Thai Coconut Soup Rice

Many moons ago, I went to my local supermarket and perused the Amy's soups section, as I normally do. I picked up my usual favorites: No Chicken Noodle, Minestrone, and Vegetable Barley. Then my eyes stopped on the soup to end all soups, Thai Coconut. I had to have it. I love Thai flavors, I love coconut, I knew this was going to be a party in my mouth.

I bought 4 cans, and made one for dinner that night. I sadly wasn't SOUPer blown away by this (badum chh). I liked the Thai flavors, but it was sadly lacking. This soup watery was full of broth, and not too much else. I like soups that are hardy, and while I loved the Thai basil, bits of tofu, and veggies, it just wasn't enough.

I actually had photos from the first time I tried this soup saved in a folder on my computer for a future blog post for ages. But the more i thought about it, the more I didn't wan't to share a food that I wasn't pleased with. After all, this blog is about food I like to eat.

Even though I wasn't a fan, I didn't want the soup to go to waste, so I slowly made my way through the stock I had picked up on the first day I got it. One day, all the parts of my brain decided to work together. A number of times Ben and I have used soup broth to make rice, in addition to water. Thai Coconut Soup Rice was born!



What you need:



1 can of Amy's Thai Coconut Soup
1.5 cup of rice, dry

What do to:
Measure out the rice, and pour it into a medium pot.
Pour the soup into a measuring cup.
Using a fork, fish out the solid pieces in the soup, and scoop them into a small bowl, leaving the soup broth in the measuring cup.



There should be about a cup of broth left.



Pour the 1 cup of soup broth in with the rice, then pour in an additional 2 cups of water.
Stir the rice, broth, and water together, cover the pot, then bring to a boil.
Once the water is boiling, turn the heat down to low, and let simmer for 16 minutes.
DO NOT remove the lit until the end of the 15 minutes.
Once the rice is fully cooked, stir in the reserved soup veggies. Serve hot.









The perfection of this rice is that all the ingredients are already in the soup, so you don't need to add anything else! I loved the light, coconut flavor, the sweet and tasty veggies, and, of course, the Thai basil. The rice was nice and creamy, and had a built-in protein: the tofu from the soup! This would be great as a side, or a meal on its own. Oh, and its vegan too!

What other soups should I try to make rice? Will you try this Thai Coconut Soup Rice?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Curry Tofu with Rice Medallions

A little wile ago, Ben and I decided to take a shopping trip to H Mart. For those that don't know, H Mart is a huge Asian supermarket. I had one by my house in NY, but Ben and I were looking to really explore the one in our neck of the woods. We went up and down every isle and made some awesome discoveries.

First, in our normal supermarket, tofu is usually around $4, while in H Mart its only $1.5! I can't believe how much money I had been wasting. Actually, all of their produce is much cheaper, and with a much larger verity. We also found great non-food items like a knife-sharpener, and some tea accessories.

However, I was on a mission of my own. While on my last trip to Austin, David took me to a delicious Asian restaurant. For the first time I tried rice medallions, and ever since then, I just couldn't get them out of my head. In such a large Asian supermarket, I was really hoping to find them. Finally after a long shopping trip of searching, there they were!  We also picked up some of our other favorites like curry and miso paste, and once we got home I threw together a meal I had been craving for months.



What you need:



4 Tablespoons of curry paste
1 large can of coconut milk
2 medium heads of broccoli, chopped
1 pound tofu
1 bag of rice medallions

What to do:
Start by sauteing the tofu and broccoli.
Next, stir in the coconut milk and curry paste.
While everything is simmering, cook the rice medallions according to the instructions on the bag.
Once everything is done, mix it together and serve.









This ended up being very coconuty, with a bit of heat and an authentic Thai flavor. The rice medallions were creamy and chewy just like I remembered. I loves how the tofu and broccoli soaked up all the curry flavors. It was the perfect mix of sweet and spicy.

I was so happy to get to eat these little morsels of goodness. I will be traveling back to Austin again in a few weeks,and hopefully I'll get to have them again!

Have you ever tried these rice medallions?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Easy Miso Soup

I have loved miso soup ever since I first tried it, and I remember that first.  When I was in high school my mom found a brand of vegetarian instant soups in the supermarket, and I lived on those.  They made all different flavors, and one was miso. I remember how much I loved it, and how happy I was that it was vegetarian.

I started ordering miso soup from Sushi restaurants left and right. They all seemed to taste a little different, so I decided to see what really went into miso. From what I gathered, miso itself is made from fermented soy beans. When miso soup is made it can be made with just miso and water, or it can also have fish stock.  That must have been the culprit of the unusual taste in the different soups.

That meant I sad had to cut miso soup from my diet, since you never know how restaurants make it. I figured that was that. Then Ben found a really easy miso soup recipe. It was completely vegan and looked easy to make. We pick up some miso paste and Ben made his soup...and it was SO GOOD! After stealing a ton of spoonfuls, I knew I had to make it myself.



What you need:



4 tablespoons of miso paste
1 lb of tofu, diced
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
dried seaweed, crumbled
6 cups of water

What to do:
Heat the water in a medium pot, until boiling.
Once water is boiling remove from heat.
Add the onions, crumbled seaweed, and tofu to the boiling water.



Scoop out a tablespoon of miso, and put the spoonful in the water. While the spoon is in the water, using a fork or chopstick, slowly dissolve the miso into the water.
Repeat 3 more times.
Serve with a few dashes of soy sauce.











This miso soup was amazing! It was so authentic with the perfect Asian flavors. The tofu was nice and soft, and added an element of protein. The onions were crunchy, and added depth to the flavor or the soup. The flavor of the seaweed gave this soup that fishy element that in other soups comes from the fish stock. A splash of soy sauce was the perfect finishing touch. It added that last bit of saltiness that was needed to complete the soup.

Do you love miso soup too? Will you try making your own easy miso soup?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Spicy Asian Pasta

I just want to start off by apologizing for my surprise absence.  While the holiday time isn't the biggest deal to me, it does come with lots of extra work at my job, which means long hours.  Working so hard, plus a trip up to see Ben's family, I didn't have much time to blog. While I'm still super busy, I was really happy I finally found the time to sit down and write a blog post.

Even though it's not the best food for you, I just love pasta. Its delicious, filling, and easy to make it into a great vegetarian meal. I am always looking for pasta recipes to add to my collection.  When I don't know what to make with my pasta, I go with the standard garlic and oil sauce, but I was looking for something a little different. I found THIS spicy pasta with broccoli recipe and decided to give it a go.



Adapted from Recipe Treasure.

What you need:



1 lb box of pasta
2 head of broccoli, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup of olive oil (some to cook the broccoli, and some to coat the pasta)
1.5 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes

What to do:
Cook pasta according to directions on the box.
While pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the garlic and red pepper flakes.
Once the broccoli is golden, add the broccoli and salt.
Saute until the broccoli is fully cooked and starting to soften.
Drain the pasta, and mix in the broccoli.
Mix in the balsamic vinegar and soy sauce, serve hot, or chill.











If you like spicy, then this pasta is for you. It is packed with lots of heat!  There was a bit of Asian inspired flavors from the soy sauce, a hint of tang from the vinegar, and lots of tasty garlic flavor. It definitely was unique, but it was really delicious!

What is your favorite pasta meal? Have you ever tried an Asian style pasta?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

SunBird Mongolian Be...Tofu!

Living away from home, and buying my own food, has made me very aware of the price of food. I used to love to go out to eat and thought $10 for a meal was cheap. Now that I am cooking a lot more, I usually pay $3-$4 per meal.  Its hard to bring myself to order take out when it is so expensive, but sometimes you just need a big bowl of Chinese food, amiright?

On a shopping trip, Ben noticed a brand of Asian seasoning packets called SunBird. They made a few different flavors, a few of which are vegetarian.  I have never had Mongolian beef in my life, but Ben knows me well and said I would like the flavors and should try the spice packet with tofu instead. Well, with the spices on sale for only $1 per packet, I thought it couldn't hurt to try.



What you need & what to do:




Source.

As you can see, all the ingredients and instructions are printed on the back of the packet. Of course, swap out the beef for 1 package of tofu. Since I never had Mongolian beef before, I asked Ben what veggies usually come with it and he suggested broccoli. I'm not a fan of onions, so I swapped them for 2 cups of frozen broccoli. I decided to eat my meal with rice, but this would work great with noodles, quinoa, or even more veggies!

Before you start cooking, remember to cut and press your tofu for about 45 minutes, then you can continue cooking as directed.









The first thing I noticed was the authentic Asian flavor, it literally tasted as if it was straight out of a take out container! Its had prominent flavors of garlic and ginger, with a big kick of spice. The sauce had the perfect, thick, consistency and almost tasted like Szechuan sauce. The tofu had a great texture, firm but not yet crispy. The broccoli was the perfect addition, adding a nice crunch to the meal.  This definitely satisfied my craving for Chinese food take out, and for a lot less money!

Have you tried these SunBird flavor packets?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Leftovers Fried Rice

I love Chinese food. If it weren't on the pricier side, I'd order take out everyday.  Without fail, I always order a side of fried rice. Its always so good and flavorful and authentic, I just can't say no.  However, most Chinese food places also give you a side of white rice for free. What would I do with that white rice, when I have this amazing fried? It took me ages to figure it out. It used to just sit in the fridge until it got old, and then I tossed it. But I kept feeling guilty for wasting perfectly good food. I tried eating it plain with butter, I tried vegetarian chicken and rice, but nothing was a real winner. And then it hit me, why not make more fried rice??

I had no idea how to make fried rice. I have never done it before, and from my experience, its pretty difficult to make an ethnic food if you haven't done it before. While the majority of my cooking starts off with a recipe, for this once I decided to wing it. I ran through my kitchen picking out foods and flavors that I thought would work well fried rice. Anything that I have left over from another meal I cooked went into the mix. Once I was all done, this is what I had...

What you need:



1 Package of leftover rice
A bowl of your favorite veggies, I chose brocolli and peas
1 large egg
Soy sauce
Chili paste
Powdered ginger
Powdered garlic
Oil for frying

What to do:
Heat up the oil in a pan, and add in the rice.
As the oil heats up, use a spatula to mix the rice up and evenly fry.



Mix in the bowl of veggies and stir them up.



Add in the ginger, garlic, and chili paste, all to taste, and stir in.
Mix in the soy sauce, until your rice is a nice golden brown color.
Crack the egg right into the veggie-rice mix.
Quickly, break up and stir the egg in, making sure it completely solidifies.



Keep flipping and stirring for another 5 minutes, until everything is evenly fried.







All the ingredients for this meal were made just with things I found around the house, as well as ingredients left over from other meals I have made in the past. This dish is insanely versatile. Want more salt? Add more soy sauce! Like different veggies? Put any ones you want in. More or less heat? Just adjust the amount of chili paste. Want to turn this into a meal? Add some chickpeas or tofu for a protein. You can easily make this 100% vegan by leaving out the egg, and with my quest for better eating, I have been usually leaving the egg out. This meal is completely custom order.  Just a quick tip, I would definitely make sure you had a good amount of ginger, I find that its the ginger that gives this fried rice that authentic Chinese take out flavor.  I love the little bit of heat from the chili paste, and the nice saltiness and garlic flavors. This can be a great way to make your own take out side, or even eat as a whole meal.

What is your favorite way to use left over? Are you going to try this easy fried rice?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Peanut Butter Tofu

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a good week.  I have really been enjoying cooking more now that I live in my own place. I can finally spread my cooking wings and make my way through the many recipes that I have been wanting to try.

I absolutely love tofu. As a vegetarian, I feel it is crucial for my diet.  I hate just eating veggies, because they don't fill me up, and while pasta and cheese are filling, they aren't good for you to eat all the time.  Tofu is filling, healthy, and full of protein. It is honestly the perfect food.



If anyone were to ask what I would want my last meal to be, I would say tofu in peanut sauce. I love peanuts, and mixed with tofu is just a winning meal. I have eating peanut tofu many times in restaurants, but I finally took the plunge and tried to make it myself.

Recipe adapted from Grace (full) Plate.

What you need:


1 Package of tofu
About 1 cup of creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup of brown sugar
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tsp of lime juice
1/2 tsp chili sauce
1/2 cup of soy sauce
1/4 cup of water

What to do:

First you need to press your tofu.  Drain out all of the liquid from the package and remove the block of tofu. Wrap it up in a few layers of paper towels, and place it on a plate. Put another plate on top, with something heavy, like a book, on top of that plate, and let it sit for about 30 minutes. This will drain the moisture from the tofu, so it's more firm and it wont fall apart as easily.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, then combine the ingredients for the sauce: Peanut butter, brown sugar, garlic, lime juice, chili sauce, soy sauce, and water. Mix everything together in a medium bowl.

Cut up your tofu into pieces. I decided to make mine into cubes, but you can pick any shape, as long as they are pretty small. Put the tofu in your baking dish, and pour the peanut butter sauce on top.



Bake for 30 minutes, and you're done!

I love how simple this was to make, just mix everything together and throw it in the oven!  I served mine with broccoli and fried rice.


Overall, I really liked the flavor of this peanut butter sauce. The mix of the soy sauce with the peanut butter gave it a nice Thai flavor.  However, there was a bit too much peanut butter. It felt more like I was spreading peanut butter on my tofu, instead of a peanut butter sauce.





Since tofu is so bland and it soaks up the flavor of what you cook it with, the peanut butter was a little overpowering, but it was perfect with the broccoli. I ended up mixing the tofu and the broccoli and it was amazing. Next time I will add more broccoli, and maybe a bit more chili sauce too, I like my food on the spicier side!

Will you be trying out this peanut butter tofu dish?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Honey Lime Tofu

There's just something about living in your own place with your own kitchen that really inspires you to finally try out those recipes you've pinned to your Pinterest board. I have numerous folders of food and recipes on my computer just waiting to get posted, but all I want to do is share all the food I've just made. Until I make it through all those folders (which might be a while) you are going to see a mix of kitchens and dishes, from my home in New York, and my new place in Virginia.

Its tough finding food that my boyfriend and I can cook together. He is a big meat eater, and of course I am a vegetarian.  On top of that, he doesn't like most veggies, and the ones he does like, I don't like. We have come to the realization that most meals we wont be cooking together, but we still try to find compromises.

Luckily, Ben and I both love tofu.  I found this recipe for Honey Lime Shrimp on Pinterest a while back, and thought it would work well using tofu instead.  Ben agreed, so we got right to the supermarket to pick up the ingredients. Since we were using tofu, we decided to give our meal an Asian flair, and pair it with fried rice.  Separately made of  course. I can't stand onions in mine, and the thought of broccoli in his made him wretch.

.

What you need:

2 Packages of tofu (28 oz total)
3/4 cup olive oil
6 T honey
Juice and zest of 2 limes
10 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp red pepper flakes

What to do:
Cut up the tofu and place in a large dish. Add all the ingredients and mix in with the tofu. Let it marinade in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, stirring half way through.





While the tofu was marinading I made both of the sides of fried rice. I decided to be a kitchen boss and cook them both at the same time.


Like a baus.

Once the tofu is done marinating, place it, and the marinade, in a pan and fry until it is golden brown with crisp edges.  Ben had to bleed out most of the oil while we were frying the tofu. There was A LOT of oil, which is good for marinating, but not for cooking.

Ben was a bit bored while I was cooking the tofu, so he deiced to play photographer again.





It was literally the perfect amount of flavor of each ingredient. It had just a hint of sweetness from the honey and the right amount of tang from the limes. Everything came together really well.





The fried rice was a great match for this tofu (and don't worry, I'll show you guys how I make my rice too in an upcoming post). Ben and I both loved this dish. Its always great finding a meal that we can cook and share together.

Do you plan on trying this tofu recipe?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Adapted from The Dough Will Rise Again.