Recipes

Vegan Fried Rice is an all-time Thai classic guaranteed to satisfy everyone–even picky eating kids who don’t like trying anything new.

I don’t usually make this dish as I feel like it’s too typical. Recently, I had a very frustrating experience eating fried rice from a Chinese restaurant on a trip, and want to prove that Thai Vegetarian Fried Rice, packed with yummy vegetables, is really easy to make.

With a perfect combination of simple ingredients, I also go the extra mile, fermenting the rice to make it even healthier, along with lots of vegetables.

Indeed, I can confirm after making it again that it’s both easy and satisfying….

Red Cabbage Sauerkraut Salad is a dish I make when I want to eat something healthy and quick that can be done in no time. It’s sour, savory, and has a little sweetness that is extremely healthy and beautiful.

I adapted this dish from my childhood memories eating fermented and salted bok choy. In Thailand, there is a simple vegetarian dish that I chose over any meat dishes called stir fried fermented bok choy, and I sure loved the taste of it.

As I always have all kinds of fermented vegetables in my fridge, including Red Cabbage Sauerkraut, it’s a very convenient way to make Red Sauerkraut Salad. One of the good things about eating simple and healthy is to accept food for not being “authentic,” and to enjoy what I create from what I find. I also think it’s better environmentally to eat local instead of trying to get things from different parts of the world to make them just like the original.

So, Red Cabbage Sauerkraut is no different, it’s not exactly the same from the original I ate, but it has the same deliciousness & healthiness!…

Lemon & Lime Soup is the best way to eat lemon and lime rinds that are loaded with health benefits, that most of us are not aware of. It’s a very fresh, tangy, aromatic, and most of all healthy soup!

In Thailand, the land known for its delicious and healthy foods, I grew up eating a soup dish called chicken & pickled lime soup, or in Thai “Gai Toon Manao Dong.” That was a long time ago when I was still a meat eater.

In the soup, they use whole, pickled limes, chicken, Thai winter squash, and shiitake mushrooms along with other spices. Then, they slow cook it ‘til everything is soft, and well-blended with incredibly aromatic smells. Even though the taste is quite bitter, it’s very delicious in a unique way.

It’s known to be one of the best healing soups when you are sick. Most Thai people believe that bitter food is good for you, and we have a saying to makes us feel good when eating something bitter: “bitter is medicinal.”…

Red Cabbage Sauerkraut is the prettiest homemade probiotic I know. It contains loads of good bacteria known to be great for your gut–right from your own kitchen!

Here is a link about the benefits of eating sauerkraut that I think you might enjoy reading.

I make sauerkraut a lot, and like to keep it on hand in the fridge. It’s simple to prepare, with only cabbage and salt. However, making Red Cabbage Sauerkraut, I add water to give it some extra brine as red cabbage is a bit tougher and doesn’t make enough liquid on its own. It always comes out great.…

Coconut Rice with Somtam (Thai Papaya Salad) and Teriyaki Tempeh is the best combination of aromatic, savory, tangy and sweet.

I remember that we were all so happy, when my mother made this Coconut Rice as a special treat for us. It’s especially tasty when she made it with Thai Jasmine white rice.

One day, when I was heating my leftover cooked rice, I used a little bit of coconut oil, fried the rice, and sprinkled a pinch of himalayan salt in. It turned out so good, and reminded me of my mother’s coconut rice–only easier and faster to make.

Ever since, I make this Coconut Rice dish very often, and have created new meals using it with som-tam and Teriyaki Tempeh. They go together incredibly well. To make it even more aromatic, I add a few leaves of mint in–imagine that!…

Vegan Sweet and Sour Vegetables are always the first choice when we order Chinese takeout as we are sure to get a generous amount of vegetables to enjoy with a bowl of warm rice.

Being Thai, I love Thai flavors better, although sometimes we don’t have many choices. The best Sweet and Sour we love is the one I make at home (of course!) It has all fresh vegetables, mixed with a few simple ingredients, and we simply enjoy this healthy dish.

Things you need to make Vegan Sweet and Sour Vegetables:

A plate of vegetables of your choice. I use a few florets of broccoli, 2 tomatoes, a little bit of red cabbage, red bell pepper, half an onion, 2 stems of green onion, a ¼ of a pineapple, and a few stems of cilantro.
2 cloves of garlic.
2 TBSP (30 ml) of soy sauce, and 2 TBSP (30 ml) of water.
1 TBSP (15 ml) of coconut oil.
About 2 TSP (5ml) of sugar. I use whole, unrefined sugar.
ingredients for vegan sweet and sour vegetables

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Fermented Bean Salsa ideas always come to mind when I want to make a quick and easy, yet healthy appetizer. It’s so good for when we crave Mexican-American type foods, and also great for entertaining guests before meals, or simply for taking to picnics and potlucks!

Why fermented beans you may wonder? In case you are not familiar with fermented beans, let me pass on some info I have learned in the past few years. All beans and legumes contain anti-nutrients that make it hard for our bodies to digest them. Fermenting and sprouting before consuming them are the best way to to reduce the anti-nutrients, and to make the beans more digestible, thus causing less gas.

Other benefits you get from cooking your own beans are staying away from the BPA in can linings, and helping to reduce container use.

If you want to know more reasons why I ferment beans (and whole grains) check out my post about why I ferment whole grains.

However, the process of fermenting and sprouting requires some time, and is probably the reason why most people and canned bean companies don’t do it. So, the best way is to do it by yourself. I found it’s hard at the beginning, but not once I got used to it. With some planning, I always have fermented beans on hand….

These Roasted Sweet Potatoes are both healthy and filling, and a little bit of good oil and salt make them taste great right from the stove top!

Sweet potatoes are high on hearty-healthy food lists. I like them because they are versatile, and can be used in many different dishes: from thanksgiving dinners and soups, to simple, healthy snacks such as Roasted Sweet Potatoes.

However, living abroad or somewhere without an oven in the kitchen can be challenging when you want to bake or roast sweet potatoes. I struggled with that and avoided making them for quite some time.

With some effort, I created Roasted Sweet Potatoes in a frying pan. It’s perfectly doable, and in fact it uses less energy when I want a small batch. I can do a small amount of them at a time on a burner instead of heating the entire oven. When I realized how easy it was, I started making it much more often.

If you’d like to try roasting sweet potatoes on a stove top, come along with me, and I’ll show you how….

Thai green curry is one of the most desired curries. It’s a great mix of balanced flavor with spicy, savory, sweet, and aromatic, all with the taste of different vegetables in a creamy coconut-based soup. When I want to eat something filling and flavorful, Thai green curry is high on my list.

Growing up in Thailand, green curry was one of many tasty Thai dishes I often chose. However, most green curry in Thailand is made with either beef or chicken. When I decided to stop eating meat altogether, I started to substitute either tofu, tempeh or sometimes just plain vegetables!

Talking about cooking curry dishes can be intimidating–for me too. With curry paste on hand it is very simple though. Making curry paste from scratch is much more difficult, but fortunately there are so many companies selling ready-to-use curry pastes, and some with very healthy ingredients. However, most of them use shrimp paste. So, make sure to read the ingredients carefully. There is one company I usually buy my curry paste from without shrimp paste (not affiliated with GVK).

As long as you have the right curry paste on hand, you can get the Thai green curry done in no time. Are you ready to make it with me?…

Hot Pots are one of the easiest and healthiest dishes in Asian cuisine. There are so many different kinds of Hot Pots in restaurants to choose from: Japanese shabu-shabu, Sukiyaki, and Taiwanese style. These meals are a fun way to eat with a big group of friends and family.

The ingredients of Hot Pots are mainly soup stock, protein from meat or plants, and vegetables. As each individual chooses what to put into theirs, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian friends can eat together as each Hot Pot can be fixed differently.

Eating and having fun conversation, sometimes we can easily stuff ourselves. The good thing about overstuffing ourselves eating Hot Pots though is we don’t feel bad afterwards as most of what we eat are vegetables and soup broth.

However, eating Hot Pots at home can be intimidating if you don’t have all the equipment and ingredients to make the sauce the same way they do in restaurants. I don’t have the equipment, and I can’t find an similar healthy replacement for the sauce. So, I have come up with an easier and more practical way to eat it home. It’s also fun, healthy, and tasty.

Whenever I feel like eating a light, but warm and easy dinner with a lot of vegetables, I make Hot Pots. The first few times of trying to make it at home, I followed every step I learned–even preparing soup stock first. However, I realized that the soup stock is not really necessary. The way we eat Hot Pots is to cook everything including vegetables in boiling water, and the water automatically turns into stock, so we get the stock in an easier way….

Teriyaki sauce is famous for making everything taste great, and tempeh is exceedingly healthy. Combining them, we have a healthy and delicious Teriyaki Tempeh!

I love Korean food, and in my opinion, it’s one of the healthiest types of foods in the world. Unfortunately, most restaurants only offer teriyaki with meat. As a vegetarian, I have created my own way of eating meat-free teriyaki.

I have made it with both tofu and tempeh before, but I like how the tempeh turns out better. However, tempeh can be a little hard to make taste good if you don’t cook it right, and I’ve learned it tastes better when fully cooked. If more people knew how good Teriyaki Tempeh could taste, I’m sure it would be much more popular.

In my teriyaki sauce recipe, I have cut some ingredients from the original recipes as not all of them are available in some areas. It’s much simpler to make this way, but it still tastes delicious.

Would you like to give tempeh a chance? Let’s make Teriyaki Tempeh together!…

Fried bananas is a street dessert available everywhere in Thailand. If you want something to satisfy your sweet tooth right that minute, voila, there’s a vendor frying bananas. They are crispy with a perfect amount of sweetness from the bananas themselves, and you can finish a whole lot before you know it!

When I was young, I often stopped by a vendor I was familiar with for Fried Bananas on the way home from school. Then one day, my mom talked to me about how the oil vendors use can harm your health. I wasn’t happy to hear that my favorite snack might be bad for me, but I immediately took action. I started to look at the oil before I bought the Fried Bananas. If the oil looked dark, it meant the vendors had used it too long and it could be harmful, so I wouldn’t buy it.

The info about bad oil really turned me away from buying and eating Fried Bananas. As they are not common in the US, I kind of forgot about it when I moved there. I really wanted to eat them more often without being afraid they are deep fried in bad oil, and the idea of making my own finally occurred to me. So, here I am again, reinterpreting a traditional food I like to eat….

Things you need to make Vegan Sweet and Sour Vegetables:

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