Udon noodles with smoked tofu and veggies

 

I’ve been extremely lazy at blogging lately. My apologies for that. If you are on Instagram, you will see more of me there, but I just haven’t had so much energy for blogging. I am fine though, cooking a lot and enjoying the summer. I’ve scheduled my summer holiday for later this year, from mid August to early September and I’m hoping to be able to travel home after over 1,5 years. That means that I still have quite a few weeks left at work until then, but usually it is very quiet there in July.

Now I thought that I would share this udon noodle dish with you. I found lovely fresh local sugar snap peas and regular peas on a farmers market, so I decided to use them in a stir fry style dish. I added some mini bell peppers and marinated smoked tofu to the dish and mixed them all with the noodles and a spicy soy sauce. It was a good spicy meal, as I haven’t made many noodle dishes lately.

So what have you been up to this summer and do you have any holiday plans? I hope you’ll have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

 

Peanut noodles

 

I hope you are all doing fine. I don’t have anything new to update, but just wanted to stop by with a small dish. I’ve been just working, cooking and going out for walks, as there is not much else to do. It has been quite relaxing though, but I do miss an occasional restaurant visit and seeing my friends and family. Tell me what you’ve been up to?

These quick vegan noodles were made with peanuts, peanut butter, soy sauce, chilli, spices, carrot ribbons, garlic and onion. They were very tasty and it was nice to have some chunky udon noodles for a change.

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

 

Udon noodles with tofu – Part 2

Yesterday I posted the first recipe of a two-part vegan udon noodle series (if it can be called a series as a two parter). Have a look at Part 1 here. Today I'm posting a slightly different recipe containing wide udon noodles and tofu. In this recipe I used bell peppers, carrots, ginger and chilli and slightly different sauces than in yesterday’s dish. The vegetables were also a bit chunkier and with more bite in this one. I enjoyed both dishes very much and will keep variating these kind of dishes. Do you have any favourite udon noodle recipes to share?

Ingredients

250 g tofu

Vegetable oil for frying

200 g udon noodles

2 bell peppers

2 large carrots

1 onion

4 garlic cloves

2 cm fresh ginger

1 green chilli

Soy sauce

Toasted sesame oil

Shaoxing rice wine

Miso

Method

Cut the tofu into large chunks, put a little vegetable oil into a hot pan and fry the tofu pieces until they are firm and golden brown. Also cook the noodles, cool them and set to side.

Then cut the bell peppers and carrots into pieces and slice the onion. Chop the garlic, fresh ginger and chilli finely.

Fry the bell peppers and carrots briefly in a hot pan until they get a little bit of brown colour. Remove them from the pan and start frying the onion.

After the onion is slightly browned and softened, add the garlic, ginger and chilli to the pan soon followed by the pre-fried bell peppers and carrots.

Add the soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, Shaoxing rice wine and miso into the pan, all to taste, but more seasoning can also be added later if needed.

Then add the tofu and noodles and serve once the flavours have blended nicely. I try not to cook the dish together for very long so that the vegetables and noodles still keep a little bit of bite.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Udon noodles with tofu – Part 1

I'm going to post two vegan tofu udon noodle recipes on two consecutive days, as I think that these dishes are just perfect for weekday dinners. I often have them for dinner and always take them to work for lunch the next day and then they almost taste better. I'm really fond of this kind of stir frys and adore the contrast between the soft wide udon noodles with the firmly fried tofu. Also other noodle types can be used to this, but the wide udon is brilliant in my opinion. You can also use pretty much any vegetable combination, which can be a really good use for example for left-over vegetables. As soon as you have the basic sauces handy, you can make these sort of dishes in no time. In this recipe I used shiitake mushrooms and spinach as vegetables and green nori sprinkle as a special touch.

Ingredients

300 g tofu
Vegetable oil for frying
200 g udon noodles
150 g shiitake mushrooms
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
50 g spinach
Green nori sprinkle
Miso
Soy sauce
Toasted sesame oil
Mirin

Method

Start by preparing the tofu. Cut it into cubes, put a little vegetable oil into a hot pan and fry the tofu pieces until they are firm and golden brown. Set them to side.

Also cook the noodles, cool them and set to side.

Slice the shiitake mushrooms and onions and chop the garlic finely. Stir fry the shiitake mushrooms and set them to side.

Then also stir fry the onion slices until they are slightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for a while more.

Add the sauces and green nori sprinkle to taste. Then add the spinach, tofu and noodles into the pan. Stir for a while and serve.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Udon noodles in peanut sauce with tofu and broccoli

I made a comforting bowl of thick udon noodles in peanut sauce served with firmly fried tofu and steamed broccoli. I got the idea for this dish from The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit, as there was a description of the flavour combination of coriander leaf and peanut. I have to say that coriander really did add something nice to this dish and broccoli was a nice addition too.

This was a surprisingly fast and uncomplicated weekday dish and I will surely be refining this recipe further. Next time I'll probably try smaller tofu pieces and smaller broccoli florets mixed straight into the noodles. I will also try to this with other veggies.

So here's my vegan recipe of today:

Ingredients

300 g tofu

2 tbsp vegetable oil

3 garlic cloves

3 cm ginger

Handful of peanuts

Sprinkle of chilli flakes

Splash of soy sauce

Splash of toasted sesame oil

3 tbsp peanut butter

Fresh coriander

200 g udon noodles

1 broccoli

Method

Chop the garlic and ginger finely and peel the peanuts.

Cut the tofu into large pieces and fry them in vegetable oil until firm and golden brown.

Cut the broccoli into florets and steam them.

Cook the noodles in water.

Start frying the garlic and ginger in a pan and after a while add the peanuts.

Add the chilli flakes, a splash of soy sauce, a splash of toasted sesame oil and peanut butter.

Once these have made a nice sauce, also add the udon noodles to the pan and season with fresh coriander.

Serve all components together and enjoy!

Your VegHog