Been wanting to expand my recipe list, what are your favorites?
Fasulye is my go-to most of the time - white beans, carrots, celery, onion in a tomato sauce, I usually make it spicy with whatever peppers I have. Have it over rice or with bread.
Oh, that looks great! Thanks!
Phở Chay
oh, looks yummy!
Egypt’s national dish, Koshary. Uses lots of pots and pans so make sure you have a few (and probably someone to help you do the dishes).
Also, Egypt’s most popular/commonly consumed dish, Ful Medames (Fava beans).
And, of course, Egyptian-style Falafel.
Never had Koshary, may have to try! But Ful Medames is shooting to the top of the list, I adore beans and I already love falafel, so that seems like an easy enough dish to love that I haven’t had yet. Thanks!
Falafel, my beloved
I always liked how Koshary has all kinds of carbs: rice, pasta, lentils and you even eat it with bread (and your hands). It tastes great and with the typicall serving size, it’s impossible to be hungry afterwards.
Interesting. I’ve never seen or heard about anyone eating Koshary with bread (or using their hands for that matter). Usually you’d just eat it with a spoon.
An upside with the dish is that you can control the carb/protein ratio by adjusting the amount of lentils and chickpeas compared to pasta and rice, for example.
Yes, Egyptians eat it with a spoon. When I was there we used bread because we shared this and other stuff and I enjoyed adding more carbs, because I was very hungry.
I thought fava beans only grew on Bajor
Ratatouille, a stew made from eggplant, zucchini, tomato, peppers and mushrooms.
Yummy!
My favorite: Pot of pinto beans, batch of Mexican rice, fresh salsa, chopped toppings (cabbage, radish, cilantro) and some fresh masa tortillas. It’s not a vegan exclusive channel but I got a bunch of good recipes from the yt channel “Rachel cooks with love”.
Egyptian koshary is traditionally vegan. Have never had it, but it looks good
Beans and rice topped with goodies makes up, like, 80% of my meals, haha. Thanks for the channel rec!
Chana masala
GOATed
Def my all-time favorite Indian dish
That one, masoor dal, and tomato rice got me through college. I’ve been really enjoying making veggie korma lately too.Dal Makhani is still at my personal top, it’s such a labor of love though.
I love a tomato based lentil & veggie soup.
Chickpea curry.
And from my local foods pea soup is a favourite.
Yemista/gemista.
Love lentils and curry!
This post inspired me to make chickpea korma today, it was so good.
Hell yea! Hope you made enough for leftovers!
I did! It’s my lunch tomorrow.
Hell yea
Since someone already mentioned chana masala, I’ll go with aloo palak. Love me some spinach, yum
Yummy greens
Fried tofu basted in soy sauce, red peppers, green onions, garlic, and ginger.
Saw you mention making your own kimchi. You just need to skip out on using fish sauce when making your own. Just make sure to salt and red pepper in layers and if you’re doing Napa cabbage make sure to get the salt into the crevices.
Yep, I’ve seen vegan fish sauce recipes so I was going to go for that to keep the flavor similar. Thanks for the advice!
You can also try your hand at water kimchi. That might be an easier and quicker trial run for making kimchi for beginners
Love that too, but I have a need for Kimchi Jjigae and Dubu Kimchi as well so that would be in addition to, not replacing.
I get it. I’m a right fiend for kimchi stew too. Quite literally a food I could eat for the rest of my life and not get sick of it.
Honestly Koreans have historically pickled or preserved almost everything they could get their hands on so honestly the limits of side dish making comes from oneself and their willingness to delve into the unorthodox.
100% agreed, I’m not Korean myself but in the last decade or so my closest friends have been Korean, and they love more than anything to teach me more about Korean food and culture. The dizzying myriad banchans and kimchis amazed me at first, but seeing how it’s more about the process than the dish made it click much better in my head, haha.
I could probably eat ssambap and gukbap daily for the rest of my life and die happy, lol
I could probably eat ssambap and gukbap daily for the rest of my life and die happy, lol
You pretty much described my daily culinary life in a nutshell lmao
I’ve been enjoying recipes from Hermann. He’s got a youtube series making traditionally vegan recipes.
Also: masoor/red lentil dal
I totally forgot about the Wunderbar! guy lol
Thanks for the awesome resource!
Tofu with spicy peanut sauce. Here’s the recipe I use for the peanut sauce:
spoiler
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce/sriracha (or to taste)
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon lite soy sauce
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
3/4 teaspoon cornstarchCombine all ingredients, bring to a simmer until thickened
Also, while not traditionally vegan, saag paneer can be made with tofu and it is good.
Thanks for the recipe, love peanut sauce! And it’s been forever since I’ve had saag paneer, may need to do as you suggest and make saag tofu!
One other thing while I’m thinking about it: cashew cream actually works pretty well as a cream replacement for richer dishes if you haven’t tried it yet. The only challenge is that you end up with little cashew oorts unless you have a powerful blender or pass it through a sieve. I did a white bean soup with Italian herbs and kale and it made a nice addition. It’d probably help with the saag paneer too, I should give that a shot. I’ve also used it along with impossible sausage (sliced rather than crumbled) in this sausage pasta recipe.
I love cashew cream in pasta dishes! Have made some lovely heavy dishes that way.
地三鲜 di san xian (braised potato, eggplant and capsicum) is vegan if you leave out the oyster sauce. You can sub with kecap manis.
Oh, that sounds lovely! Thanks!
Love Korean food! Have to make my own kimchi though, most of it isn’t vegan. That’s a good idea though, I should make some!
Is you have an east Asian supermarket near you, it’s worth checking. The one near me carries a handful of vegan options - I usually buy this Assi brand one.
I think the Target stores near me also carry a vegan kimchi.
You can also make Korean pancakes with different goodies inside!
Oh, will check that out! But I also think it would just be fun to do, haha. My partner and I have been wanting to do that for a while.
I found some of these in the frozen section at my local grocery and fell in love with then. Haven’t tried making my own yet.
In addition to Kimchi jeon, garlic chive pancakes (https://www.koreanbapsang.com/buchujeon-garlic-chive-pancakes/) are also really good which I believe you should be able to get (garlic chives) in most east asian grocery stores.
Fuchsia Dunlop has a recipe by Buddhist monks in her Hunan cookbook that’s simple and vegan. You cut some celery and smoked tofu into strips, you fry the tofu in a wok, take it out, fry the celery, put the tofu back in and season with soy sauce and chili flakes. Serve the whole thing over rice et voilà.
That sounds so yummy! Kinda been interested in Buddhist monk cooking since veganism is a big part of that.
Just use vegan substitutes for non-vegan ingredients in recipes you already like. Or if it seems particularly difficult, look on YouTube (ie, vegan chile relleno).
Here’s a staple in our house: garlic and black pepper tofu. You can add it to other recipes or use it as is. We make it for thanksgiving as it goes great with mashed potatoes and gravy.
Tear a block of extra firm tofu into chunks (I prefer this to cubing it). Fry it in a pan with no oil, until all the water is evaporated. Then add oil and fry til golden brown. Move all the tofu to one side of the pan, and add some more oil to the empty space. Fry a bunch of minced garlic in that oil til it’s brown, then mix it up with the tofu. Add 5 or 6 good dashes of your favorite soy sauce and remove from heat. Add a generous amount of black pepper (preferably fresh ground). You’ll want to play with the amounts of garlic/soy sauce/pepper, but don’t be afraid to use a lot!
Thanks for the recipe! I’ve done a lot of replacements, but I was more curious about naturally vegan recipes that I may not be familiar with. Will definitely give your recipe a try though!
Ugh, I went looking through food photos to find some of it and came up empty but hungry lol. It did remind me that that tofu recipe goes really well in a Vietnamese or Thai style noodle soup. Lots of fresh basil and bean sprouts, and we like to top it of with some crispy fried wonton wrapper triangles.
We ended up making this again for lunch, lol.
