Category Archives: Veggies

Lemongrass Coconut Curry

LEMONGRASS AND GINGER-INFUSED COCONUT CURRY WITH POTATOES, MUSHROOMS, BELL PEPPERS, AND CHERRY TOMATOES. WITH SEARED SALMON FILLET AND LIME.

While we can’t claim this recipe to be authentically Thai, we can say that a fragrant coconut curry is an easy way to get big flavors without too much attention or labor. More accurately, this one’s more a technique than a recipe with specific ingredients for a particular cuisine.

Until recently, we were a bit tentative on using lemongrass, knowing the flavor only from eating out at Thai places. When we finally overcame our lemongrass anxiety, we realized how easy, versatile, and revolutionary it would be to our meal prep for busy weeks! Though there are several ways to use it, we like to chop it up to infuse into a stew or broth-based dish for a few hours before pulling out the fibrous pieces.

For vegetarians and vegans, this can easily be made without fish sauce or the seared salmon. The same technique applies, and remember that the veggie combinations are far beyond the ones we listed here! Enjoy 🙂 – Pea and Boo

Servings: 4 (full courses)
Difficulty: 

Lemongrass curry:

  • Curry base
    2 lemongrass stalks
    2 ts ginger, grated
    1 star anise
  • Broth
    1 can (14 oz) coconut milk
    1 c vegetable stock
    3 tb soy sauce
    (optional) 1.5 tb fish sauce
    3 garlic cloves, grated
    1 tb sugar
    2 ts turmeric
    1 ts coriander
    1 bay leaf
  • Vegetables, cut into bite-sized pieces
    8 oz button mushrooms
    2-3 carrots
    8-12 oz potatoes
    1 onion
  • 6 oz cherry tomatoes
  • Finish
    2 tb corn starch
    1 lime, zested and juiced
    10-20 thai basil leaves
  1. For lemongrass, remove out layer, and cut off leaves and tip of bulb. Rinse thoroughly. Slice into 3-inch sticks, and halve lengthwise.
  2. In a large sauté pan or pot over high heat, toast lemongrass, ginger, and star anise until lightly charred, 3-4 minutes.
  3. Add all broth ingredients, and cover to simmer on medium-low heat, 1.5-2 hours.
  4. Add vegetables to simmer until softened, 20-30 minutes.
  5. Add cherry tomatoes to cook, 10 minutes.
  6. In a small bowl, suspend corn starch in 2-3 tb water. Stir suspension into curry, and simmer until thickened, 2 minutes.
  7. Add lime zest/juice and basil leaves to cook until wilted, 1 minute.
  8. Serve with rice, or keep warm while preparing seared salmon.

Seared salmon fillet:

  • 4 (6 oz) salmon fillets
  • salt and black pepper
  • vegetable/canola oil
  1. Score the skin side of each fillet, and season on both sides.
  2. Drizzle and rub oil on both sides of fillets.
  3. In a pan over high heat, sear salmon on skin side until cooked pink halfway up, ~4 minutes. Flip over.
  4. Sear second side until cooked to desired doneness, ~3 minutes (medium).
  5. Remove to a plate to rest, 10 minutes.
  6. Stir resting salmon juices into curry, and serve salmon and curry with rice.

Orange Fried Tofu with Apple Bok Choy Salad

CRISPY FRIED TOFU, LIGHTLY-SALTED AND GLAZED WITH NAVAL ORANGE REDUCTION. LEMONY SESAME BOK CHOY SALAD WITH FUJI APPLE, RED ONION, AND CARROT JULIENNE.

I get occasional cravings for the thick, sweet goop that Chinese take-out calls “orange chicken” and “orange tofu” just like the next person. Unfortunately, Chinese take-out doesn’t usually sit well with New Year’s resolutions, so it was up to me to figure out how to twist a sugary mess into something a bit lighter and fresher. With the help of some bags of fresh Fuji apples and naval oranges, our bok choy bounty, and a desire for something new (because garlic bok choy, while great, can get repetitive), I decided to roll with a raw salad alongside some fried tofu glazed with a naval orange reduction (culinary lingo for an intensified sauce or liquid with a lot of the water boiled away). As much as Pea loves meat, this vegetarian dish ended up being one of Pea’s all-time favorite Boo dishes!

The most intensive part of the dish is probably just slicing everything for the salad into fine matchsticks, or julienne. Although a little time-consuming, it’s a great way to hone your knife skills, and I personally find prep work therapeutic! You’ll find quite a few methods for cutting vegetables into julienne, and some vegetables might be a little trickier than others – but here’s an idea of how I worked the bok choy (by separating the leaves from the stems first, then stacking the stems and rolling the leaves):

Pea has been a little busy learning to be a fantastic doctor recently, but if you have a willing, or unwilling, helper around, they can shallow-fry the tofu and make the sauce while the salad is being put together to save quite a bit of time. Yes, I said shallow-fry because the salad is a good enough reason to have a little bit of fried in the dish, right? – Boo

P.S. make this vegetarian dish vegan by eliminating or replacing the honey! Since there isn’t much honey in the original recipe, and so many other flavors, just taking it out wouldn’t sacrifice much at all!

Servings: 3 (full courses)
Difficulty: 

Bok choy salad:

  • Vegetable julienne
    0.5 lb bok choy
    1 (medium) Fuji apple
    3 oz carrot
    0.25 red onion
  • Seasoning
    2 tb lemon juice
    0.5 tb sesame oil
    0.5 tb honey
    0.5 tb soy sauce
    1 ts mirin
    0.25 ts salt
    0.25 ts black pepper
    0.25 ts garlic powder
  • 2 ts sesame seeds
  • 2-4 tb minced cilantro, to taste
  1. Separate bok choy leaves from stems, and julienne in small stacks.
  2. In a large bowl, toss seasoning with vegetable julienne.
  3. In a small pan, toast sesame seeds over medium heat until aromatic, ~1 minute.
  4. Toss sesame seeds and cilantro into salad.
  5. Cover and refrigerate until use.

Orange tofu:

  • 1-1.25 lb soft tofu
  • Orange reduction
    1 c orange juice
    0.5 tb honey
    1 ts soy sauce
    2 thin slices ginger
    pinch of salt
  • sea salt, coarse
  1. Divide tofu into 6 square logs, and set on paper towels to dry.
  2. In a small pan, reduce orange juice over medium heat until slightly thickened, 6-10 minutes.
  3. Stir remaining orange reduction ingredients into pan, and keep warm.
  4. Shallow fry tofu logs until golden-brown on all sides, 2-3 minutes per side. Set over paper towels to drain, 1 minute.
  5. Glaze tofu with orange reduction, and lightly salt. Serve with apple bok choy salad.

Brown Butter Gnocchi with Mushrooms and Swiss Chard

brown butter gnocchiCHEWY PORCINI AND TRUFFLE POTATO GNOCCHI BROWNED IN BUTTER AND TOSSED WITH SAUTEED MUSHROOMS AND SWISS CHARD.

Never big fans of Whole Foods, Pea and I were still excited for the recent opening of one just two blocks away from our home. As we strolled through the aisles of fancypants ingredients and munched on the occasional free sample, we were shocked to find Swiss chard, one of my all-time favorite veggies, at a reasonable price! Quickly, before the shock and novelty of a good deal at Whole Foods wore off, we checked out contentedly with our find.

Swiss chard is great sautéed, stir-fried, or even raw in a salad or as a wrap. Although the recipe below is for a “gnocchi dish”, the swiss chard adds an fantastic dimension of flavor to the plate, which is otherwise just seasoned with salt, pepper, and lemon zest. The leaves are like a softer, silkier spinach, and the stems are just a hint sweet. With the mushrooms and chewy potato gnocchi, this vegetarian-friendly recipe makes a great earthy, savory meal for two or a comforting appetizer for three or four! – Boo

Servings: 2 (full courses) or 3-4 (appetizer portions)
Difficulty: 2 star

Ingredients:

  • Vegetables
    0.5 lb mushrooms, sliced
    0.5 onion, diced 1 cm
    2 cloves garlic, grated
    0.5 lb Swiss chard
  • 8 oz gnocchi
  • 2 tb butter
  • 0.25 tb olive oil
  • Seasoning
    0.5 ts salt
    0.25 ts black pepper
    lemon zest

Directions:

  1. In a large pan, sear mushrooms in olive oil over medium-high heat.
  2. Meanwhile, separate chard leaves from stems. Dice stems, and chop leaves.
  3. Add onions, chard stems, and garlic to large pan, and saute over medium-high heat until softened, 3-4 minutes.
  4. Add chard leaves to saute until wilted, 1-2 minutes. Set vegetables aside.
  5. Cook gnocchi per package instructions, and drain.
  6. In a pan, heat and stir butter over medium-high heat until browned. Add olive oil and gnocchi, and sear gnocchi on several sides, 2-3 minutes.
  7. Stir vegetables and seasoning into gnocchi, and serve.