So how about we get this yummy vegan train back up and running again? Let’s talk teriyaki.

This isn’t a real teriyaki sauce, but it’s definitely inspired by one. Teriyaki sauce is one of those things that is really easy to make at home successfully, so if you’ve been going without or buying expensive bottles of the stuff, you can stop! It literally has three ingredients, but you can obviously get fancier with it if you like.

Soy Sauce
Sugar
Mirin or Sake

That’s it, people. Mix, reduce over heat, and eat up.

So this sauce isn’t really a teriyaki sauce because I use rice vinegar instead of mirin. Mirin is a sweet, thick rice wine that’s very commonly used in Japanese cooking, but I happen to be out of it at the moment. I’ve found that rice vinegar makes a good substitute (though not 1:1, necessarily), and can be much easier to find in supermarkets.

I’m not sure if this is a common substitution or not, and perhaps people familiar with Japanese cooking would screw up their face at the idea, but it works. And it’s tasty. So there you have it.

I also added clementine zest and juice to my teriyaki sauce. I love the sweetness and the bright citrus note it adds to the dish. I think any citrus you have would work here, and you can even leave it out altogether if you like (sub water for the juice, add a little more sugar if you like).

It’s winter, and it’s high season for clementines. If you haven’t already picked up one of those enticing wooden crates full of them at the supermarket, I encourage you to do so. They are sweet, seedless, easy to peel, and all-around amazing. You will finish the entire crate, I promise you. And if not, now you have a recipe to use some of them in. And if you still have leftovers, send them to me.

As with most of my recipes, this one is pretty flexible. I used broccolini because I LOVE the stuff, but regular broccoli, asparagus, or your favorite veggie will stand in nicely. I served this with sushi rice, but noodles would be welcome. The seitan is perfect here, but tofu or even tempeh would be lovely as well. Orange juice will cover for clementine. This is a great recipe to adapt to use your favorite ingredients, or at least the ones you have sitting in your fridge at the moment.

If you like, add some sesame oil, or garlic, or ginger to the sauce. I love it how it is, and appreciate its simplicity, but this sauce can be used more as a base sauce you can embellish any which way you like.

Seitan and Broccolini with Clementine Teriyaki
Serves Two

8 Ounces Sliced Seitan (I use West Soy brand)
1 Cup Sushi RIce
6-8 Stalks of Broccolini
2 Clementines
1 Tbs Vegetable Oil
Japanese Seven Spice, optional

Clementine Teriyaki Sauce
1/2 Cup Low Sodium Tamari
1/3 Cup Light Brown Sugar
1/3 Cup Fresh Clementine Juice
1/4 Cup + 1 Tbs Rice Vinegar
1/4 Cup Water
Zest from 1 Clementine

Rinse your sushi rice in cool water and drain. Cook in your rice cooker or on the stove according to package directions, but 1 cup of sushi rice is usually cooked in 1 1/4 cups of water. Allow to cook completely and steam for 5-10 minutes off the heat while you are preparing the rest of the meal. Total cooking time for the rice will be around 20 minutes.

Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a small pan let it go at a lively simmer for 20 minutes, until reduced and slightly thick. The sauce will NOT be super thick when it is hot. It will very slightly cover the back of a spoon and look syrupy, but it’s not going to be thick until it cools, so don’t worry if it seems runny. At the end of the cooking you should see large, excited bubbles (this is the sugar caramelizing), so if you don’t see those, keep cooking. Once the sauce is done, it’ll taste good but pretty strong. Set aside.

While the sauce and the rice are cooking, prepare your seitan and broccolini. Slice the seitan into 1/8″ thick medallions, or something similar. I usually don’t prep broccolini any more than rinsing it and chopping off the ends, but if the stalks are particularly thick, you may wish to half them lengthwise. This shouldn’t be the case with most bunches you find in the store, however.

Heat a large non-stick or cast-iron skillet over medium high heat. Add the seitan and let brown on all sides, about 5 minutes. Remove to a bowl, turn up the heat to high, and add broccolini in one layer. Once you get color on one side, flip, reduce heat to low, and cover the pan to finish the cooking, another 2-3 minutes. The broccolini should be bright green and cooked to a tender-crisp.

Once you are ready to serve, add the seitan to the pan with the broccolini. Drizze enough teriyaki sauce in to coat everything. Beware, if the pan is too hot you risk burning your sauce, so take good care here. Once everything is heated and covered in a nice glaze, serve immediately with the sushi rice. Top with seven spice if you like a little heat.

This sauce is strong so you just need enough to coat — save any extra for a future meal.

I’ve gotten a lot of great comment and emails about the last dish I posted, along with pleas for post more “simple and easy meals.” So here’s one more. I wasn’t going to post this here, because it’s SO easy and SO straightforward, I thought it wasn’t necessarily blog-worthy. But my husband loves this dish and convinced me to go ahead and do a full post.

We make this meal pretty regularly now, because not only is it a no-brainer, but it also contains only ingredients we tend to have on hand at all times. So it’s the perfect “I don’t know what to make for dinner” dinner.

This is just your basic fried rice, but it has a secret ingredient (which is totally optional if you can’t find it and don’t want to grab it online). Japanese Seven Spice! Also called Shichimi Togarashi. Have you ever had this stuff? It’s totally awesome.

With a name like “seven spice” I’m sure you can guess that it’s made up of seven spices. They are: orange peel, black, white, and toasted sesame seeds, cayenne pepper, ginger, poppy seeds, Szechuan pepper, and nori. While the sesame seeds, nori, ginger and chilies are all very delicious, it’s the orange peel that really makes this spice mix for me. It gives it such a bright profile. I love this stuff on everything now, especially rice and noodle dishes.

I also use Wildwood baked tofu in this dish, because (again) this dish is built for speed and ease. You can find it at Whole Foods, or get the seemingly-identical Trader Joe’s version. You can also use your own baked tofu, too. I recommend the Wildwood/TJs stuff; it’s really tasty, nice and firm, and it fries up all pretty-like.

Simple Fried Rice with Japanese Seven Spice
Serves Two

1 Cup Brown Rice, dry
2 Cups Water

1-2 Tbs Vegetable Oil
1 Package Wildwood Baked Tofu, sliced into rectangles (or whatever your favorite tofu is)
1 Stalk Broccoli, chopped into florets
2-3 Carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks
2 Tbs Earth Balance
2 Tbs Tamari or Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Rice Vinegar
Japanese Seven Spice, to taste
2-3 Tbs Toasted Almonds

Start the rice in your rice cooker.

Meanwhile, heat a wok (or skillet, cast-iron preferred) over medium-high heat with a teaspoon or two of oil. Add the tofu and pan-fry until golden on all sides. Remove to a bowl.

Add carrots, with more oil if needed, to the hot wok and cook until tender and browned in places, 5-8 minutes depending on size of chunks. Remove to the same bowl the tofu is in.

Add broccoli to the wok, again adding a little more oil if needed. Cook until bright green and tender crisp, 3-4 minutes. Add the tofu and carrots back to the wok. Cover wok and turn off or to low heat until the rice is done cooking.

When the rice is done, add it to the wok with the vegetables and tofu. Add 2 tbs of Earth Balance margarine, 2 Tbs of tamari (or soy sauce) and 1 Tbs of rice vinegar. Mix well and taste for seasoning.

Plate and top with a generous amount of seven spice and toasted almonds. Serve. I think this would reheat well if you wanted to bring leftovers to work.

——–

Online Sources for Seven Spice:
The Spice House
S&B via Amazon

I have both these brands. The Spice House one is a coarser mix, a little heavier on the nori, and therefore not bright red like the S&B. I was worried that the S&B would be much spicier, but it’s not. They’re definitely different styles of the same mix, but they’re both GREAT. The S&B is what is pictured on this dish.

I really love vegetable tempura, but it often the batter contains eggs, so I have to skip it when I’m eating at a japanese restaurant. But it’s really easy to make eggless tempura at home. You can absolutely pick up a box mix of “tempura powder” at a local asian market and skip the egg the directions call for — even the box says it’s optional. Or, you can use this recipe and make your own batter from scratch.

When you see “serve immediately” at the bottom of this recipe, I’m not kidding. You want to have absolutely everything set and everyone ready to eat when the veggies come out of the oil. As the veggies cool, the once crispy breading will begins to soften, leaving you with soggy tempura. No fun. So make sure you have your place settings, your dipping sauce, and your friends or family ready to go once the veggies hit the oil.

The oil temperature needs to be 180º C or 350º F. If you add a lot of veggies to the oil at once, not only will they stick together (not so bad), but the oil temperature will drop like a rock (very bad). Tempura fried at too low a temperature will never become crispy. It’ll cook, but it’ll be a soft, heavy coating instead of a light, crispy one.

How can you tell if your oil is hot enough? When you drop a batter coated veggie in, little bits of batter will explode off the veggie outward like tempura fireworks. These bits, called tenkasu, are a good indication that your batter is hot enough. The veggies should cook for 40 seconds to 1 minute and feel crispy when you knock them around. You don’t need them to be golden brown, so don’t wait for that.

Most vegetables will cook to the perfect tenderness in that time, including harder ones like carrots if you keep their width to 1/4″ thick. For harder vegetables like squash or sweet potatoes, you may want to briefly blanch them to get them going before frying. But broccoli, mushrooms, and green beans or snap peas don’t require any pre-cooking at all.

I recommend a traditional tentsuyu dipping sauce for these. My recipe is a little different than the ones you find online, but it’s my favorite.

Vegetable Tempura
Serves 2-4

1 Liter Vegetable Oil, for frying
1 Stalk Broccoli, florets only
2 Carrots, sliced on the bias, 1/4″ thick
1 Cup Mushrooms, your favorite
1 Cup Sugar Snap Peas or Green Beans
(Feel free to use any vegetables you like!)

Tempura Batter
1 Cup Cold Water (very cold!)
1 Cup Flour
2 Pinches Salt
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 Tbs Ener-g Egg Replacer Powder mixed with 3 Tbs Water
1/4 Cup Extra Water, if needed, for thinning

Tentsuyu Dipping Sauce
1/4 Cup Vegetable Stock, or Dashi if you have it
1 Tbs Sugar
1/4 Cup Low Sodium Tamari
1 Tbs Rice Vinegar
1/4 Cup Water

Heat all the sauce ingredients in a small pan until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside to cool.

Chop your vegetables, making sure harder vegetables like carrots are no more than 1/4″ thick if frying raw. Blanch vegetables like squash or sweet potatoes, if using.

Heat your oil to 350º F. A little bit of batter dropped into the oil should float to the surface immediately, and little bits of batter should explode off the veggies when frying.

Dip your vegetables in the batter.

Drop an assortment of battered vegetables into the oil, being careful not to overcrowd. You may need to turn up the temperature of the oil, because the vegetables will cool it.

Fry for 40 seconds to 1 minute until very crispy and light. Drain on a paper towel for a few seconds.

Serve immediately with dipping sauce and/or salt and pepper.

I can’t tell you how pleased I am with these. I had NO idea how easy it was to make pot stickers. And not just any pot stickers, but the best pot stickers I’ve ever had. The filling I chose is a spicy ground setian mushroom mix, with fresh ginger and chilies. The possibility for fillings are endless, though, so feel free to play around and stuff these puppies with your idea of a good time. Cabbage and carrots? Go for it. Chinese five spice tofu? Yum. Tempeh with cilantro and mint? Yes please.

See what I mean? If you can dream it up, you can put it in a pot sticker once you know the basics.

I made my own seitan for this, and if that makes you nervous, relax. You can use store-bought seitan, but making your own baked seitan is really, really easy. It takes a little bit of forethought (it bakes for about an hour and a half), but if you’ve got the time it’s super easy to prepare. The recipe I used was inspired by the Seitan O’ Greatness, but mine is more mildly seasoned so I can flavor it up for the pot sticker filling.

You’ll also need to find the right wrappers. My favorite are Japanese Gyoza wrappers. They’re easy to work with and easy to find. They’re sometimes sold in standard grocery stores, but you’re pretty much guaranteed to find them at any well-stocked asian grocer. The ones sold in my neck of the woods are egg free, but it’d be wise to read the label to verify before you pick them up.

Pot stickers need not stick to your pot. This is the perfect dish for your non-stick skillet. In a regular omlet-sized pan (10-12 inches) you can fit 8-10 pot stickers. They won’t even pretend to stick. If you don’t have a non-stick pan, I recommend a well-seasoned cast-iron pan. Either way, choose something with a lid.

Easy Baked Seitan
Makes approximately 4 Cups

1 1/2 Cup Vital Wheat Gluten
1 tsp Salt
2 Tbs Nutritional Yeast
1 Tsp Smoked Paprika
1 Cup Water
2 Tbs Olive Oil
1 tsp Mustard
1 Tbs Tamari or Soy Sauce

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.

Mix the dry ingredients together until well combined. Mix the wet ingredients together. Add wet to dry and knead the dough for a few minutes. Let it rest for 3-5 minutes, then form the dough into a log. Roll the log up in aluminum foil, pinching in the ends. Bake for 80-90 minutes. Remove and let cool.

Mushroom Seitan Filling
Makes enough for approx. 24 Pot Stickers

2 Cups of Chopped Seitan (roughly half the log)
10-15 Cremini mushrooms, roughly chopped (about 2 cups)
1 Tbs Oil
1-2 Cloves Garlic, minced
1-3 tsp Fresh Ginger, minced
2 Hot Green Chilies, deseeded and minced
1 Tbs Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Rice Vinegar
2 Tbs Water mixed with 1 Tbs cornstarch

Roughly chop the seitan and add it to your food processor. Process until it’s ground uniformly, it should look like breadcrumbs. Remove the ground seitan to a large bowl. Process the mushrooms in the same way. Heat the oil in a skillet, adding the garlic, ginger and chilies. Fry for a few minutes until the garlic begins to turn golden (don’t burn it), then add the mushrooms. Saute until softened, then add the ground seitan. Stir in the soy sauce and vinegar and taste. Season if necessary. Turn off the heat, and once the pan has cooled a bit, add in the water/cornstarch mixture and stir well. This will help the filling stick together. Let the filling cool a bit before you get going.

Now we’re ready to make some pot stickers!

Place one of your wrappers in front of you. Place 1 packed tablespoon of filling in the center. Wet the edges of the wrapper. I keep a little bowl of water next to me for this. Keep your stack of wrappers covered with plastic wrap while you’re working so they don’t try out.

Gently fold it in half.

Begin to press and seal the edges, forcing out as much of the air as you can.

If desired, crimp the edges. This makes sure they’re sealed tight, and it looks pretty, too.

Once you get the hang of it, start filling more than one at the time. Here I’m making two at a time, but I actually find it easiest to make four at a time.

Arrange them in your non-stick pan that has been lightly coated with oil. Place them over medium high heat and cook until the bottoms are browned and crispy. If you want a really golden bottom, add a drizzle of oil to the pan (but this is optional). You can lift them up to check on them as they’re cooking, as the photo above shows.

Once they’re as brown as you’d like, add 3/4 cup of hot water to the pan and cover immediately with a lid. Turn the heat up to high.

Set the timer for 7 minutes. Then give a peak. You want most or all of the water to be evaporated. If there’s still some water in the pan after 7 minutes, remove the lid cook until the pan is dried out and the bottoms have re-crisped. If desired, you can mist them with water or oil if they seem to be drying out.

Once they’re crispy again, slide them out of the pan:

Ideally, you want the non-brown sides to look like they’ve been shrink-wrapped. If you didn’t get all the air out while you were filling them, an air pocket might have developed. While this isn’t a tragedy, the ones that don’t have this pocket will be easier to eat (the filling won’t fall out as easy). Here’s a comparison of one with an air pocket, and one “perfect” one:

Not that big of a difference, but pot sticker experts would prefer the one on the right.

Want to see what the inside looks like?

They’re really delicious. The wrapper is soft and chewy, the bottom crispy-crunchy, the filling hot and savory… the mushrooms add a nice depth but don’t overwhelm. They’re just downright tasty.

I like to serve them with a dipping sauce–you can do the standard gyoza sauce, which is soy sauce mixed with rice vinegar, and sometimes a bit of sugar. I also like tonkatsu sauce, which is a thick Japanese steak sauce made from fruits and veggies. It’s sort of sweet, so I think it balances well with the salty filling.

I also served these with some sauteed Chinese broccoli, but any green would work. I tossed them around in a hot wok with some oil until wilted, then added a splash of soy sauce, a pinch of sugar, and some sesame seeds on top. It’s the perfect accompaniment.

Really, they’re better than take-out.

I know a lot of you have probably already planned your Thanksgiving menu, but I thought I’d put up this easy side dish just in case. It’s just a simple candied sweet potato dish, but the addition of lime really makes it special for me. You can throw fresh parsley on the top, or if you’re feeling a bit less traditional, fresh coriander (cilantro).

I think sometimes people forget that the cut of the vegetable you choose is really important for the overall texture and flavor of a dish. This dish will almost definitely work without slicing the sweet potatoes so thinly, but the delicate candied rounds give it an elegant appearance and uniform texture. Every bite becomes infused with the sweet lime syrup. I used a Japanese mandoline that allowed me to quickly slice the sweet potatoes evenly and efficiently. If I was working with only a knife, I wouldn’t attempt to get slices this thin and accurate. Thicker coins or chunks will work just as well, but if you have a mandoline, this is the perfect dish to use it for. The slicing disc of your food processor will also work.

Candied Lime Sweet Potatoes
Serves Four

2 Sweet Potatoes, peeled
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 tsp Molasses
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Tbs Fresh Lime Juice (no bottled stuff!)
Zest from 1 Small Lime
1/2 tsp Minced Ginger or 1/4 tsp Ginger Powder, optional
Black Pepper, to taste
Earth Balance, for dotting
Parsley or Cilantro, for garnish

Preheat oven to 400º F.

Slice sweet potatoes thinly, about 1/8″, with a mandoline or a food processor. Mix remaining ingredients (except pepper, earth balance and garnish) together to form a paste. Coat the sliced sweet potatoes well with the lime sugar mixture.

Arrange the coated slices in overlapping rows in one layer in an oiled casserole dish. Dot with earth balance, sprinkle with pepper, and wrap tightly with two layers of aluminum foil.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake uncovered for an additional 10 minutes. It’s okay if it looks a little watery when you remove the foil, it’ll reduce and form a nice glaze during the rest of the baking. Finish under the broiler to brown the top. Sprinkle with parsley/cilantro and serve immediately.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

This is my first experience with Kabocha squash, a japanese winter pumpkin. I saw them at the co-op and couldn’t resist their cute size – I immediately wanted to make little soup bowls out of their rinds. Besides being cute, they’re also tasty and good for you, rich in beta carotene, with a decent amount of vitamin C and iron to boot.

When I cut them open I was so surprised by their color. The flesh near the rind was avocado green, giving way to a bright yellow-orange. I roasted them before I scooped out the flesh for the soup, but only one of my squash rind soup bowls survived the roasting process. The second came out of the oven with large cracks in it. Since I’ve never worked with this squash before I’m not sure if I was extremely lucky to have one survive, or unlucky to have one break.

This soup is really simple, complicated only by creating the decorative bowl for it. The rich yellow color makes the soup look for all the world like it was spiked with tumeric. It’s very rich so a small serving alongside some hearty steamed kale was just the thing I needed for a cold February night.

Kabocha Squash Soup
Serves Two

2 Small-Medium Kabocha Squashes, of similar size
1 Cup Soymilk
1/2 Can of Coconut Milk (about 7 oz)
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1 Vegetable Bullion Cube (package should state that 1 cube makes 2 cups of broth)
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Black Pepper to taste
Smoked Paprika
Parsley

If not making bowls from the rinds, halve squashes, scoop out the seeds and coat with olive oil. Sprinke with salt and place in a 400º F oven for 30 minutes, or until flesh is tender enough to spoon from the rinds.

Scoop out flesh into a soup pot, it will look sort of dry. Add remaining ingredients, less paprika and parsey. Whisk to break down lumps while simmering. Transfer to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

The thickness of the soup will depend on how much squash you scraped out of the rinds, so feel free to add liquid (more coconut milk, soymilk, or even water) at this point to reach a consistancy you like. Reheat on the stove if necessary. Serve, garnished with paprika and parsley.