Japanese Korokke VEGAN STYLE!

So today I have a very simple and quick recipe that of course is 100% Vegan and on a budget.

quick story short because like I said I just like to get to the recipe and nobody wants to read a novel before a recipe.

In my family I am known as the Cheapskate Vegan because of course now these days we all want to save money and/or alot of us cannot afford all those expensive nuts and oils and condiments. To be honest being vegan is very EXPENSIVE! So I actually really try to find cheaper alternatives to everything/anything vegan also recipes that I can shorten in time because lets face it or even admit it when we are hungry we want food ASAP right?

So without any further ado…

Yesterday I had no Idea what to make. Then I remembered one of my favorite foods my grandmother made when my family and I used to visit her in japan. Korokke!! (as from a previous blog you know that I am part Korean.. SURPRISE! I’m Japanese too) ok to continue. So I looked through my whole pantry and fridge hoping to find the ingredients I needed and There they were!

 

Prep time: Depends on your speed
Cook time: Depends on your speed and how fast your stove heats up

Ingredients: 

  •  2 peeled potatoes
  • 6 baby carrots
  • 1 Tsp Salt (divided)
  • 1/2 cup of flour
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup Panko
  • 3/4 cup Oil of your choice

Sauce ingredients:

  • Ketchup
  • Soy sauce

Directions:

Boil a pot of water and sprinkle 1/2 tsp salt into the water.
Cut the peeled potatoes into cubes and put them into the pot of water along with the baby carrots and boil for about 10 min.
When the potatoes and carrots are nice and soft take them out. Let the carrots cool on the side.

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Hand mash the potatoes into a potato salad consistency. (Hand mash the potatoes because you don’t want to have smooth mashed potatoes like thanksgiving day you want a well textured potato mix but DO NOT leave huge chunks of potatoes in there keep your chunks as tiny as possible) Keep in mind later they will be molded into patties.

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After you finish getting the texture you like cut the carrots into tiny cubes and mix that in with the potatoes.

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Take your 1/2 cup of flour and put the other 1/2 tsp of salt and mix it in.
Next take a handful of the potato mix and mold them into your desired size of patties. I actually just molded them into the size of my palm and made them about 1/2 an inch to 1 inch thick.
Then dip it in the flour mix, dip your hand or fingers into the water and wet the patty so that the flour will be a little sticky
Dunk the patty into the panko and be very generous in coating it. (Repeat until all of the mixture is gone)

Depending on the speed of your stove heat up a pan with your 3/4 cup oil. the amount of oil you use varies on the size of your pan. I have a very small pan so 3/4 was just enough. So I would say fill it so that half of your patty will be submerged in the oil.
Fry it until the patties are golden brown and crisp. ( I will be honest some of your patties will break because they usually use egg to hold it together you just have to be very patient and delicate when flipping it.)

To prepare your sauce all you need is Ketchup and Soy sauce. mix those two together to your taste. I usually use 1/4 cup ketchup and 1 tbsp of soy sauce. You can always add more if it doesn’t taste right and double the amount if you are making a big batch of Korokke.

and that’s it!

Keep an eye out for the next Korokke recipe. I will be making Curry Korokke!

Enjoy and stay happy!

Vegan Muddy Buddies (Puppy chow)

A couple days ago I wanted something sweet but didn’t want to eat anymore Oreos because being a beginner vegan that’s pretty much all I knew about “Vegan OKd” treats. So I went to my pantry and looked and noticed I had stacks of unopened Chex mix cereal. I guess my son and I weren’t eating it fast enough I didn’t notice it was building up in my pantry. Anyway Instantly I thought OH COOL I CAN MAKE MUDDY BUDDIES/PUPPYCHOW (however you want to call it)

The recipe I found was only in bulk which was good since I had so many boxes of Chex mix Cereal in my pantry. I had Corn and Rice chex so I decided to be spontaneous and put both into the mix. So HERE WE GO!

You are going to need a BIG BOWL for this one and I would recommend a rice scooper or wooden spatula/spoon to mix everything together. I used a wooden rice scooper. Only because as much as possible you don’t want to crush the cereal into crumbs when you mix.

Ingredients:

  • 9 cups of Rice or Corn Chex mix
  • 2 cups dairy free chocolate chips of your choice ( I used 4 boxes of 4oz dairy free chocolateSide note if you are not vegan feel free to use whatever chocolate you wish.
  • 2/3 cup peanut butter ( I used all natural peanut butter. But you can use any peanut butter of your choice)
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil of your choice ( Room temp. )
  • 4 cups powdered sugar ( Now this is optional but actually necessary. If you’ve eaten this before it keeps the mix from sticking to each other especially if you are going to store it in the fridge. Unless you like block chocolate with chex mix which actually wasn’t really bad it actually tasted really good. To be honest though I did not use 4 cups of powdered sugar I just poured some and mixed some until everything looked like it was moderately covered. )

Directions:

  • Put the 9 cups of chex mix into the big bowl.
  • In a separate “microwavable” bowl put the chocolate, Peanut butter, and coconut oil.
  • I microwaved it for about 4 min. and stirred everything together with the wooden rice scooper. But you can do this process how ever you see fit. Or what works best for you. As long as all of those ingredients are nicely stirred together you’re good to go.
  • After everything is well stirred and the mix looks smooth pour the mixture onto the Chex and very delicately fold the cereal into the mix until everything is covered with the tasty chocolate mixture. Make sure you do it delicately unless you want alot of crumbs in there. We don’t want them to turn into those nestles mini crunch snacks. We want to have the full cereal in there.
  • When everything is mixed into your liking start pouring the powdered sugar into the bowl. DON’T DOUSE THE MIX just sprinkle and mix sprinkle and mix until its nicely covered to how you like it.

And that is the end to the directions. When you are all well and satisfied with what you have infront of you go ahead and put them into tupperwares save them for later put them into the fridge or just enjoy the whole thing in one sitting like I almost did. Makes good gifts and party snacks.

I hope you guys enjoyed this recipe as much as I did and I also hope to be able to share more recipes with you folks later on. Have a good week everyone and stay happy.

Japanese Pancakes… Vegan Style!

I have been off base lately because I’m normally into making Asian recipes and I’ve been doing other ones but now I’m back on track!

There is a pancake in Japan called Okonomiyaki. But in America they call it Japanese pancakes or Japanese pizza.

Everytime I went to Japan this was one of my favorite must have dishes. Of course being Japanese I LOVE Japanese foods and Okonomiyaki was one of them. Unfortunately there were no Vegan recipes for this dish and if there were it was super complicated. So I came up with my own and it came out AMAZING!

I like to keep my recipes as simple as possible.

Prep time & Cook time: Depends on your speed.

Ingredients: 

  • 1 cup Okonomiyaki Flour
  • (in case you are very strict and want to know what is in the flour I also took a picture of its ingredients)

  • 3/4 cup of water
  • half a head of shredded cabbage
  • 2 pc green onion (optional)
  • for egg substitution 6 Tbsp “Aquafaba” (chickpea water from the can)
  • (recipe calls for 2 eggs and 3 Tbsp of Aquafaba equals 1 egg)

    Okonomiyaki Sauce & Topping:

  • 4 Tbsp Ketchup
  • 2 Tbsp Soy sauce of your choice
  • Vegan Mayo
  • Furikake (optional)

Instructions:
First take 1 cup of the Okonomiyaki flour and pour it into a bowl.
Next strain the Chickpea water from the can and put 6 Tbsp of that into the bowl along with the flour.
Dump your 3/4 cup of water into the bowl and start mixing. DO NOT mix it until the batter is creamy mix it so that there are still some lumps in there but not powder.
Then cut your head cabbage into halves and shred one of the halves.
This is optional and I didn’t do it but you can take your green onion chop that and stick it into the batter along with the cabbage. Mix it well into the batter so that all of the cabbage has been submerged into the batter. (small tip.. too much cabbage in the batter will ruin the pancake when you cook it)

Heat your pan up and put 3 Tbsp oil of your choice. (Remember the amount of oil depends on how big your pan is) My pan is very small so 3 Tbsp works.Then cook it as you would if you were making regular pancakes. Cook until the edges are crispy and both sides are golden brown and the inside is well done.

Now for the Sauce
It’s sauce so its pretty much explanatory.
Take a small bowl and mix 4 tbsp of Ketchup and 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce of your choice. Mix it so that it is well blended and to your taste.

Now that all of that is done put your Pancakes on a plate and season as you desire. As you can see in the picture I was a little creative but It goes very good with the Vegan Mayo on top and I sprinkled a little bit of Furikake on there as well. (Furikake is a nori seasoning) (Another tip DO NOT mix the Vegan mayo into your sauce mix… yuck)

I hope that you guys enjoy this vegan recipe of Japanese pancakes. it wasn’t easy to figure out but it tasted just like the one from home “Japan”.

Left overs can make good dishes too!

Okay so if you follow me on Amino Vegan app and you’ve read my blog on my quesadillas/soft shell tacos like I said I had left over chickpeas and spinach. I, being not so wealthy do not like to waste anything so today I created my very own recipe!!!

Like I’ve stated before I love tofu and spinach so of course this recipe will include those two ingredients. I haven’t had Alfredo pasta in a while and I just couldn’t find a single recipe that didn’t use cashews because they are sooo expensive here. So I thought maybe I can make something out of these left over chickpeas! I took a deep breath, the leap of faith, went for it and it was mmm delicious!! I call this recipe… Creamy Chickpea “Alfredo” So without further ado here is the Recipe!!

Prep time / Cook time: Basically all depends on your pace.
Just remember taking your time is not a bad thing
It just means you are very thorough and want it to come out perfect.

Ingredients:

  1. 1/2 cup mashed chickpeas (thats all I had from my left overs)
  2. 1/4 block of 16 oz. tofu ( all I had left was firm but soft tofu is recommended)
  3. 1/3 cup 2x Almond milk (regular is recommended vanilla would make it taste funny)
  4. 1 Tsp salt
  5. 1/2 Tsp pepper
  6. 1/2 Tbsp Garlic powder
  7. 1/2 Tbsp onion powder
  8. 1/3 cup nutritional yeast (optional)
  9. 1/3 cup spinach
  10. Thin whole wheat Spaghetti

Directions:

First Boil a pot of water and stick your pasta in to cook. Then add a dash of salt and give it a nice stir. Stir it every 3-5 min so that it wont get stuck to the bottom or the sides of the pot.

Then take the chickpeas, tofu and 1/3 cup original almond milk put it in a blender and puree it. The reason why I said 1/3 cup 2x was because the sauce was still too thick so I added another 1/3 cup to the mix. But if you like it super thick then just 1/3 cup is fine. Add 1 Tsp salt, 1/2 Tsp pepper, 1/2 Tbsp garlic powder, 1/2 Tbsp onion powder, and finally 1/3 cup nutritional yeast (which is optional) puree it until it is smooth like butter and then pour it into a pot and heat it up.

Put in 1/3 cup of spinach into the pot with the sauce you have just created and mix well. (you can add more spinach if you like)

Check on your pasta and taste test one. If it is nice, soft, and tender then it is ready to eat.

Put your pasta and sauce on a plate this is optional but you can garnish it with a little more spinach if you like. Then bon appetit!

My husband (non vegan) gave it a thumbs up!!

Remember though if you have to add more of any ingredient just go for it! make it your own. You are the one eating it of course so make it to your taste if you think it needs something go ahead and add it. 🙂

Have a nice day everyone!

Supposed to be a Quesadilla but looks like a softshell taco…

So I usually specialize in making Japanese/Asian Vegan food but today I wanted to try something different.

If it’s anything other than tofu that I love it’s… SPINACH!! and so I found this recipe online out of nowhere because I of course was hungry and it was lunch time. I had some spinach on hand and tortillas too only thing was being on the big island of Hawaii you can rarely find anything vegan and I’m not the type to go scavenging the whole island just to find some vegan cheese and other things SO! I make do with what I got.

I had to use chickpea water from the can for another recipe so I had all these chickpeas and me being Mrs. Don’t like to waste anything decided maybe I can use this today. So from the recipe I found I had to completely alter the whole recipe because I didn’t have any vegan cheese and I didn’t wanna waste all these chickpeas…

If you follow me on the Amino Vegan  app I posted that I would put up my recipe so here it is.

Prep time: Depends on how fast you can prep
Cook time: Depends on your speed and speed of your stove
Servings: 2

  • Ingredients:
  • 2 tortillas
  • Thawed out frozen spinach
  • Chick peas
  • Vegan Chipotle Mayo
  • Regular Vegan Mayo
  • Oil of your choice

Directions:

Okay so I’m going to admit that this really isn’t one of the healthiest recipes I have made but I’m not going to lie it was delicious. I only used 1/3 of the can of chickpeas because I just made enough for me which was 2 quesadillas. ( I did save the rest in the fridge for another recipe I have in mind)

  1. Microwave the chickpeas for about a minute and a half (1:30) and hand mash the chickpeas using any mashing tool you have. (Honestly I like to smash the chickpeas or anything in general by hand unless you really need the blender or food processor. It’s just that there’s a different texture that comes out that you can’t get by using the blender or processor.)
  2. Now before I became a vegan my husband’s friend made this grilled cheese sandwich in which she used mayo on the outside of the bread and it made it very crisp so in this step put a thin layer of the Vegan Mayo on the outsides and a thin layer on the inside of the tortilla. (this step is optional but it does add ALOT of flavor. Like I said it’s not one of the healthiest recipes I’ve made)
  3. take the frozen spinach and follow directions to thaw or microwave. I like mines warm so I followed the microwave instructions. ( I use Frozen Spinach because its alot cheaper than fresh spinach and it takes less time to prep)
  4. take 1/3-1/4 cup of the chickpeas depending on how much you want to put in to your quesadilla and add about 1-2 table spoon of the Chipotle Mayo. (add to your taste preference.)
  5. Take your spinach and layer it onto the tortilla put as little or as much as you like but just remember it does have to close so don’t put too much in there.
  6. then take your chickpea mix and spread it over your spinach layer and then fold the tortilla in half. (Now for this step it really is your preference on how you make it. You can make it into a flat pizza like a quesadilla or you can make it like how I did. Reason I folded it in half is I like to save money. So you can either cut the tortilla in half and make it into a quesadilla or use two separate pieces.)
  7. Take a TBSP of your oil of choice and put the quesadilla on the pan. Heat the pan up first of course before you put the quesadilla on that way it makes it more crisp and doesn’t give the tortilla time to soak up the oil. That wouldn’t be too pleasant.

Best eaten hot and enjoy your quesadilla. Now you don’t only have to use the same amount I did or do it exactly as I did. This is pretty much to preference. But it’s cheap and if you have company coming over it doesn’t take too long to make. (if you don’t mind it being a little bit unhealthy)

I hope you guys enjoy this recipe and I hope to share more with you folks soon!

That looks like egg salad sandwich… but it’s not

So today i was wondering what i would make for lunch. All I had was alot of tofu (because i love tofu. I think its the japanese in me )

Any who, so I had alot of tofu a loaf of wheat bread and vegan mayo. I mean of course i had other options as well to fry the tofu etc. But instead i chose to make sandwhiches since i was super hungry and i wanted something now.

So to get straight to the point here is the recipe.

Makes up to 4 sandwhiches. Double the recipe if you want more or making more for company.

Ingredients:

* 8 pieces whole wheat bread or bread of your choice

* 1/2 a block of 16 oz. Tofu

* 2-3 Tbsp of vegan Mayo

* salt and pepper to your taste.

 

Directions

1) toast 8 pieces of bread

2) cut the 16 oz. Block tofu in half and press/pat until the tofu is dry. (Even though you will be mashing the tofu later it is best if you do NOT press dry until your tofu breaks)

3) take 2-3 Tbsp of the vegan mayo. I thought 2 was enough but if you need more then feel free to add to your taste.

4) take a fork and begin to mix the tofu with the mayo. Do not mix it into a puré. Make sure you have some chunks in there as a egg salad sandwhich would have.

5) salt and pepper it to your taste.

6) take the toasted bread or untoasted if you prefer untoasted bread and put a thin layer of mayo on the bread. (Do that for each slice)

7) put the desired amount of tofu on the bread and ENJOY.

 

I thought this sandwhich tasted really good, my son LOVED it, and if you want something quick and easy or you are on a budget then this is a must have recipe. Have a nice day everyone.

100% Vegan BiBimBap

Okay for those who follow me on the Vegan Amino app and have been waiting for this recipe from my Easter Feast blog. I finally had the time to gather and type everything down.

So just to recap on the story for this blog if you are like me and Just wanna get straight to the recipe then I will definitely try to keep this story as condensed/short as possible.

Like the title said Easter Feast. My whole family on my side is vegan except for my husband. My husband doesn’t like to eat vegetables as much as I do. So for me as well as my family being a “New Vegan” this Easter was a bit different for us. My family and I weren’t vegans last year so we always had great feasts with roast beef and side dishes on Easter day.

Now my family is part Korean and I like my food fairly seasoned and tasty. My dad on the other hand is fully Plant based and doesn’t like to use alot of seasonings. So my mother always said the food was good but not as flavorful. I offered to make our Easter Lunch today because pretty much … I just felt like it. So I prepped my plans for this meal for 3 days and went through 5 recipes to get the right flavors together so that they wouldn’t clash, over power each other, or be majorly salty.

My parents were pretty bummed because all they knew was that since the food they ate wasn’t always flavorful they were expecting something like that for our Easter Feast. BUT when they took that first bite they had a blast of flavor and went back for seconds and thirds! My husband who isn’t even vegan ate a whole plate himself and ENJOYED IT!!

So I hope that you guys enjoy this recipe as much as my Family and I did.

Total time to make: Depends on how fast you cook.
Total time to prep: Depends on how long
you plan to marinade your veggies and tofu

 

Okay so to begin with the easy ingredients…
Kimchee: Just buy the already made Kimchee
no brand preference I just go with what ever is cheap
already made Frozen Spinach

Vegetable ingredients
* 1 tray Mushrooms
* 1 Cucumber
* 1-2 Carrots
* 1 bag Mung Bean Sprouts

Meat Substitution
* 16 oz block Extra Firm Tofu (recommended) or Firm tofu

Meat Sauce/Tofu Sauce
– 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce ( 5 Tbsp)
– 1 Tbsp Sesame Oil (5 Tbsp)
– 1 Tsp Brown Sugar (or any sugar you have on hand) ( 5 Tsp)
– 1/4 Tsp Minced Garlic (I used two 1/2 tsp of minced garlic) ( Four 1/2 Tsp)

Bibimbap Sauce (enough for 3 servings if you like it spicey)
– 2 Tbsp Gochujang
– 1 Tbsp Sesame Oil
– 1 Tbsp Sugar (I used regular granulated sugar)
– 1 Tbsp Roasted Sesame Seeds (optional)
– 1 Tsp Vinegar
– 1 Tsp Minced Garlic

Directions

Tofu – Slice the tofu into reasonably thick or thin sticks. If you like you can slice them into patties DO NOT ground the tofu and just remember the thicker the pieces the longer they need to be marinaded. Then press or pat tofu with a paper towel until all the excess water is absorbed (if you have a tofu press that works too). Doing this lets the tofu absorb the flavor better and doesn’t dilute the sauce with alot of water.

Tofu Marinade – I put all of the ingredients into a tupperware BUT I actually increased the amount of ingredients used just because I wanted to make sure that the Tofu was well marinaded. it took me about 2 tupperwares depending on size both with increased amount of ingredients for the sauce. (The amount of ingredients I used will be in blue.)

I separated the Tofu into 2 Groups and put them into the Tupperwares to marinate. Minimal time to marinate is 30 min. (suggested minimal time 2 hrs) I marinated mines for about 4 hours though and it was PERFECT. DO NOT marinate over night it will ruin the tofu. 

Heat the frying pan and add a Tbsp of Virgin olive oil or oil of your choice and fry the tofu on high until it is nicely browned and crispy on the edges.

Vegetables

Mushrooms- Take the mushrooms out of the container or tray and remove the stems. If you don’t like to waste you can leave them on. Rinse the mushrooms and slice them into your preferred size. 

Heat the frying pan and add a Tbsp of Virgin Olive oil or oil of your choice. Toss the mushrooms in and saute them with a pinch of salt, to taste, or sprinkle about a Tsp of salt. It all really just depends on how salty you want it. I didn’t want it to be too over powering so I didn’t put alot of salt. Then add about a Tbsp of Sesame oil and continue to saute the mushrooms until well browned or to your liking.

Cucumber- Rinse and cut the cucumber in half and Julienne the cucumber or just cut them into thin slices. (sticks)

Heat the pan and toss the cucumbers into the frying pan saute them with a pinch of salt and a tsp of sesame oil for 2-3 min on high. Like I said its basically to your taste.

Carrots – Rinse and peel the carrots. They say to Julienne the carrots but I actually just took a grater and just grated the carrots using the large grates not the tiny one. if that makes sense.

Heat the frying pan and use a Tbsp of Virgin Olive oil or oil of your choice. Throw the Carrots in and saute it with a pinch of salt, to taste, or if you want to get more into measurements then I would say sprinkle about a Tsp of salt. It really all depends on the amount of carrots you decide to use and how salty you want it. Saute the carrots for about 2-3 min on high heat.

Mung Bean Sprouts- Boil a small pot of water big enough to fit a bag of the bean sprouts. Add a tbsp of salt or tsp of sea salt and mix. Rinse and put the mung bean sprouts into the water. Boil for about 1-2 min then Drain the sprouts and run it under cold water for about 1-2 min. Squeeze the sprouts with your hand to remove any excess water

  • Add
    * 1 tsp finely chopped green onion (optional)
    * 1/2 tsp minced garlic
    * 1/2 tsp fine sea salt or regular kosher salt if that’s what you have available
    * 1 tsp roasted sesame seeds (optional)
    * 1 tbsp sesame oil
    Of course like I said before it’s all to your preference of taste
    put that all in a bowl with the bean sprouts and mix.

Frozen Spinach- They say you can use fresh spinach but in this case to save on time and effort I bought the frozen already made spinach. Thaw out the spinach or follow instructions on box to thaw out. Squeeze out any excess water.

Add
* 1 tsp chopped green onion (optional)
* 1/2 tsp minced garlic
* 1/4 tsp fine sea salt or regular kosher salt (preference to taste if needed)
* 1 tsp roasted sesame seeds (optional
* 1 tbsp sesame oil
Put all ingredients into a bowl with the spinach and mix well. If it is too salty no worries you can rinse it with water and squeeze the excess salt water out with your hand. Make sure you squeeze all the water out for best results and taste.

Bibimbap Sauce- Finally for the last step add all of the ingredients for the Bibimbap Sauce into a small bowl and mix well.

Now you can add Rice and decorate with all of the amazing ingredients don’t forget to add your kimchee and ENJOY!