Thai

Bun Chay (Vegetarian Vietnamese Vermicelli Herb Noodle Salad)

March 24, 2013 by Veronica Grace 15 Comments

I love how fresh and light vegetarian Vietnamese food is. Vietnamese dishes don’t tend to be very vegan friendly because many items have chicken stock or fish sauce in them, so you may not always be able to find something that is truly vegan at a Vietnamese restaurant. Bun Chay is a vegetarian vermicelli noodle salad seasoned with fresh herbs, bean sprouts and Nuac Chom (a fish based sauce.)

So I wanted to show you how you can make Bun Chay totally vegan at home. This is a really fun and impressive recipe to make for one, or even a dinner party. If you can slice some veggies and toss them together to make a regular salad, trust me you can make this! It’s super easy and fresh and you can customize it with your favorite vegetables or proteins like tofu or tempeh as well.

This salad also keeps well and can be taken to work for a healthy lunch (just make sure to keep the dressing separate). If you’re longing for a recipe to mix up your salad routine, this is it! It’s very low in fat, as well as filling. I hope you like it!

Bun Chay (Vegetarian Vietnamese Vermicelli Herb Salad)

Serves 4

Salad:

250 g/8.8 oz package of rice vermicelli noodles (thin)
1 carrot, peeled and shredded or spiralized
2 Persian/small seedless cucumbers, julienned
1-2 cups fresh mung bean sprouts
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
1 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped and/or 1 cup Thai basil leaves, chopped
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup peanuts, crushed *optional

Vegan Nuac Cham (Sauce for Bun Chay):

1/4 cup lime juice (1 1/2 large limes)
1/4 cup vegetarian fish sauce (see recipe here)
1/3 cup hot water
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
3 -4 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 – 1 thai chili, finely chopped *optional
2 tbsp shredded carrot *optional

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. When boiling, turn off the heat and add the noodles and stir to break up.

2. Let noodles sit for 2 minutes.

3. Drain noodles and run in cold water to shock them. Drain in a colander.

4. Prep veggies.

5. Arrange noodles in serving bowls. Garnish with carrots, cucumber, chopped herbs, mung beans and peanuts.

6. Combine ingredients for Nuac Cham sauce in a bowl and whisk until sugar dissolves. (You want it to be strong tasting as the noodles are bland and will soak up the flavor.)

7. Serve Bun Chay with a side of Nuac Cham. Pour sauce over it and toss well to combine.

Additional Tips:

Please note that Thai basil has a very different taste than regular Italian basil, so if you cannot find it, please use mint and cilantro (coriander) instead. Thai basil has green and purple tipped leaves and has a very exotic flavor.

I used a Japanese turning slicer to spiralize my carrots. I find them prettier this way instead of just shredding them. This is what I used.

If you can’t find Persian/Iranian (mini seedless cucumbers) use English cucumbers.

Make sure to put lots of herbs in this salad as it will be very mild tasting, you get most of the flavor from the Nuoc Cham sauce and the herbs. Otherwise it will mostly be rice noodles, carrots and bean sprouts.

If desired you can serve it with some hoison sauce (I tend to avoid as it has msg) or Sriracha hot sauce. You can find these at Asian stores and sometimes regular grocery stores as well.

Have you ever had Vermicelli salad or “Bun” before? What did you think of it?

Vegan Fish Sauce Recipe

March 18, 2013 by Veronica Grace 8 Comments

So why make vegan fish sauce? Well if you like to make your own vegan Thai or Vietnamese food, fish sauce is a very common ingredient and gives these cuisines a nice flavour. I used this vegan fish sauce recipe for using in Nuoc Cham (the sauce used for Bun Chay aka vermercelli salad bowls) and you can also use it to season fresh Thai papaya salad. (It’s made with green unripe papaya and is more like a raw squash)

I found this recipe online for vegan fish sauce and ordered some mushroom flavored soy sauce from Amazon because I wasn’t sure if I could find some at the store. If you have access to an Asian specialty store they will probably have it too. As I hadn’t tried mushroom soy sauce before I didn’t know if it was much different than regular dark soy sauce. It actually doesn’t taste much different to me (aside from being super super salty compared to the low sodium soy sauce I normally use). You can use regular dark soy sauce instead if that’s all you can find, as it will probably come out pretty similar. Make sure it’s dark soy sauce and not light or low sodium soy sauce for this recipe.

For my purposes I reduced the original recipe by 1/3 as I only had a small empty tamari bottle to store the sauce in. So feel free to make as much as you care for but this recipe below makes about 1 cup. I used this in my Nuoc Cham sauce for my Bun Chay recipe.

Vegan Fish Sauce Recipe

Makes 1 cup

Ingredients:

1/2 cups shredded wakame (find it at the Asian or health food store by the Nori)
2 cups filtered water
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp whole peppercorns
1/3 cup mushroom flavored dark soy sauce, regular soy sauce or GF tamari
1 tsp of genmai miso (it’s already pretty salty so this is optional)

Directions:

1. Combine wakame, garlic, peppercorns and water in a large sauce pan and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer about 20 minutes. Strain and return the liquid back to the pot. Add soy sauce, bring back to a boil and cook until mixture is reduced and almost unbearable salty. Remove from heat and stir in miso.

2. Decant into a bottle and keep in the refrigerator. Use one-for-one to replace fish sauce in vegan recipes.

Additional Info:

Wakame is the seaweed used often in seaweed salad in Japanese restaurants. It’s shredded into little strips. So if you’ve ever tried seaweed salad you’ll be familiar with it.

Have you ever had fish sauce before?

Quick Lower Fat Vegan Pad Thai Recipe (Rice Stick Noodles with Veggies in Spicy Peanut Sauce)

May 7, 2012 by Veronica Grace 24 Comments

Have you ever had a craving for Pad Thai or stir fried noodles so badly, but you didn’t really feel like cooking or have much time to throw something together? Or maybe Pad Thai is one of your favourite dishes but you don’t know how to make an easier version at home. If this sounds like you, then I know you’re going to love this recipe!

My Quick Lower Fat Pad Thai recipe has all the best parts of authentic Pad Thai, but it skips the oil, the eggs and the fuss. Generally Pad Thai is very oily as they fry the noodles in lots of oil so the noodles don’t stick to the pan or each other, but if you have a non stick pan and the rice noodles are still moist you can do without actually. I’ve had Pad Thai in Thailand, Canada and the USA and although everyone makes it a little differently, the one thing that is common is that they are not really healthy and are really greasy. So it’s not a good choice if you’re eating out at a restaurant and trying to stick to a healthier diet. A Thai soup, salad or even vegetable curry often has less calories and fat than noodles when they’re fried in oil and topped with peanuts.

The best solution for a lighter and lower calorie noodle dish is to just make it at home, you can also increase the amount of veggies and reduce the amount of noodles if desired as well. This recipe is definitely going to become one of our staples as it’s pretty easy for me to throw together. If you keep frozen stir fry veggies in the freezer then it makes this dish even faster to make. Really there’s no excuse now, everything is washed and chopped for you!

You can also easily make my Pad Thai sauce or a big double batch of it once a week to use for your veggie stir fries and serve with rice or noodles for a quick meal any day of the week. Ketchup is usually only used in Americanized Pad Thai, but for this recipe it works well and adds a little tomatoey flavour to it without being as acidic as plain tomato paste. (This sauce tastes more like spicy peanut sauce than anything, it won’t taste like plain ketchup, I promise!)

This recipe will make a substantial meal for a couple or 4 side servings. (The picture below is just a small side serving size.)

Quick Lower Fat Vegan Pad Thai (Rice Stick Noodles With Veggies in Spicy Peanut Sauce)

Serves 2-3 dinner sized portions

Ingredients:

1/2 454 g package pad thai rice stick noodles (use 227 g) (pictured are the L/5mm size)
1 large salad bowlful of frozen or fresh stir fry veggies of choice (about 4-5 cups)

Pad Thai Sauce

1/4 cup water
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce or tamari (for gluten free)
2 tbsp smooth peanut butter
3 tbsp ketchup (organic or low sodium)
1-2 tsp Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce (depending how spicy you like it)
1 tsp liquid sweetener of choice or brown sugar
1-2 cloves of garlic
1/2 tbsp fresh ginger

Directions:

In a medium-medium large sized pot, fill it about 1/2 way with water (about 3-4 inches deep) with water and bring it to a boil.
Add 1/2 package of rice stick noodles and stir in to break up. Make sure the water covers the noodles. Let sit while you make the sauce.
Combine sauce ingredients in a small blender, Vitamix or magic bullet. You may need to mince the garlic and ginger first if you have a low powered blender. (or you can double the sauce recipe and save the rest for another stir fry or an asian salad dressing.) Blend until smooth. Add a little more water if you want a thinner sauce. Taste test and add more hot sauce if you like it really hot! (I only use 1 tsp for my tastes.)
Measure out your veggies and put a large skillet or wok to heat over medium-medium high heat. When hot add the veggies and the sauce.(Frozen will only take 4 minutes to cook, fresh will take longer.)
Check on the noodles, you want them to just be al dente or they will rip and fall apart if overcooked. If soft enough quickly drain and add to vegetables when veggies are almost done. Toss to combine with sauce. (If you take out your noodles and let them sit for a while they will stick together in a clump, if this happens rinse them in a colander briefly and drain before adding to pan with the vegetables.)
Stop cooking when veggies are al dente and crisp tender.
Serve immediately.

Variations:

Use different veggies or try different stir fry mixes, add fresh bean sprouts, cubed tofu or Thai chili peppers when stir frying.

To make this recipe gluten free use wheat-free tamari instead of soy sauce. To make it peanut free substitute almond, cashew or tahini butter instead.

For single servings save half or 2/3 of the sauce (for small portions) for later or another stir fry and use 1/4 of a package of rice noodles and only 1-2 cups of veggies.

To make stir fries without oil, just use a non stick pan and sauté your veggies or tofu in a sauce. If your sauce is a little thick, don’t worry the veggies will release some liquid as they cook. Non stick pans were designed for oil free cooking, yet most people continue to use oil no matter what they are cooking.

Trouble Shooting Rice Stick Noodles

“Why did my rice noodles fall apart?” Read below.

Do not boil the noodles on the stove. Only add them to a large bowl or pot and pour boiling water over them. Let them sit uncovered until desired tenderness. They should be al dente, if you let them get really soft like overcooked spaghetti they will tear when you lift them out and stir them in.

If your noodles are broken when you lift them out of the pot or bowl when cooked, you cooked them for too long. For my size of noodles (5mm) I checked them after about 5 minutes. Keep testing them every minute until you find the exact time that works for you. Vermicelli (spaghetti/angel hair thin) will only take a minute or so. 3mm size rice stick should be checked after 2-3 minutes. Remember they will soften a little bit after you take them out and if they are already soft they will be too soft when you prepare the stir fry.

If your noodles were fine when you took them out but then broke when you stirred them into the vegetables after a while, you added them too soon and stirred too much. Let the vegetables cook until they are almost done and THEN add the noodles. (Make sure the noodles are separated and not a big clump. If clumpy briefly rinse in water again and drain before adding.) Gently toss with the veggies and don’t over stir. The biggest mistake to fried rice and fried noodles is over stirring. So make sure things are almost cooked before adding and you’re just tossing together to heat through and get the sauce on them. Plate gently to prevent the noodles from tearing too much.

What is Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce?

Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce is available at many grocery stores, Asian markets and even Costco. Click here to get it on Amazon.