Been wanting to expand my recipe list, what are your favorites?
I love a tomato based lentil & veggie soup.
Chickpea curry.
And from my local foods pea soup is a favourite.
Yemista/gemista.
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.
Ratatouille, a stew made from eggplant, zucchini, tomato, peppers and mushrooms.
Since someone already mentioned chana masala, I'll go with aloo palak. Love me some spinach, yum
I've been enjoying recipes from Hermann. He's got a youtube series making traditionally vegan recipes.
Also: masoor/red lentil dal
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.
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).
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Also, Egypt's most popular/commonly consumed dish, Ful Medames (Fava beans).
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And, of course, Egyptian-style Falafel.
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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!
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 am just gonna copy my bulgur salad comment because bulgur salad is GOAT
My lunch when I'm not at home and even typically at home is bulgur salad:
- 3 parts of the coarsest bulgur to 4 parts water by volume. Add salt and bring to boil, then turn off, let it cool on the stove with a lid on.
- dice: tomato, leek, pickled cucumber, red paprika and/or whatever else you like
- once bulgur is at most luke-warm stir it so the drier bulgur ln top gets mixed in with the wetter bulgur. It still takes water while cold, so don't worry about homogeniety. -mix in a good amount of olive oil so the grains separate. Like a goooooood amount. This kind of food is what olive oil is for dont be shy about it.
- Add loads of tomato paste and paprika paste (I go for half paprika half tomato but it's up to you). Like loads. Bulgur salad has a red/orange hue, sated colors=sated belly.
- Whatever spices you want, I typically go for pepper, rose paprika, the mediterranean combo (thyme, basil, oregano and rosemary) and cumin. Gotta watch out with the cumin though, you can't really overdo the other spices but cumin has a very strong flavor. Also pul biber because I like it spicy.
- Add your souring agent: lemon juice, vinegar or my favorite variant: pickle juice.
- Parsley. Loads of it. Impossible to overdo, the arabic variant is mainly parsley with some bulgur. Doesn't matter which type or how finely diced, I buy deep frozen because it's already cut up and I dump half a box into it, but obviously fresh is better.
- mix it all and taste it. It should be a bit too spicy and salty since we're gonna add all the veg and a bit too dry since it will soak up the veg juices later. You don't want a weird slosh later at the bottom but you can dump it or try to mix it in if there is.
- mix in the diced veg and some chickpeas and let it sit on the fridge. I typically go for 50/50 veg and bulgur.
There are loads of variants obviously, but the main ingredients are tomato&paprika paste, olive oil, some kind of souring agent, PARSLEY(important!), veg. Seriously though don't forget the parsley.
It keeps at least a week in the fridge so it's perfect for meal prepping, it's eaten cold so perfect to pack while away, it has carbohydrates veg and protein (mainly the chickpeas but bulgur has a bit as well), and it doesn't make me feel drowsy like when I eat too much of some other carbs (looking at you noodles).
I love my bulgur salad.
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!
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
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!
(Tofu) rogan josh on naan is up there too
Shout out to the awesome local Indian restaurant for inspiring me to cook better at home
Indian food is always so yummy and super easy to veganize if it isn't already
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.
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.
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.
