A while back a friend of ours brought me a bunch of Asian vegetables from their garden. There was only one I could not name, and it sort of looks like a giant bald white hamster with a bunch of long stringy tails. How on God's green earth am I supposed to cook something with that? Like every brave vegan would do I washed the thing, cut it into fries and took a taste, contemplating what to make with it. I'm still not certain what it was but it tastes like a radish. So I had a fancy radish. And I had Chinese string beans. And noodles. But most of all... I was had peanut butter withdrawals (sweet peanut butter how I miss you so much). I'm not quite sure how it all happened but somehow sweet potatoes, string beans, and radish wound up sauteed with spicy peanut sauce on stringy udon noodles. . . oh yum!
Maybe you don't have a bunch of imported Asian vegetables stocked up in your kitchen. So what? You're not going to let that stop you from trying your hand with a sautee pan like a master chef at Shogun's are you? Really all you need are some vegetables and a few kitchen staples. Go for it young grasshopper!
For the Pad Thai:
- Two handfuls thinly sliced veggies (frozen stir fry mix is fine, so are diced sweet potato, string beans, radish, onion, carrots, corn, broccoli, mushrooms, bell peppers and cauliflower)
- Cooked & drained linguine or angel hair pasta (preferably udon noodles found at an Asian market)
- 1 1/2 Tbsp chunky peanut butter (smooth is fine too)
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- Red pepper flakes
- 1 Tbsp water
- Heat a medium sautee pan on medium-high heat with a little bit of nonstick spray
- Add your vegetables to the pan and give them a stir every few minutes. They will sizzle and scream at you; just put the lid on and start preparing your peanut sauce.
- Very simply stir together all peanut sauce ingredients. Set aside and check on vegetables.
- When the veggies are limp and starting to brown, turn off the heat and take them off the burner. Add the peanut sauce to the pan and stir until all vegetables are coated well.
- Serve on top of noodles.
Note: for those less adventurous, you can microwave the vegetables, drain them with a paper towel, then toss them in peanut sauce. Go ahead- cheat your way through!>;)
I also had an impulse buy moment when I found Vegan Jell-o on the shelf of my local health food store. No gelatin (i.e. ground up animal left-overs) and oh-my-goodness it wiggles and tastes just like the animal-product version. It's so cool! Sorry mom, tomorrow I'm going to be playing with my food, I can foresee it now. Definitely worth a try if you can find a package around you somewhere. Let us know what you tried for spicy peanut pad thai or the Jell-o!