Mexican Pasta

A lot of the same ingredients as the Minestrone Soup but in different amounts and with some spiciness.

Ingredients:

• vegetable oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 leeks, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• salt and pepper
• 1 jalapeno, chopped
• 1 cup of tomato sauce
• 2 cups of pasta, mostly cooked (it will finish cooking in the sauce)
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
•  Parmesan cheese (or Cotija cheese if you can get it)

Directions:
1) Heat the oil in a pot.
2) Add the onion and cook until it is translucent, about 3 minutes.
3) Add the leeks and carrots until they soften a bit, about 3 minutes.  Add the salt and pepper.





4) Add the jalapeno, pasta, and tomato sauce and bring to a boil.
5) Allow to cook until the pasta is cooked and carrots soften.
6) Serve with cilantro and Parmesan.

Minestrone Soup

A good soup for when the weather is just starting to get cold. Even better when reheated!

Ingredients:

• vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2 leeks, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 potato, diced
• 1 can of beans (I used kidney because it was all I could find)
• 1/2 a cup of parsley, chopped
• 1 bag of spinach, chopped
• marinara sauce
• water or vegetable stock
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup of cooked pasta

Directions:

1) Heat 4 TBSP oil in a pot.
2) Add the onions and let sweat until they become soft (you may need to add more oil to prevent burning).







3) Add the leeks, carrot, potato, salt and pepper and cook for a few mores minutes, until they begin to soften.








4) Add the beans, parsley and spinach until the spinach wilts.








5) Add the stock or water (to cover), and add half as much marinara sauce.
6) Simmer until the vegetables are soft.
7) Add the Parmesan cheese and pasta and cook until the cheese has mostly dissolved and the pasta is warmed.

 So much soup...

3-types-of-cooking stir fry

I had left over vegetables so what else to do other than make a stir fry. For this I braised the tofu just like here, fried eggplant and cooked the rest of the veggies in a pan.

Ingredients:

• braised tofu
• vegetable oil
• 1 eggplant, sliced thin
• salt and pepper
• paper towels
• 1 carrot, sliced thin
• 1 cucumber, sliced thin
• 1 jalapeno, chopped
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
• rice

1) Cook the tofu as directed.









2) Heat vegetable oil in a pan, with enough oil to cover the bottom and go up about 1 cm.
3) Once the oil is hot but not smoking, add the eggplant. Depending on the size of your pan you may need to do this 2 or 3 times as you do not want to crowed the pan.





4) Flip the eggplant when it is brown on one side.
5) Remove the eggplant when it is brown on both sides and place on a paper towel.
6) Remove from the paper towel and add salt and pepper





7) Heat 3 TBSP oil in a pan.
8) Add the carrot for about 3-5 minutes.
9) Add the cucumber for 2-3 minutes.
10) Add the jalapeno and red onion for 2-3 minutes.
11) Add the tomatoes for 1-5 minutes, depending on how you like them cooked.
12) Serve the tofu and vegetables on top of rice with the eggplant on top to add crunch.

Peanut Noodle Salad

Recipe taken from here, and I like it a lot more than the other peanut sauce recipe that I made earlier.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz pasta
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 1 TBSP soy sauce
• 2-3 tsp chili sauce
• 5 green onions, chopped
• 2 carrots, sliced thin
• 1 stem of cilantro, chopped
• peanuts

 Directions:

1) Cook the pasta.
2) Mix the peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce and chili sauce together.
3) Drain the pasta out of the water and mix in with the sauce.






4) Mix in the green onions, carrots and cilantro.
5) Top with peanuts to serve.

Leftover veggie fried rice

Have vegetables left over from making the stock here? You should, unless you used veggies that were going to go bad in a day anyway. Make more fried rice!

Ingredients:

• vegetable oil
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 tsp chopped ginger
• 1 cup cooked vegetables, leftover from stock (carrots, mushrooms, onion, leeks, tomatoes)
• 2 cups of cooked rice
• 2 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 TBSP sesame oil
• salt and pepper

Directions:
1) Heat the oil in a pan.
2) Add the garlic and ginger for 2 minutes or so.
3) Add the vegetables and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes.
4) Add the rice, soy sauce and sesame oil and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes.
5) Add salt and pepper if necessary.

See photos of the fried rice if you need to!

Ramen Noodle Soup

I followed this recipe for the soup, and made a few changes due to liking green onions more than ginger. I thought it would be a bit difficult to find vegetable stock in Korea, so I made some following this recipe, loosely. It seems like you can throw any vegetables into water to make broth.

Ingredients:

• Stock
• water to cover
• vegetables
• carrot
• mushroom
• onion
• leeks
• pepper
• Noodle Soup
• stock
• 2 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 TBSP sesame oil
• 2 TBSP fresh ginger
• 4 green onions
• 3 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1 block of tofu
• 1 package of Ramen noodles
• 2 cups of spinach

Directions:

1) Chop the vegetables for the stock and place them in a pot.
2) Cover with water.
3) Bring to a boil.






4) Add the pepper and stir. Cook for 1 hour.
5) Strain the vegetables out and put the liquid back into the pot.







6) Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, and green onions and bring back to a boil.
7) While it is boiling, heat the oil in a pan.







8) Add the tofu and cook for about 4-5 minutes on each side, until it is brown.







9) Add the Ramen to the stock and cook for 8-10 minutes, until cooked through.








10) Add the spinach and cook for 2-3 minutes until wilted.









11) Add the tofu and cook for 2-3 minutes until heated.

Spicy Noodle Salad

 Recipe taken from here.

Ingredients:

• Noodles
• 2 TBSP sesame oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 TBSP honey
• 1 TBSP red pepper paste
• 1/4 cabbage, sliced thin
• 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced thin
• 1 carrot, sliced thin
• 1 cucumber, sliced thin

Directions:

1) Cook the noodles and run under cold water until they are completly cool.
2) Mix in the sesame oil.







3) Mix the lemon juice, soy sauce, honey and red pepper paste well (honey and red pepper paste are thick). Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste.
4) Mix the sauce into the noodles.






5) Add the vegetables and mix again.

Teriyaki Tofu and Peanut Noodles

Recipe taken from here.

Ingredients:

• 1 block of tofu
• 1/3 cup + 1 TBSP soy sauce
• 1/4 cup + 1 TBSP white sugar
• 2 tsp grated ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 TBSP vegetable oil
• 8 oz pasta
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 tsp chili paste
• 1/3 cup reserved pasta water
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 1 pepper, thinly sliced
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced

Directions:

1) Place the tofu between layers of paper towels on a plate and place a heavy pan or brick on top for 30 minutes.
2) Mix the 1/3 soy sauce, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp grated ginger and garlic together.
3) Slice the tofu into cubes and put it in a shallow bowl.








4) Pour the sauce over and let sit for 1 hour.
5) Flip the tofu and let sit for another hour.
6) Put the vegetable oil in a pan and heat.






7) Add the tofu and cook for 5 minutes on each side, until it starts to change color.
8) Cook the pasta.







9) Mix the peanut butter, chili paste, 1 TBSP soy sauce, 1TBSP white sugar and 1 tsp grated ginger.
10) Add the pasta to the peanut butter mixture and add the reserved pasta water as necessary to achieve the desired consistency.




11) Add the carrots, pepper and green onions.