Summer Rolls and Curried Noodles

Summer Rolls and Curried Noodles

Making fresh rolls, instead of spring rolls or egg rolls is incredibly easy as the rice paper cooks so quickly. The only hard part is wrapping them. But honestly, it is A LOT easier than making sushi or something like that. So it is worth a try making theses at home.

ingredients:

rice paper
shrimp
cucumber
carrot
vermicelli noodles
garlic

rice noodles
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp white wine vinegar, or rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
bean sprouts
onions

directions:

Fresh Rolls:

1. Slice cucumber and carrot into thin strips. Slightly sautee shrimps with garlic in butter in a frying pan until they are cooked through. Keep shrimps whole, or consider slicing them in half for your rolls.

2. Spread out your fillings in bowls to get ready to prepare the rolls. Make sure you have a flat surface like a large plate or cutting board that you can put your rice paper out on.

3. In some boiling water, submerge each rice paper one by one. Will only take 1 minute to cook. After the rice paper is cooked and malleable. Put it on a flat surface and spoon in some of the carrots, cucumber, vermicelli noodles, and shrimp. Fold sides and bottom in, and roll up.

4. Take rolls and dip them in your favourite plum sauce, or sweet chili sauce.

Curried Noodles:

1. Bowl some rice noodles in a pot until they are cooked through.

2. Mix curry powder, white wine vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar into a bowl or measuring cup and set aside.

3. Cut onion into small slices, and start frying them in a pan. While the onion is cooking, chop bean sprouts in about half or smaller pieces. When translucent, add in your noodles and bean sprouts. As they are cooking pour in your mixture of curry powder, vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar. Mix around until the noodles are all coated. Remove once the bean sprouts are cooked through.

Vegetable Soup

Vegetable Soup

This soup is most definitely vegetarian and vegan.

ingredients:

2 carrots
2 onions
4 celery stalks
1/2 head broccoli
handful of frozen corn
1 potato
veggie stock of veggie bouillon cube
4 tbsp flour
butter
salt
pepper

Vegetable Chower

Vegetable Chowder

Ingredients:

1/2 Onion (yellow or white)
1 Carrot
3 Celery Stalks
2 White Potatoes (skinned and cubed)
1 Broccoli Stalk
1/2 can Corn
10 shrimp (Raw. I use frozen and raw with shells on)
2 cups Milk
1 Veggie Bouillon Cube
Salt
Maragine
Garlic
Flour (with milk) for thickening

Instructions:

1. Chop onion, celery, carrots and garlic and put it into a pot with some margarine or butter
and sautee. Add some salt to help release the water in the vegetables.
2. After the onions are cooked, or somewhat cooked, add 2 cups of milk, diced potatoes, chopped
broccoli, 1 veggie boullion cube and mix together. Cook for 20 minutes maybe, or until potatoes
are soft.
3. While it cooks, de-shell and de-tail the shrimp that you have thawed out if needed
4. Make a rue with flour and butter/margarine on medium heat. Cook out the flour, you want a
nutty fragence. 1 minute.
5. Add rue into the soup and stir in, make more rue if it isn't thick enough. Add more milk if there isn't enough liquid in comparison to all the veggies.
6. Add frozen or canned corn, and shirmp. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes until the shrimps are cooked and turn the proper colour. Don't add the shrimp if you want it to be vegetarian.

Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients:

1/2 block Firm Tofu
1/2 can Kidney Beans
1 cup frozen Peas and Carrots (you could use fresh...)
1/2 Onion (white or yellow)
2 Cloves Garlic
Soy Sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Ketchup
Pepper

Potato Topping:

4 potatoes
Margarine
Salt
Water (or milk...)
Sour Cream (If you want them extra creamy)

Instructions:

1. Boil 4 medium sized potatoes.
2. Crumble 1/2 block of Firm Tofu into a dish. Cover with soy sauce so that all the tofu has some on it and turns brownish. Marinate this over night if possible. (Instead of doing this you could use ground round or whatever... but I never do. I always just crumble tofu and add soy sauce for my fake ground beef)
3. Fry tofu with diced onions, and garlic. Add a dash of pepper. Once the tofu starts to brown. Add 1/2 can of kidney beans, 1 cup of frozen peas and carrots or however much you wish, 1 tablespoon of ketchup, and then 1-2 tablespoon of worcestershire sauce (you can get this vegan if you wish, the normal stuff has anchovie paste in it)... I never measure the worcestershire sauce... I just add and taste it.
4. Mash potatoes in a pot with some margarine and add salt to taste. Add water (or milk) to help the mashing process. Maybe 1-2 cups. Add it bit by bit until you get the consistency that you want.
5. Take a square casserole dish, like 9 x 9 inches. Fill the bottom with the tofu and beans mixture and flatten. Then spoon the mashed potatoes on top of that and flatten. Score the top of the potatoes with a fork to make it look all pretty.
6. Put in the oven at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Flip it to broil for 5-10 minutes at the end until the top gets slightly brown. (the scoring with the fork will make this more noticeable).

Chickpea and Carrot Salad with Kalamata Olives

Chickpea and Carrot Salad with Kalamata Olives

Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2/3 cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped (I have bought pitted ones at Loblaws)
2 carrots, peeled and shredded
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 green onion/scallions, finely chopped

Vinaigrette:
1 medium garlic clove, minced/crushed
Zest of ½ lemon and juice of the whole lemon
1 tbs. ground cumin
2 tsp. paprika
pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp. salt
black pepper, to taste
3 tbs. extra virgin olive oil

Instructions:

In a large bowl, combine the chickpeas, olives, carrots, cilantro and scallions. To make the vinaigrette, combine all the ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake until emulsified. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss to coat.