Southeast Asian Inspired Tempeh Wraps

Asian fusion is hot again. Unlike the first wave of Asian fusion many years ago, the focus lately (at least locally) seems to be Vietnamese and Korean fusion. Case in point. A few weeks ago, the Mister brought me home some "Vietnamese Tacos" from Horizons (they previously also served a Vietnamese bruschetta — I've made my own version of these too). They were less like tacos, more like wraps, a bit pricey, but were delicious. Really, anything with Sriracha and Vegenaise is delicious (try it with fries too!). After devouring two pieces, Bebe knocked the rest on the floor in attempt to steal some (he's kind of pushy when it comes to food) so I made a mental note to make my own version.

I didn't want to try and duplicate it at all but instead draw some inspiration from it. I started with some tempeh that I sliced and simmered for about 15 minutes. I drained it and marinated it my usual seasonings that I use for Pad Thai (1/3 cup soy sauce, 1/3 cup lime juice, 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1 tbsp chili garlic paste) and then fried it up and reduced the sauce to a glaze. I served it warm on homemade flatbread/tortillas with shredded carrots, broccoli sprouts and of course Sriracha and Vegenaise with a drizzle of sesame seed oil.

So there you have it. My own version of Southeast Asian tempeh wraps which are super easy to make and totally delicious.

Pad See Ew

Ah, Pad See Ew. It is probably the Thai dish I order most often and it only just dawned on me the other day (after reading about it) that "see ew" means soy sauce. Big "dur!" moment for me since "see ew" (various pronouciations depending on dialect) is also soy sauce in Chinese. Even though I like Pad See Ew a lot, I don't actually like it over Pad Thai. I order it but because I know I can actually get it vegan easily without worrying. The main ingredients in the sauce are simply sweet thick soy sauce. For omnis, a dash of fish sauce is thrown in but the key thing is that the soy sauce and fish sauce are not pre-mixed.

Call me paranoid, but since I found out a couple of years ago that many (almost all?) Thai restaurants pre-mix their Pad Thai seasoning (same also goes for most curries), I don't order it. See, the seasoning is pre-mixed in most cases because it would take too long, and would be inconsistent in taste to add the ingredients one by one while stirfrying the noodles. If it takes too long, the noodles turn to mush. Even street vendors in Thailand pre-mix their sauces. Almost every Pad Thai recipe also specifies to pre-mix the sauce. I don't know why it didn't dawn on me earlier. A waitress at a restaurant I used to frequent told me that the Pad Thai sauce is always pre-mixed there despite the fact that I would specify "no fish sauce" on previous visits (Thai Diner 2 in RVA if anyone is interested — Pad Thai is not vegan. Tara Thai in Short Pump mall though can be made vegan). I appreciated her honestly and it is possible that the other wait staff weren't even aware of how it's cooked. Anyway after that I pretty much stopped ordering Pad Thai. I'm sure not all restaurants pre-mix but I'd be willing to bet that most do. The waitress did tell me that Pad See Ew (which I also love) can easily have the fish sauce omitted and judging from other recipes I found, she's right.

Okay I'm totally rambling. Above is Pad See Ew that I made using this recipe (not vegan but easily made vegan) as a blueprint*. I didn't have any sweet soy so I boiled down some soy sauce with sugar. I threw in some onion, garlic, broccoli and tatsoi. I absolutely love Chinese broccoli (gai lan) and would have used it instead of regular broccoli but didn't have any on hand. I also fried up some strips of seitan I had on hand in the fridge and added that in.

Even though I have made Pad Thai lots of times (similar steps, this is the last one I made), her instructions are great for the new cook. It was delicious and definitely worth the effort. It may seem daunting at first to do things separately but once you get the hang of it, it'll be a piece of cake. Give it a try!


*Pim also has an excellent blueprint for Pad Thai as well (also not vegan but easily made vegan). Going to try it her way next time.

New Project!

I just started a new group blog with five other awesome vegans. It's called Cooking From 1,000 Vegan Recipes and we're basically going to cook and blog about recipes in Robin Robertson's latest book, 1,000 Vegan Recipes. It's a HUGE book that I think every vegan should get since it spans so many different cuisines and is chock full of information.

I thought about cross-posting entries here but I think that's a little repetitive. I'll still be cooking other stuff which will of course be posted here. Speaking of which, I just bought a pasta maker/roller thingy so expect some pasta posts in the next few days.

So check out the new blog!

Cooking From 1,000 Vegan Recipes

Okay here's a teaser of the first thing I cooked from the book. Tempeh Satay. Go read about it!