After all the sweets and cake, a healthy post this time around!
This is one of my vegetarian posts again (although I guess some of the recipes are not strictly 100% vegetarian). With this one though, I guess you could even make it vegan. SO, here goes!!
What you need:
The cool thing about this is that you can use a lot of things and just be creative. Or just work with whatever you have in the house and fridge right now.
Although I guess the vegetables easiest to use (and easy to find outside of Japan e.g. edible burdock) are: cucumbers, zucchini and carrots. If you like, daikon is also an option but it's a bit on the spicy side, so I don't really eat it as is often (unless I happen upon a nice and sweet one). Not so easy to get though. Basically long vegetables haha.
There are two ways to prepare vegetable pasta: boiled or as is. For carrots, both work. You can either boil it or have it as is, salad style.
The most ESSENTIAL tool for making vegetable pasta is a good peeler. You can also use a grater but personally, I think that's a lot more work but it's up to you.
I think everything else is pretty much straight forward, you use the peeler to make the 'noodles'.
For sauces/dressings/a vinaigrette etc. you can choose whatever you like or what you think will go well with the vegetable(s) you chose. For the pasta in the picture above, I kept it simple and just used light balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. For carrot pasta I used some yogurt, curry powder and a couple more spices, to give it a more 'oriental' touch... Daikon raddish goes well with a miso based dressing or sesame based dressing as well.
For everyone who doesn't have sesame salad dressing or dipping sauce readily available, I did stumble over a good recipe that I tweaked around a bit, so you can make it yourself. It kept surprisingly long as well (in a good fridge), so you can make a batch and then put it in small containers to eat over a longer period of time.
For optional things, you can add bacon, like I did in the picture, or fried tofu. There's a thin type of tofu you can fry up to be really crisp, so that goes well with this, too. Or you can just make or buy the good ol' croutons. Making croutons is easy btw.
What you need:
- dry bread (bread that is maybe 2-3 days old is good, depending on how you store it)
- olive oil
- salt
- spices / herbs
Pre-heat your oven to a temperature of about 200 degrees Celsius. Put a baking sheet onto a tray. Cut the bread into small cubes and spread them out on the sheet. It doesn't matter if they overlap but it would be good if they're spread out evenly so the heat gets to them equally well, otherwise you'll end up with partially crunchy and partially chewy croutons.
Mix olive oil and whatever spices you want together and then drizzle the mixture over the cut up bread. Use your hands or a spoon and for to mix the bread cubes so that they get coated by the oil+spices mixture evenly. Put the tray in the oven and dry/fry the croutons until they're crispy (15 minutes or so, depending on how big your cubes are. It doesn't hurt to check after 10 minutes and then just go on for as long as you want).
The spice mixtures I like to do are:
Salt + Garlic Powder + Onion Powder + Pepper + Basil
Salt + Chili Powder + Garlic Powder + Onion Powder
Salt + Dried Tomato Flakes (you need to soak them in the olive oil until soft) + Basil + Oregano
You can play around with it until you find the mixes you like the most. :3
This is one of my vegetarian posts again (although I guess some of the recipes are not strictly 100% vegetarian). With this one though, I guess you could even make it vegan. SO, here goes!!
★★★Vegetable Pasta★★★
 | |||
| Cucumber pasta with bacon bits |
What you need:
The cool thing about this is that you can use a lot of things and just be creative. Or just work with whatever you have in the house and fridge right now.
Although I guess the vegetables easiest to use (and easy to find outside of Japan e.g. edible burdock) are: cucumbers, zucchini and carrots. If you like, daikon is also an option but it's a bit on the spicy side, so I don't really eat it as is often (unless I happen upon a nice and sweet one). Not so easy to get though. Basically long vegetables haha.
There are two ways to prepare vegetable pasta: boiled or as is. For carrots, both work. You can either boil it or have it as is, salad style.
The most ESSENTIAL tool for making vegetable pasta is a good peeler. You can also use a grater but personally, I think that's a lot more work but it's up to you.
I think everything else is pretty much straight forward, you use the peeler to make the 'noodles'.
For sauces/dressings/a vinaigrette etc. you can choose whatever you like or what you think will go well with the vegetable(s) you chose. For the pasta in the picture above, I kept it simple and just used light balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. For carrot pasta I used some yogurt, curry powder and a couple more spices, to give it a more 'oriental' touch... Daikon raddish goes well with a miso based dressing or sesame based dressing as well.
For everyone who doesn't have sesame salad dressing or dipping sauce readily available, I did stumble over a good recipe that I tweaked around a bit, so you can make it yourself. It kept surprisingly long as well (in a good fridge), so you can make a batch and then put it in small containers to eat over a longer period of time.
For optional things, you can add bacon, like I did in the picture, or fried tofu. There's a thin type of tofu you can fry up to be really crisp, so that goes well with this, too. Or you can just make or buy the good ol' croutons. Making croutons is easy btw.
What you need:
- dry bread (bread that is maybe 2-3 days old is good, depending on how you store it)
- olive oil
- salt
- spices / herbs
Pre-heat your oven to a temperature of about 200 degrees Celsius. Put a baking sheet onto a tray. Cut the bread into small cubes and spread them out on the sheet. It doesn't matter if they overlap but it would be good if they're spread out evenly so the heat gets to them equally well, otherwise you'll end up with partially crunchy and partially chewy croutons.
Mix olive oil and whatever spices you want together and then drizzle the mixture over the cut up bread. Use your hands or a spoon and for to mix the bread cubes so that they get coated by the oil+spices mixture evenly. Put the tray in the oven and dry/fry the croutons until they're crispy (15 minutes or so, depending on how big your cubes are. It doesn't hurt to check after 10 minutes and then just go on for as long as you want).
The spice mixtures I like to do are:
Salt + Garlic Powder + Onion Powder + Pepper + Basil
Salt + Chili Powder + Garlic Powder + Onion Powder
Salt + Dried Tomato Flakes (you need to soak them in the olive oil until soft) + Basil + Oregano
You can play around with it until you find the mixes you like the most. :3
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