thai

Thai-Inspired Fruit Salad with Lime and Thai Basil

May 1, 2013 by Erica

Thai-Inspired Fruit Salad with Lime and Thai Basil

Happy May!

I think this fruit salad is the perfect way to start off such a glorious month.

Fruit salad just screams “summer barbecue” to me. It doesn’t make an appearance unless you have warm weather, a grill, and enough friends present to make a dent in a huge bowl of fruit. Yep, it doesn’t get much better the kind of occasion that features fruit salad.

But I’m not a fan of what I’ve come to think of as the typical fruit salad: pineapple, melon, and grapes. Maybe I’ve eaten too many continental breakfasts, but that just does not appeal to me. It always seems to sit out too long, the pineapple is all sour and hard, and does anyone actually like the melon in that salad? If so, the world – or at least hotel breakfast buffets – needs more people like you. And fewer people like me, who pick out all the grapes for themselves.

So instead, I created this Thai-inspired fruit salad featuring my favorite spring and summer flavors. No melon required.

Thai-Inspired Fruit Salad with Lime and Thai Basil

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Thai Coconut Lentils with Kale

February 11, 2013 by Erica

Let’s talk lentils.

Just by talking about them, I think we’re getting the week off to a healthier start than we otherwise would. Don’t you?

It is, of course, the week of Valentine’s Day, so I have a hunch we’re all going to be eating our fair share of chocolate over the next few days. It can’t hurt to eat some green stuff now, before the Hershey’s kisses and Ferrero Rochers set in. (Mmmm Ferrero Rochers.)

Lentils are one of my favorite bases for a quick and healthy meal. They’re filling yet light, chock full of protein, take on pretty much any flavor you want, and taste great with lots of veggies. Lindsay from Pinch of Yum is in love with lentils too, and her lentil creations are some of my favorites. A little while ago I was craving some gingery lentils, and this is the dish I came up with.

This is a great weeknight meal, and to make it even quicker, you can cook your lentils ahead of time. (I usually do this the night before, or in the morning while I’m showering and getting ready.) Everything comes together very quickly once the lentils are cooked, so you can have dinner on the table in 15 minutes if you plan ahead! Now that is a great start to the week.

Thai Coconut Lentils with Kale

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

1 cup dried green or brown lentils

1 Tbsp coconut oil

2 Tbsp tom ka paste (spicy coconut paste, found in Asian markets)

2 small cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp minced or grated ginger

6 green onions, sliced, divided

1 14-oz can lite coconut milk

1 bunch curly kale, rinsed and torn into bite-sized pieces

Instructions:

Cook lentils according to package directions. (I like to bring mine to a boil with 1 1/2 cups water, simmer for 40 minutes, then drain excess water.) This can also be done ahead of time.

Heat coconut oil in a large pan or skillet over medium heat. Once melted, mash the tom ka paste into the coconut oil. Stir in the minced garlic and ginger and half of the sliced green onions. Saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds to a minute. Stir in the coconut milk and heat through. Once hot, add the kale and cooked lentils. Continue sauteing, stirring frequently, until kale leaves are softened and bright green.

Serve immediately, topped with remaining green onions. Enjoy!

Time:

50 minutes (15 minutes if the lentils are already cooked)

Mango Green Curry with Forbidden Rice

December 26, 2012 by Erica

Hi! Happy day after Christmas! The day when the dust clears, and you are left to play with your new toys… and eat some vegetables.

Maybe you are still celebrating with your family, maybe you are back at work, or travelling, or cleaning up the chaos that is your house when everyone descends on it. I am meeting up with some college friends to catch up… crazy how you can go literally YEARS without seeing your oldest friends when you live across the country!

I am also playing with my new toy from Santa – a DSLR camera! The pictures are about to get much better around here, folks. Actually, they will probably get much worse first. Kind of like a construction project entering the demolition phase, sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better. I’m going to do a lot of playing around (enlisting my dad’s help!) and then hopefully emerge with some tasty-looking photos. We’ll see! Does anyone have any tips for food photography ebooks they’ve used? I am considering buying either the one from Pinch of Yum or Spicie Foodie. Thoughts?

In the meantime, this is a recipe I came up with last week back in Salt Lake. My mom had been telling me to try forbidden rice for at least a month, and I’d been intrigued by it in the bulk bins at Whole Foods for a while… but I’ve also been too busy baking cakes.

When I finally resurfaced from my post-veganistic butter binge, I made this curry because all the bright colors of the mangoes and fresh veggies looked so beautiful with the black rice. I had actually never made a green curry before! This one turned out great, though, and I will definitely be adding green curry to my arsenal of “disguised leftover vegetables” dishes.

In that vein, some notes on the recipe: I usually don’t really care for green bell peppers, but actually loved them in here. I suspect the sweetness of the red ones might be too much with the mangoes and sweet potato? The kale was really excellent with the curry flavor, so I wouldn’t suggest skipping that. I used white-people-brand curry sauce a.k.a. Thai kitchen (because they sell it in my grocery store), so if you also have only inauthentic curry sauce lying around, rest assured that this is white people food and it will still taste good with white people curry sauce in it.

Finally, black a.k.a. forbidden rice: Have you tried it yet? You should. It is nuttier, richer, and just more flavorful than any other rice I’ve ever had. The texture (at least of the Whole Foods bulk bin stuff I bought) was very smooth. You could of course use white or brown rice here, but this is a great excuse to buy black rice if you never have before. In terms of cooking time, it seemed closer to white rice than brown rice to me. I started to cook it according to my brown rice instructions, but ended up not letting it steam as long because it was already very thoroughly cooked. I suspect you could cook it the same way you’d cook white rice. In conclusion… Google it. I haven’t yet, and that is usually a mistake.

Enjoy! Eat this while you play with your new toys.

Mango Green Curry with Forbidden Rice

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups dry forbidden rice
3 Tbsp coconut oil
3 Tbsp green curry
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 yellow onion, chopped
1-inch piece ginger, peeled and minced
14-oz can light coconut milk
juice of 1 lime
½ Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp low sodium tamari or soy sauce
2 Thai chili peppers, pierced (optional)
1 small to medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped into ½-inch pieces
2 mangoes, peeled and chopped
2 green bell peppers, chopped
8 oz tofu, cubed (optional)
1 bunch kale, rinsed, stems removed, and torn into bite-sized pieces
toasted cashews for topping
green onions for topping

Instructions:

Cook rice according to package instructions.

Melt coconut oil in a large pan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Once hot, add the green curry paste and mash into the oil with the back of your spoon or spatula. Add the garlic, onion, and ginger and stir to coat. Saute for a minute or two until very fragrant.

Whisk in the coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Stir in the lime juice, brown sugar, and soy sauce. Slurp some of the broth off the spoon. It’s in the recipe – you have to do it! Now add the Thai chilies and sweet potato, cover, and simmer until chunks of sweet potato are tender, about 15 minutes.

Add the mangoes and bell peppers. Cover again and simmer for about 5 minutes. Peppers should be a bit softened but still retain some crunch.

Now toss in the tofu and kale. Cook until kale is just wilted and still bright green, 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Serve with forbidden rice and sprinkle with green onions and cashews. Dig in!

Time:

40 minutes

Massaman Curry with Tofu

December 13, 2012 by Erica

Do you have a favorite takeout place?

Mine is a Thai restaurant a few minutes away. Their curries and noodles are amazing. And almost as good as the food is the ritual of ordering takeout. I call (usually when leaving yoga) and the same guy answers the phone every time. Seriously, this guy must work 80 hours a week. I have his script down pat. I know exactly how much it’s going to cost ($12.89) and when it will be ready (10-15 minutes). I could order from there in my sleep. One time they were randomly closed on a Tuesday and my call went straight to voicemail. It really threw me for a loop. I called back at least 3 times before I could acknowledge that I wasn’t going to be able to place my routine takeout order.

This Massaman curry is actually NOT my usual Thai order (that would be drunken stirfry with tofu). But I was introduced to it recently and loved it so much that I changed my usual order the other night to this. It cost $13.49, not $12.89, so that was a sad little departure from the norm, but at least it was still ready in 10-15 minutes.

I’ve never had a Massaman curry other than the one from my favorite Thai place, so I tried to replicate the flavor of theirs as closely as possible. It’s not your typical curry in that it’s actually very mild. It’s also peanut-y, creamy, and coconut-y – yet packed with vegetables?? So many good things.

Speaking of the vegetables in this recipe, they’re just a suggestion really. The takeout I get has tofu, potatoes and carrots only, but more veggies and less tofu seemed like a good idea to me. I’ve also tried broccoli in here, but found that it didn’t reheat well. Feel free to use your favorite veggies (or just whatever you have in the fridge!).

Massaman Curry with Tofu

Hands-on time

15 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

50 mins

This vegan version of a Massaman curry is mild yet flavorful and packed with vegetables. You'll never order Thai takeout again.

Author: Erica

Yields: 6-8

Ingredients

brown rice for serving
2 Tbsp coconut oil
2 Tbsp Massaman curry paste
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 knob of ginger (about ¾ inch), peeled and minced or grated
2 cans light coconut milk
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 Tbsp tamarind paste
1/3 cup peanut butter
juice of 1 lime
½ Tbsp low-sodium tamari or soy sauce
1 ½ lbs potatoes, chopped into ½ inch chunks, peels left on (I used Yukon gold)
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
1-2 small zucchini, sliced into half-coins
5 oz mushrooms, sliced
2 vine-ripened tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 can baby corn, drained and chopped
8 oz firm or extra firm tofu, cubed
roasted peanuts for topping

Instructions

Cook rice according to these instructions.
Heat coconut oil in a large deep pan over medium heat. Add the curry paste and mash into oil until combined and hot.
Stir onion, garlic and ginger into the curry mixture. Saute for a few minutes until very fragrant and slightly softened.
Whisk in the coconut milk. Add the brown sugar, tamarind paste, peanut butter, lime juice, and tamari and whisk to incorporate.
Add potatoes and carrots. Cover and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 20 minutes (depending on the size of your potato chunks), until potatoes are tender.
Add zucchini, mushrooms, and any other veggies you might be using that need to cook for a few minutes. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Finally, stir in the tomato wedges, baby corn, and tofu. Remove from heat and let sit for a minute or two until tofu is heated through.
Serve over rice and top with roasted peanuts.

Notes

Adapted from The Gluten Free Vegan.

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