Thai hot and sour soup (Dtom Yum Pak ต้มยำผัก)

Having lived in Thailand for several years, I really enjoy cooking Thai food - I can honestly say that the food was my absolute favorite part of living in Thailand.

Since becoming vegan, I haven't made many Thai dishes aside from the basic vegetable stir fry over rice and some pad thai (which, I really don't think is as good without egg.... but I digress). In Thailand pretty much all food is made with fish sauce - which depending on how far out in the country you are may even have small chunks of the fermented fish left in it. I can't say that I ever grew to love fish sauce, but by the time I left Thailand I hardly noticed the flavor that I found so rancid when I had first arrived. When I first returned to the US, I bought a bottle of fish sauce and occasionally used it when I wanted the food to taste most authentic. But, admittedly, I lost my taste for it the longer I was home and both the fish flavor and the high salt content led me to return to soy sauce.  (My husband, being Nordic, really enjoys fish sauce...but generally I just let him add it to his food when he craves it. Overall, we've both moved away from using it.)

In any case, my point is that I did stray from some of the authenticity of this meal, but overall I thought it tasted great and very near to the "real" flavor that I so love.

Traditionally, this soup is made with chicken or shrimp, but those are not necessary for it to be deee-licious! If you are a fish eater, you can make it with fish or shrimp - just add them after the water is boiling for the first time.

yummy soup served with brown jasmine rice

Ingredients (I admit I was also not local nor seasonal for this meal, but boy was it good!)
1 tsp coconut oil
1/2 small yellow onion, cut in strips
1/2 - 1 jalapeno chilli or 2-4 Thai chilis, crushed then chopped (adjust amount for spice level of your liking)
3 cups organic vegetable broth
3 cups water
3 stems lemon grass, crushed and cut diagonally into inch-long pieces
1 inch piece galangal, peeled and chopped
1 tsp tamarind paste
5 kaffir lime leaves, torn from edge to stem to release falvor
4-5 medium crimini or button mushrooms, chopped into slices
8-10 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 Tbsp agave nectar (traditionally made with nectar)
3 Tbsp soy sauce or shoyu
4 Tbsp fresh lime juice

Directions

1. Heat coconut oil in pot over medium heat until liquid and pot is hot. Add onion and chilli peppers and cook for about 4 minutes. (Be careful when adding the chilli - don't put your head over the pot, as the steam will hurt your eyes and cause a coughing fit)
2. Add vegetable broth and water and bring to a boil.
3. Place lemon grass and galangal into a spice ball and put in the water as it comes to a boil. Add tamarind paste and kaffir lime leaves directly into the water. (You can everything directly in the water, but you'll have to take out the lemon grass and galangal, which can be a pain, when you eat as neither is particularly edible.)
4. If you are adding meat or fish add that and the mushrooms once the water is boiling and maintain boil until it is cooked thoroughly. Otherwise, add mushrooms and continue cooking until they are becoming soft.
5. Add agave, soy sauce, lime juice and tomatoes and bring back to a low boil.
6. Reduce heat to low and simmer an additional 5 minutes.
7. Serve with rice. (I used brown jasmine rice)
8. Eat and enjoy!

Aroy, mai?  (Is it delicious?) อร่อยไม่

(Coconut) Cream of Pumpkin Soup

One of the things I love most about fall and winter is the squash. Mmmmmmm!  I can eat most anything pumpkin flavored and I just don't get tired of it!

Feeling like a hearty pumpkin meal last night, I used a few soup recipes and combined them (and then made them vegan!).

finished soup with some homemade bread

Yummy! It turned out delicious (and very spicy - my husband thanked me through a hanky for clearing out his sinuses! ) ha. If you're sensitive to spice, you likely want to decrease the spice amounts. I thought it was perfect


Ingredients (organic when possible)
2 small cooking pumpkins (or winter squash of your choice)
2 TBSP olive oil
2 TBSP coconut oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 TBSP agave nectar
2-4 cloves of garlic, chopped (more or less depending on preference)
1 TBSP fresh ginger, grated
1 jalapeno, chopped

 2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp coriander
1 cup vegetable broth
1 cup almond milk (or any non-dairy milk of your choice)
1 can coconut milk
1 tsp red chilli flakes (optional)


Directions

1.  Clean outside of pumpkin of squash, cut in half and remove seeds. Lightly spray or brush olive oil into flesh of pumpkin and oil baking sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes on 375F or until the flesh easily scoops away from the skin of the pumpkin.
2. While pumpkin is baking, heat coconut oil in a stock pot over medium. Once hot, add chopped onion and cook until soft. Add agave to caramelize onion. Stir consistently for about 2 minutes.
3. Add garlic, ginger and jalapeno and cook for additional 1-2 minutes.
4. Add curry and coriander, stir to coat. Cook for 1-2 minutes to bring out flavor. Be careful not to burn.
5. Pour vegetable broth into pot and stir to bring anything stuck to the bottom off.
6. Remove pumpkin from the oven and scoop flesh into pot - stir to break up large chunks.
7. Add almond milk and coconut milk (and chilli flakes, if using). Reduce heat to low. Stir to combine and then let simmer 15-30 minutes.
8. Before serving cream with hand mixer, blender or food processor.
9. Serve with bread to ease spice.

Vegan Mushroom Stroganoff

Stroganoff is one of those dishes that my mom made frequently when I was a kid, so I have some special emotional attachment to it. I heard a piece on NPR the other day talking about our first response to food not being visual, but rather an emotional response that happens even earlier. I totally agree. And while she was "upgrading" Tuna Noodle Casserole (recipe on above link), I decided to go for Stroganoff.  Of course, we always ate it with beef growing up ... and probably canned cream of mushroom soup, though I'm not positive because mom and mushrooms didn't always agree....so, some serious changes needed to be made


Ingredients
2 TBSP coconut oil
1 onion, chopped
2-4 gloves of garlic, chopped
2 cups mixed mushrooms (I used shitake and button - it's what I had)
1/2 cup vegetable stock
4 TBSP dry white wine (spit into two equal parts)
1 cup almond (or any non-dairy) milk
1 TBSP corn starch
2 TBSP flour (I used rice flour for a gluten free recipe)
2 TBSP dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
noodles of your preference (traditionally served with egg noodles)

Directions

1. Heat coconut oil in wok or saucepan. Add onion and cook until translucent and browned. Add 2 TBSP white wine to deglaze.
2. Add garlic and saute for about 2 minutes before adding mushrooms. Brown mushrooms then add vegetable stock and cook uncovered until most of the liquid has cooked away.
3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl add almond milk, corn starch, flour, dijon mustard and remaining 2 TBSP of white wine.  whisk together until ingredients are well combined.
4. Add milk mixture to mushrooms and stir to combine.
5. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 more minutes before serving.
6. Combine mushroom mixture and cooked noodles in large bowl for serving.

I used macaroni, since we didn't have any small flat noodles - it worked really well.

This dish was a HIT! (And thus we ate it down before remembering to take  a photo!)

Vegan Pregnancy

As a midwife, I am very interested in maintaining a vegan diet/lifestyle through pregnancy. I have mixed feeling about it and continue to try and educate myself on the pros and cons.  Here is a brief post , written by guest blogger Heather Lounsbury from Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein's (creaters of "The Business of Being Born") regarding a vegan diet during pregnancy.



My Best Birth: Vegan and Pregnant?