All posts tagged: vegetarian

Korean Spiced Chili | with sweet cornbread

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Spicy chili and the sweetest, cake-like cornbread merged together to make me incredibly happy with this meal. It’s been cold, drizzly, and the sun disappears sometime before I get off work…this is what I needed. This is what you need. This chili’s blend of Korean gochugaru, chipotle peppers in adobo and cumin are a mouth full of spice, love and warmth. Mine is vegan, and, wow, bring on the fake stuff! I loved the vegan meat I got at High Street Market in Itaewon. It had a great consistency and I didn’t miss the beef at all. Top it with your all time favorites: avocado, cilantro, sour cream, Greek yogurt, corn chips, cheese, green onions and all other manner of deliciousness. Keep the cheese out though if you want to keep it vegan. I’d also like to rave about the chips I used. These tortilla chips are also a new favorite! You can find them at IHerb for a bit cheaper than High Street Market; they are made from beans but are won-der-ful! It’s winter. Be …

Jaha Son Mandu | Korean Dumplings

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This was one of the greater Korean food experiences I’ve had in Seoul. I love mandu. I love big ones, baby ones, fluffy ones…I love them all. Then I discovered mandu casserole, Mandu Jeongol, and my life will never be the same. It’s unbelievably scrumptious and I don’t use that word often. The pot is heated at your table and it’s packed with spicy broth, veggies and meat.  To balance out the meat in our casserole, we tried two other vegetarian options, the kimchi  mandu and cucumber and mushroom mandu. We washed my new favorite food down with a Korean wine made from black raspberries, Bokbunjajoo. You can buy it pretty much anywhere, but it’s delicious and I love it. It’s thick, sweetness was a perfect sidekick to the most amazing dumplings. Looking for Jaha Son is not for the faint of heart…it’s tucked far back in Baum-dong. If my Korean friend, Phil hadn’t been there, I would have had a hard time finding it. He was able to tell a taxi driver just where to …

Asian Style Cobb Salad

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This summery salad combines so much of things that I love including feeling healthy while still eating fats and noodles.  Hmmm…noodles. My take on the Cobb has no lettuce, instead the buckwheat noodles take its place as the base. They are perfect for a warm weather salad since they are served cool. The noodles also work amazingly well with the vegetables and flavor-maze dressing. You can add whatever you’d like to this salad. This one is vegetarian and I made it for Meatless Monday. The “bacon” on my Cobb is a vegan mushroom bacon I found on Healthy Happy Life. You can find the recipe here! I highly suggest the recipe, not because it tastes just like bacon, but because it’s just a really tasty mushroom dish. I ate many (many many) before putting them on my salad. Print out the recipe here: Asian Style Cobb Salad

Vegan “Buttermilk” Biscuits

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There is really no easier way to incorporate some vegan baking in your life than making biscuits. I’ve made them with coconut oil, olive oil and vegan butter and I like them all the ways. But, this recipe tastes the most like real buttermilk biscuits  and yay for that. These flaky, sky high biscuits are the perfect little additions to your breakfast, brunch or breakfast-for -dinner (the best meal on the planet). NOTE: Remember to keep your ingredients cold, as with any biscuits, but beware the vegan butter melts much quicker than regular butter. Refrigerate before adding your almond milk if you think it’s melting too fast. Work quickly but do not overwork. Stop mixing as soon as it’s combined. You want those puppies to rise, not bake into flat rounds of sadness. Recipe adapted from: Smitten Kitchen Ingredients: 2 1/4 cups of flour + more for the counter 1 tsp of sugar 1 tbs of baking powder 1 tsp of baking soda 3/4 tsp of salt 9 tbs of vegan butter (I use an Australian brand, Better Than Butter. There’s no palm …

Vegan Saag Paneer | with Grilled Flat Bread

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The first time I tried Saag Paneer I thought, “This cheese tastes very tofu-y.” So when I saw a recipe for it on Connoisseurusveg, I wondered why I hadn’t thought of that before. 🙂 She’s a genius. This came out really good, guys. It’s creamy and well flavored. The pan fried tofu works perfectly as a cheese stand in. Indian food just got a whole lot easier around my kitchen! I paired it with a really easy grilled flatbread recipe because making naan would have required some yogurt, and soy yogurt is impossible to buy here. The flatbread kept me on a vegan track! It would also be amazing with some jasmine rice. Vegan Saag Paneer recipe slightly adapted from Connoisseurusveg! Grilled Flatbread recipe slightly adapted from Food52. VEGAN SAAG PANEER Ingredients: 1 chopped onion 1 TBSP grated fresh ginger 3-4 minced garlic cloves 4-5 cups washed, fresh spinach 2 TBSP olive oil 2 full cups extra firm tofu, drained and cut into cubes 1 TSP turmeric 1 cup vegetable broth juice of 1/2 a lemon 1 TSP ground cumin, 1 TSP garam masala, 2 TSP sugar, ½ TSP salt 3/4 cup coconut …

March Rabbit Salad | A Review

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Finding a salad that is not bitter greens drenched in balsamic dressing in this city is hard pressed, but, not impossible anymore. As Seoul keeps its steady march into globalization, finding healthy Western food, with Western tastes in mind, is getting easier. No longer do I have to settle for pizza and pasta when I need something from back home. I can go to a place like March Rabbit Salad. This spot is just fun. Subtly playing with an Alice in Wonderland theme, this restaurant is airy and bright and cheerful. It’s impossible to miss on the streets of Sinsa, near Garosugil, with all the money they spent on bright yellow paint. I love it, though, as it takes the food seriously, but the interior remains whimsical. The menu ain’t half bad either. It’s crammed full of salads (you can design your own), sandwiches, and juices. Everything is fresh and well seasoned. This place is great for the vegetarians and vegans who roam among us. There are options for all. My one and only gripe is that I’d love …

BBQ Tofu Sliders with Black Bean Salad

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Hey…so…these are really good, and you should probably think about making them. Need a Meatless Monday recipe? Here it is. Need to stretch those dollars with cheap recipes? Tofu is cheaper than meat! Don’t like tofu? No problem, roasting it and letting it bask in the love that is barbecue sauce hides a multitude of sins. These sliders are earth friendly, sweet and tangy. NOTES: Make the salad ahead of time and let it sit for a bit to get the juice flowing.  To create a crispy tofu crust, you will need to roast it at two different temps before adding the BBQ sauce. Bonus: No need to press the tofu in this recipe! Vegan Option: Omit the fried egg and mayonnaise. Ingredients for the sliders 1 package of firm tofu 2 ciabatta sandwich rolls handful of microgreens or sprouts mayonnaise favorite brand of BBQ sauce (about 1/2 cup) olive oil, salt & pepper for roasting 1-2 fried eggs (optional) Ingredients for the salad 1 can black beans, drained 1 can sweet corn, drained 1 halved and …

The Food of Paradise

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The trip I took to Bali over Christmas was a once in a lifetime opportunity for a gal from the Midwest. To fully experience the true essence of Bali I decided to join a traditional cooking class and shove food all in my face. The cooking class at Paon is entertaining, delicious and inspiring. For a measley $24 USD, you spend the morning in the Ubud market learning about fruits, vegetables and spices they use in Balinese cooking, are given an introduction to the family and hosts (Who are amateur comedians, I think), directed to the most beautiful kitchen and work together with a group of strangers who become cooking comrades among knives and hot coconut oil. There was a real sense of community and fun as we cut, chopped, fried, skewered, mashed and rolled real Bali ingredients with real Bali spices.   So let me take you through the culinary dream: We were ushered into one of the most beautiful houses I’ve ever seen. The Balinese homes are several rooms situated among a type of small compound. Their home …

Bad Farmers | A Review

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Oh~ My~2016! Where have I been? What’s become of me? Why haven’t I updated my once randomly prolificly updated blog? Can I just say that the end of 2015 was a real bruja and leave it? It was. 2015 was a screaming, boozy harpy I could not get off my back that drew the energy from me like a succubus. I was never so happy to see a year hit itself with the doorknob on the way out. Then…I went to paradise (whispers~Bali) and all was right in the world again. So I’m back. I am recharged. I am finally looking forward to the future again now that I can see the daylight. Welcome to my life, 2016! To start off in the most cliche of New Year’s ways, I’m introducing a salad place in Seoul so that we all feel guilty and go eat a salad. Because it’s the start of a new year and, so, like half of us are probably riding the diet train until at least February. 😀 However, Bad Farmers doesn’t feel like a …

The Flying Pan White & Autumn in Garosugil

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We Seoulites can count ourselves lucky with all fingers and toes this year with how long we had a “autumn” in Korea. Some years it snaps by with a “see ya next year!” faster than I can get out and enjoy some colorful foliage. So with the beautiful weather all about and an empty stomach, my friend and I headed to Garosugil to walk through fallen ginkgo leaves and eat some brunch.  We weren’t disappointed with anything that day. The Flying Pan is well known brunch and breakfast spot in Itaewon where it is known as The Flying Pan Blue. But, it’s a chain and the one is Garosugil is known as The Flying Pan White. (There’s also a Red in the GT Tower near Gangnam Station and a Gold in Samseung-dong. ) They all have ALL DAY brunch. Here’s what White is all about: The menu has a great many options. If eggs aren’t your thing, they have pancakes, french toast, sandwiches, salads and dinner dishes. There are vegetarian dishes as well. We ordered two meals with …