Just Peachy! – Day 16

It’s weird that I’m posting a recipe because I don’t think I’ve mastered cooking to that level. Like, who am I to instruct people on matters of the kitchen? I love cooking though and I experiment so I’ll probably be sharing a lot of that.

I hate it when people on food blogs ramble for 15 paragraphs before sharing the recipe so I won’t do that to you guys. What can I say? I try to not be a hypocrite.

TOFU PAD THAI

Ingredients

Stir fry:
Olive oil
Spring onions
Shallots
Garlic
Tofu
Courgettes/ zucchini
Carrots
Red peppers
Broccoli
Lemongrass
Rice noodles
Bean sprouts
Peanuts (ground in a mortar)

Sauce:
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 table spoon of maple syrup
1 teaspoon of rice vinegar/ doragon sake
The juice of 1 lime
Grated ginger
Salt
Ground cumin
Ground coriander
Chilli flakes

1 tablespoon of corn flour
2 tablespoons of coconut milk

These are the ingredients that I decided to use today so of course you’re free to make whatever optional. You could even use Indomie and maggi if you wanted to, if that’s how you roll.

Preparation

1. Chop up the stem of the spring onions, the courgettes, carrots, red peppers, broccoli and lemongrass and keep aside. I spiralised my carrots and courgettes (or tried to) with a grater.
2. Chop up the onion bit of the spring onions, the shallots and the garlic and keep aside.
3. Grind the peanuts in a mortar. You can keep it with the beansprouts.
4. Soak the noodles according to the instructions on the pack. For mine, I soaked the rice noodles in boiling hot water for 2 minutes, then ran cold water over it and kept it aside.
5. Mix the corn flour and coconut milk and keep aside. Mix the rest of the ingredients for the sauce and keep aside in another bowl.

Method

1. Heat some olive oil in your skillet/ wok and fry the spring onions, shallots and garlic.
2. Add the tofu, 1 tablespoon of the sauce, and the corn flour mixture. Fry till the tofu is browned on all sides.
3. Bring in the vegetables and stir fry.
4. Finally, add your noodles and beansprouts and stir fry.
5. You can garnish it with the rest of the ground peanuts and some fresh coriander.

That was my second time (ever) writing out a recipe so I hope it was clear. It doesn’t matter anyway, I know no one is reading this. If you are though, good luck, I hope you enjoy it.

I had never tried tofu before today and I’ll be honest, I hated it. God, it smelled bad and it made me nauseous. I’m hoping that I just bought a bad brand or I don’t know how to cook it yet or something. Now we’re on the topic of tofu I’d like to point out something very important. People make it seem like it’s the patron saint of veganism but it isn’t. Coconut is our saviour. There’s hardly a vegan recipe that doesn’t include: coconut oil, water, milk, cream, flour, sugar, nectar, butter or flakes. It’s like that song from Moana, “Consider the coconut […] we use each part of the coconut, that’s all we need.”

Here is a photo of the yam pottage I made earlier this week. I used the basic recipe plus spinach and chilli peppers. I’m not fancy all the time!