Mango & Rice-Noodle Salad

I LOVE mangoes, and I tend to make a lot of mango salads this time of year. I used to be addicted to this salad combination, because it was so simple and delicious: baby spinach, mango, and toasted pine nuts, topped with a mango vinaigrette, sea salt, black pepper, and green (or white) onions. So simple!

I don’t like it when recipes are discombobulated. You know, making you do this, then that, then this again. Then add that and this and that again. Too much setting aside, or chilling, or warming, or heating, then boiling, and transferring, then adding and removing. Gets on my nerves.

But I wanted to try this recipe from Vegetarian Times, because it was right up my mango alley. The flavor was wonderful and brilliant. The salad looks gourmet perfect. But the recipe was just too all over the place, like I was a dog in an agility run – backwards. I had too much going on all at once: pans/skillets/colanders. So many side bowls of this and that. Forget it.

I want you to enjoy the flavors, like I did. I want you to get full satisfaction, but I can’t send you through this agility run. My job is to give you only that which gets my seal of approval. So I simplifed it and shazam – Scrumpdilly approved!

Mango & Rice-Noodle Salad (simplified from Vegetarian Times)
Serves 4

1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red jalapeño chile, finely chopped

8 oz. dried rice-stick noodle
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh mint leaves
1/2 English cucumber, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced crosswise
1 cup bean sprouts
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1 large ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and thinly sliced
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1/2 cup roasted peanuts, optional

To prepare dressing, warm brown sugar, lime juice, soy sauce, garlic, and jalepeno in saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Let cool while you prepare everything else.

Cook noodles according to package directions. Rinse in cold water, drain, squeeze out, and place in salad bowl.

Toss noodles with basil, mint, and 3/4 of the dressing mixture. Top with cucumber slices, bean sprouts, green onion, and mango. Drizzle with remaining dressing mixture. Sprinkle with cilantro and peanuts.

I didn’t want to post about gravy tonight. It just didn’t seem right with how hot it’s been. I mean, I could eat gravy any ol’ time, but I wanted to tell you about something more appropriate for the season. So you get a naked post, a post without a picture, because my only ready-to-go pic is gravy. And I don’t want to post about gravy tonight.

Me and Vegan Dad are on the same wave-length. Must be the French influence – he in Canada, me misplaced Louisianian. Or could it be that it’s corn season? And hot? And you want a delicious meal without spending 8 hours heating up your kitch? Either way, we’re on the same wave-length, with slight variations. Here’s the recipe I use.

Read me now, believe me in a week.

Eula Mae’s Maque Choux*
(from Eula Mae’s Cajun Kitchen Cookbook)

2 tablespoons vegan butter (Earth Balance)
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
1/2 cup seeded and chopped green bell pepper
4 cups corn kernels (fresh or frozen, thawed)
1 medium-size ripe tomato, peeled and chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Original TABASCO®**

Melt the vegan butter in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and bell pepper. Cook, stirring often, until soft, about 5 minutes.
Add the corn, tomato, salt and TABASCO®. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, until the corn is tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve hot.***

*Edited to make vegan.
**I use at least 1 teaspoon, probably more, because a 1/2 teaspoon of Tabasco isn’t quite beautiful enough. So add Tabasco to taste. While you’re at it, you’ll probably need more salt. And how ’bout some freshly ground black pepper.
***I serve mine over rice. I don’t know why. But talk about good!

Purely Decadent Coconut Milk Mint Chip

I’ve been getting all bratty and smug with myself for posting regularly, for posting my own concoctions, for posting so many cooked items and recipes in a row. Downright snotty and kind of proud, I’d say. So, I had to remind myself that this blog was supposed to be about recipes and cooking, yes, but also about vegan products/items that get my seal of approval.

So as I’m checking email and taking little bites of my newly-purchased dessert treat, I instantly realized I had to stop what I was doing to tell you about this stuff. Right now. It’s that good! It’s so delicious, I couldn’t even wait to take my own picture. I literally copied one from the Turtle Mountain website and started writing. It’s that much of a recommendation emergency.

And I’m happy that the three or four of you reading actually do take to heart my advice and recommendations. You’re such good listeners, that I’ve decided to make this post your command. Your command to put down whatever you’re doing and run. This very second. Run yourself right over to the grocery store and get you some of this.

If you love Mint Chocolate Chip, especially the natural mint kind (i.e. not day-glo green), you’ll just go nuts. Having coconut milk as its base makes it bright, white, thick, creamy, and smooth with just the right amount of coconut flavor. It’s there, you can taste it, but the chocolate and the mint have plenty of room to shine. It’s almost like the coconut is hanging out backstage. Blended flavors. That’s what it is. They’re blended perfectly, absolutely perfectly, together.

Not only does Purely Decadent Coconut Milk Mint Chip beat any other non-dairy frozen treat I’ve tried, it is seriously, seriously better than its dairy counterpart.

Oh whatever. Just go get the stuff. You’ll be thanking me. I promise.

Seitan & Sauerkraut Sandwich

Honestly, I just don’t know what I’d do if I were allergic to gluten. There was a time when I thought I couldn’t live without chocolate. But I swear I could do that before I could live without my precious wheat meat. Nope, not kidding. I always have a little space in the fridge for my favo meat analog. Always.

I prefer to make my own, as time consuming as it can be even with the quick mix, but sometimes I just don’t get around to it. So I like to have a little package of store-bought stashed away in the fridge at all times. Because, just like Ally Sheedy said in The Breakfast Club, “You never know when you might need to jam.”

I needed to jam this past week when our fridge started to go on the fritz. As it’s warming up and up, we’re trying to use whatever is inside. Perfect. I’ll take some of this seitan, a little sauerkraut, some German mustard and make myself a variation on the ol’ “corned-beef” sandwich (the one that isn’t Reuben).

All I did was slice the seitan, throw it in a pan heated with olive oil, and cook until browned on both sides. Just as the seitan was starting to really stick to the pan and make it crusty, I threw in the ‘kraut with some of its juice, then scraped the bottom of the pan to loosen all that yummy, crusted on seitan. Threw it on toasted bread with the German mustard, then went out and bought a new refrigerator.

Thank you.

Stems and Leaves from Red & Yellow Chard

Friends leave town – they’re on vacation. They gift you their box full of CSA greens. You want to make them proud.

This was absolutely delish! The coconut milk and curry simply add a delicate flavor without any hostile take-overs.

Stems & Leaves Stir-fry

8 oz. Thai-spiced tofu, drained but not pressed
1 bunch Swiss Chard
1 bunch Red Chard
1 bunch Yellow Chard
1 Bok Choy
1 Baby Bok Choy
2-3 celery stalks
1 Tbsp. canola oil (optional)
2/3 can (or 10 oz.) coconut milk
2-3 Tbsp. Red Curry paste

For all three chards, remove leaves from stalks. Cut stalks into pieces and set aside. Place leaves in a separate area/pile. For both bok choys, separate stalks from base, then cut stalks into pieces up to leafy part. Place stalks in stalk pile and leaves in leaf pile. Cut celery into pieces and place with other stalks.

If using oil, heat in wok over medium heat. Otherwise, heat wok without oil on medium heat for a minute until hot. Add tofu and cook for 1-2 minutes until warmed through. Add stems and cook for 2-3 minutes or until brightly colored. Add leaves and cover. Allow to steam until just wilted. Add coconut milk and curry paste, stir until curry paste is mixed and dissolved completely.

Serve over rice.

Ba-jeezum! I did a ton of birthday baking from mid-June ’til now. From the Severed Unicorn Head Superstore birthday cuppers (post below) to all the human birthdays, I may as well have climbed into the oven myself, just like Hansel and Gretel. Luckily, for all involved, I kept my oven playtime to me staying on the outside.

“Thin Mint” Cookies

Sugar-Crusted Shortbread Cookies

Lime-Coconut Cupcakes

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Thanks to the cookie testing I’m doing, I had some pretty gourmet-looking cookies to give away. Cookie tray worthy. I had some damn tasty cupcakes in there, too. The Tiramisu cuppers ended up kind of ugly, but boy, did they taste like a little bit of paradise. Too bad I have to help eat some of those. You know, before they “go”.