Thai Noodles

It’s the end of Vegan MoFo and I’ve been a little remiss because I had a busy time since Thanksgiving and haven’t posted a lot recently. But I’m hoping to knock out two final posts tonight. First up, we have Thai style noodles. Some people would call it Pad Thai but I’ll stick to Thai style noodles since it’s not authentic, but it is really good. It’s something that’s easy enough to make for two, but if you’re cooking for four, you’ll need to do it in batches because you’d need a huge pan to pull it off. On the side, I made some Thai style fennel salad (it’s part of my “it’s just wrong” repertoire). I bought fennel because it looked great, but wanted Thai food, so decided to use the fennel for a Thai salad. You could easily sub cabbage or any other crisp vegetable that you can slice really thin.


Thai style noodles

¼ cup of palm sugar
1 tablespoon of tamarind paste
¼ cup of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of chile paste (or more to taste)
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
3 oz. Rice noodles, soaked in warm water for 15 minutes
3 scallions, trimmed and sliced on the diagonal
1-2 cups of bean sprouts, rinsed, trimmed if they’re budding
1 block of firm tofu, cut into ½ inch cubes
¼ cup chopped roasted peanuts
1 handful of Thai basil, washed and coarsely chopped
1 handful of cilantro, washed and coarsely chopped
Lime wedges for garnish

1. Make the sauce. Combine the palm sugar, tamarind paste, soy sauce, chile paste, ginger and about ½ a cup of water in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar and let it boil for a few minutes to reduce slightly. It should be syrupy.
2. Sauté the tofu in a large non-stick skillet or wok in a little bit of oil or spray oil. Cook it until most of the water has evaporated and it’s browned somewhat. Add the scallions and cook for another minute.
3. Add the noodles and the sauce and toss to combine everything. Because the noodles were soaked for 15 minutes, they should only need about 3-4 minutes to cook completely; by which time the sauce will have coated everything. Add the bean sprouts and half of the herbs and toss again.
4. Divide between two plates and add the remaining herbs and roasted peanuts. Serve with lime wedges.

Thai fennel salad

¼ cup of rice vinegar
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
1 teaspoon chile paste
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 head of fennel, finely sliced on a mandolin

Combine the first five ingredients in a bowl and mix until the sugar is dissolved. Add the fennel and mix. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Stuffed shells

I don’t know why I don’t make more stuffed shells, because they’re really good. Maybe it’s because I always think they’re going to be more work than they actually are. There’s nothing fancy about these. Just satisfying comfort food. The pictures are also pretty dull – but we all know what stuffed shells look like, right? This recipe uses a tofu “ricotta” and spinach filling, but you could use pretty much anything. You can replace the spinach with mushrooms, or add mushrooms to it. Pretty much any vegetable will work for the stuffing, but be sure to remove as much water as possible so that it doesn’t make the shells mushy. The tofu ricotta is based on the one from Vegan With a Vengeance, but I use roasted garlic instead.

Before covering in sauce

See why a gave a picture of them before the sauce is added?  Not much to see here.

Stuffed shells

1 box of shell pasta, cooked a little less than al dente (since they’ll cook more in the oven)
Marinara sauce (no I’m not giving you a recipe, but please don’t use a jarred sauce)

For the Tofu “ricotta” and spinach filling:
2 – 12 oz. packages of silken tofu
2 teaspoons of olive oil
½ cup of nutritional yeast (nooch)
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons roasted garlic
2 tablespoons of basil, finely minced
1 lb. of spinach, blanched, squeezed dry and finely chopped (frozen works well too)

Mash the ricotta ingredients together with a fork until well blended. Taste it and make sure it’s balanced. Add more salt, garlic, or lemon juice if you think it needs it. Mix the spinach in.

Add a thin layer of tomato sauce to the bottom of a baking dish that's large enough to hold the shells in a single layer.  Stuff the shells and put them seam side down in the baking dish and top with tomato sauce. Baked in a 350 oven for 45 minutes until bubbly. Eat and wonder why you don’t make them more often since they’re so damn good and so easy.

Korean Tofu

I stopped at an awesome Korean market yesterday, Go Bu Gi, in Beaverton and got some Korean red pepper powder. So naturally I had to use some. I still had a craving for the spinach banchan I wrote about a few days ago and planned on doing some Korean sautéed tofu to go with it. Add some steamed rice and dinner is ready. The pictures came out even worse than usual and kind of make it all look in distinct, but it’s a great combination of flavor. I love Korean food, but will that I’m very fluent in it yet.  This tofu dish is sort of a composite recipe, but it’s something I’ll definitely be making again soon.


Korean Tofu

1 block of firm tofu cut into slices about ½ inch thick, drained on paper towels to remove excess moisture
1 bunch of scallions, trimmed and cut into 1-2 inch long pieces
1 tablespoon of roasted sesame seeds

Sauce ingredients:
¼ cup of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sugar
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1-3 teaspoons of Korean red pepper powder
1 teaspoon of sesame oil

Mix the sauce ingredients together and set aside in a small bowlIn a non-stick skillet, sauté the tofu in a little oil or spray oil for about 3-5 minutes per side (just to get some color). Remove from pan and keep warm. Add the scallions and cook for 1-2 minutes, tossing occasionally. Add the tofu slices back to the pan and add the sauce. Cook for one minute to heat everything through. If the sauce reduces too much, add some water. Sprinkle the sesame seeds over the tofu. Serve over steamed rice with a side of spinach banchan or kimchee (or both).