Taste of the East (30 Minute Vegan's)
I just got this and am very excited to try it out. It's broken down into 5 main sections: The Cuisine of India, The Cuisine of Thailand, The Cuisine of China, The Cuisine of Japan, and Asian Fusion. I'm a bit of a beginner cook, but this isn't intimidating to me. If you have any of the authors' previous cookbooks, the same focus on healthy cooking is continued in this book with less oil than I've seen used in other recipes.The ingredients are easier to find than some of the previous cookbooks he's put out.There are 10 different curry recipes, and pretty much a version of any Eastern recipe you might have seen typcially in a restaurant (and others you haven't) and would like to make at home. I love Vegan Fire and Spice (one of my absolute favorites), but when I look at this book I see about 40 recipes I'm excited to make and look easy enough for me to do.This one is going to be well used in my home.
Awesome. Can't wait to read your reviews. Asian food is my most favorite.
Mulligatawny
Delicious. None of the spices are too overpowering. Just a nice bright creamy salty conconction- just what you'd want from a bowl of soup. Everyone who has tried it has been a fan. It leaves a warmth in your mouth when you add a little cayenne pepper, but it's not so hot that it distracts from the taste while you eat it. Yumm!
Schezuan green beans - I didn't have rice vinegar and use white wine so the taste was a bit altered but they were still delicious! This is a great side dish and I will be making this again.
Tibetan noodle soup - The flavor was good (it was just veggie broth with veggies) but the "noodles" weren't good at all. They were very chewy and I just felt they weren't a great addition. I wouldn't make this again and wouldn't recommend making it.
Dan dan noodles - I used linguini noodles and loved this! I only used 8 oz of noodles and it had the perfect amount of sauce. I really enjoyed this with some extra sriracha and soy sauce.
Cardamom-scented tofu - The tofu itself is so flavorful but I thought the sauce was very bland when I tasted it by itself but when you combine them, it works out and tastes good. It made too much sauce though.
Lemon rice - This totally rocked! Complements the cardmom tofu perfectly.
For anyone interested in holiday recipes, 30-minute Vegan or Vegan Fusion:
Vegan Fusion's monthly newsletter:
http://tinyurl.com/2fcc839
So many awesome recipes like Holiday nog, Pecan crusted tofu with gravy (grave is soooo good!), and raw cranberry relish!
I'm making lots of these for Thanksgiving!
Tempeh lettuce wraps with mango ginger sauce - Freakin' awesome. Quick, easy and delish. I used kale instead of lettuce since I had that from my CSA share this week. I steamed the tempeh for ten minutes, and then marinated it while I went to the grocery store, which caused it to absored all the marinade.
Brocolli and red pepper soba - Very good. Pretty cut and dry recipe, nothing earth shattering, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it a lot. I used whole grain spaghetti. It called for a 1/4th cup of toasted sesame seed oil, which I didn't have, so I used 1/8th cup and did a little sauteeing with a tablespoon of peanut oil. I think 1/4 cup would have been too much, but on the other hand toasted sesame seed oil tastes amazing. I cut down on the cooking time because I like crunchy veggies.
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I've made the broccoli and soba and liked it too. Of course I dressed it up with some extra sriracha.
I'm glad you have this book Tweety. It's been hard for me to get motivated to make stuff out of this cause I don't really feel like a lot of the recipes stand out so seeing your reviews will help!
Thanks. I know what you mean about the recipes, but I do like they don't have a long cooking time and are simple for the most part.
Of course, everything's better with siracha!
Bok choy with five-spice cashews - Very good. I loved the five-spice cashews. You coat the cashews in a little sesame oil, five spice and cayenne and roast for a few minutes. I've never used five-spice before and bought some just for this recipe, and to have on hand. The bok choy cooking was a little on the dry side so I added a splash of water and soy sauce to wilt the leasves (I cooked the white parts a little longer before adding the leaves). This was good, but not low-fat given the fat content of the nuts, but it's all good.
Korean BBQ Tofu - Very good. I marinated the tofu for about 30 minutes prior to grilling. The BBQ sauce is not unique, but good. I cut the tofu into 8 pieces when I was draining it, and then noticed later the recipe calls for only four pieces, but there was plenty of sauce to marinate it all.
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What was the the recipe named with the cashews ? That looks tasty!
Bok choy with five-spice cashews....I fixed it above. I imaged the words instead of bolded them so what showed was just an x. Duh.......
Dan Dan Noodles with tempeh - Very good. I used sambal olek instead of chili with I didn't have, and added optional smoked paprika (not something I'm used to in Asian cooking but it worked).
Very quick to make...duh the book is called "30 minute Vegan"...:)
My one complaint is that it's two greasy. The noodle sauce has 1/4 cup of sesame oil and I seriously love toasted sesame oil so I liked it, but I don't like greasy food. It calls for 1.5 tablespoon of agave and I used only 1 tbs.
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Lotus root salad - Very good. The dressing is a simple dressing of fresh orange juice (or lemon was an option...I choose orange), optional sesame seed oil (I used to option, this guy loves the stuff), rice vinegar and water. I suppose you could have used any veggies. I added a daikon raddish I got from the CSA this week, and chopped up a Thai chili for heat.
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I made the Orange-Glazed Tofu tonight for the the second time. The first time I made it, I mistakenly used orange marmalade containing sorbitol, and it seemed to me that my orange-glazed tofu had kind of a chemical diet soda type taste. Yuck! I could see the potential for this dish to be yummy, however, so I tried it again using an orange marmalade containing no sweeteners. Unfortunately, I still found the dish to be lacking something. For me the problem was that the glaze was too sweet, and needed something to counter it. The recipe says to 2 add tablespoons of soy sauce to the tofu slices, flipping them over to coat each side before adding the glaze, but perhaps it would have been better if the soy sauce was added to the glaze itself to help cut the sweetness. Don't think I'll be making this one again.
I also made the Green Curry a couple weeks back. I wasn't overly excited about this recipe either. The Green Curry Paste recipe calls for 1 1/2 Tablespoons of coriander seeds. Even though the curry paste gets thrown in the blender, the coriander seeds stayed whole, and their texture was tough and unappealing. In the future I would toast them a bit in a pan, and then grind them in a spice grinder, or else just use ground coriander. The taste of the curry paste was okay, but nothing special. A bit bland in my opinion. Don't think I'd make this again.
Kale and snow peas Quite good. This is a nice raw salad with kale, snow peas, ginger, sesame oil and lemon juice.
Tamari ginger tofu with green onions Good. This is a baked tofu that's marinated first. The marinade is pretty basic and not unique...tamari, rice vnegar, ginger, sesame oil, lime juice, agave nectar and green onions. I cut back on the sweet and added hot Thai chilies.
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http://Kale and snow peas Quite good. This is a nice raw salad with kale, snow peas, ginger, sesame oil and lemon juice.
http://Tamari ginger tofu with green onion Good. This is a baked tofu that's marinated first. The marinade is pretty basic and not unique...tamari, rice vnegar, ginger, sesame oil, lime juice, agave nectar and green onions. I cut back on the sweet and added hot Thai chilies.
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Which recipes do these review go with, Tweety?
Did it again didn't I? I didn't bold properly. Fixed it. Thanks.