Asian Roasted Vegetable Salad with Vermicelli

WARNING. This is a procrastination blog post. 

I should be studying for boards.

If you have never set foot in an Asian grocery, you are truly missing out on some excellent bargains. Usually they will sell larger volumes of the same items found in the "Asian Foods" section at the American grocery store - but AT RIDICULOUSLY LOW LOW PRICES. (I realize that may sound a bit like a used car commercial, but it's 100% factual). I haven't been happy with the state of affairs in their produce section, but for dry goods and non-perishables - IT'S ON!

As for produce, almost anywhere else is better. I usually just go to the regular grocery store, but occasionally hit up the Sam's super store if I have another reason to head that way. You may be surprised, but Sam's has a pretty solid selection of fresh staples. This includes giant amounts of spring mix for salads. Who needs that much lettuce, you may ask? WE ALL NEED THAT MUCH LETTUCE. I consider it a healthy challenge to finish the entire package before the leaves start to turn. The same challenge applies for most fresh veggies in my fridge. You may remember - it pains me to throw things away. LITERAL PAIN. (Man, I've used a lot of caps already! I'll chill out now...) If only there was a way to use up the salad greens *and* all of the other veggies in my crisper without making a heaping pile of cold chopped salad....

I took a peek in the fridge. I happen to have a bottle of fat free soy vinaigrette from Trader Joe's that I don't love as a salad dressing, per se... (I don't prefer sweetened dressings for salad), but it would work great as a base for a quick veggie marinade. I already had an idea in my head for a warm, soy based dressing for broccoli, carrots, and green beans...

Marinated, roasted vegetables on top of lettuce. That could work.

A step to the pantry -- should I add vermicelli noodles? Why not?! Noodles are far underutilized in salads, if you ask me. Which you didn't. But these particular noodles are an automatic match for fresh vegetables (spring rolls, anyone??). Experimental salad. Let's do it.

Asian Roasted Veggie Salad with Vermicelli

Prep time: 15 min

Cook time: 20 min

Servings: 4

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup fat free soy vinaigrette (I used Trader Joe’s Sesame Soy Ginger Vinaigrette)

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp chili garlic paste

1.5 cups broccoli

1 cup fresh green beans, snapped into 2” length

1 cup sliced yellow squash

1 large carrot, peeled and sliced on a bias

4 spears asparagus, cut to 2” length on a bias

¼ pkg (or two small bricks) Asian vermicelli (bean thread)

6 cups salad greens

1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds (I used black sesame)

Extra vinaigrette dressing, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Combine the first three ingredients in a small bowl.

3. Place all chopped vegetables in a large bowl and pour vinaigrette sauce over. Gently stir to coat all veggies.

4. Spread veggies into a single layer on a large sheet pan. Bake vegetables for 20 minutes.

5. When veggies are almost done, bring a pot of water to boil.  Add vermicelli bricks to boiling water and cook for 2 minutes, gently agitating noodles with a fork to separate.

6. Strain noodles with a large skimming spoon, or similar. Set aside.

7. Plate 2 cups salad greens topped with ¼ noodles and ¼ roasted vegetables (cooled to warm or room temperature). Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve with extra salad dressing, if desired.

NUTRITION INFORMATION (per serving):

Calories 203, Total Fat 4.8 g, Cholesterol 0 mg, Sodium: 279 mg, Protein 4.6 g, Fiber 5.1 g

The salad was good. Again, I simply used up what I had on hand. Other tasty additions might include marinated tofu, scallions and mushrooms. If you can't find vermicelli noodles, you can also sub Japanese soba noodles or omit them altogether.

Vegetable Green Curry

Probably since moving to Atlanta for my internship, Vietnamese and Thai food have really become some of my favorite things to eat on this ENTIRE planet. I haven't been to Vietnam OR Taiwan to taste their food at the source, so perhaps that is a bold statement. Nonetheless, I am obsessed with the flavor combination of basil/cilantro/mint and I love everything about coconut milk. PLUS - these types of dishes can be prepared super heavy on the vegetables (which is exactly how I like to cook at home!).

It should come as no surprise, then, that one of my favorite restaurants here in Ames happens to be a little Thai restaurant on Main Street (The Spice - where I've only made the mistake of ordering my food "thai spicy" ONCE). I almost always order the same thing (pad thai with tofu and extra veggies / medium spicy), but my second favorite dish on their menu is the green curry. My pal Nina and I first visited The Spice just a few weeks into our residency and we have been fans of the restaurant ever since. The green curry actually reminds me of her because we both ordered the same thing on our first 'friend date' - and the rest is history. Also notable from that evening - The Spice provides the BEST reusable to-go containers for their curry.

And so... there you have the inspiration for today's post.

This vegetable green curry can  be made vegetarian/vegan with the substitution of soy or tamari sauce for the fish sauce listed below. Fish sauce is pretty inexpensive and doesn't actually make anything taste like fish. This is key because its offensive scent can be misleading*.

* Fish sauce, for those of you who aren't privy, smells like lost piranha souls rotting in a seaweed bucket of decayed shrimp heads and I just happen to have a very large bottle in my cupboard. Lots of Thai dishes call for this and you can find it in the Asian section of most food stores (even the Ames Wal-Mart). My advice to you - DO NOT spill it or sniff it straight unless you want to question God's intention for providing us with the sense of smell.

You can certainly find recipes to make your own green curry sauce, but I just bought the Thai Kitchen brand that comes in a little jar. You can also substitute any veggies you have on hand - the more the merrier, I say! Of course, J was nice enough to go ahead and make a second run to the store to pick up the broccoli I'd forgotten during our trip the day before. Womp womp.

All in all, though, this dish takes very little prep time - a bit of chopping, but you can pull it together in the amount of time it takes to steam some rice. Unless you burn the rice. Then you'll have plenty of extra time while you make another batch..... * ahem.*

I meant to add mushrooms, too, but forgot. The recipe below does not reflect that sad, sad fact.

Vegetable Green Curry

 

Prep time: 15 min

Cook time: 20 min

Servings: 6

INGREDIENTS: 

1 Tbs vegetable oil (I used sunflower)

1 cup shallots, chopped (about 5 large)

5 large cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbs green curry paste (I used Thai Kitchen)

4 tsp fish sauce

2 - 14oz cans unsweetened coconut milk (full fat or light will work)

1 large red bell pepper, sliced into 2” strips

1 medium zucchini, cut into fourths and sliced lengthwise into ¼” strips

1 medium yellow squash, cut into fourths and sliced lengthwise into ¼” strips

1 cup green beans, snapped to 3” length

1 large carrot, sliced

1 cup broccoli, broken into small florets

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

1 large handful of basil, chopped

1 lime, zested and sliced into wedges

Chili oil or chili garlic paste, to taste

2 green onions, chopped

Cilantro, for garnish

3 cups steamed rice

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large, deep frying pan. Sauté the shallots and garlic with the curry paste for 2-3 minutes.

2. Add the coconut milk and fish sauce. Bring to a boil.

3. Add vegetables and simmer until veggies are crisp tender.

4. Remove from heat. Stir in basil and lime zest. Swirl with chili oil or chili garlic paste, to taste.

5. Serve over rice. Top with green onions and a generous squeeze of fresh lime. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy!

NUTRITION INFORMATION (per serving):

Calories 305; Total Fat 8.6 g; Cholesterol 0 mg; Protein 5.4 g, Fiber 3.0 g, Sodium 443.1 mg

*as prepared with full fat coconut milk, served over ½ cup jasmine rice.

My recipe very closely resembles the flavors I love in a Spicy Thai Coconut Chicken Soup (originally printed in Cooking Light). I encourage you to try that recipe, too, if you like the sound of it!

Hope ya'll are having a good week!

Cauliflower Fried Rice

One of my favorite things to do is ask J what food he dislikes.. and make that for dinner. Cooked cauliflower is one of those things, so naturally I scoured the internet for 101 ways to work it in to meals. 

If you have been anywhere near the world wide web in the past year, you might have noticed that cauliflower is the vegetable version of Jennifer Lawrence. A popular cousin to kale, cauliflower is incredibly versatile. It has masqueraded as pizza crust, mashed potatoes, buffalo wings and other random things. See?? It's the crucifer who somebody finally noticed was awesome and now gets to be part of the "in crowd." (But it doesn't care about being in the in crowd.) Anyway, today I'm going to share with you yet another trendy way to up your vegetable quotient using cauliflower:

 Fried rice! 

There are numerous cauliflower fried rice recipes floating around the interwebs. There is even a YouTube video available for instruction on how to "rice" cauliflower in a blender. Yep. (You know you want to Google that.) For me, simply using a food processor works every time. BAM. The recipe I chose for my first foray into cauliflower rice last year was this one by Brianne at Cupcakes & Kale Chips. I was initially unsure of how this cauliflower trickery would actually taste and liked that her version was a 50:50 dilution with cooked brown rice (just in case....). 

Not surprisingly, J and I were impressed with the original recipe and we've since made "fried rice" a recurring theme on our dinner menu. Seriously- the cauliflower looks and tastes so much like traditional fried rice that we no longer mix it with brown rice at all. Look at us - we are so admirable and healthy! Tonight, we used it as a side dish for veggie potstickers, but with the quick addition of marinated tofu, chicken or pork, the recipe is easily transformed into a solid main dish. Again, this rice is infinitely adaptable to all sorts of manipulations. I used peas n' carrots because that's what I had in my house, but truly, my favorite additions are broccoli and snap peas. 

Cauliflower Fried Rice

 

Prep time: 15 min

Cook time: 25 min

Servings: 4-6 (side vs main dish)

INGREDIENTS:

one large head of cauliflower, raw

1 T coconut oil

6 scallions, chopped (separate dark green tops)

5 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 t chopped fresh ginger

¾ c sliced carrots

¾ c frozen peas

2 eggs                       

4 T reduced-sodium soy sauce, divided

1 T sesame oil

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Chop the cauliflower into large florets and discard the leaves and stem.

2. Place cauliflower into food processor, and pulse until it resembles small rice.

3. Heat 1 T oil in a very large, deep skillet over medium heat.

4. Add the white parts of the scallions, garlic, ginger, and carrots. Saute for 3 minutes.

5. Add the cauliflower, stir to coat, spread out in the pan, then allow to cook for several minutes, until it begins to caramelize.

6. Stir, then spread out to caramelize again for another several minutes. Repeat for a total of three times.

7. While the cauliflower is caramelizing, lightly beat the eggs with 2T soy sauce and set aside.

8. Mix the sesame oil with the remaining 2T soy sauce and set aside.

9. Increase the heat to medium-high and stir in the peas.

10. Make a well in the center of the rice and pour in the egg mixture. Quickly scramble the eggs.

11. Stir the entire contents of the pan together, and stir in the soy/sesame oil.

12. Top with chopped scallion greens. 

NUTRITION INFORMATION (per serving, 6): 

Calories 111; Total Fat 3.5g; Cholesterol 62 mg; Protein 7.2 g, Dietary Fiber 5.4 g

If you are at all interested, I encourage you to try it. It might rock your world and broaden your horizons when it comes to cooked cauliflower. Just ask Jason!