vegetables
Vegetable Bulgogi
This is by no means authentic and was inspired by a number of posts and pins on social media.
Let’s start with the sauce:
- 2 Tbl brown sugar
- 3 Tbl tamari or soy sauce
- 1 Tbl rice vinegar
- 1 Tbl sriracha
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 1 tsp perilla oil or sesame
- 1-2 tsp Korean red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp ginger—I used 1/2 tsp powdered
Mix them all up and put aside until needed
For the veg (for about 3-4 servings):
- 2-3 carrots chopped into cubes (i quartered the thick sections and halved the thinner)
- 1 onion chopped
- 8 ounces mushrooms chopped
- 1 eggplant (I used 1 graffiti eggplant and I think that was perfect)
- 1 cup of chopped walnuts
- 1 clove garlic
In 1 tsp coconut oil I sautéed the carrot, onion and garlic until the carrot was somewhat soft
After sauté it gets removed from heat
Then in 2-3 TBL olive oil (you could certainly use something more neutral but that’s what I had on hand when I realized the coconut oil I used wouldn’t be enough), sauté the eggplant until the cubes are semi soft then add the mushrooms and walnuts and sauté until mushrooms are cooked and eggplant is fairly soft and add back in the carrot and onion.
Give that a quick mix and stir in the sauce and I turned off the heat and let it sit covered for about 10 minutes so the veg had time to absorb the flavor
On the side I had a cucumber salad, kimchi and soy sauce sprouts. The green beans are blanched and splashed with rice vinegar, lemon juice and a little soy paste.
Deconstructed Cabbage Rolls and Beet Salad
I knew I had a head of cabbage and half of another on the fridge so I was pondering that and struck on this idea.
I’m gonna give a shout out to a couple of my favorite brands here—just because the products are always here.
Penzey’s Revolution. I used this in the cabbage
Eden Organica Kimchi Sauerkraut I used this in the cabbage.
Stonehouse Olive Oil OMG spice This was perfect on the beets
The rest is brand neutral.
Beets
- Beets, I had five small baby beets that I roasted and peeled at 350 for like 30 minutes
- Carrot, radish, daikon…I thought I had carrot for the cabbage but instead had three small daikon so the salad got half and the cabbage got the other half—about 1/2 cup
- Onions, 1/2 small onion chopped
- Garlic, 3-4 cloves chopped
- Pickles, Dill, 2 Tablespoons chopped
- Olive oil, about 1/2 tablespoon
- Vinegar, just a splash
- Pickle juice, about 2 Tablespoons
- OMG spice liberally – so you can add a mix of similar types of seasonings
- Dill, chopped to serve
Just mix it all up!!
Cabbage
- Cabbage, 1/2 head
- Protein—hamburger, soy curls, tvp. I used 1/2 bag of butlers soy curls.
- Carrot, 1/2-3/4 cup. I subbed daikon
- Celery, 1/2-3/4 cup.
- Tomatoes, 1 can chopped
- Sauerkraut, 1/2 cup. I used kimchi kraut
- Penzey’s Revolution, liberal shaking
- Garlic, about 5 chopped cloves
- Worcestershire, splash on soy curls
- Smoked paprika, to help add some Smokey meatiness. Just a few shakes
- Chives, chopped to garnish for serving. Mine looked bad so I used micro greens
- Sour cream for serving
Sauté the soy curls in two swirls of olive oil just to fry out a bit and then add feelers garlic onions and carrots
Once it’s softening up some add the can of tomatoes
Let that cook a bit and add the cabbage
That cooks until everything is not raw crisp and the juice has been released. Then I add the sauerkraut and turn off the heat so it gets incorporated and heated but you don’t kill the probiotics.
Serve it with a dollop sour cream.
Day 2. Carrots
We had carrots on day two because I had an ugly bunch that came in my produce box just waiting to be used.
Simple. Oven roasted in olive oil and acid leagues vegetable balsamic with a sprinkling of Penzey’s seasons salt. Covered in fouls and roasted at 375 for an hour
A veggie a day…day one. Corn.
For the month of May, I’m going to make a different vegetable every day. This was inspired by an article in Food Network Magazine.
Day 1 was corn as I have corn as I had some on the cob that needed used up.
I was inspired by an epicurious or bon appetit email for a recipes using some crispy fried garbanzos with some sautéed poblano and corn on it with an egg on top.
My version was made with black beans.
I sautéed 1 can of rinsed black beans with 1/2 poblano and 1/2 onion and mashed the beans with my spoon a little to make them chunky. I played those and placed in a warm oven.
Then I cut the corn off of two cobs and sautéed that with poblano and onion until the pepper and onion were soft.
Plated it
I had a sautéed salmon filet that I laid on top
Cultured Beans
This is batch 4 of my attempts at cultured beans. The first batch was black beans made with the fermentation liquid from a hot sauce batch plus salt. It was yummy but too salty for my taste. The second batch was creamy creamy white beans that I made with salt and yogurt whey and they were yummy but I must have put a dirty spoon by accident or something because after they were finished and I scooped some, they grey fuzz so I trashed them. Batch three were garbanzos made with buttermilk whey—they were okay but I’m not a fan of the buttermilk whey. So I bought some powdered culture. This batch is cannelini with salt and culture. They taste great going into the jar.
They need the skins busted open. They don’t need to be mashed but they do need the skin broken so the culture can get in. These beans soaked a day then I boiled them with dried garlic and some fresh rosemary.
Smash them up with the culture—about 4 Tablespoons and 1 Tablespoon salt. I used Cutting Edge Culture at 1/8 tsp/4 Tbls water.
Pack into the jar and leave it out 3 days….and fingers crossed that we have some magic.
And finally they are ready for fun! These are super creamy with a nice sour bite and no overwhelming salt flavor.
Nabak Kimchi
I haven’t made Nabak Kimchi aka Water Kimchi in like a decade…it’s more liquidy, less funky than your typical Napa kimchi you see around.
I started chopping the vegetables—I used daikon for the radish, carrot, green onion, napa cabbage, 1/2 an Asian pear, and garlic.
The daikon and Napa have been rubbed with salt
Added the other veggies to sit with the salt
Meanwhile I steep some gochugaru in a strainer in 10 cups of water and some salt.
Once wilted the veggies go into the jar. To be joined by the gochugaru “tea”
Where it sat for 4 nights and 3 days on the counter. To relocate to the fridge and get sampled.
I ended up using the following:
- The inner yellowish leaves from one medium head of Napa cabbage
- About a four-five inch slice of daikon cut into squares
- 2 Tbl gochugaru
- 1/2 Korean pear
- 1 medium to large carrot
- About an inch slice of ginger
- 3-4 green onions
- Garlic to taste 4-6 cloves
- About 8 cups of water
- 2Tbl salt to run the veggies and 2 Tbl for the water/gochugaru mixture
This experiment was inspired by this water kimchi recipe
This is definitely a repeat. It’s been years since I made this from scratch and I really enjoy it’s lightness.
Corona Beans—gratin!
I had lions mane and corona bean to use so I made a corona been gratin…and sautéed Lions mane steaks with a salad of tomato/cucumber with olive oil and tomato vinegar
Korean BBQ Oyster Mushrooms
Following on the success of the bbq pink mushrooms sandwiches, I thought my bag of mixed oyster mushrooms would be fantastic for Korean bbq mushrooms. i was kinda’ right. The pinks crisp up nicely but the other varieties aren’t a so crisp loving but they mostly get there
Following the other recipe. They were minimally spiced for this part, then when done I tossed them with some Flatiron Asian blend peppers, tamari, fish sauce, acid league’s liquid kimchi, liquid smoke.
Served it up with rice, butter lettuce leaves, kimchi, rice vinegar pickled daikon. I loved the mushroom marinade sauce so much I tossed it onto the broccoli rabe as well.
We made perfect wraps with the lettuce, mushroom and kimchi and I made reasonable pantry/fridge panchan
Dried Spaghetti Squash
I had planned to create a post about my pinto bean meatballs I made last night but I thought the spaghetti squash would just get lost…and I ordered online from the company tonight.
A few months ago we were in Sprouts and I saw this package of dried spaghetti squash.
And it’s just been hanging around since. Yesterday I had focused so hard one the pinto bean meatballs that I kinda neglected the rest of the dish. I threw some squash in a pan because it needed used…then I remembered the dried spaghetti squash and busted it out to soak. Once done, it sautéed nicely before being buried with toppings.
I don’t think it’s widely available but I ordered more online and some of their other products at Solely included fruit jerky, dried fruit and more of the spaghetti squash. I like their mission and their story so I was happy to order and share with you.
Brian and Jim Eat 