[VeganMoFo] Day 28: Miso Pho

7oz or so pho noodles (thick rice noodles), boiled and drained as appropriate
peanut oil (or whatever kind of oil you prefer for sauteing)
1 cup diced onion
a big hunk of minced ginger
maybe 10-12 cloves of minced garlic
3-5 cups vegetables of your choice (I used about 2 cups shiitake mushrooms and 3 cups broccoli florets)
12oz seitan (you could use some kind of beans too -- I might try it with adzukis next time)
8 cups water
3-4 Tbsp miso (I used red miso; I've done it before with brown rice miso too)
2 cups sprouts (I used a mix of chickpea, sweet pea, sunflower, alfalfa, and bean sprouts)
1 Tbsp 5-spice powder
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp sriracha (or to taste)
soy sauce, tamari, or Bragg's liquid aminos (to taste)
toasted sesame oil (to taste)
crushed peanuts, cilantro, mint (garnish, or you can cook them in earlier if you like)

Heat the oil in a soup pot. Saute the onions till translucent. Add the ginger and garlic, cook for another minute, then add the seitan (or beans) and veggies. If you're cooking cilantro and/or mint into the broth, add them now too. Let this cook for a bit while you take your miso and dissolve it in 2 cups of water, whisking to help combine it. Pour all 8 cups of water (including the 2 in which you just dissolved the miso) into the pot and stir well. Bring to a boil. Add the sprouts. Reduce heat to a simmer and let it hang out like that for a while, maybe 10-15 minutes. Stir in the lime juice, nutritional yeast, and sriracha. Taste to decide how much soy sauce and/or sesame oil you want to add.

Put some noodles in a bowl. Serve the soup over the noodles. (I've tried cooking the noodles in with the soup. They soak up all the liquid and I end up with just soggy noodles. Delicious soggy noodles! But not soup.)

[VeganMoFo!] Day 6: Fennel-Walnut Spaghetti

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Have you met my buddy Fennel?

We are the best of fronds!

:)

This morning, I had this beautiful fennel sitting in my fridge and decided to make a pasta dish that would highlight its unique, sensual flavors. This is what I ended up making.

noodles (I used multi-grain spaghetti, about 4oz before cooking)

1 Tbsp olive oil

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 bulb fennel

1/4 tsp Hungarian paprika (leave it out if you don't have it, but I was sure glad I had it!)

1 tsp fennel seeds (not essential since there's already plenty of fennel, but I'm always happy to put more fennel in with my fennel!)

a handful of parsley, chopped

several handfuls of spinach leaves

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

salt and pepper to taste

Boil and drain the noodles according to package instructions.

Remove the fronds from the fennel (I put mine back in the fridge to use for soup later on!). Slice the bulb into bite-sized pieces. Don't worry about the tough parts; they'll soften up when you cook them.

Heat the olive oil medium-low in a large pan. Add the garlic and let it cook for a minute or two; it's cool if it starts to brown a little but don't let it burn. Add the chopped fennel, and the paprika and/or fennel seeds if you're using them. You could add a little salt and pepper now, or wait till the end. Saute, stirring frequently, for several minutes. It will start smelling reaaaaaaaaally good pretty quickly. Add the parsley and spinach, stirring them in with the fennel, and then add the lemon juice, cooking till the greens wilt. Add the balsamic vinegar and stir in the nutritional yeast, then turn off the heat and taste for salt and pepper. 

Combine the fennel mixture with the noodles and stir well to evenly distribute.