Vegan Steam Taukan with Wolfberries (Kei Chi, Lycium Barbarum) –Simple Vegan Recipe

Taukan is wet bean curd that is available in most vegetarian food outlet. There are many ways to cook this versatile bean curd and it has a nice texture too. I tried this steam taukan dish which is rather easy and quick to prepare. Wolfberry has antioxidant properties and is known to be beneficial to the eyesight.
Here is my simple Steam Taukan with Wolfberries recipe.

Ingredients
Taukan, 5 to 6 pcs
Chinese Rice wine, 1 teaspoon
Light soya sauce, 2 table spoons
Kei Chi (wolf berries), 1 table spoon


Arrange taukan in a steaming tray or plate. Add Chinese Rice wine, light soya sauce and kei chi. Steam in high heat for 20 minutes. Serve with steamed rice.

Vegan Luohankuo (momordica fruit), Longan (Euphoria Longan), Pear and Pong Tai Hai (Kembang Semankuk, Scaphium Macropodum) Dessert Recipe

This Chinese style dessert is good to balance the yin and yang energy in our body. Longan can help our body to relax, luohankuo & pear is good for the respiratory system and Pong Tai Hai is good to cool down our body!
Anyway, the drink tastes great too!

Ingredients
Luohankuo, 1 fruit, smashed
Pear, cut into thin strips
Longan, 1 cup
Pong Tai Hai, 10 pcs, soak in water and remove seed plus fibre
Brown sugar to taste
Water, 4 bowls

Bring water to a boil and add in all the ingredients. Boil for around one hour. Best eaten if served chilled!

Vegan Baked Potato with Oregano and Cheese Recipe

I love the smell of freshly baked potato with herbs hot out from the oven. The earthiness oregano flavour really brings out the taste of the potatoes and the cheesy taste blended well with the other ingredients used in the dish.
I tried this recipe at home and my kids love it so much. It is healthy and very simple to prepare.

Ingredients
Pototo, 4 pcs, boil until they turn soft and cut into small chunks
Oregano, 1 teaspoon
Pepper, a dash
Tomato sauce, 5 table spoons or more
Frozen mixed vegetables (carrot, peas and corn), 1 cup
Onions, 1 pc, cut into small pieces
Mozzarella or Parmesan cheese, ½ cup to ¾ cup

Put the potato in the baking tray. Fill the top with frozen vegetable mix and onions. Add a dash of pepper and sprinkle the oregano on the dish. Pour tomato sauce over it and cover the top with the cheese. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes at 180 Deg C.
Serve while it is hot!

Vegetarian Halal Chinese Char Siew (Mock BBQ Pork, resipi char siew) Recipe using Tau kan (Wet Bean Curd Blocks)

The normal vegetarian char siew that you often seen being sold at shops are made from flour. I tried to experiment making Char Siew from tau kan (wet beancurd blocks) and the result turns out great. I managed to make the aroma and texture of the taukan same are the flour vegan char siew. You can buy tau kan from any vegetarian food vendor.
Below is my recipe for vegan char siew using taukan as the main ingredient.

Ingredients
Tau kan, 6 pcs
Five Spiced Powder, 1 teaspoon
Soya sauce, 3 table spoon
Sugar, 3 table spoon
Dark Soya sauce, ½ teaspoon
Chinese Red rose wine, 1 teaspoon (optional, not halal)
Corn flour, 3 teaspoons
Salt to taste

Marinate the taukan (wet beancurd blocks) with all the other ingredients. Keep aside for at least 20 minutes. You can deep fry these char siew or barbecue them. I deep fried the char siew until they turn golden brown. Cut into slices and serve with white steamed rice.

Vegetarian Stir Fried Lotus Roots with Celery and Cauliflower Recipe- Chinese Style

The crunchy texture of young lotus roots is simply amazing. Lotus roots with celery and cauliflower make a good mix in any dishes. I combine these wonderful vegetables and made a vegetarian dish out of them. Here is my Vegetarian Stir Fried Lotus Roots with Celery and Cauliflower recipe.

Ingredients
Young Lotus roots, 6 inches in length, cut vertically
Celery, 2 stalks, cut into thick slices
Cauliflowers, about the size of a fist, clean and cut into bite sizes
Carrot, 10 to 15 slices
Garlic, 3 pcs, chopped finely
Sesame oil, ½ teaspoon
Vegetarian oyster sauce, 1 table spoon
Soya sauce, 1 table spoon
Salt to taste
Corn flour mix with a little water to thicken the gravy
Shou shing chiew, (Chinese cooking wine, optional), 1 teaspoon

Heat up wok and put in 2 teaspoon of vegetable oil and sauteed garlic until fragrant. Put in the lotus roots, carrots and cauliflower. Add in sesame oil, vegetarian oyster sauce, and soya sauce and shou shing chiew. Put in the celery and a little water. Add corn flour mixed with water to thicken the gravy. Add salt to taste. Serve with steamed rice.

Chinese Vegetarian Fried Tofu with Long Beans and Celery

Actually I wanted to cook fried tofu with celery only but since I have got some long beans that have been sitting in my fridge for quite some time, I decided to add this into the dish. Fried tofu itself is already very tasty but then if it is cooked with celery it taste even better.
Here is the recipe for vegetarian fried tofu with long beans and celery

Ingredients
Tofu, 1 block, 3”x3”x3”, cut into 1”x1”x1” cubes
Celery, 2 stalks, cut into thick slices
Long beans, 3 pcs, cut into 1 inch length
Salt to taste
Soya sauce, 1 teaspoon
Garlic, 3 pcs, chopped finely
Onions, 1pc, cut into four
Vegetable oil

Deep fry the tofu in hot vegetable oil until crispy. Drain away excess oil from the fried tofu and put aside.
Heat up wok and add in 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Sautéed onions and garlic until fragrant. Add in the celery and long beans. Fry for a short while. Add some water, soya sauce, tofu and salt to taste.

Simple Vegetarian Stir Fried French Beans Recipe – Chinese Style

My kids love to eat French Beans (Scientific Name, Phaseolus Vulgaris) which is relatively easy to cook. Somehow, it is easier to get kids to eat French Beans compared to other type of green vegetables. Green French beans are full of vitamin C.
I normally stir fried them in Chinese wok.
Here is my simple stir fried French Beans recipe.

Ingredients
French Beans, 10 pcs, cut into thin strips or one inch length
Garlic, 3 pcs, chopped finely
Salt to taste
Vegetable oil, 1 table spoon

Heat up wok and put in the vegetable oil. Add in the garlic and fry until fragrant. Increase heat of the wok; be careful not to burn your garlic. Quickly put in the French Beans and fry until you see there is a change in the green colour (from light green to a darker shade). Add a little water and salt to taste. Serve with steamed rice and other Chinese vegetarian dishes.

Romaine Lettuce and Bell Pepper with Cheese and Orange Juice Dressing – Vegetarian

I love the crunchiness of the bell peppers (capsicum) and Romaine lettuce salad. I decided to use orange juice as one of the ingredients for my salad dressing instead of the usual lemon juice.
Mozzarella cheese added a little body to my salad mix. I used minced garlic for this recipe, so if you don’t take garlic you can actually exclude it.

Ingredients
Romaine Lettuce, 3 bunches, washed and cleaned
Bell pepper (capsicum), 1 pc, cut into thick strips

For Salad Dressing
Extra virgin olive oil, 5 table spoons
Garlic, 1 pc, chopped finely (optional)
Mozzarella Cheese, 2”x2”x2” block, break into small pieces
Salt, a dash or to taste
Orange juice, ½ orange
Pepper, a dash

Mix all the salad vegetables with the dressing. Serve chilled or at room temperature. Great for roast chicken side dish!

Chinese Vegetarian Clear Tofu Celery with Tomato Soup Recipe

Celery (Scientific name, Apium graveolens) is the most common vegetable that is used as a base for soup or stock. The leafy stalk and taproot of celery can be eaten. Celery is a great source of Calcium. In this recipe I used Pascal celery from North America, which has a ‘U’ shaped stem.

Ingredients
Celery, 3 stalks, cut into slices
Tomato, 3 pcs, cut into four
Carrot, 2 pcs
Pepper, a dash
Soya sauce, 3 table spoons
Onions, 2 pcs, cut into four
Thyme, 3 sprigs
Hard tofu, 2pcs, cut into four
Salt, to taste
Vegetarian Oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon
Olive oil, 1 teaspoon

Pour 4 bowls of water in to pot and bring to a boil. Add carrot and onions. Boil for 15 minutes. Put in the rest of the ingredient and boil for another 15 minutes. Add salt to taste. Serve with steamed rice.

Clear Vegetarian Chinese Cabbage Soup Recipe

Clear soup is one of the essential dishes whenever my family ate steamed rice. Chinese style soup is normally clear and watery.
The nice sweet cabbage soup compliment many other dishes and it also helps smoothen the rice grains so that they are easier to be swallowed.

Ingredients
Water, 4 bowls
Carrot, 1 pc, cut into cubes
Shallots, 3 pcs, cut into slices and fried until crispy
Cabbage, 1 small, tear out the leaves and cut into 3”x3”x3” size
Corn, 1pc, to make sweet soup stock

Boil water in pot and add in the corn. Boil for half and hour. Add carrot and cabbage. Boil for another 20 minutes. Add in dash pepper and the fried shallots. Add salt to taste.

Authentic Nyonya Onde-Onde Recipe

Everyone in my family, being a Penang Baba and Nyonya descendents loves to eat onde onde.
Onde –onde is one of the local Malaysian foods that the Baba and Nyonya descendents adopted. These gluey and chewy balls coated with grated coconut make a very nice dessert. There is another shortcut method of making onde onde, which all the flour are mixed together but the kuih will be springy!

Ingredients
Skin
Glutinous Rice Flour, 350 gms
Corn Flour or Tapioca Flour, 100 gms
Sugar, 30gms
Salt, ½ teaspoon
Pandan (screwpine) Juice Concentrate, ½ cup
Oil, 1 teaspoon
Water, enough for the dough, to be added slowly

Coating
Coconut, grated, 1 coconut, add a litte salt

Fillings
Gula Melaka (or palm sugar), 150gms
Brown Sugar, 50 gms
Mix both fillings together.

Mix tapioca flour, oil, sugar and salt in 250ml of water. Bring to a boil to make a gluey mixture. Stir this often so that clumps will not form. Pour this over the glutinous rice flour and stir the mixture quickly. Add pandan juice. Make sure the dough is well mix. If it is to sticky to work on; add some more glutinous rice flour. Make the dough into ball around 3cm in diameter and then put in the fillings. Roll the ball until it is round and smooth. Put the onde onde ball in boiling water for around 1 minute. When the ball floats up, remove it and coat with the grated coconut. The onde onde is ready.

Vegetarian Avocado with Sweetened Condensed Milk Dessert

The Avocado (Scientific name, Persea Americana) is a native of South and Central America. It was also originally found in the Carribean. Sometimes avocado is also known as Aligator or butter pear. Some of avocado extract can be used as antibacterial chemical.
Apart from being a little creamy, the avocado is rather tasteless. I made this easy and simple avocado with sweetened condensed milk dessert. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
Avocado, 1 pc
Sweetened Condensed milk. 2 table spoons
A little brown sugar

Cut avocado into halves and remove the hard seed. Use a spoon to scrape the flesh out. Put the thin avocado strips into a mixing bowl, add the sweetened condensed milk and brown sugar. Mix well and serve chilled.

Vegetarian Nyonya Pulut Inti (Glutinous rice with Grated Coconut in Palm Sugar)

Ever since my daughter watched The Little Nyonya serial drama in Astro, she has been bugging me to make Nyonya delicacies for her to eat. She is even more excited when I told her that she is a fifth generation Straits Born and her Great Grandmother is a Nyonya.
Well, here is one of the popular evergreen Nyonya kuih (dessert) recipe that was adopted by the Straits Born Chinese in Malaysia from the original Malay Pulut Inti kuih.

Ingredients
Glutinous Rice, 200 gms, soaked for 5 hours to soften
Pandan leaves, 3 pcs
Coconut Milk (Santan), from ½ coconut
Grated coconut, from ½ coconut
Palm Sugar (Gula Melaka), 2”x2”x2”, melted with a little hot water
Sugar, ½ cup
Banana leaves, cut into 6”x6”x6” to be used as wrapper (I could not find banana leaves in my neighborhood, so I just used clear plastic)
A little salt

Add salt and pandan leaves to glutinous rice and steam for 15 minutes or until the rice are cooked. Add coconut milk to the rice and steam for another 10 minutes. To make the Inti (toppings), mix the grated coconut with palm sugar and sugar. Stir until they are well mixed. Put around one small hand grip of glutinous rice on the banana leaves and then put a spoonful of Inti (toppings) on it. Wrap the banana leave into a pyramid shape and fold both ends of the leaves below it to hold the wrapping together.

Vegetarian Dragon Fruit Agar-Agar (Gelatinous Seaweed Jelly)

Agar-agar is a product of gelatinous seaweed and it is available in dried form. For health reason, instead of using artificial colouring, I used the juice from a red dragon fruit (pitaya). The final colour of my agar-agar jelly is deep pink. Actually it looks quite nice and tasty!

Ingredients
Dried Agar-agar strips, 1 packet, 1.5 oz
Water, 1400ml
Sugar to taste
Dragon fruit juice, sieved, ½ cup

Bring water to a boil. Add agar-agar strips and keep on stirring the mixture until all agar-agar strips are dissolved. Add sugar and dragon fruit juice. When the sugar dissolves, pour the mixture into a mould. Let it cool down to room temperature and then put it in the fridge. Serve this wonderful dessert chilled!

Chinese Vegetarian Mock Pork Trotter Recipe

Chinese Vegetarian Mock Pork Trotters

During my childhood days, I always look forward to eat vegetarian pork trotters whenever I follow my late grandma in observing 9 days of strict vegetarian diet during the Nine Emperor God Festival. I can still remember vividly the taste of the ready made vegan pork trotters that my grandma used to buy in Butterworth. It consist of bean curd sheets, like the one that they use for lobak (five spice meat rolls), with spice added and rolled tightly. I used taukan (wet bean curd blocks) as the internal part of the vegan pork trotters.
Here is the recipe

Ingredients
Taukan, 1 packet
Bean curd sheet, 1’x’x1’
Five spice powder, 1 teaspoon
Dark soya sauce, ½ teaspoon
Light soya sauce, 1 table spoon
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Cotton string to tie the vegan pork trotter


Taukan in spices


Vegan pork trotters all wrapped up and ready
for deep frying

Marinade the taukan with five spice powder, dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, salt and pepper. Use the bean curd sheet to wrap the taukan and shape it like an actual pork trotter. Then tie it up with the string and let it to rest in the fridge. Deep fry the vegan taukan in hot oil. Remove string and cut into slices. Serve with steamed rice or fried bihun (vermicelli).

Vegetarian Steamed Stuffed Tofu Pok Balls

I like to cook tofu pok by turning it inside out and then stuff fillings in it. Steamed tofu is indeed a healthy meal. The ones that you normally eat at restaurants are fried and it actually soaked up a large quantity of oil. But then of course it is tastier if fried.

Ingredients
Tofu Pok, 8 pcs, turned it inside out. See my post in Peteformtion blog on how to turn the tofu pok inside out via this link, http://peteformation.blogspot.com/search/label/Tofu%20Pok

Fillings
French beans, 5 pcs, cut into small strips
Turnips, 1/2 , but onto small pieces
Sesame oil, 1 table spoon
Corn flour; add with water until the filling mixture thickens
Salt to taste
Soya sauce, 1 table spoon

Fill up the tofu pok with the fillings. Steam the tofu pok balls in high heat for 20 minutes. Your stuffed tofu pok balls are ready!

Simple Chinese Stir Fried Choy Sum Vegetable- Vegetarian

The secret to cooking this simple Chinese dish is the ‘fire control’, ie how you control the heat of your wok and how fast you can fry it under the high heat. You will have to get all the ingredients ready before you start cooking because you will need to put in one after another ingredients real fast.

Ingredients
Choy Sum Vegetable, 1 bunch, cut into 1 ½ “ size
Garlic, 5 pcs, chopped finely
Light soya sauce, 1 table spoon
Salt to taste
Vegetable oil, 1 table spoon
Vegetarian Prawns, 3 pcs (optional, I did not use in this dish)

Heat up wok and put in the vegetable oil. Turn up the heat and then put in the garlic. Quickly add the vegetable before the garlic burn and turned into charcoal. Add salt to taste and soya sauce. Put in a little water and take the dish out from the wok. Serve with steamed rice.

Vegetarian Taukan (Wet Bean Curd Blocks) With Rosemary Sauce

I love cooking with Taukan (wet bean curd block). It is great replacement for meat and the texture is similar to lean meat. I tried to use western herbs in this recipe. The result turns out ok.

Ingredients
Taukan, 6 pcs (you can also use dried bean curd but you must first soak it in water)
Rosemary, 1 table spoon
Lemon juice, from half lemon
Tomato sauce, 2 table spoon
Sugar to taste
Salt to taste
Garlic, 3 pcs, chopped finely
Corn flour, 1 table spoon

Heat up two table spoon of vegetable oil in wok and stir fry the garlic until golden brown. Add some water, lemon juice, tomato sauce, sugar and salt to taste. Put in the tau kan and stir fry it until it is cook. Add a little water if it is too dry. Add some corn flour mixed in water to thicken the gravy. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Spicy Thin Crust Vegetarian Tom yam Pizza Recipe

I tried out this recipe out of curiosity. The pizza turned out quite nice and have a very unique taste of its’ own. Just like east meet west, the taste of cheese and Thai tom yam smell is rather special and one of its’ kind.
Check out this recipe!

Pizza Dough Ingredients
250 gms of flour½ teaspoon of dried yeast mixed with warm water and 1 teaspoon of sugarSalt to taste

Toppings
Fresh Chili, 2 pcs, cut and removes seeds (You can use bird eye chili if you want this pizza to be real spicy!)
Onions, 1 large pc, cut into rings
Cheese, 3 table spoons
Kaffir Lime leaves, 5 pcs, cut into small strips
Lime juice from 1 large lime
Salt taste
Sugar to taste

To get thin crust pizza, make the dough as thin as possible. Then arrange all the toppings ingredients on the dough, with the cheese lining on the top layer. Bake in preheated oven at 180 Deg C for 15 minutes.

Vegetarian Angel Hair Spaghetti Recipe

My son loves spaghetti very much. Instead of using the usual minced meat as a base for the spaghetti sauce, I tried using dried bean curd strips and corn for some natural sweetness. The recipe turns out ok, and my son ate his entire portion of vegetarian spaghetti.

IngredientsAngel Hair Spaghetti, 250 gms, blanched in boiling water until soft

SauceTomato Puree, 1 can
Onions, 3 pcs, chopped finely
Garlic, 5 pcs, chopped finely
Bean curd strips, 5 pcs, soak in water until soft, cut into small strips
Frozen corn, green beans and carrot, 1 bowl
Salt to taste
Sugar 1 tablespoon
Oregano, 1/2 teaspoon (dried)
Vegetarian oyster sauce (optional), 1 tablespoon
Mozzarella cheese, for garnishing

Heat up 2 table spoons of vegetable or olive oil in wok, then sautéed the onions, garlic and bean curd strips until fragrant. Add in the tomato puree, corn, green beans and carrot. Bring to a boil and then add sugar, vegetarian oyster sauce and salt to taste.
Put the sauce on the angel hair spaghetti and garnish with mozzarella cheese.

Vegetarian Tomato Sauce Fried Bihun (Rice Vermicelli)

I like to cook this dish for supper and it takes only a short time to prepare. I used tomato sauce for this dish instead of tomato puree because tomato sauce is not that sour and taste better with bihun. Here is my recipe for Vegetarian Tomato Sauce Bihun.

Ingredients
Rice Vermicelli, ¼ packet, soaked in water to soften
Shallots, 3 pcs, cut thinly and fry until golden brown
Tomato sauce, 6 table spoons
Chili sauce, 2 table spoons (optional)
Light Soya Sauce, 1 table spoons
Cabbage, 3 leaves, cut into find strips
Bean curd strips, 2 pcs, soak in water until soft and cut into small strips
Eggs, 1 pc (optional)
Salt to taste

Put 2 table spoons of vegetable oil in a hot non-stick wok. Stir fry egg and bean curd strips. Put in the cabbage. Add in the soya sauce. Put the bihun in the wok and fry until it is cooked. Add tomato sauce, chilli sauce and salt to taste. Add a litte water and bring to a boil. The tomato bihun is ready. Garnish with fried shallots before serving.

Vegetarian Sambal Goreng (Fried Chilli) Taukan (Wet bean curd blocks) with Celery

I love cooking with taukan (wet bean curd blocks). It goes down well with many types of ingredients and it is a great replacement for meat. I decided to add in some leeks to give the dish some crunchy green vegetable.

Ingredients
Tau kan, 1 block, cut into small strips
Onions, 1 pc, chopped finely
Celery, 2 stalks, cut into bite sizes
Tamarind juice, from 1 table spoon of tamarind paste
Sugar to taste
Salt to taste
Chilli paste (or powder), 3 table spoons

Sauteed onions and chilli paste in hot oil until fragrant. Add tamarind juice, salt and sugar to taste. Add a little water and bring to a boil. Add taukan and celery. Serve with steamed rice or nasi lemak (coconut milk rice)

Related post using Tau Kan
1) http://veganformation.blogspot.com/2008/11/simple-recipe-vegetarian-tomato-sauce.html
2) http://veganformation.blogspot.com/2008/09/simple-recipe-vegan-sambal-petai-tau.html

Vegetarian Sambal (Fried Chilli) For Nasi Lemak (Coconut milk Steamed Rice)

I made this vegetarian sambal for my vegetarian friends recently. It uses the same ingredients as normal nasi lemak sambal except that I did not use belachan (shrimp paste) in it. Nasi lemak is a local Malaysian all time favourite food. It is actually steamed rice with coconut milk and screw pine leaves.
Here is my vegetarian version of sambal for nasi lemak.

Ingredients
Shallots, 5 pcs
Chilli paste, 5 table spoon
Tamarind juice to taste
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
Vegetable oil, 3 table spoon

Heat up wok and add in the vegetable oil. Stir fry the shallots until fragrant. Add tamarind juice, salt and sugar to taste. Serve with coconut milk rice.

Stir Fry Crisp-head (Green ice) Lettuce with Nutmeg Powder and Butter

Leafy lettuces are a great source of folate, vitamin A and vitamin C.
Got some left over lettuce from a party in my house and I decided to stir fried it using the recipe that I learned from Chef Michael Smith of Chef at Home show in Asian Food Channel. He used spinach for this recipe but I decided to go ahead with the leftover Crisp-Head Lettuce.

Ingredients
Lettuce, 10 leaves
Butter, 1 table spoon
Pepper, to taste
Salt to taste
Nutmeg powder, ½ teaspoon

Heat up wok and put in the butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put in the nutmeg powder and lettuce. Switch off the heat and stir the lettuce for a short while in the wok. I sprinkled some crispy fried garlic on the lettuce before serving!

Stir Fried Bell Pepper with Preserved Bean Paste, Chinese Style (Vegetarian)

Bell peppers or capsicums which are available in many colors are normally used to brighten up a dish. They are available in red, orange, green and yellow. The name ‘pepper’ was mistakenly given by Christopher Columbus when he brought it back to Europe from one of his voyage. He must have thought it to be the fruit of the highly prized during his era, the peppercorns. In order to taste the natural sweetness of bell pepper, I just stir fry it with preserved soya beans. This simple dish is very tasty and goes down well with steamed rice.

Ingredients
Bell Peppers, 2 pcs, cut into small pieces
Preserved Bean Paste (Tauchu), 1 table spoon
Garlic, 5 pcs, chopped finely
Vegetable oil, 1 table spoon

Heat up wok; put the vegetable oil and sautéed the garlic until fragrant. Put in the preserved bean paste. Stir fry for a while. Add in the bell peppers and a little water.

Vegetarian Tomato Soup Recipe

I love to cook tomato soup for supper, especially during rainy days. Nothing beats a good hot soup during the downpour and when the weather is cold. I guess, tomato soup is everyone’s favourite and my kids love it very much.
This is my version of tomato soup.

Ingredients
Potato, 2 pcs, boiled and smashed into puree
Tomato Puree, 1 small tin
Tomato, 2pcs, blended finely
Onions, 2 pcs, chopped finely
Butter, 1x1x1 square inch
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
Oregano, ½ teaspoon
5 cups of water

Add some oil in pot and sautéed onions until fragrant. Add water and bring to a boil. Put in the potato, tomato puree, onions, butter, salt and sugar to taste. Add the oregano. Bring to a boil. You can blend the soup in the blender if you want too if you don’t like chunks of ingredients floating in your soup. Bon Appetite!

Vegetarian Sweet and Sour Tofu Recipe

Sweet and sour dishes are quite popular in many Chinese restaurants.
Instead of using meat to cook this meal, I tried it using deep fried tofu. Well, it actually turns out to be quite delicious. I have also added more vegetable to the dish.
Due to the dish sweet and sours taste, kids would love it.

Ingredients
Tofu, cut into 1x1x1 inch squares, 20 pcs
Cucumber, cut into round slices or any shape you like
Pineapple, 1 slice cut into small pieces
Tomato, 1pc, cut into 4
Tomato Sauce, 5 table spoons
Plum sauce, 1 table spoon
Sugar to taste
Salt to taste
Onions, 1 pc, cut into four

Deep fry tofu in hot vegetable oil until it turns golden brown. Put the tofu aside. Add 2 table spoons of vegetable oil in hot wok and sautéed the onions until fragrant. Add the tomato sauce, plum sauce, sugar, a little water and salt to taste. Put the pineapple, cucumber, tomato and fried tofu into the sauce. Serve the dish with steamed rice.

Vegetarian Tofu with Thousand Island Salad Dressing Recipe

I like to make tofu salad, especially the ones that have been deep fried. The crunchiness of the fried tofu skin and the soft part inside with the taste of Thousand Island salad dressing is simply delicious.
I used spring onions to garnish this dish and also to add some greens to it. The spring onions also added some extra flavour to this dish.

Ingredients
Tofu, cut into 1/2x2x1 inch size
Thousand Island Salad Dressing
Spring onions, 3 stalks
Vegetable oil for deep frying

Deep fry the tofu in vegetable oil and put them aside. Pour the Thousand Island Salad dressing on to the tofu and garnish with spring onions. Great party food!

Vegetarian Stir Fry Tofu with Leeks Recipe

Tofu and leeks make very good combination. This is my wife’s favourite food. The tofu absorbs the natural sweetness of the leeks. I manage to get my kids to eat some green vegetable this way. The simply love the tofu fried with leeks.

Ingredients,
Tofu, 3x3x3 inches block, cut into 1/2x1/2x1/2 inch size
Leeks, 5 stalks, cut into large pieces as in the picture
Garlic, 5pcs, chopped finely
Vegetable oil, 2 table spoon
Salt to taste

Deep fry the tofu until golden brown and put aside.
Stir fry the garlic in hot oil until golden brown. Add in the leeks and salt to taste. Stir fry for a short while and add a little water. Add salt to taste. Put the fried leek over the tofu. Serve with steamed rice.

Vegetarian Sui Kow (Fried Wanton) Recipe

Sui Kow is a great finger food for parties. It is rather easy to prepare and the taste normally suits most people taste buds! Well, I tried to make vegetarian version of sui kow (fried wontan) over the weekend and the taste turned out to be as good as the ones that use meat or prawns.

Ingredients
Water Chestnuts, 5 pcs, remove skin and chopped finely
Onions, 1 pc, chopped finely
Corn Flour, 5 teaspoons
Sesame oil, 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste

Wantan skins for wrapping, 50 pcs
Mix the water chestnuts, onions, corn flour, sesame oil and salt in a bowl. Take a wanton skin and add in about ½ teaspoon of the mixed ingredients and then fold the skins into a triangular shape. Deep fry the wanton in hot oil until golden brown. Served while it is hot and crispy! .

Chinese Stir Fry Scrambled Eggs with French Beans

This is a very easy dish to prepare and kids are sure to love it. A good way to get kids to eat French beans. The taste of fried eggs with a little garlic chilli sauce is nice. My kids love to eat the eggs with tomato sauce!

Ingredients
Eggs, 3 pcs, beaten slightly
Onions, 1 pc, chopped finely
French beans, 7 pcs, cut into small strips
Light Soya Sauce, 2 table spoons
Cilantro for garnishing

Heat up 2 table spoons of vegetable oil in wok. Stir fry the onions until fragrant. Add in the French beans. Fry until the beans are cooked. Add the eggs and then the soya sauce. Remove the cooked dish from the wok and put in a bowl. Turn it over and put it onto a plate, so that the dish will take the shape of the bowl. Garnish with cilantro and serve with white rice.

Vegetarian Fried Spaghetti with Soya Sauce

I ran out of Chinese wet egg noodles, so I used spaghetti instead to cook fried mee for my kids’ supper meal. The fried spaghetti turns out to be the same taste as the original fried yellow noodles but the spaghetti has a slightly tougher texture.

Ingredients
Spaghetti, 250gms, blanched in boiling water until soft
Light Soya Sauce, 3 table spoons
Dark Soya Sauce, 1 teaspoon
Pepper, ½ teaspoon
Egg (optional), 1pc
Bean curd strips, 2pcs, cut into small strips (optional)
Cabbage, 8 leaves, cut into strips (or you can use bean sprout)
Garlic, 5 pcs, finely chopped

Heat up wok; add 2 table spoons of vegetable oil and sautéed garlic until golden brown. Fry the cabbage until it turns soft. Add in bean curd strips and eggs. Fry for a short while. Put the spaghetti in to the wok and fry for around 3 minutes. Add light soya sauce, dark soya sauce and pepper. Taste good if eaten with pickled green chillies!

Vegetarian Jiu Hu Char – Fried Turnips, Penang Nyonya Style

Jiu Hu Char, (Fried Turnips) is an all time favourite among the Babas and Nyonyas in Penang and it is a must have dish during Chinese festivals. The secret to a good Jiu Hu Char; the dish needs to be simmered for a while to bring out the sweetness of the turnips.
Normal non vegetarian version uses dried cuttle fish slices and sometime also lard. For vegan version, you can replace the cuttle fish with dried bean curd strips.

Ingredients
Turnip, 1 pc, cut into small strips
Carrot, 1 pc, cut into small strips
Bean Curd Strips, cut into small pieces
Garlic, 5 pcs, chopped finely
Vegetarian oyster sauce (optional), 1 table spoon
Light Soya Sauce, 2 table spoon
Salt to taste

Heat up wok and add in 2 table spoons of vegetable oil. Sautéed garlic until fragrant and then add in the bean curd strips. Put in the turnip and carrot. Stir fry until fragrant. Add soya sauce and vegetarian oyster sauce. Add a little water and let the dish simmer for a while or until the turnips turn soft. Add salt to taste. You can wrap the fried turnips with leafy vegetable and eat it with white rice. Alternatively, you can also use the fried turnips to make spring rolls!

Vegetarian Puri – Indian Pancake

Puri is healthy food and I love the taste of it. You can eat puri with sugar (my daughter’s favourite) or dip it in potato masala curry. I normally have puri for my breakfast whenever I visit any Indian Restaurant. Don’t let the looks of puri fool you. It is actually hollow in the inside. Therefore one puri is not enough to fill my stomach. I usually have two pieces at one go!

I use premix Atta Flour to make puri.

Mix 2 cups of Atta Flour with one cup of water. Need the dough and divide into equal round ball around 1” in diameter. Use a roller pin to make it into round flat shape. Deep fry the puri in hot oil until golden brown. Try not to poke a hole in the puri while frying it or else the puri will not puff up!

Happy cooking!

Red Vegetarian Red Tortoise Bun – Ang Mi Ku

Ang Mi Ku or Red Vegetarian Red Tortoise Bun is very popular in the Northern States of Malaysia especially in Penang and Butterworth. It is one of the must have offering during Chinese religious festival and you will see many of them are lined up at the prayers altar. The most common ones are red but you will sometimes see other different colours Mi Ku too. Some comes with head and legs just like a tortoise which is also a symbol of longivity. Mi Ku taste nice if eaten just the way it is or for extra kick you can dip it in curry just like roti canai (Malaysian Pancake). Sometime I will fry them in flour batter. Yummy and delicious!

Here is the recipe for Mi Ku

Mix 1 teaspoon of dry yeast and 2 table spoons of sugar in warm water (leave it for 15 minutes)
Pour the mixture into 500gms of wheat flour and knead the dough until they are well mix.
Take some dough and make it into tortoise shell shape and colour the outer layer with red food dye (Optional). Cut some grease paper and put the bun on it so that it will not stick to the steaming pan.
Cover up the tortoise bun with towel and put aside for the yeast to do their work for around 3 hours.
Steam the buns using high heat for 20 minutes.

Penang Nyonya Style Vegetarian Pickle – Accar

This is one on my mum’s favourite recipe and it is a must have dish during festival season. She is at her eighties and can still dish out good Accar for the family. The way she manages the balance of sweetness, sourness and saltiness of the dish to perfection amazes me. I guess she must have got it right through years of experience. Mum’s cooking is the best!

Ingredients For Penang Nyonya Style Vegetarian Pickle - Accar

Gravy
Shallots, 5 pcs, blended
Chilli, 1 table spoon
Turmeric, 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
Vinegar to taste

Vegetables
Long Beans, 8 pcs, cut into 1” length
Carrot, 1 pc, cut into 1”x ¼” x ¼ “
Cabbages, 1/4, wash and cut into large pieces
Cucumber, 1 pc, cut into 1”x ¼” x ¼ “

Garnish
Toasted peanuts, ½ cup, pounded into small pieces
Sesame seeds, ¼ cup, toasted until golden brown

Heat some vegetable oil in wok and sauteed ingredients for gravy (dressing) until fragrant. Add a little water if the gravy is too dry. Add all the vegetables and stir fry for a short while. Garnish with peanuts and sesame seeds and serve.
Enjoy your Penang Nyonya Style Vegetarian Pickle with steamed rice!

Vegetarian Ee Mee (Egg Noodles) Recipe

Ingredients
Ee Mee, 1 pc
Garlic, 5 pcs, chopped into small pieces
Egg, 1 pc
Black Soya Sauce, 1 tea spoon
Light soya sauce, 1 table spoon
Vegetarian Oyster Sauce
Pepper, ¼ teaspoon
Corn Flour (or Tapioca flour), 3 table spoons mixed with a little bit of cold water
Sesame oil, ½ teaspoon
Black Vinegar (optional), 2 table spoons (don’t add this if you do not like the sour taste)
Vegetable (Sawi)
Water, 1 big bowl (2 large rice bowls)
Salt to taste

Sautéed chopped garlic with a little vegetable oil until fragrant. Add water. Bring to a boil. Add black soya sauce, light soya sauce, pepper and sesame oil. Drop the ee mee into the soup. Add in corn flour (premix with water). Beat the eggs in a bowl and slowly pour into the soup, keep stirring it. Put in the vegetables. Add salt to taste. Taste good with black vinegar added before serving.

Vegetarian Braised Rice Vermicelli

Ingredients : Rice Vermicelli (Bihun), Black Soya Sauce, Light Soya Sauce, Sesame Oil, Vegetable Oil, water (or vegetarian stock) Salt, Corn Flour (or Tapioca Flour), Eggs(optional), Carrot, Cabbage, Shallots and spring onion(optional).

1) Soak 300gms of Rice Vermicelli in water until it is soft
2) Shallots – 5 pcs, sliced and fried until golden brown. Put aside, for garnishing.
3) Heat up 1 table spoon of vegetable oil in wok
Mix rice vermicelli with ½ teaspoon of dark soya sauce and 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce. Fry the rice vermicelli in the wok using high heat. Put the fried vermicelli aside.
4) Heat up 2 small bowl of water in wok. Add in 1 carrot(sliced), cabbage, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil, ½ teaspoon of dark soya sauce and 1 table spoon of light soya sauce. Mix 2 table spoon of corn flour with a little cold water and pour it in the soup to make it thick. Beat 1 egg and add it slowly into the boiling soup. Pour the soup on the rice vermicelli, garnish with the fried shallots and spring onion(optional). The dish is ready to be served.

Taste nice if eaten with pickled green chilies and bird eye chilies.

Tips: Instead of using plain water for the soup you can also prepare vegetarian stock by boiling corn, soya bean and carrot with 3 bowls of water for 2 hours.

Vegetarian Emperor Shark fin Soup with Pumpkin

Mock vegetarian shark fin soup is available in the frozen section in most hypermarkets these days. I bought a packet of vegetarian frozen shark fin from Tesco during the Chinese New Year Festival and tried to cook it with pumpkin.
Here is the recipe

Soup Base
10 Bowls of water
Soya Beans, ½ bowl
Sweet Corn, 1 pc, remove skins
Turnips (sengkuang), 1 pc, remove skins
Ginger, 1” remove skin
Pumpkin, ½ (steamed and blended into paste)

Boil the ingredients above in the water for 1 hour. Put aside.

Marinade
Shitake Mushroom/Chinese Dried Mushroom, 5 pcs, soak in cold water until they turn soft, cut into small pieces
Dried Bean Strips, 5 pcs, soak in cold water, cut into small strips when they are soft
Egg Whites (optional), from 3 pcs of eggs
Sesame Oil, 2 table spoons
Corn Flour, 2 teaspoons
Light Soya Sauce, 5 table spoons
Chinese Cooking wine (optional), 1 table spoon

Mix all the ingredients together and leave them aside for 30 minutes

Final Step
Vegetarian Shark fin, 1 bowl (1 packet of frozen shark fin) (you can also use enoki mushroom to replace shark fin)
Corn flour, ½ bowl, add cold water.

Bring the soup to a boil and add in all the marinated ingredients. Add in the vegetarian shark fin. Pour in the corn flour and water mixture to thicken the soup. Add salt to taste.
The Vegetarian shark fin soup is best eaten with a dash of black vinegar.

Related Post : http://veganformation.blogspot.com/2010/05/vegetarian-tang-hoon-glass-noodle-and.html