Vegetarian Udon Noodle Soup

I love many cuisines from Mexican to Italian to Spanish to good old fashioned American, but if I were really honest with myself I’d have to confess that my absolute favorite is Asian. I say “Asian” because I cannot commit to any particular aspect of the breadth of Asian foods. I’m in love with Indian breads, samosas, and papadum, I salivate over Korean kimchi and bibimbap, and I crave Japanese sushi rolls and inari for weeks at a time – and that’s just scratching the surface.

While I do prepare some Asian foods at home on occasion, I admit that I am still a little wary that I don’t understand how to cook it well enough. That said, I am really fortunate to live so close to multiple Asian markets, and I feel that I am slowly stretching my culinary wings. It’s easy to go into one of these stores, discover an ingredient remembered from a restaurant and have the impulse to buy it and try replicating the dish at home. This is what happened last week as I was wandering down the pasta aisle and came upon some Japanese style udon noodles. As soon as I saw them, I realized that I needed to learn how to make udon noodle soup.

After researching various recipes I have come to realize that udon noodle soup is less about recipe and more about what you have on hand. In many ways, it is very similar to how I am used to throwing together a hearty vegetable soup without wondering if I have added too many or not enough potatoes or carrots, or worrying if I have a specific ingredient on hand or not. It doesn’t really matter, because the end result will still be delicious. What I found is that most udon noodle recipes call for a broth, noodles, some vegetables and mushrooms, and a protein. It’s my opinion that the key is to get the broth down, and then experiment, experiment and experiment. Luckily my first try had me wanting to recreate it the next day, so this recipe I’m sharing with you is a winner in my book.

Vegetarian Udon Noodle Soup
Roughly based upon the Easy Udon Noodle Snack Recipe found on The Messy Vegetarian Cook
Makes 2 servings

• 3 cups water
• 1/2 to 1 cup mushrooms (you can use most any mushroom you like, but I used king oyster and the original recipe calls for shiitake)
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 2 teaspoons mirin or rice vinegar
• 4 teaspoons tamari, soy sauce or Bragg Liquid Aminos (if you do not have any of these on hand, you may also substitute 2 heaping teaspoons miso)
• 1/2 teaspoon vegan sugar
• 1 sheet nori, cut into small pieces or strips
• 2 dry red chili peppers, optional
• 1/4 cup tofu or another vegetable or wheat protein, optional
• 1/4 cup carrots, julienned
• Dry udon noodles (enough for two servings – this is usually one or two individually separated bunches of noodles)
• Salt
• Sesame oil (optional, but so divine – I highly recommend not skipping this ingredient)
• Green onions or chives (optional)

First prepare your broth. I used about half of a king oyster mushroom, and diced it into bite-sized pieces.

King oyster mushrooms are said to taste similar to abalone

Mince your ginger by first cutting off a small amount from the main part of the root, then peeling away the outer skin. You can also crush it like garlic.

Dicing fresh ginger

Julienne your carrots. “Julienne” just means that you’re cutting your veggie into little strips.

Julienned carrots

Place the water, mushrooms, ginger, carrots, mirin, tamari (or soy sauce or Bragg Liquid Aminos), sugar and nori into the broth. If you are using chili peppers, you can add those in now, too.

Tip: If you are going to use miso as a substitute for the tamari, you will need to add that at the end after the broth has finished cooking.

Dried red chili peppers

If you don’t want your carrots to overcook, add them after the broth has boiled.

Bring your pan of ingredients to boil, stirring occasionally, then turn the heat down to medium low or low.

Udon noodle soup broth

Add in your protein now so it will warm up.

Vegetarian Mock Abalone a.k.a. wheat gluten (and oops - this had MSG in it!)

Allow the broth to steep for about twenty minutes.

If you are using miso, you may add it after the broth has finished cooking and has been removed from the heat. Miso takes a few moments to dissolve, so be sure to stir the broth a few times.

Adding the miso to the broth

Cook the noodles as instructed with a little salt. These cook fast, so be sure you are giving these guys your full attention. Once they are done cooking, drain and rinse under cold water.

Japanese style udon noodles

Once the broth is done, add some noodles to a bowl, then ladle the broth over the noodles.

Almost ready!

Drizzle a small amount of sesame oil over the soup, add some sliced green onions as a garnish.

Tip: Be sure to rinse the green onions really well to get rid of any specks of dirt that may have gotten stuck inside the onion as it was growing.

Sliced green onion

Serve.

So so good!

I loved this soup. It was full of flavor, had tons of texture and really hit the spot. Plus it makes me want to come up more variations. Remember, if you don’t have a particular ingredient on hand, don’t fret – you can experiment and discover your own unique soup, too!

What is your favorite Asian cuisine or dish – or can you even decide?

Carrot cake muffin with vanilla soy yogurt

A couple of weeks ago when we went strawberry picking at Boxx Berry Farm, we also had the fortunate opportunity to pick some vegetables from a small farm called Half Acre Farm located on the same property. They had a variety of vegetables ready, but we decided to pick only a couple of items – some Walla Walla onions and two of bunches of carrots. As we dug the vegetables up, we had a really nice visit with the couple who are running this one-acre farm (yep – it’s one acre). They both work full time, but are passionate about gardening, so decided to start up a little vegetable farm. Seems ambitious, but I admit that we were standing there feeling a bit jealous. In our minds, being able to garden and have a positive impact on the community is a worthy combo.

When we got home, Matt opted to juice the carrots which resulted in a rich and sweet liquid. The other thing that resulted was about a cup of carrot pulp that I couldn’t face throwing away. After doing a little bit of research I realized that juicing takes away a lot of the flavor of the carrots, so if you try to make dishes where grated carrots are a large part of the ingredient list, you’ll find that you won’t taste them quite as much. I finally decided to try making some muffins. In the end the carrot flavor was definitely mild, but if you are not a big fan of carrot cake, this may be a viable alternative for you.

Carrot Cake Muffins
Makes about 12 regular sized muffins

• 1 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground flax mixed with 3 tablespoons hot water (or egg replacer for one egg)
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup vegan milk
• 1 cup grated carrots or carrot pulp
• Vegan vanilla yogurt, optional

Turn on your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners or grease them with vegan butter (or spray with a cooking spray).

In a large bowl, sift your flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger together. Mix in the brown sugar.

Mixing together the dry ingredients

In a separate bowl, mix together the flax seed mixture or egg replacer, oil, vanilla extract and vegan milk.

Mixing the wet ingredients together

Take the shredded carrot or carrot pulp and mix it in with the wet ingredients.

Mixing in the carrot pulp

Add the carrot mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until it is just combined.

Carrot cake muffin mixture

Add the mixture to your cupcake/muffin tin, and then bake in the oven for 25 or 30 minutes.

Carrot cake muffins about to go into the oven

Allow the muffins to cool before serving. You can serve with vegan butter or with a dollop of vegan vanilla yogurt.

Fresh out of the oven carrot cake muffins

The carrot flavor of the muffins was definitely mild, but I felt that what really made these was the addition of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. They added a nice balance of spice with the other ingredients. The muffins were also dense, yet moist.

Also, while I don’t really like nuts or raisins in my muffins, I am sure the addition of a handful of walnuts, pecans, raisins or cranberries would be a nice complement to these.

Carrot cake muffin

Do you ever bake or cook with carrots? If so, what is your favorite recipe?

Pfeffernuesse Cookies

As I am getting older, I am understanding more the whole issue about Christmas – and holidays in general – being about materialism and less about sharing cultural and familial traditions. If you’re anything like me, you find yourself doing some last minute shopping online, hunting around for coupons and wondering what on earth this or that someone would want to receive – and winding up rather irritated by the whole thing. I admit that I did it this year, but I am already thinking that next year will be different. With a little planning and personal ingenuity, I’ll make Christmas more satisfying for everyone.

I confess that I nearly did that this year, but when confronted with five dozen of your favorite cookies, it’s actually rather hard to share. Yes. I have eaten nearly five dozen cookies by myself (and now I seriously need to exercise).

Vegan Pfeffernuesse Cookies
I veganized this Pfeffernusse Cookies recipe from AllRecipes.com
Makes about 5 dozen cookies

• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 1/2 cup vegan butter or margarine
• Egg replacer for 2 eggs (If using flax, you can mix 2 tablespoons ground flax seed with 6 tablespoons of hot water)
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons anise extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground black or white pepper (I used white)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Stir together the molasses, honey, shortening, and margarine in a saucepan over medium heat; cook and stir until ingredients are well incorporated. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Stir in the anise extract, as well as the prepared egg replacer (confession – I forgot to do the egg replacer at this point, but adding it later is okay).

Mixing together molasses, agave nectar and vegan butter

This recipe is all about the spices, so get together all your powdered spices and measure them out separately if you have a tendency to forget what you just added last (raises hand).

Spices for pfeffernuesse cookies

Combine the flour, white sugar, brown sugar, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, pepper, and salt in a large bowl.

Mixing together dry ingredients

Add the molasses mixture and stir until thoroughly combines. You may have to mix together with your hands to make sure it is very well mixed. Refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Incorporating the wet ingredients

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll the dough into acorn-sized balls. Arrange on baking sheets, spacing at least 1 inch apart. Bake in preheated oven 10 to 15 minutes.

Pfeffernuesse cookies

Move to a rack to cool. Dust cooled cookies with confectioners’ sugar.

Dusting cookies with confectioner's sugar

I don’t know what possessed me to make so many cookies, especially when this was experimental for me (this is the first time I’ve made vegan pfeffernuesse cookies – and they were based upon a recipe with honey and eggs), but I really truly lucked out big time. These are AMAZING! If you have never had pfeffernuesse cookies, they are spicy, which can add a little heat, and sweet to take the edge off, but surprisingly, not too sweet (if you counted, you’ll know there are five sugars in this recipe). When you bite into them, they are a little harder on the outside and completely chewy on the inside.

Five dozen pfeffernuesse cookies

I let my husband try part of one and he thought they were awful, so these are obviously not for everyone. (That’s actually one reason I didn’t ship these off – I had visions of cookies going into trashcans. I just had to be the cookie advocate and put them on my thighs instead.)

But if you love pfeffernuesse like I do, and know people in your life who would be up for a tin of these little goodies, they are the perfect solution for your gift-giving dilemma during the holidays. Just remember to wrap them well, and ship them within a day or two of baking them so they are less likely to arrive stale.

Vegan Pfeffernuesse Cookies

Happy Holidays!

Homemade Kimchee

If I remember correctly, the first time I was introduced to kimchee was when I was living in a dorm. One of my friends was Korean, and she would sometimes have good homemade Korean food after being at home for the weekend or on vacation. At least one of those times she brought kimchee. I was hooked, but our dean was not. She thought the smell was so rank and terrible that she wound up banning kimchee from the dorm. Although disappointing, I still managed to have it every now and then, and over the past couple of years we have been making our own at home.

In case you’re wondering, kimchee (also spelled kimchi or kim chee) is an all encompassing word for the many varieties of fermented foods found in Korean cuisine. Typically, kimchee is made with a variety of vegetables, with the most popular tending to be napa cabbage. While a lot of kimchee is vegan, not all of it is – oftentimes you will see shrimp or other seafood found in the ingredients list on a commercial bag or jar. Vegan varieties do exist, and my favorite brand that I have come across so far is Sunja’s Kimchee.

Like other fermented foods (i.e. sauerkraut and pickles), kimchee is extremely good for you. Not only is it low in calories, it is high in fiber, contains a lot of vitamins and minerals, and it also contains beneficial bacteria which aids in digestion. When I have felt a cold coming on or if my digestion seems to have slowed down, even a quarter cup or half a cup of kimchee a day will help turn things around. Health Magazine has named kimchee one of the world’s healthiest foods.

While you can go out and grab a jar of kimchee, there is nothing more satisfying than knowing that you can make it yourself at home. If you’re anything like I was, you are probably overwhelmed at the thought of making your own kimchee or any type of fermented food. What if you do something wrong? What if you have to spend a lot of money to get started? What if you don’t like it?

I will admit that it does require a certain amount of work, but once you get the hang of it you’ll find that it goes easier and faster. There are many different ways to make kimchee, but I am going to show you how to make it in a Harsch fermentation crock with the ingredients I like to use. I first learned how to make kimchi using the very detailed instructions in this .pdf, so if you are still overwhelmed at the prospect of making your own kimchee this should also give you some good information that I may not be sharing in my post. (I’ve noticed that the original link to this .pdf no longer exists, so if the link I provide here no longer works, let me know and I can try to find another alternate link or email it to you directly.)

Kimchee

• 1 head napa cabbage
• 3 or 4 carrots, peeled and grated
• Daikon radish (this comes in varying sizes, so I would choose a small one), chopped
• 1 bunch of scallions, chopped
• About 1-inch size of ginger, peeled and chopped finely
• Coarse sea salt
• Crushed red pepper
• Sugar or agave nectar

First, boil about 4 or 5 tablespoons of salt in 8 cups of water, and let completely cool.

Boiling salt water

You will use this salt water at a later point when you are nearly done making the kimchee.

Take your head of napa cabbage and discard the damaged outer leaves. Remove about 3 or 4 of the intact outer leaves and salt them, then put in a large glass or plastic bowl (not metal).

Salting the napa cabbage

At this point I like to take the rest of the cabbage and chop it up into bite-sized pieces. Some kimchee is made where all the leaves are essentially left whole, but we like ours chopped up. Salt as much of the pieces as you can and put them in your large bowl with the larger outer leaves. Cover with water, and weigh down the cabbage with a bowl or plate. Let it sit for at least two hours.

Salting and then soaking the cabbage

I am using this salt which I have only been able to find in Korean grocery stores. If you do not have a Korean grocery store near you, you can try to use another sea salt or you can order it online. There are many different brands of Korean sea salt, so the one in the picture is not your only option.

Kimchee sea salt

After a couple of hours you’ll find that the cabbage has wilted. Drain the water and rinse the cabbage well.

Wilted napa cabbage

Prepare your other vegetables that you wish to use in your kimchee. Here I am using carrots, daikon, scallions and ginger.

Carrots, scallions, daikon and ginger

Add crushed red pepper (I usually do about two tablespoons which makes a batch of kimchee this size mildly spicy to medium spicy), a couple of tablespoons of salt and about a teaspoon of sugar (this is optional, but it gives the bacteria a boost). Mix all the ingredients together by hand, including the cabbage except for the larger leaves (it’s a good idea if you can use kitchen gloves, because the red pepper and salt can irritate your hands).

Making the kimchee spicy

Again, the red pepper can be found in Korean grocery stores, but I wouldn’t substitute on this one. If you can’t find it near you, then try to purchase it online. There are also many brands of red pepper, so you don’t need to be picky.

Once everything has been well mixed, place the kimchee mixture into the Harsch crock. We have a 5-liter crock, which is the smallest size that this company makes. Don’t let the size fool you, though. It can make about twice or triple the batch you’re seeing here, and the crock itself is extremely heavy.

Harsch fermentation crock

Once you have everything in the crock, take a dowel or rolling pin and mash your vegetables for a few minutes. This helps to release some of the vegetable’s water.

Mashing the kimchee vegetables

Once you are done, place the large leaves of cabbage over the top of the kimchee, then on top of that place the two half moon ceramic pieces that come with the crock. These weigh the kimchee down so that it stays below the water.

Covering up the kimchee

Pour the salt water on top of the two ceramic pieces until they are covered. Place the lid on top of the crock, then fill the reservoir with water so that the holes on the side of the lid are adequately covered. This makes it so that oxygen does not enter the kimchee as it is fermenting. After a few hours or on the second day you may see bubbles escape through the water – this means that your kimchee is fermenting!

Kimchee fermenting in the Harsch crock

I like to let my kimchee ferment for about four days, but some people prefer shorter or longer fermentation periods. As tempting as it may be, do not open the crock until you plan to take your kimchee out! It won’t necessarily ruin the kimchee, but when oxygen comes in contact with it, there is a greater chance for mold.

About to take out the kimchee

When you open up your crock and take a look at the kimchee, do check for floating mold or slime. This batch didn’t have any, but to be on the safe side, I still discarded some of the top part of the kimchee juice (including the floating veggies) before removing the kimchee from the crock.

When your kimchee is done, you can store it in a glass container in the refrigerator. If you use a container with an air tight seal, make sure it is not completely closed as the fermentation will still continue in the refrigerator and the air will still need a way to escape. I like to store my kimchee in mason jars, and as you can see I used a plastic sandwich bag and a plastic lid. I have used regular canning lids, but have found that they do disintegrate and start to rust after a while from the acids in the kimchee, so a plastic barrier of some kind is my current solution.

Storing kimchee

It has been a while since I’ve made kimchee, so I made a smaller batch this time. It turned out nicely, although it is a pretty sour one. My husband would probably prefer a milder kimchee (and sans ginger), so a couple of days of fermentation might have yielded him a nicer kimchee.

Still, if you wind up with kimchee that is too spicy or sour, there are ways that you can use it without throwing it out. We enjoy using it in stir fry, or a lot of Koreans will make soup or pancakes (not your breakfast variety) with them. It’s also nice to have with a simple bowl of rice, which will cut the heat and sourness down a little bit. The nice thing is that your kimchi will last for months and sometimes up to a year, so there is time for you to figure out how best to use it.

Never had kimchee before? Before you do anything else, I would strongly suggest that you find a small jar of kimchee at your local health food store, or a store like Whole Foods. It is not something that everyone likes, so before you commit yourself to making it, try it first.

I also recommend watching some videos on how to make kimchee. It’s not necessary to use a fermentation crock – and it’s not even necessary to ferment it before eating it. As they say, variety is the spice of life. ;)

Have you made kimchee before? How do you make it?