Kimchi-Fried Rice

Ingredients

  • 2 cups vegan kimchi* (we used King’s Spicy Kimchi) (one 14-oz. jar has enough kimchi to get you two cups worth)
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon Korean gochujang (fermented chili paste) (we used Haechandle Gochujang Hot Pepper Paste)
  • 4 tablespoons coconut cream(we used Thai Kitchen Coconut Cream unsweetened)
  • 4 cups cooked jasmine or short-grain rice (we used brown jasmine rice)
  • 3 scallions (spring onions), finely sliced
  • 1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce (we used San-J Tamari 50% Less Sodium)
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds, to garnish
  • 4 sheets of nori, toasted and crumbled, to garnish

Directions

  1. Take a colander and set it over a bowl. Place the kimchi in the colander and press on it to drain as much juice from the kimchi as possible (don’t throw the juice away). Chop the kimchi up and leave it off to the side for now.
  2. Pour the oils into a wok or a skillet (such as a frying pan) (we used a 12-inch cast-iron skillet), setting the heat to medium. Once the oil’s hot, add the kimchi in, stirring constantly for 4 to 5 minutes or until the kimchi is fragrant. Add the gochujang and coconut cream into the skillet, stirring for 1 minute or until they look thoroughly blended. Add the rice, kimchi juice, scallions and tamari into the skillet, stirring to combine. Let the rice mixture cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally until the rice gets lightly toasted. Place the rice on a serving plate before sprinkling on the sesame seeds and the nori crumbles. Serve right away.

Serves 4.

*When we measured out the 2 cups of kimchi, we noticed that there was some juice left at the bottom of the jar. We chose not to add that to the bowl with the juice produced from pressing the kimchi.

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The first time we ever tried a kimchi-fried rice, it turned out really bad (like no flavor and the rice was mushy) but this version is so much better ! There’s a nice level of heat to this that made us want to keep coming back for more. The nori and sesame seeds didn’t really add anything to the dish but at least you get some iodine by having the nori with the fried rice ! Hope y’all will enjoy this as much as we did !

This recipe came from “Vegan The Cookbook”.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Kings, Haechandle, Thai Kitchen, San-J or “Vegan The Cookbook”.

Take care everybody !

Sweet Heat Green Beans

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. canola oil
  • 1 Tbsp. sambal oelek
  • 2 tsp. light agave nectar (we used Madhava Organic Golden Light 100% Blue Agave nectar)
  • 1 tsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce
  • 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
  • 2 minced garlic cloves
  • Dash of freshly ground black pepper
  • 10 oz. green beans, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces (this usually meant cutting a green bean into 2 or 3 pieces)

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together everything but the green beans. Add the green beans to the bowl, tossing to coat.
  3. Take a baking sheet and line it with aluminum foil. Spread the green beans out on the lined baking sheet, placing the sheet in the oven for 18 minutes, stirring them around halfway through.

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These green beans live up to their name, we loved the balance between sweet and spicy !

This is a vegan version of a recipe we’ve had for a while (and we’re not sure where the original version came from).

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Madhava.

Take care everybody !

Green Curried Garbanzo Beans

Ingredients

  • 1 cup chopped onion (we used a yellow onion)
  • 1 cup chopped red sweet pepper
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 cups refrigerated unsweetened coconut milk (we used the So Delicious brand)
  • 2 Tbsp. Thai green curry paste (we used Thai Kitchen brand)
  • 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper (optional) (we used it)
  • 2 (15-oz. each) cans no-salt-added garbanzo beans, drained (we used regular cans of garbanzo beans)
  • 2 cups thinly sliced fresh spinach
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • 2 cups hot cooked brown rice
  • Optional garnishes: fresh cilantro, lime wedges, sliced green onions, and/or toasted cashews (we used them all)

Directions

  1. Take a large saucepan out and set it over medium heat. Add the onion, sweet pepper, and garlic to the skillet, stirring now and then for 3 to 4 minutes or until  the vegetables are tender. During those 3 to 4 minutes, add one to two tablespoons of water into the skillet when needed so the food doesn’t get stuck to the skillet (we had to do that repeatedly). Once the vegetables are tender, mix in the coconut milk, curry paste and (if you’re it) the crushed red pepper. Bring the sauce up to a boil, adding in the garbanzo beans. Once it’s at a boil again, stir in the spinach and cilantro until all of the spinach has wilted. Serve the curry over rice, adding on your choice of garnishes.

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This tastes good but we’re going to add more crushed red pepper next time since we really didn’t get any spiciness from the dish. All of the toppings made this dish even better but it was the cilantro and green onions that we thought added the most.

This recipe came from Forks Over Knives.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote So Delicious, Thai Kitchen, or Forks Over Knives.

Take care everybody !

Soy-Mirin Tofu with Snow Peas and Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

  • 1 cup dry brown rice
  • 2 cups water
  • Peanut Sauce
    • 1/4 cup peanut butter (we used Skippy Creamy peanut butter)
    • 1/4 cup coconut milk or water (we used Thai Kitchen regular coconut milk)
    • 1 tablespoon sugar
    • 1 tablespoon soy sauce (we used Kikkoman less-sodium soy sauce)
    • 1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar (we used Kikkoman unseasoned rice vinegar)
    • 1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
    • 1 teaspoon hot chili oil (optional) (we used KA.ME hot chili oil)
  • 1 block extra-firm tofu, pressed and cut into small squares (we sliced our tofu into 3/4-inch slabs before pressing, then cut it into 3/4-inch squares afterwards)
  • 2 cups snow peas, trimmed, cut into 2-inch pieces
  • 1 carrot, peeled and shredded (we shredded our carrot on the large holes of our cheese grater)
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce (we used Kikkoman less-sodium soy sauce)
  • 1 tablespoon mirin (we used Sun Luck Mirin)
  • 1 tablespoon canola or peanut oil for pan frying (we used 2* tablespoons of peanut oil)
  • Crushed peanuts as garnish (optional) (we used Planters Dry Roasted peanuts that we chopped)

Directions

  1. Cook the brown rice in the water based off the directions you find on the package the rice came in. While the rice is cooking, take a large bowl out and whisk all the sauce ingredients together in it (it might take you a couple of minutes to get a smooth consistency). If you’re using coconut milk, you might want to add in a tablespoon of water to get it to a thinner consistency (we didn’t mind the consistency the sauce had so we skipped on the tablespoon of water). Leave the sauce off to to the side for now.
  2. Get a large saucepan filled with salted, boiling water (we used table salt to salt the water). Fill a large mixing bowl with ice-cold water. Drop the snow peas into the boiling water for just a minute before draining the water and placing the snow peas in the ice-cold water so they stop cooking. Leave them in the water for the time being.
  3. Take a small bowl out and mix the soy sauce and mirin together in it. Set it off to the side for now. When the rice is close to being done or is fully cooked, start getting ready to cook the tofu.
  4. Take a 10-inch cast-iron or nonstick skillet out (we used a 12-inch nonstick skillet) and pour the oil into it, setting the skillet over high heat (we set ours over medium-high heat). Once the oil’s hot, add the tofu in, cooking it long enough to get at least 2 sides of the tofu browned. Once the tofu’s browned, drain any leftover oil, returning the skillet to the stovetop. Turn off the heat.
  5. Take the bowl of snow peas and drain the water, adding the peas into the skillet afterwards. Pour the mirin mixture over the tofu and peas, tossing to coat. Serve the tofu and snow peas over the rice, topping it with the carrots and crushed peanuts, drizzling the peanut sauce on last (we saved adding the peanuts on for last so there’d be less chance of them losing their crunch).

*Since our skillet was bigger, we used 2 tablespoons of oil to fry up the tofu. We did have leftover oil to drain though because of that.

Serves 2 (might be able to get 3 servings out of it though depending on your own portion size).

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This is going in our favorites ! The sauce was delicious even though we didn’t get any heat from it. After being tossed in the mirin-soy mixture, the tofu lost the crispiness it gained so it was nice getting a little texture from the snow peas and even more crunch from the peanuts. We can’t wait to have this again in the future !

This recipe came from “Vegan Yum Yum”.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Skippy, Thai Kitchen, Kikkoman, KA.ME, Sun Luck, Planters or Vegan Yum Yum.

Take care everybody !