I am cooking lots of vegan Vietnamese dishes lately. Above is a picture of Vietname BBQ Noodle/Vermicelli salad. Vegan Vietnamese restaurants serve this cold noodle salad. In my area there are 6 vegetarian Vietnamese restaurants(3 are vegans): Thuyen Vien, Au Lac, Zen Vegetarian, Bodhi Tree, Bo De, and Van Hanh. I visited them often and can get ideas on how to make Vietnamese dishes. My favorite is Thuyen Vien and that's why it is listed first. I seldom go to Bo De and Van Hanh because they are my least favorites. The restaurants usually call this dish BBQ Vermicelli. This dish is a perfect meal for a hot weather since it is served in a room temperature. My recipe was posted on my other inactive blog, click here.
The ingredients that I use this time are (clockwise from top left): jicama, cucumber, carrots, Vietnamese Coriander or rau ram, bean sprouts, fresh mints, and green lettuce. All of them were sliced in thick julienne form.
This time I used buckwheat soba noodle instead of the white rice noodle or vermicelli. It is not traditional but I think soba noodle is more filling and it is more nutritious.
I also modified my salad dressing with coconut juice without added sugar. This one is my favorite brand. To see recipe of the salad dressing please my previous Vietnamese Green Mango Salad blog and scroll down to the recipe.
I have been also drinking a lot of natural coconut juice lately and bought the Amy & Brian brand. It is quite delicious when it is chilled. I have been using coconut juice for cooking lately, a new discovery. This one below is Tofu Stew with Coconut Juice from Vietnamese Fusion Vegetarian Cuisine cookbook by Chat MingKwan.
The ingredients in this stew are probably not familiar to some of you. They are lotus root, jicama, lemon grass, and coconut juice. I substituted the water chestnuts with jicama since I didn't have any water chestnuts. I also added green beans to it since I had some. It is quite delicious served with a bowl of steamed sweet rice.
7 comments:
hi I tried to comment earlier but it did not work after I typed out a long long comment. anyhow...the dish is wonderful but I do not know jimaca but u said I can get som water chestnuts and use it instead. What types of dishes in Java do they do with the coconut jelly or soft flesh? Do u use alot of coconut milk in your dishes? I know u like spicy, what pepper do they use in Java that is very very hot?
Hi latay,
Jicama is a fruit but can be used in entree too. The texture is like turnip but it doesn't have the unpleasant smell and taste like turnip. It is a bit sweet. We eat that a lot in Indonesia. You can find more info in wikipedia.
Yes, Indonesian's Java dishes use a lot of coconut milk. It is fattening and that's why I don't cook much of these dishes.
We use the soft flesh of coconut for drinks and other desserts. There is also somekind of palm fruits that are like jelly and we use those for drinks and desserts. I can only find those kind in cans or sealed bottles. They are imported.
We use the Thai chili, the tiny or small and very hot chilies. We also use the red chili, I think, it is the cayenne (fresh and not the powder). We don't use the habanero, scotch bonnet, etc.
Latay,
The palm jelly fruit that we have in Indonesia looks like this, check out this wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borassus_flabellifer
It is called Lontar in Indonesia. Toddy in English. There other names in other languages. I can't find it fresh here. I only can find it in cans or sealed bottles in Asian market (imported). These are good when they are fresh.
Do you have that in your area? If you do, I am coming to Barbados. :-) I missed it.
Debbie
No we dont have that in Barbados it looks good as is to be eaten as is. Unfortunately I do not live in Barbados anymore so sourcing some items is a problem too. Yes coconut is fattening but it does wonders for dishes. I want to make coconut rice with the milk and the flesh grated. I will go through your site tonight to see if there are any dishes I can make this weekend. Thanks for the prompt response.
this looks so so good! We don't have quite as many Vietnamese restaurants here in Boston and what we do have are not vegetarian but I can get a good pho and vermicelli bowl. I have to say, it's my absolute favorite food of all time. So light and yummy! I have to try out your recipes!
u go girl...vegan n vietnamese...tht sabo is delicios!
Looks great! Making me hungry!
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