior to serving. Replace with freshly chopped chilli if dried chilli flake is unavailable or omit it.

Preparation: 8 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 175g shredded young green mango, chilled
° 25g shredded carrot, chilled
° 1 teaspoon peanut powder or grounded peanut
° ½ teaspoon black and white sesame seeds (optional)
° ½ teaspoon dried chilli flake (optional)

Dressing
° 1 tablespoon plum sauce
° 1 tablespoons (2-3 limes) freshly squeezed kalamansi lime juice
° 1 teaspoon sugar, or to taste

Method
1. Mix all the dressing ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.
2. Arrange shredded mango and carrot on a serving plate.
3. Drizzle the dressing over the shredded mango and top with peanut powder, sesame seeds and dried chilli flake. Serve immediately.

Yusheng (Fruit, Mushroom and Vegetable version “Yusheng”)

In Singapore, Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year is the time for “Yusheng” dish, which is created by our local chefs of Singapore in 1963. In the past, it is served on the 7th day of Chinese New Year which is also known as “ren ri” (every man’s birthday). But now, you can have it anytime from the 1st day to 15th day of Chinese New Year!

You can even buy the “Yuseng” mix (which is only available during Chinese New Year period) and get some shredded carrot, white radish, green radish and raw fish (Vegetarian raw fish) to have this dish at home. You toss and say auspicious phrase related to the ingredients like “da ji da li” , “tian tian mi mi”, “yi ben wan li”, … and “cai yuan guang jin”. Remember to toss this salad high, the higher you toss, the greater your fortunes will be.

I bought a pack of “Yusheng” mix (consist of lime/plum sauce, sliced yam, sesame seeds, peanut, pok choy, pickled papaya, vegetarian jelly fish, red & green ginger etc) and added carrot shreds, green mango shreds, white radish shreds, enoki mushroom.

I added enoki mushroom, as it saves me the time spend on preparing more vegetable shreds! I have omitted the vegetarian raw fish (as the mix come with it) and replace green radish with green mushroom shreds for this Fruit, Mushroom and Vegetable version “Yusheng”.

You can add whatever fruit (green papaya, strawberry, green apple …) you like to give this traditional Yusheng dish a new twist.

If you crave for this dish after Chinese New Year, you can also whipped up a simplified version “Yusheng” !

BaiYe Tofu Salad

Happy New Year everyone, I am back from hibernation and getting back to cooking is a little bit tough after a nice break. So, I tried something simple and it looks like noodle but it is not. It is BaiYe Tofu ( 百 页 豆 腐 )- a traditional Chinese soybean product which is popular in mainland china. It can be used for salad, stir-fried dishes or stew. This BaiYe tofu that I bought is a product of Singapore.

Preparation: 10 minutes

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 125g BaiYe tofu, shredded and blanched for 2 minutes and drained well
° 25g carrot, peeled and shredded
° small handful of coriander leaves
° some toasted sesame seeds (optional), for garnish

Seasoning
° 1 teaspoon sesame oil or olive oil
° 2 tablespoons cider apple vinegar
° 1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
° 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
° salt to taste

Method
1. Mix the all the ingredients for seasoning in a bowl and set aside.
2. Add in BaiYe tofu. Toss well.
3. Garnish with coriander leaves, sesame seeds and serve.

Seasoned Funori

Something simple and no cooking required. I used dried coralline algae (100g @ S$4.50) which I bought from Yes Natural Pte Ltd. This coralline algae is slightly different from the Funori that I used in another recipe. I discovered that it can’t be cooked, if it is heated, it melts. This is recommended for making salad. Using simple seasoning that I normally used for whipping up Korean Side Dishes, I have this seasoned funori that I can also add to my Ocean Themed Bibimbap.

Preparation: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 25g dried coralline algae or funori (jelly seaweed), washed, rinsed, soaked overnight and cut
° some roasted sesame seeds, for garnish
° some dried chilli flakes (optional), for garnish
° few lettuce leaves (optional) for garnish

Seasoning
° 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
° 1 teaspoon sesame oil
° ½ teaspoon sugar or to taste
° salt to taste

Method
1. Transfer the dried coralline algae or funori a big bowl or plate. Stir in the rice vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, salt and mix well.
2. Sprinkle the sesame seeds and dried chilli flakes and serves in lettuce leaves.

Kindness Banana Salad

Why do I name this as Kindness Banana Salad?

Because this recipe was given to me via email by a Non-Vegetarian , Sous Chef – Mr Alfred Lee. I have used Vegetarian Mayo instead of Yogurt following the recipe (check out the recipe below). If Alfred had whip up this salad, I am very sure the presentation is very very much better than mine. Don’t believe me check out his blog at www.citi-monkey.blogspot.com, you will WOW.

Thank you very much Alfred, hope you could create more Vegetarian and Vegan Friendly delectable dishes for us :)

........................................................................

Hi Crystal,

I just read through your new recipe on banana so perhaps you would like to try this banana salad which is pretty simple and taste good to me.

Ingredients

Mango Puree - sweetPlain Yoghurt - I am not very sure do all vegetarian take yoghurt, if not substitute with vgt mayonnaise
Lemon Juice as desire
Mix well

Then add in the Banana slice about 2-3cm thick
Mint leaves slice
Garnish with wedges of strawberry and mint leaves

Good Day,
Alfred

Carrot and Celery Sticks with Mango Mayo Dipping Sauce

This is a very simple salad. To make it more interesting, I added fresh mango and oranges juice to the mayo to give it a different flavour.

Preparation: 13 mins

Ingredients (serves 4)
° 100g celery (weighed after trimming), trimmed and cut into match-stick length
° 100g carrot, peeled and cut into match-stick length

Dipping Sauce
° 1 tablespoon vegetarian salad cream or vegan mayonnaise, or to taste
° 75g fresh ripe mango
° ½ orange, freshly squeezed

Method
1. To make dipping sauce: Place the vegetarian salad cream, mango and orange juice in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a bowl or glass.
2. Place the celery and carrot in a bowl or glass and serves with the dipping sauce.

Glass Noodle Salad

A different kind of Salad.

Preparation: 15 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 100g green bean sheet Jelly or glass noodle, blanched till softened and drained well
° 25g carrot, peeled and shredded
° small handful of coriander leaves
° some toasted sesame seeds (optional), for garnish

Seasoning
° 1 teaspoon sesame oil
° ½ teaspoon dried chilli flake
° ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
° 1 tablespoon plum sauce
° 1 teaspoon lemon juice
° ½ teaspoon sugar or to taste

Method
1. Mix the all the ingredients for seasoning in a bowl and set aside.
2. Add in the green bean sheet jelly or glass noodle. Toss well.
3. Garnish with coriander leaves, sesame seeds and serve.

Crystal’s Green Papaya Salad

Green Papaya Salad/ Limes / Candied Orange

This is a modified Thai Green Papaya Salad. I added preserved candied orange, which is available at the Traditional Chinese Medical shops. Garnish with sesame seed or grounded peanut, if desired.

Preparation: 15 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 150g green papaya, peeled, finely shredded and chilled
° 1 (50g) preserved candied orange, finely chopped or shredded
° 1½-2 tablespoons (3-4 limes) freshly squeezed kalamansi lime juice
° 2 tablespoon sugar, or to taste

Method
1. Mix the lime juice and sugar in a bowl and set aside.
2. Place the papaya and preserved candied orange in a salad bowl and drizzled with the lime juice dressing. Toss well and serve.