Thai Vegan Pineapple Fried Rice (ข้าวผัดสัปปะรด)

On Vegan Pizza Day, I bought two pineapples, it was on sale, to make hawaiian pizza.  After making pizza, freeze some for smoothie and ate it raw as fruit, I still have some pineapple left.  I don’t like to waste anything and always find my way to use every bit of leftover possible (before it goes bad). I also have some leftover brown rice from our dinner the night before. Leftover rice is perfect for fried rice because it become drier and will not turn mushy when stir fried with other ingredients.  So I have ingredients just perfect for Thai Pineapple Fried Rice! Did I mention I am Thai ? 🙂

Pineapple fried rice is one of the well-known one dish meal in Thai cuisine. The combination of sweet and sour from pineapple, the aroma of curry powder and the crunchiness of toasted cashew will satisfy your palate. To make it very authentic, make a soy chili sauce to go with fried rice. You will be dining exotic food at the comfort of your own home.

Prep Time: 10-15 mins
Cooking Time: 8-10 mins
Yield : 2 servings

Ingredients

2 1/2- 3 cup cooked rice ( white or brown) I used brown in the photo
3/4 cup diced pineapple
3/4 cup dice carrot*
1/2 cup dice onion
1/4 cup chopped green onion*
1/4 cup raisin/dried cranberries (optional)
1/2 cup toasted cashew
1 tsp minced garlic
1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil ( I used coconut oil)
3 1/2 tbsp of low sodium soy sauce/tamari
2 1/2 tsp of sugar
2 tsp of curry powder

*The idea is to have at least 4 colors of vegetables in your stir fried ( yellow, orange, green, white, brown, red) you can add colored vegetable such as mushroom, green and red bell pepper. 

Directions

• Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium to medium-high.
• When the oil is hot, add the garlic and onion, stir until onion turn translucent ( about 1 mins or so)
• Add carrot and other ” take time to cook” vegetables such as mushroom and bell pepper, stir for few minute till half cook
• Add rice and pineapple and season it with soy sauce, sugar and curry power, continually stirring and tossing for about 2 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning if desired.
• Add green onion, raisin(if using) and cashew. ( You don’t want to cook green onion too much and you want to keep cashew crunchy) Give it a few good stirs, turn the heat off and serve hot!

Tip for eating like Thai People 🙂 Mix some soy sauce with lime juice and dash of sugar. Put some chopped thai chili (or other spicy chili) into the soy mixtures. Drizzle on top of fried rice. Enjoy! and don’t forget to eat the rainbow 🙂 

Miso glazed eggplant

If you are following my posts, you can guess that I like making Japanese food. Though I enjoy  almost every international food, Japanese is one of my favorite and it is easily made vegan. This miso glazed eggplant is my favorite appetizer to order at japanese restaurant. I didn’t like eggplant that much when I grew up but the flavor of this one has changed my mind, little sweet and salty with an aroma of sesame.

I had been searching for the recipe and tried to make this at home. The traditional recipe would normally require Mirin, a sweet cooking alcohol that is commonly used in japanese cooking, and sake ( Japanese Alcohol Beverage). Those two ingredients are very pricey and I do not want to spend too much to make one simple dish.  So here the simpler version of mine with a few ingredients that you probably already have in you pantry. I couldn’t tell the major difference in flavor and I quite like the result. Now, I can enjoy my favorite appetizer at home, at the fraction of a cost of dining in restaurant, and you can too.

Mizo Glazed Eggplant

Yield: 2 servings
Prep Time: 5 mins
Cooking Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

1 eggplants
2 tbsp miso
2 tbsp agave or maple syrup
1 tbsp sesame oil + some for blushing
sesame seed and green onion ( for garnish)

Directions

• Preheat oven 350F
• Cut eggplant in half lengthwise
• Brush sesame oil on cut side and baked eggplant cut side down for about 30 mins
• In a small bowl, mix together miso, agave and sesame oil. Stir to mix well. Set aside.
• Once eggplant is cooked and soft ( fork can be easily insert into eggplant meat) take it out of the oven. Turn cut side up and brush it with prepared sauce and drizzle with some sesame seeds.
• Change setting from Bake to Broil (High), Put eggplant back into oven cut side up for a few minute until sauce turns dark brown ( I like it a little burnt 🙂
• Remove from the oven, garnish with slices of green onion. Serve hot and enjoy!

Eating Tip: Though skin can be eaten, enjoy only the meat for this recipe. Skin can be tough and the meat is easily came off the skin.  

Ultimate Vegan Banana Bread (GFO)

Ultimate Vegan Banana Bread (Gluten-free Optional)

I have made this banana bread recipe both with normal wheat flour and gluten free flour and I like them both. Though gluten free version is more of crumbly side but it turn out very flavorful and lighter. It is probably because the gluten free flour mix is consisted of various type of bean flours, it turn out very yummy.  If you are allergic to gluten and love banana bread, this recipe will be perfect for you.

I love having banana bread with my morning coffee, it is one of my favorite quick bread. When I was working in Australia, I have tried banana bread from every coffee shops at every conner that I could find on the way walking to work ( there are a lot of coffee shops in sydney) until I find one that I love. yeah…I am a little bit crazy about banana bread. It is simple bread but sometime they just don’t get it right. They usually make it too sweet or not enough banana. The key to good banana bread is LOT of very ripe bananas:) and now I get to make it without eggs, dairy and even gluten…Vegan version, even better! I hope you like it as much as I do.

*the photos were taken from wheat flour version, gluten-free version will looks slightly different in texture

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour or homemade gluten free flour  (you will need xanthan gum for this recipe) or store bought
3/4 cups organic cane sugar
1 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup non-dairy milk (such as almond milk and soy milk)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups mashed banana, from 4 large very ripe bananas
1/4 cup grape seed oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

A Dash of Love

Direction

• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly oil loaf pan and set aside.
• In mixing bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
• In another mixing bowl, mix together non-dairy milk and cider vinegar and let stand for 5 minutes. Add the mashed banana, grape seed oil and vanilla extract, whisking until well combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing until just combined and pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center come out clean.

Chickpea “tuna” sushi roll

Chickpea “tuna” sushi roll

This recipe is one of my favorite. It is so quick and easy to make. It taste so good you won’t believe there is no tuna in it, only protein goodness from chickpea. You can make a big batch and use them in many dishes. It is very versatile and perfect grab and go kind of meal. You can use them in  sandwich, dipping, put on cracker, salad or in sushi roll.

Ingredients for “tuna” 

1 1/2 cup cooked or 1 can of garbanzo bean (chickpea), drain and rinse with water
1 rib of celery, finely chopped
1/8 of sweet onion, finely chopped
5 tbsp of homemade mayo
2 tsp of dijon mustard
2 tbsp of sweet relish
lemon juice
salt
dill

Direction

• Drain chickpea and mash it throughly with fork
• Combine chopped onion and celery
• Add homemade mayo, mustard and relish.
• Season it with a little bit of salt and lemon juice, mix well
• Taste it, add more lemon and salt, if needed.
• Sprinkle with dill

Ingredients for sushi

Chickpea “tuna” ( recipe above)
2 2/3 cups cooked japanese rice, I used Calrose Rice BOTAN
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
3 tbsp of sugar
1 tsp of salt

seaweed nori sheet
vegetables, cut lengthwise (such as carrot,cucumber, avocado, pepper, shred cabbage etc)
bamboo rolling mat

Directions

• Rinse to clean the rice  until the water runs clear. Cook rice in rice cooker according to instruction. If you don’t have rice cooker you can combine 2 1/2 cups of water and cook in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 20 minutes. Rice should be tender and water should be absorbed. Cool until cool enough to handle.
• In a small mixing bowl, combine the rice vinegar,  sugar and salt  then stir into the cooked rice. Keep stirring and the rice will dry as it cools.

Now it is time to assemble the roll, watch this tutorial video on how to roll sushi  and start making your sushi roll with chickpea “tuna” and your choices of vegetables. Remember not to layer rice too thick and do not over stuffing your ingredients, it will be difficult to roll.

If you do not have a bamboo rolling mat (it is not expensive ) and do not want to get one, you can also make chickpea”tuna” sushi bowl instead! the taste will be equally delicious as it contains the same ingredients, just present in different form.  To do that ,put in a bowl seasoned sushi rice, top with chickpea, diced (instead of lengthwise cut) vegetable and seaweed nori that is cut into small stripe on top. Drizzle with some soy source and enjoy ! I made sushi bowl the other day because I ran out of nori sheet and have only seaweed snack. So I thought why not make a bowl! It taste just like sushi. I just ate it with spoon instead of chop stick 🙂

Other idea of meals that I have made with chickpea” tuna” are grilled daiya cheese with cucumber, hummus chickpea sandwich and  chickpea”tuna” on cracker. Here are some pictures of dishes I made. Hope you get some inspiration and make your own favorite dish with this recipe.

A Dash of Love

Buckwheat Waffle and Gluten-free flour mix

What do you usually have for breakfast? In typical weekday breakfast, I usually make fruit muffin, buckwheat bread or banana bread. It is convenience for “grab and go”  kind of morning and it is very good with coffee.   For the weekend, our favorite breakfast is waffle and pancake topped with fresh fruit and drizzle with some maple syrup. Yum! I like to make my own waffle/pancake batter from scratch. We rarely buy anything that come in a box or package because it is usually fill with preservatives and things that you can’t pronounce and probably do not want in your body. Making batter from scratch doesn’t take much more time than mix the mixture from the box. (in my opinion) Especially when you do it often, you know what you need to do and it can be very quick!  So today, I am going to share with you buckwheat waffle recipe. It is gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free and cruelty-free 100% vegan 🙂  plus a bonus of how to make your own gluten-free flour mixture. Hope you like it!

Buckwheat Waffle/Pancake Batter

Serving : 2
Prep Time:  12 mins
Cooking Time: 5 mins

Ingredients

1/2 cup gluten-free flour , store-bought or homemade mix (recipe below)
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
3/4 cup non-dairy milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup apple sauce
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking power
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp  grape seed oil

fresh fruit (blueberry, strawberry, banana, mango etc)
maple syrup
A Dash of Love

Direction

• Combine apple cider vinegar and non-dairy milk. Let the mixture stand at room temperature for 5-10 minutes until it become “sour”  When it is ready, the milk will be slightly thickened and form small curdled bits.
• At the meantime, Whisk all dry ingredients together.
• Add apple sauce and grape seed oil into sour-milk mixture.
• Add wet mixture into dry mixture, whisk until well combined.
• Preheat waffle iron and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
• Pour into waffle iron and prepare according to waffle iron instructions.
• Remove from waffle iron when baked throughout and serve warm with fresh fruit and maple syrup.

* Homemade Gluten-free flour mix

Most of store-bought gluten free flour contains rice flour and sometime corn. My husband has a sensitivity to corn, rice and wheat. So it is very difficult for me to find flour that I like. I decided to make my own mixture without those ingredients. You can double the recipe to make a big batch and keep flour in container for convenience. I usually make about 15-30 cups at a time but if you want to start small and try it out first. here is recipe for about 3 cups flour.

1 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1 1/2 tsp of xanthan gum or guar gum  ( optional for waffle)

Xanthan Gum and Guar Gum will help your gluten free baking goods bind together and not crumbly. xanthan gum is more expensive than guar gum but it made of corn, if you are sensitive to corn like my husband, you might consider using guar gum.  In this waffle recipe, I didn’t use them at all and still turn out great.