Moo Shu Style Veggies

Maybe it isn't really Moo Shu without the pancakes, but it sure is yummy! This is a combination of textures, the harder vegetables like the carrot and turnip sliced into thin sticks, the savoy cabbage sliced into thin strips, mushrooms in sticks, tofu in strips, and the combination of salty and sweet from the Tamari and the Mirin.  Easy, one pot stir fry. We ate it with Lundberg's Black Japonica Rice. a gluten free whole grain with an almost fruity overtone and, according to the package, "containing the anthocyanin antioxidants like those found in blueberries and blackberries." The idea is to combine chewy, crisp, and soft, use what you have and like!

Moo Shu Veggies (serves 4 hungry -6 with pancakes and side dishes)

6 leaves Savoy cabbage
1 medium carrot
1 small turnip
6-8 Cremini mushrooms
1 large onion
2/3 of a block of firm tofu
3/4 cup pea shoots

1. Chop all the vegetables into strips.
2. Put about 3/4 cup water in a wok or large saute pan, adding carrots, turnip, onion, mushrooms, tofu and cabbage. Add Tamari and Mirin, and cook for 10 minutes covered, stirring and mixing the sauce into the veggies.
3. Taste for doneness and flavor of the sauce. Add tofu, stir and add the last 1/4 cup of water with another splash of Tamari or Mirin, covering for another 5 minutes and serve.

Moo Shu Veggies Nutrition Facts for 4 servings Serving Size: 1 Serving (278g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 137 7% Total Fat 4g 6% Saturated Fat 1g 3% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 773mg 32% Total Carbohydrate 19g 6% Dietary Fiber 4g 17% Sugars 8g 0% Protein 11g 22% Vitamin A 12% • Vitamin C 40% Calcium 32% • Iron 11% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using my data.

Nutrition Facts for Black Japonica Rice

Serving Size: 1 Serving (45g)  based on 1/4 cup uncooked

Amount Per Serving		% Daily Value*
Calories	150	8%
Total Fat	2g	2%
Saturated Fat		0%
Trans Fat
Cholesterol		0%
Sodium		0%
Total Carbohydrate	33g	11%
Dietary Fiber	3g	12%
Sugars		0%
Protein	4g	8%

Vitamin A	0%	•	Vitamin C	0%
Calcium	0%	•	Iron	4%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using data provided by Lundberg's Rice.

Marinated Tempeh with Sweet Potato Noodles

We came home from a social gathering and really needed some serious food after eating carrots and cherry tomatoes all evening. I had seen this coming and had boiled and started soaking some tempeh in a spicy marinade earlier in the day.  Phew! Dinner turned into a one-dish meal. Comforting, filling, and adding in just what we needed to close the day. You can definitely exchange the sweet potato noodles for rice or mung bean starch noodles, but if you have an Asian grocery nearby, the texture of the sweet potato noodles really adds something.  Dessert was a mandarin orange. There is a high sodium content in this due to the Tamari, Ume plum vinegar and Sriracha.


Marinated Tempeh with Sweet Potato Cellophane Noodles
1 package tempeh
1/2 bag sweet potato cellophane noodles (2 servings)
2 cups sugar snap peas, cleaned & de-strung
1 cup shitake mushroom caps, sliced
4 cloves garlic, crushed & chopped
2 Tblsp sriracha Vietnamese Chili Sauce
2 Tblsp Tamari
1 tsp Ume Plum Vinegar
1 tsp Balsamic Vinegar

1. Cut up and boil tempeh for about 10 minutes. Then put tempeh in a bowl with 2 tblsps sriracha chili sauce, a tablespoon of tamari and about 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar. Let this soak, stirring the sauce over the tempeh chunks for several hours. You can even put it in the fridge for a while.

2. Water saute garlic with sliced mushrooms. Add snap peas, tamari and plum vinegar, stir, cover, stir, cover.

3. Add tempeh and soaking pepper sauce to wok, stir, cover, stir, cover. Meanwhile, boil water and cook the cellophane sweet potato noodles until clear and spongy.

4. Drain and rinse noodles, and add them to wok mixture, stirring them into the juices.  You might add more sriracha or tamari on the table.  You can definitely turn this into a meal for 4 by adding another vegetable dish and/or soup and salad.

spicy tempeh sweet potato noodles Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (400g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 694 35% Total Fat 11g 17% Saturated Fat 2g 11% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 1864mg 78% Total Carbohydrate 130g 43% Dietary Fiber 5g 18% Sugars 5g 0% Protein 23g 46% Vitamin A 2% • Vitamin C 65% Calcium 18% • Iron 41% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs.courtesy of cronomieter. com using my data.

Homestyle Mushroom Bibimbap

I have only had mushroom Bibimbap once, but it was extraordinary. We had this amazing dish at a serendipitous lunch at Mandoo Bar on E. 32nd Street in Manhattan. So I was dreaming of how to imitate anything like that and came up with this. I'm sure I will change and refine it, and encourage you to do the same! Aside from mushrooms, the Sriracha sauce is a requirement! This Vietnamese chili sauce adds spice but also terrific flavor. Aside from soaking the mushrooms for several hours, this dish took about 40 minutes to put together.








Homestyle Mushroom Bibimbap

1 cup brown jasmine rice
4 cups water (including soaking water for mushrooms)
4 cloves garlic
6 shiitake mushrooms
12 dried mushrooms (wood ear, shiitake or whatever you have)
1 cup raw spinach - small leaves
4 savoy cabbage leaves
2 scallions
1 small zucchini
1 cup full of enoki
4 inches of daikon radish
2-3 tblsp tamari
1.5 tbsp black vinegar
1/8 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp ginger root
1 tsp sesame seed
3 tsp Srirachi chili sauce

1. Soak dry mushrooms several hours. Slice the diakon and put in a small bowl with sriracha sauce (Vietnamese chili sauce) and let soak.
2. Cook rice. steam separately a few minutes (microwave in a bowl is fine) finely slivered cabbage, spinach leaves in a little water, and matchsticks of zucchini  with vinegar, tamari and sesame seeds.
3. Simmer slivered fresh shiitake mushrooms with sliced soaked mushrooms in some of the mushroom  juices with tamari, ginger, garlic and a dash of black vinegar added, covered.
4. In a small cast iron or enamel pot put 1/8 tsp roasted sesame oil and coat the bottom of the pan. Layer in about 1/2 of the rice. Meanwhile, uncover the mushrooms, stir in the chopped scallions and cook down the liquid a little.

5. When the rice begins to crackle and crisp, try to flip it like a pancake ... crisping the other side. Then pour in the spinach, cabbage, zucchini with sauce, mushrooms with sauce, daikon and sauce. Put lid on and let simmer for 5-10 minutes.
 6. Add the rest of the rice a splash of srirachi sauce and chop up, stirring in the enoki.  Serve with a side of kimchi and more hot sauce to add to taste.

 Nutrition Facts

Home Made Bibimbap

Serving Size: 1 Serving (533g) (3 servings)

Amount Per Serving		% Daily Value*
Calories	349	17%
Total Fat	4g	6%
Saturated Fat	1g	3%
Trans Fat
Cholesterol		0%
Sodium	880mg	37%
Total Carbohydrate	72g	24%
Dietary Fiber	8g	32%
Sugars	5g	0%
Protein	11g	22%

Vitamin A	5%	•	Vitamin C	59%
Calcium	9%	•	Iron	17%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using my data

Our side salad was beets, jicama, artichoke hearts, pea shoots, pomegranate seeds with a squeeze of lemon. 

Hot & Sour Soup - Version One (with sesame oil)

We aren't eating any take out food, but it doesn't mean we don't hanker after a good hot and sour soup! If you are eating cornstarch, and can tolerate just a dab of hot sesame oil, this comes pretty close. We didn't have the range of dried mushrooms and fungus, those interesting little pickled vegetables etc. So we imitated them! We used one dill pickle spear and slivered off slices to give that strange pale pickled texture, and added in obliquely sliced green beans for the same reason, to provide textures.  We'll keep playing with this, but the two of us ate nearly a whole quart! One drawback -- there is definitely a salt content in this dish, even made at home with low sodium Tamari.

Here's how it went down (easily!):

Hot & Sour Soup Version One
(makes 2 quarts)
1/2 small can bamboo shoots (about 7 ounces)
6-7 green beans
1 leaf savoy cabbage
1 dill pickle spear
1 medium carrot
6 oz soft tofu
2 scallions
1/4 cup dry maitake (or other) mushrooms
4-5 shiitake mushrooms
1 quart (4 cups) Organic vegetable broth
1 dried slice of papaya (optional)
cornstarch - 3 tablespoons
1/4 cup water
2 Tblsp Low Sodium Tamari
2 Tblsp Black Vinegar
1 tsp Mirin
1/2 tsp-1 tsp hot sesame oil (you can use hot pepper flakes)
1 tsp roasted sesame oil (optional)

1. Slice bamboo shoots, green beans, cabbage, sliver the pickles and carrots in thin sticks. Cut tofu into thin sticks too.  Slice the shiitake mushroom caps into 1/4 inch slices, without their stems.
2. Put dried maitake mushrooms and bits of one piece of dried papaya in 1/2 cup hot water and set aside to soak.
3. Mix 1/2 tsp cornstarch and 1 tsp mirin with the sliced tofu and set aside.
4. Put 4 cups broth in a pot and bring to a boil. Turn it down and put all the crunchy shredded vegetables into the soup for 5 minutes of simmer.
5. Mix black vinegar, tamari, cornstarch and 1/4 cup water, plus the hot sesame oil and set aside.
6. When vegetables begin to soften, turn off the fire under the pot and add the sauce with cornstarch, tofu mixture and the scallions.  Stir a few times as it begins to thicken, and serve!

Hot & Sour Soup Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (301g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 99 5% Total Fat 2g 3% Saturated Fat 0g 1% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 795mg 33% Total Carbohydrate 18g 6% Dietary Fiber 2g 10% Sugars 5g 0% Protein 3g 7% Vitamin A 6% • Vitamin C 8% Calcium 4% • Iron 6% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using my data.