Two Amazingly Delicious Vegan Chinese Dishes

This year I celebrated New Years with Chinese food and the christening of a new office! The office is pretty great, I’m excited to finally have a place to go. However, the Chinese food was amazing! This was my first attempt at cooking Chinese and it turned out way better than expected. All thanks to the fine people at VegWeb and their absolutely brilliant recipes. If you have never made Chinese food before and you are feeling overwhelmed by these recipes, don’t worry – they are super easy! Here’s to a delicious 2011!

General Tao’s Tofu

What you need:

1 (12 ounce) box firm tofu, in 1″ cubes (frozen and thawed, if desired)
1 egg equivalent (e.g., EnerG Egg Replacer), prepared
3 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons water, divided
3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon cornstarch, divided
vegetable oil for frying + 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
3 green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2/3 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon sherry, optional
red pepper, to taste
steamed broccoli, to serve

What you do:

1. Mix the egg replacer as specified on the box and add an additional 3 tablespoons water.  Dip tofu in egg replacer mixture and coat completely.  Sprinkle 3/4 cup cornstarch over tofu and coat completely.  Watch out that the cornstarch doesn’t clump up at the bottom of the bowl.

2. Heat oil in pan and fry tofu pieces until golden. Drain oil. Heat 3 tablespoons vegetable oil in pan on medium heat.  Add green onions, ginger, and garlic; cook for about 2 minutes.  Be careful not to burn garlic.

3. Add vegetable stock, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, sherry, and red pepper.

4. Mix 2 tablespoons water with 1 tablespoon cornstarch and pour into mixture stirring well.  Add fried tofu and coat evenly.

Serve immediately with steamed broccoli over your choice of rice.

Serves: 4, Preparation time: 30 Minutes

via VegWeb <– A How To Video!

Vegetable Lo Mein

What you need:

white soba Japanese noodles (not buckwheat) (editors note: I used quinoa pasta and it worked wonderfully.)
1 can water chestnuts
1 can baby corn
5-6 stalks of green onions/scallions
1-2 carrots
3 large handfuls of fresh bean sprouts
approx 3 tablespoon soy sauce
approx 1 tablespoon sesame oil
approx 1 cup sweet spicy chili sauce
optional: any other vegetables you enjoy! peppers, broccoli, etc! *note, if you are using
broccoli, it is best to blanche or steam first so they are not extremely crispy and
uncooked
olive oil or peanut oil (anything you prefer)

What you do:

This recipe is very quick and requires little preparation, making it easy to make multiple entrees at once. I serve this with a homemade hoisin sauced baby bok choy side dish (have submitted the recipe as well).

*Sidenote: sweet chili sauce is spicy but is diffused nicely with the noodles. This product is found in a bottle in the sauces section of a grocery store (maybe in the ethnic section of yours). I purchase this at my local whole foods and have no problem finding different brands of the same product. You shouldn’t have a problem finding it. It definitely makes the dish though. A must-ingredient! enjoy!

1. Boil japanese noodles for approximately 9 minutes, or until al dente.

2. Five minutes into the noodles being boiled, chop up your green onions and start sautéing them in a wok (or large pan) in your oil of choice.

3. Peel carrots and add the shavings to your pan, along with the water chestnuts (water drained), baby corn (water drained), and any other vegetables you are using (Note: not the bean sprouts).

4. When the lo mein is al dente, transfer the noodles to the stir fry pan.

5. Add sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, and peanut oil. Mix well and simmer the dish for 5-10 minutes.

6. One minute before completion, add the bean sprouts. This ensures their crunchiness!

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 20 minutes

via VegWeb

Enjoy <3