Sunday, July 22, 2012

Eating Chinese food- the healthy way

Not all Chinese food is battered, deep fried, sprinkled with msg, and saturated in some fatty high sodium salt.
This dish, is a very big batch so if you want a smaller batch I would half the amounts.
Vegan chinese food-


Ingredients you will need:

  • fresh or frozen ginger
  • sweet onion
  • garlic
  • teriaki sauce (natural! so high fructose corn syrup, sucralose or msg)
  • Organic tofu (the firmer the better, for this dish)
  • fresh or frozen tri colored peppers (I used frozen)
  • fresh or frozen asian vegetable blend (I used frozen, also add frozen broccoli if mix does not contain a good amount of broccoli)
  • Corn (non gmo) canned or frozen
  • frozen organic peas
  • organic frozen spinach
  • spiced soybeans (optional) difficult to find
  • soy sauce
  • sea salt and garlic powder if needed
  • frozen brown rice (or quick cook, just cook prior to adding to the food)
Any of the veggies can be substituted with whatever you like

First things first, you need to marinate your tofu.
 Open the top of the package, keeping the tofu in the package and your hand on the tofu, gently press all the water out of the tofu. Tofu is like a sponge, so the better you drain it the better it will soak up the marinade. Put it back in the package or a small bowl and add teriaki sauce until it covers the tofu.

Next cover with plastic wrap and let marinate in fridge for 2-4 days. The longer it marinates the better the flavor.

Now, when your ready to make your chinese food get together all your ingredients that aren't frozen.Take the tofu out of the package, (do not discard leftover marinade) place the tofu on a plate, and press firmly to drain all liquids. then put 2 folded paper towels on top of the tofu and place a heavy object to help the tofu drain. This will make for a better, firmer tofu.

Okay, Time to chop your garlic ginger and onion.
In a wok heat a high heat oil- such as coconut oil, sunflower seed oil, grapeseed oil...
I used sunflower seed oil and a few dashes of toasted sesame oil
heat the oil on medium heat.
Chop 1 sweet onion and toss in. stir every few minutes, when it starts to turn translucent and slightly brown add approx 8 cloves of chopped garlic. Do not let the garlic burn it will become bitter. after about a minute, then add your ginger. Use a microplane or cheese grater to grate your ginger. You want to add a little more than half of an average ginger root, approx 1 tablespoon possibly a little more.
Stir it all around, now you can slice the tofu and add directly to the pan, or the easier thing to do is get a big bowl, yes a big one, and dump the onion mixture into the bowl. Add a little oil and sesame oil to the wok, then add the tofu. This will ensure the onions and garlic do not burn, and help get the tofu the nice brown color. 
To cut your tofu, cut in half horizontally then slice small strips vertically, holding together, then from the front, slice again. This will give you nice uniform strips but you can slice however you like.


This is the tofu when I first added it to the pan, with the onion mixture, remember, it is way easier to removethe browned onion mixture, then brown the tofu, and then add onions back into the pan.










And this is what the tofu looks like after being cooked, a beautiful brown color. Halfway through browning add a little bit of of the reserved teriaki marinade, this will boost the flavor of the tofu.
Next add your veggies, fresh will take longer than frozen. Add the broccoli and asian vegetables stir and cook, then the peppers, then the peas, the the corn, the spinach, and spiced soybeans if you have them.
sprinkle the remainder of marinade over the veggies.
After the veggies are heated through, add 2 (10 oz) bags of frozen brown rice.
Add a few dashes of low sodium soy sauce directly to the rice, and then stir until heated through.
Taste, add sea salt, garlic powder or more grated ginger if needed.



It takes approx 15-25 minutes of cooking all together, depending on how time- efficient you are.
When everything is heated through spoon it into your BIG BOWL and serve! This recipe is sure to impress family and friends.


***chef's note, peel your ginger with a spoon, using a knife to take off any big pieces, put in a ziploc, and grate from frozen whenever you need it again. Will last months!

Also, I am the creator of this recipe, I expect full credit when using my recipe.





2 comments:

  1. I'm going to try this with my new TJ's Tofu. I forgot to get ginger so maybe next week. Thanks for posting the recipes! :-)

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  2. No problem! enjoy!
    Your best bet is to peel all your ginger, when you get it, then store it in the freezer and grate it frozen as needed

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