Showing posts with label Asian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asian. Show all posts

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Asian Noodles in Spicy Peanut Sauce

One of my favorite mid-week meals, this is so fast to make and very tasty! I've even entertained with this on a weeknight after work. This is inspired by a recipe from an old cookbook of mine called "Best of What's For Dinner?" by Ken Kostick. I've tweaked the recipe to suit my tastes and style of cooking.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb medium rice noodles
2T sunflower oil
1/2 block of firm or extra firm tofu, chopped into 1" cubes

2-3T sunflower oil
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 cup sliced cremini and shitake mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T grated ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T jalapeno pepper, finely chopped (I include seeds and ribs 'cause I like it hot but you don't have to!)
2 T peanut butter
1/4 cup tamari sauce (or good aged soy sauce)
2 T vegetable stock or water
1 T balsamic vinegar

Method:
Put pot of water on to boil and cook rice noodles according to package directions.

Meanwhile, in a heavy-bottomed skillet, on medium heat, add first 2 tablespoons of oil and brown tofu cubes on each side, about 5 minutes in total. When browned on the outside but still soft on the inside, set aside to drain on a paper towel.

In a wok or large skillet with high sides, heat remaining 2 tablespoons of oil on medium-high heat and add onion, mushrooms, red pepper and garlic all at once, stirring often until softened, about 5 minutes.

Make a hole in the centre of the stir fry ingredients and add all the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Heat until bubbling and add more stock or water to thin, if needed. Mix the sauce together with stir fry ingredients and add the cooked rice noodles and the browned tofu, cooking for 1-2 more minutes so noodles soak up some of the sauce and the tofu is warmed up.

Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with some cilantro or flat leafed parsley. You could even sprinkle with some chopped peanuts. Enjoy!

Serving suggestion: this goes well with my mango-lime salad recipe ;-)

Friday, January 2, 2009

Mango Lime Salad

Ever made an Asian-themed dinner but couldn't find a suitable Asian-inspired salad to go with it? If so, your search stops here!! This refreshing salad goes well with any Asian stir fry or Thai entree, try it!

Mango Lime Salad
vegan

1 large mango (not too ripe)
1 green onion, cut into 3" lengths
6" section english cucumber, seeded and cut in half across the width
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped

Slice the mango, green onion and cucumber into thin match-sticks/julienned pieces length-wise. Combine ingredients in a medium serving bowl. Serves four.

Dressing
juice of 1 lime
1 chili pepper, finely diced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 T white wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Combine dressing ingredients and whisk until well mixed. Drizzle over salad just before serving. You likely won't need to use all the dressing on the salad unless you double the salad ingredient quantities. The dressing keeps well in the fridge for 3-5 days.