Japanese style mushroom, tofu and noodle broth

Here comes another warming vegan dish that is just perfect for the autumn. As it is World Vegan Day today, it's only right to post an international vegan dish. I finally managed to make this style of broth, which I've been planning for quite a while now. Now that the weather is slowly getting chillier, this kind of dishes are just perfect for the season.

I used spiralised yellow carrots in this with mixed exotic mushrooms, radishes and chucky tofu pieces in a wonderfully spicy broth, and added thick udon noodles for slightly more substance. As a base for the broth I used Clearspring's Organic Instant Noodle Broth and found it to be very good. I still have some of it left, so another broth should come very soon.

Ingredients

1 large yellow carrot

200 g mixed exotic mushrooms

1 shallot

2 garlic cloves

1 cm fresh ginger

2 small chillies

100 g radishes

200 ml noodle broth

800 ml water

200 g tofu

200 g wide udon noodles

Mirin to taste

Soy sauce to taste

Sesame oil to taste

Green nori sprinkle

Method

Prepare the vegetables by cutting them to suitable shapes and sizes. Spiralise the carrot.

Cook the tofu cubes separately in a hot pan until golden brown and firm, and set them to side.

Cook the shallot, garlic, ginger and chilli. Add the other vegetables to them.

Heat up the noodle broth with water and combine it with the vegetables.

Cook the noodles until they are done and add them to the broth.

Season to taste with mirin, soy sauce, sesame oil and green nori sprinkle.

Enjoy!

I want to share this recipe with Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen, who is hosting No Croutons Required, a vegetarian soup and salad cooking challenge this month and in December. The event is hosted by Lisa and Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes.

Your VegHog

Tofu and seaweed stew

I don't know why I'm so crazy about seaweed, but that actually is the case. And I also don't know where it has been all my life?? Finally now seaweed will feature in this blog in today's dish.

This recipe is once again one that a friend of mine taught me, and I absolutely adore it. As you will notice, the seasoning is slightly different than in most of my dishes. So this Japanese style stew is a nice change to my normal recipes and makes such a warming winter impact.

Ingredients

200 g smoked tofu (you can substitute with normal tofu)

1 tbsp groundnut oil (for tofu roasting)

6 shallots

2 garlic cloves

2 carrots

250 g green beans

500 g baby new potatoes

2-3 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp maple syrup

4 tbsp mirin rice wine

3 tbsp soy sauce

1-2 tbsp miso

1-2 g toasted fine cut nori (dried sea vegetable)

green nori sprinkle (sea vegetable condiment) for decoration

Method

Dice the tofu (into about 1cm x 1cm sized dices). Place the dices in an oven dish and brush them with the groundnut oil (or any other heat resistant oil, such as vegetable oil). Roast them at 180C for about 40 minutes until they are slightly crispy yet still bouncy. Turn them a couple of times during the roasting.

Chop the shallots into generous rings and sweat them at low heat in one tablespoon toasted sesame oil for about 20 minutes. This is a dish where you really want to bring out the richness and the sweetness of the shallots.

After this time add the chopped garlic, potatoes and carrots. Also make a soy sauce addition of about two tablespoons and then add about four deciliters of water to just cover up the potatoes and carrots. Cook the ingredients under the lid while boiling slowly.

In the meanwhile chop the green beans into about 2 cm long pieces. When the potatoes are almost cooked, add the beans into the pan. Then cook the stew at least for further 10 minutes and add the tofu in as well.

Season the stew with the maple syrup, mirin rice wine and an extra tablespoon or two of sesame oil (keep tasting the stew during the seasoning). Also add a heaped tablespoon of miso, another tablespoon of soy sauce, if preferred, and the toasted nori. Add the nori to taste. I had a 10 g packet, which sounds like a tiny amount, but not a huge amount of this is needed.

When you are happy with the seasoning, place the stew into a bowl and sprinkle the green nori sprinkle on the top as decoration.

Enjoy warm!

Your VegHog