When in doubt, serve it on arugula!

I love my kitchen as much as the next food blogger. I feel very comfortable there. It’s normally very relaxing for me to cook.

But sometimes I just want dinner to be made. I want a dish that’s quick, flavorful, and simple.

I want a dish that I can make within the time it takes me to listen to one podcast of Car Talk.

This dish is that dish.

It can look a bit intimidating, especially if you aren’t use to cooking with a lot of Asian flavors. But really it’s dumb simple to make and utilizes one of my favorite kitchen tips!

Sesame Chicken Noodle Salad

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound chicken breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper
1 red pepper, sliced
1 pound linguine
Vegetable oil
Arugula

Sesame Sauce:
2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and diced
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1 tablespoon chili-garlic sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1/2 cup pasta water (from linguine)

Directions:

1) Season chicken with salt and pepper. Add a drizzle of vegetable oil to a large skillet and heat over medium-high heat.

2) Sear chicken on both sides for about 4 minutes, then turn down heat and continue to cook chicken, flipping occasionally, until chicken is cooked through, about 12 minutes total cooking time.

3) Remove chicken from pan and slice into large chunks.

4) Start cooking pasta. When pasta is almost done, scoop out some pasta water.

5) Mix sauce ingredients in a bowl. Stir well. The sauce should be very smooth and silky. If it's very thick, add more pasta water.

6) Using same pan that you cooked the chicken in, add another drizzle of oil and add red peppers. Cook for just a few minutes over medium-high heat until veggies soften.

7) Add diced chicken back to skillet and stir in sesame sauce.

8) Drain pasta and add to skillet. Stir together to incorporate everything.

9) Serve sesame chicken salad on a bed of arugula.

Heavily adapted from a Cook's Country recipe.

The Sesame Sauce

When I say this meal can be intimidating, it’s mostly because I’m not sure a lot of people keep their pantries stocked with the stuff to make this sauce.

If you have to buy this stuff for the first time, it’ll involve lots of words you probably can’t pronounce and at least one panda bear.

Lots of jars...

Have no fear though. Once you hunt down all the jars that you need, the only actual work you need to do for the sauce besides measuring is peeling and dicing some ginger. Not rocket science!

There is one problem though. When you mix all these ingredients together, it will taste very good, but it’ll most likely be a bit on the lumpy side.

Don’t worry about this right now. We’ll fix it later!

A bit chunky...

The Chicken

The sauce is definitely the star of this show. You don’t have to use chicken for this dish if you wanted to make a vegetarian version. You could just toss the sauce with the noodles or use some seared tofu if you wanted.

I went the chicken route on this day though. Assuming you are using chicken, just season a few boneless skinless breasts with a good pinch of salt and pepper. I’m usually not a huge boneless skinless chicken fan, but it works well for this recipe.

Keep it simple.

In a large skillet, heat a drizzle of oil over medium high heat and once the pan is hot, add the chicken.

Sear the chicken for about 4 minutes per side. Then turn down the heat to medium and continue to cook until the chicken is cooked through, probably another 6 minutes or so. That of course will depend on how big your chicken breasts are.

Mine were on the smaller side.

Make sure it's cooked through...

Once the chicken is cooked through, scoop it out of the pan and slice it into big chunks.

You want the chicken to be visible in the final dish!

Big chunks work great.

Finishing the Dish

There’s just a few other things you’ll need to finish off this recipe. While it’s kind of optional, I recommend dicing up a red pepper and also getting some arugula ready.

Two quick veggies.

When it comes to the pasta for the dish, you can use almost any thin pasta. Spaghetti, linguine, angel hair… it would all work fine.

Fantastic Kitchen Tip Alert

Anytime you are making a sauce to go with pasta, one of the best sauce helpers you can have is the actual water that you cook the pasta in. Pasta water is starchy and salty and will help smooth out sauces and give them some body.

If you ever find yourself with a lumpy or lackluster sauce, try adding some pasta water to it.

In this case, we will add about 1/2 cup to that lumpy sauce that we mixed together earlier.

Wonderful water.

This will completely smooth out the sauce and make it perfect.

In the same skillet that you used to cook the chicken (no need to wash it even), add another drizzle of oil and then toss in your red peppers.

Cook them for a few minutes until they are soft and then add in your chicken. Pour your sauce over the whole thing!

Sauce is really smooth now.

Assuming you are decent at timing, hopefully your pasta is done as well right around this time.

Almost any pasta will work.

Then just stir your pasta in with the chicken and sauce.

It’ll look like a lot of sauce, but it’s just enough to coat all the stuff.

If at any point, the sauce gets too thick, just add a bit more pasta water to it and it’ll thin out.

This was my finished version!

All tossed together!

Now, you could just serve this in a big bowl, but I tried something a bit unconventional.

I served mine on arugula. This might sound strange to serve a pasta dish on greens, but it worked really well actually. The arugula is nice and peppery and holds up well to the strong sesame flavors.

And it makes for a pretty plate!

Pretty plate!

So there ya go!

If you can master the sauce, this dish is really simple to throw together, but really delivers in the flavor department.

Give it a shot if you’re in the market for a quick and easy dinner. And let’s be real… who isn’t in the market for a quick and easy dinner?

Some of my favorite flavors.

Sometimes I get desperately sick of normal pasta sauce. Betsy and I eat pasta at least a few times a week and at some point in the week I’ll exclaim, “I’ll put anything in the world on that pasta except tomatoes.”

It’s not that I don’t love tomatoes. I definitely do. But a dude can only eat so much ragu.

The sauce I worked up on this particular night has a sesame base and has a delicious, rich flavor. At the same time though, it’s pretty light. You can’t really even see it on the pasta, but you can smell and taste it.

I wasn’t sure if Betsy would like my sesame sauce so I just served it with her favorite pasta, angel hair. I figured that would probably win her over. Luckily, the sauce turned out to be so good that I could’ve served it on a plate of kitchen twine.

Sesame Angel Hair Pasta

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound angel hair pasta
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup safflower oil
1 clove garlic
2 inches fresh ginger, grated
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons chili garlic sauce
1/2 pound edamame, steamed
1 red pepper, diced
Sesame seeds (garnish)
Chopped scallions (garnish)
Sriracha sauce (garnish)

Directions:

1) Mince garlic and peel and grate ginger.

2) Whisk garlic and ginger with soy sauce, safflower, sesame oil, sugar, and chili garlic sauce to make a dressing. Set aside.

3) Steam edamame in the microwave or in steamer until soft. Toss with chopped red pepper.

4) Cook pasta according to package and toss with dressing and vegetables. You might not need all the dressing so add it slowly.

5) Serve warm or cold.

The Sesame Sauce

If you have even a decent Asian pantry, you’ll probably have some of the ingredients for this dressing. At a bare minimum, most people have soy sauce. And most people should have rice wine vinegar and chili garlic sauce because those go great in a lot of dishes.

Basic sauce stuff.

The ingredient that gives this sauce it’s kick though is the sesame oil. This stuff is flavor-packed and a little goes a long way.

Just a few tablespoons will be more than enough to flavor a whole pound of pasta.

This stuff rocks.

Add all your sauce ingredients to a medium bowl and whisk them well to combine them. I knew this was going to be a winning recipe when I tried out the sauce on its own.

It’s slightly spicy, but its main characteristic is a deep savory flavor.

Really flavorful dressing!

The Add-ins

You could just toss some pasta in this sauce and call it good, but I thought it’d be nice to give the dish some color with some fresh vegetables. I just diced up a red pepper and steamed some frozen edamame.

If you can’t find edamame, any pea would work great.

Great colors.

The pasta

Like I said, I used angel hair because I know it’s Betsy’s favorite and I rarely use it. You could use almost any noodle pasta for this dish though. Rice noodles or even spaghetti would work equally well.

Betsy's favorite pasta.

Finishing the Dish

Whatever pasta you decide to use, just cook it according to its cooking instructions. As soon as you drain the pasta, add it to a bowl and pour in about half of your sauce.

Check out this action shot!

Action shot!

You might not need all the sauce for your pasta so start with half of it, toss the pasta a bit to combine everything. Taste it and add more sauce if you think it needs it. I used almost all of my sauce.

As soon as the sauce hits the hot pasta, an intense sesame flavor will smack you in the nostrils.

Then just stir in your edamame and red peppers and you’re ready to go!

All mixed up.

I served this garnished with chopped scallions, sesame seeds, and Sriracha sauce.

Garnishes are fun.

The really nice thing about this dish is that it keeps really well and is awesome cold. So it works great for lunches!

In fact, I think I liked this dish better as a cold noodle salad on day two.

If you’re feeling the tomato twinge and need a change, try this guy out!

A lot going on in there...

I’ve been on sort of a never-ending quest to find the perfect lunch salad. It’s tricky business because you want something that had plenty of filling ingredients so you can make it through the afternoon. Ideally, it would also keep really well so you can take it for an entire week.

Oh. It also needs to taste really, really good so you don’t get bored with it.

You can see a lot of my previous lunch salad attempts in the Macheesmo salads category. I try a bunch out that I don’t always post as well. I try to only post the really outstanding ones.

Which would easily include this one.

In fact, this one might have been my favorite to-date. The funny part is that it was inspired largely on a pre-made salad that Betsy grabbed at a local grocery store one day when I completely failed at making a lunch salad. It was so good that she asked me to try to re-do it. I added a bunch more veggies and stuff to it, but the idea is basically the same.

Asian Quinoa Salad

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups uncooked quinoa, cooked according to package
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 cucumber, seeded and diced
1/2 cup shredded carrots
2 scallions, minced
4-5 radishes, sliced thin
1/3 Cup soy sauce (dressing)
1 Tablespoon mirin rice wine vinegar (dressing)
1 Teaspoon spicy sesame oil (optional for dressing)
Chopped peanuts
Chopped fresh basil
Toasted sesame seeds

Directions:

1) Cook quinoa according to package.

2) Chop veggies finely and stir in with cooked quinoa.

3) Drizzle in dressing a bit at a time. Taste and adjust with more dressing if necessary. You might not need all of it.

4) Toast sesame seeds in a dry pan for a few minutes on medium heat until the seeds are lightly browned and fragrant.

5) Stir in peanuts, seeds, and basil.

Making the Quinoa

Quinoa sounds all fancy (and can sometimes come with a fancy price tag), but it’s surprisingly easy to make. You should read the instructions on the package since there are a few different varieties of quinoa. In general though, rinse the quinoa with cold water and then get some water simmering in a large pot. Usually you want a 2-to-1 ratio, water-to-quinoa.

Once the water is simmering pour in the rinsed quinoa, cover it, and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Then kill the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then lightly fluff it up and you’ll have a really delicious quinoa!

quin-wow.

Prepping Other Ingredients

The list of veggies you could toss in this salad is pretty endless. I’d recommending using whatever you have in your fridge that might go well in it. For me this included some cucumber, red pepper, onions, and shredded carrots. I also picked up some really beautiful radishes at the market on this given week and I figured they would give the salad a nice crunch also.

One thing I wouldn’t add to this salad is any kind of cheese like feta. Sometimes I like adding cheeses to salads like this, but in this case I think it would be too much.

Colorful stuff!

As far as prepping the veggies go, just try to get them sliced up pretty finely. You don’t want any huge chunks of any one thing. For the cucumber, I would remove the seeds, but you can leave on the skin if you want.

These were my radishes after a quick dice.

Go pretty thin on everything.

Once everything is in the bowl with the quinoa it’s a really pretty mix.

Hard to get healthier than this!

The Dressing

I kept the dressing pretty simple for this salad. You could fancy it up a bit with some fresh ginger and/or garlic, but I this was a quick and easy dressing that definitely go the job done.

You can definitely leave out the sesame chili oil or sub it with normal sesame oil, but I do think it’s a really nice touch.

Peanut are optional... only if you're allergic.

Just mix up the soy sauce, mirin and sesame oil and drizzle it over the salad. Depending on your tastes you might not need all the dressing so I would add about half of it and then adjust the flavor.

It’s pretty hard to remove soy sauce from a salad like this so start slow.

Add a bit at a time.

Once you add some dressing, stir it all together and then taste it. Just adjust it to your tastes at that point!

The Bonus Items

There’s a few bonus items that I think kick this salad up a notch. I added a few handfuls of chopped peanuts, a big handful of fresh basil which I just diced up and a few Tablespoons of sesame seeds.

Sesame seeds can be a tiny bit bland straight out of the box, but if you toast them for a few minutes in a dry pan, they become lightly browned and really fragrant.

So I recommend toasting them.

Love the smell of these guys.

You could add the garnishes to the top if you want, but I just stirred everything together.

This is supposed to be a low maintenance dish after all.

Lunch every day!

Honestly, this is about as healthy as a salad can get in my opinion. It’s got tons of veggies and flavor to get you going. If you wanted to add even more protein to it you could add some chicken or tofu, but I didn’t even think it needed it.

It’s a great change from the standard deli bar salad or whatever.

About as healthy as it gets!

After a week of vacation eating mainly seafood and butter, Betsy and I were in the mood for some healthy stuff when we got home.

I wondered through the produce section and picked out a few things that looked particularly good (green beans/corn). To make a meal out of them, I tossed them with some spicy sesame soba noodles.

Turned out to be really flavorful and one of my favorite healthy dishes in a while.

Summer Soba

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

1 9.5 ounce package of soba, cooked according to package
1-2 Cups green beans
2 ears corn
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 Cup carrots, shredded
2 scallions, only greens
1-2 Tablespoons sesame oil (or chili sesame oil), for soba
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil (for cooking)
Fresh basil (garnish)
Chopped peanuts (garnish)

Sauce:
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon mirin
- 1 Serrano pepper, diced with seeds
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 inches fresh ginger, grated

Directions:

1) Prep all veggies and set them aside.

2) Cook soba according to package then drain and toss with sesame oil.

3) Mix sauce ingredients being sure to mince ginger/garlic/pepper well.

4) In a large skillet, add oil and then all the veggies except carrots and scallions.

5) Cook veggies on high heat for a few minutes until hot, but still a bit crunchy.

6) Add sauce to pan and cook for another minute or two until sauce is fragrant.

7) Add soba to pan and stir together well. Then stir in carrots and scallions.

8) Serve with chopped basil and peanuts.

Prepping the Ingredients

The veggies that I used for this are by no means the only ones you could use. Almost any fresh summer veggie would be great tossed in with this dish, so don’t feel limited by what I included.

Good summer stuff.

Assuming you do use some of the veggies I used though, prepping them is pretty straightforward. Dice up the red pepper, snap off the ends of the green beans and chop them in half. Cut the corn off the cob.

Pretty easy prep.

In essence, this is a stir-fry recipe, so I mixed up a very quick and simple sauce for it. Nothing too heavy, but just to give the dish some flavor.

Not pictured: Serrano pepper

Mince up the garlic, pepper, and ginger really finely and then stir it together with the soy sauce and mirin.

Seriously awesome sauce.

Cooking the Soba

If you aren’t familiar with soba, don’t fret. It’s basically pasta except made with buckwheat. This gives it a really unique flavor (almost nutty). It also takes no time to cook. Most soba cooks in just a few minutes.

Pretty things.

The thing about soba is that it’s a really sticky pasta. After you cook it and drain it, you’ll want to toss it with some oil or you’ll end up with one big block of pasta that will be pretty hard to work with.

But if you pour over a few tablespoons of sesame oil then it will flavor the pasta and also keep it from sticking. If you want to add some heat do the dish, you can use sesame chili oil!

Oil is key.

Finishing the Dish

Once your veggies are prepped and your pasta is cooked, this is a pretty straightforward dish to make.

Add a few tablespoons of oil to a large skillet and toss in all your veggies (except carrots and scallions) over high heat. Cook these for just a few minutes. You want to make sure that they still have a bit of crunch to them.

Don't over-cook this!

Then stir in the sauce and let it heat up and get fragrant for a minute or two.

Finally, add in all the soba and stir the whole thing together. As a final step, stir in the carrots and scallions and you’re all set!

Yum.

Serve the soba immediately with fresh basil and peanuts on top.

Very colorful and healthy dish.

Health in a bowl.

One of my favorite things about soba is that unlike some other pastas, it maybe tastes even better cold. So leftovers are perfect for a weekday lunch or something.

Summer soba was a total hit at my house. It’s a perfect use for some of the delicious veggies available these days.

This has a kick to it!

After what is normally considered one of the greatest meat weekends of the year, I figured it would be a good time to post an awesome vegetarian recipe that I’ve been sitting on for a while.

It involves that ingredient that makes a lot of people make an icky face: tofu.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Most people who don’t like tofu have probably never had it prepared correctly. When prepared and seasoned right, it’s actually really tasty. Not to mention that it’s also very healthy.

So eat your tofu people.

If you refuse though, you could put the sauce in this post on the spare tire for your car and eat that without too much worry. You could also put it on chicken I guess.

Spicy Maple Tofu

Yield: Serves 3-4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound extra firm tofu, pressed and cubed
2 Tablespoons oil
1/4 Cup soy sauce
1/3 Cup real maple syrup
1-2 Tablespoons chili garlic sauce
2 inches fresh ginger, grated
2 scallions, minced

Rice or wheat berries for serving

Directions:

1) Cut tofu in half so you have two thinner sheets. Press the tofu between paper towels with a weight on top for 15-20 minutes to press out as much water as possible. Cube tofu and set aside.

2) Grate ginger and chop scallions. Combine with other sauce ingredients in a bowl.

3) Add a few tablespoons of oil to a large nonstick pan or wok. Heat over medium-high heat and add tofu.

4) Cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until tofu is nicely browned.

5) Remove tofu and pour in sauce. Turn heat down to medium low.

6) Stir for 5 minutes until sauce starts to thicken. Then add tofu back in and continue to simmer.

7) When sauce is thick and sticking to tofu, remove from heat.

8) Serve over wheat berries or rice!

The Tofu

The thing that most people don’t realize about tofu is how much water is in it. Even the extra-firm kind is basically a big fat soy sponge. There’s tons of water in it and if you just chop it up and throw it in a hot pan, you’re going to end up with pretty bad results.

The tofu will steam rather than get nice and crispy.

So it’s important to get out as much of that liquid as possible before cooking the tofu. I do this by setting out a few paper towels, cutting the tofu in half so I have two thin sheets, adding a few more paper towels on top and then set something flat and heavy on top.

Very important.

Let it sit for about 20 minutes with something heavy on it and when you come back you’re paper towels will be completely soaked with liquid.

Now you can cube up your tofu and set it aside until you need it!

The Sweet Heat

One of my favorite flavor profiles in the world is sweet heat. More specifically in this case, sweet/salty/heat. The ingredients are pretty simple for the sauce, but they really get the job done.

Use good syrup people.

The key thing to remember about this recipe is to use real maple syrup. Yes. It’s expensive. I know. But if you’re going to use the sugar stuff you might as well just use brown sugar (which you can do).

But the subtle maple flavor and sweetness that the real syrup gives is pretty hard to beat in my opinion. Just mix up all your ingredients in a large bowl and stir it together.

Added some ginger...

Set this aside until needed.

Cooking the tofu

When you’re ready to cook up that soy stuff, add a few tablespoons of oil to a large nonstick pan or a wok. Get it nice and hot over medium-high heat and then add all your tofu.

I usually let my tofu cook for about 8-10 minutes, tossing it occasionally to try to get each side slightly crispy.

This was my tofu this time around. Not every side is browned, but that’s okay. The texture will be there.

Lightly fried.

To finish the dish, take your tofu out of the pan and immediately pour in all your maple sauce. Turn the heat down to medium-low and stir this until it starts to thicken, about 5 minutes.

Then toss your tofu back in and continue to let it simmer down until the sauce is sticking really nicely to the tofu.

This is almost ready.

Sticky and spicy!

I served this stuff with some leftover wheat berries I had, but rice would be the standard thing I think.

Rice is standard, but wheat berries work also.

Betsy and I loved this dish. The flavors are intense, but not over-powering at all.

And spicy maple is my new baby. You’ll be seeing more spicy maple stuff in the future.

This was shockingly good.

Allow me to let you in on a conversation that happens at least once a week in our house:

Betsy: What’s for dinner love of my life?

Nick: I think I’m going to make something with (insert food here – in this case kimchi).

Betsy: Umm… that sounds weird.

Nick: It might be. But it’ll probably be good because (insert food here – in this case kimchi) is The Bomb.

Betsy: Really? It smells kind of weird.

Nick: So do you. BAM!

Betsy: When was the last time you showered?

Nick: Touché! But seriously… you’ll like it.

Usually, the dish does work out but occasionally the dish ends up in the extremes. Meaning that it’s either inedible or it’s way better than expected.

On this occasion, the dish fell soundly in the second category. It was so good that as soon as the meal was over Betsy claimed the leftovers for lunch the next day!

Kimchi Stir Fry

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound pork chops or pork belly, cut into cubes
2 Cups kimchi, roughly chopped
3 scallions, white and greens separated
1-2 baby bok choy, chopped
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon sesame seed oil
1 package (6 ounces) chow mein noodles
Chili garlic sauce (optional)
Kewpie Mayonnaise (optional)

Marinade for Pork:
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons sesame oil
1-2 Tablespoons chili garlic sauce

Helpful Equipment:
A wok, but you can also use a large pan

Directions:

1) Dice pork and combine with marinade ingredients. Let sit for a few minutes.

2) Roughly chop bok choy, scallions, and kimchi and set aside.

3) Cook noodles according to package.

4) In wok or large skillet, add vegetable oil and sesame oil over high heat.

5) Once oils are hot, add pork and marinade and cook until pork is cooked through, about 6-7 minutes.

6) Add veggies and an extra dash of soy sauce and chili garlic sauce if you want.

7) Cook another minute until veggies are wilted but still slightly crisp.

8) Serve with noodles, chopped scallion greens, and a drizzle of kewpie mayo.

Adapted from a No Recipes... recipe.

Prepping the Pork

The original recipe for this uses pork belly which sounds delicious, but I couldn’t find any on this particular day so I just used a few pork chops that I cubed up. If you use pork belly, you can cut the vegetable oil in the recipe down to 1 Tablespoon since a lot of fat will render out of the pork belly.

You could also use chicken or tofu for this dish without a problem I think.

You could use a number of cuts.

I also decided to mix up a quick marinade for the pork. After I cubed my pork, I just let it marinate for about 30 minutes.

It was a good idea. If gave the pork great flavor and kept it really tender.

A simple marinade.

Other Ingredients

If you aren’t familiar with kimchi, the real star of this stir fry, it’s basically fermented cabbage. I’ll be completely honest. Some kimchi versions do not appear to be edible. But trust me when I say it’s maybe the most addictive food in the world. It’s spicy and savory and just a tiny bit sour.

It’s good on its own, but it’s really good in dishes like this.

The other ingredient that I’ve never used before, but used for this dish, was something called kewpie mayonnaise.

This is interesting stuff and it comes in a funny looking bottle. You can find in most Asian markets I think. It’s basically normal mayo with a few spices in it and a tiny bit of MSG. MSG doesn’t bother me at all, but if it bothers you then you would want to skip out on the kewpie.

Various goodies.

The Noodles

I decided to serve my stir fry on some chow mein style noodles. I like these noodles with stir fries because they are sturdy and soak up all the delicious juices. Plus they are dead simple to cook. Seriously easier than spaghetti.

Follow the instructions on your package, but basically boil water, toss them in, turn off the heat, and 4 minutes later they are ready.

You could also just serve this with rice though.

Easy to cook!

Making the stir fry

This is a pretty straightforward stir fry to make. Start by adding the sesame oil and vegetable oil to a wok or large skillet over high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the pork and marinade. The marinade will cook down into a sauce which is great.

Stir this around until the pork is browned and cooked through, about 6-7 minutes.

A good wok helps.

Then add all your other stir fry ingredients including the scallions, bok choy, kimchi, and maybe an extra touch of soy sauce or chili garlic sauce.

Cook this for another minute or two until the veggies are cooked but still slightly crunchy.

You’re done!

Great flavors here.

Serve the stir fry over the noodles with chopped scallion greens on top and a good drizzle of kewpie mayo if that’s your thing.

It’s definitely my thing.

Very tasty.

Fermented cabbage and strange mayo all on one plate.

You might be skeptical, but trust me, if you give this a shot, you’ll be claiming the leftovers!

These were a stunning success.

A few weeks ago I ran into a friend from high school and after chatting and catching up over some beers Betsy and I invited him and his wife over for dinner one night.

There was one catch though: The meal had to be gluten free and dairy free due to some dietary restrictions. Of course, I saw this as a challenge and thought long and hard about what to make for the dinner. I decided on an Asian theme.

I’ll be completely honest. The main part of the meal was anything but stellar. I grilled some chicken which was pretty good, but I somehow managed to completely botch a pot of rice. Like, our dinner guests were nice enough to eat it, but umm… it turned out to be more of some strange porridge mixture than rice. I’m still not sure how it happened exactly as I’ve made rice probably a million times and can normally do it without issues.

Oh well. Goes to show you that sometimes things go wrong in the kitchen and you can’t do much about it except laugh it off.

The good news about my venture into the gluten-free/dairy-free world was the appetizers I made: These freakin‘ fantastic grilled pork spring rolls. This was my first attempt at spring rolls actually and while they were a bit intimidating, they were completely doable and very worth the work.

Pork Spring Rolls

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes + marinade time

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 pound boneless pork chops, marinated
1 red pepper, sliced very thin
1 English cucumber, peeled and sliced thin
1 Handful of basil, julienned
Lettuce
Rice Papers for rolling
(Note: You could add tons of things to these rolls like other herbs, bean sprouts, etc.)

Marinade:
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
2 Thai chilies, diced (or a jalapeno)
1 Tablespoon fish sauce
2 Tablespoons soy sauce (gluten free)
1 Teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 Cup peanut or vegetable oil
2 Teaspoons fresh ground black pepper

Dipping sauce:
1 Cup hoisin sauce (gluten free)
1/4 Cup smooth peanut butter
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
Warm water until it reaches desired consistency, probably a few tablespoons
NOTE: If I were making a non-gluten-free version of this, I'd leave out the garlic and add a tablespoon of garlic chili sauce.

Directions:

1) For marinade, combine all ingredients in a bowl. Then add pork chops to a plastic bag with marinade and let sit for at least an hour.

2) To cook pork chops, grill on high heat or cook in a cast iron skillet or grill pan for 4-5 minutes per side depending on pork chop thickness. Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing into them. Slice them thinly.

3) Prep all over veggies for rolls. Be sure to spend time slicing thinly and evenly.

4) For dipping sauce, combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. If you don't have a food processor, just mix everything really well in a bowl.

5) To make rolls, start by pour some warm water on a large plate.

6) Add a spring roll wrapper to the plate. Flip it over once or twice until it relaxes and becomes flexible, probably about 15-20 seconds.

7) Move wrapper to a clean work surface. Add a few strips of pork along with a few strips of all other veggies to wrapper. Don't add the fillings to the middle of the wrapper. Add them about 2/3s down the wrapper, closer to you. Leave about 1/2 an inch around the filling.

8) Fold the wrapper over the filling, working away from you. Fold the edges in and continue to roll. As you roll, pull back on the filling to keep it snug and tight in the wrapper.

9) Once you have all the rolls wrapped, slice them in half and serve them with the sauce!

Adapted from a Rasa Malaysia recipe.

Prepping the Pork

The marinade for this pork is really flavorful and pretty important to the final taste. Luckily it’s easy to make. Just roughly dice up your garlic and chilies and stuff and add them to a bowl with all the other ingredients.

It’s a pretty dark marinade.

A quick marinade.

Add your boneless pork chops to a bag with the marinade and let them sit for at least an hour. Longer would be just fine.

Good flavors in there.

I cooked my pork on my grill on super-hot heat, but you could also cook them in a cast iron skillet if you wanted. The brown sugar in the marinade will create a great crust on the pork, but it might cause some smoking if you cook them indoors.

A grill would be best, but use what you have. Depending on the thickness of your pork, the chops will probably need 4-5 minutes per side on high heat.

Then let them rest for 10 minutes or so and slice them pretty thin.

I was proud of these guys and honestly, they would’ve been great just by themselves!

Grilled and sliced!

Making the sauce

The dipping sauce for these rolls couldn’t be easier. Just add all the ingredients to a food processor and give it a quick pulse to combine everything. Depending on your peanut butter and hoisin sauce, you might need to add a bit of warm water to thin it out some.

It shouldn’t be clumpy at all.

Quick hoisin sauce.

If you don’t have a food processor, you could easily just stir everything together in a bowl. Just make sure to mince your garlic really finely if you’re using it. You definitely don’t need a food processor to make this recipe.

Making the rolls

I’ll be honest. I was nervous about these guys.

I wanted to make sure that I had everything ready, which I recommend, so at some point before you start rolling, slice up your red peppers, cucumbers, and basil. You could use lots of veggies for these guys, but these were really good as a start.

Spend some time to make sure you get nice evenly sized sticks.

Thin is the key.

Ok. Now it’s time to tackle the beast.

Spring rolls wrappers.

These guys kind of scared me because they look impossibly thin and fragile.

Strange things.

To use them, pour some hot water on a plate and set a wrapper on the plate to soak up some of the water and soften up a bit. Flip it over once or twice and after maybe 15 seconds it should be loose and flexible.

I was pretty skeptical about my abilities here.

Here’s the thing that I wasn’t expecting about these wrappers that took me a minute to get used to: They are a lot stronger than they look. Once they’re wet, you can tug on them and really stuff them full and they are surprisingly strong.

So once your wrapper is wet, lay it out flat on your work surface, add a few strips of pork and veggies. I also ripped up some lettuce that I added to the rolls.

To key to making these work is where you put the filling. DON’T put it directly in the center of the wrapper. Put it about 2/3s toward the side closest to you and leave a good 1/2 inch to an inch around the sides of the filling.

This one is gonna be pretty stuffed.

You can pack in quite a bit.

Then fold over the end closest to you, tuck in the ends like you would a burrito and continue to roll the wrapper away from you.

Try to keep the filling as tight as possible during the rolling. As you roll, pull the filling toward you which will keep it nice and snug.

Get it?

If it’s your first time making spring rolls, it’ll take you one or two to get the hang of it, but it’s completely doable.

I decided to slice all my rolls in half which showed off the pretty fillings.

Will ya look at that?!

Once you roll them all, slice them up, and stack them on a plate, you’ll have a really beautiful presentation that’s healthy and very delicious.

It’s kind of a show stopper appetizer if you ask me.

So good and light.

Of course, my dinner guests were probably somewhat confused how the same person who managed this also managed to completely destroy a pot of rice, but hey. I like to keep people on their toes.

I would guess that with all the prep time and everything these guys took me about an hour to make (but you need to marinate the pork earlier) and they were completely worth it.

I think spring rolls are going to be my new thing and it isn’t even spring yet!

Are you a spring roll fan? Have you tried making them? Leave a comment!

Tempeh Tempeh!

I consider myself a pretty adventurous eater. Probably not Bizarre Foods adventurous, but you can pretty much bet that if I come over to your house, I’ll eat whatever you put in front of me.

This has almost always been true about me, but has definitely been amped up over the last few years via Macheesmo. Now when I see something new, it’s not that I’ll eat it if it’s served to me, it’s that I develop a deep need not only eat the stuff, but cook with it, and make it delicious.

Enter tempeh. I’ve had this stuff only a handful of times and I’ve never felt confident enough about the dish to post on it. But this time the dish was worth posting. It was like I accidentally unlocked the secret tempeh code of the universe. It’s spicy and slightly sweet and pretty awesome.

In Oprah fashion, this dish is one of my favorite things and if I could, I would send you all home with your very own sample.

Sweet Heat Tempeh

Yield: Serves 2.

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

8 ounces tempeh (any flavor will work)
1 clove garlic
2 inches fresh ginger, minced or grated
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
1/3 Cup orange juice
1/4 Cup honey
1 Tablespoon chili garlic sauce
1 Tablespoon neutral oil (for cooking)
Cilantro (opt. garnish)

Directions:

1) Chop tempeh into bite-sized pieces.

2) In a small bowl, mix all the other ingredients (except the neutral oil). Whisk together well.

3) Add a drizzle of neutral oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat.

4) Once hot, add tempeh and cook for a few minutes per side until tempeh is lightly browned.

5) Add glaze to pan and cook until glaze reduces a bit and sticks to tempeh, about 2 minutes.

6) Remove and serve with greens and rice or wheat berries.

Let’s Talk Tempeh

If you’ve never have tempeh, it’s very similar to tofu except, I think maybe better in some cases. Tempeh is made with soy beans, just like tofu, except the beans aren’t mashed. So it’s a lot firmer and has a very different texture. Also, they ferment the soy beans and then add in other flavors as well.

I can’t really think of anything that has a similar texture to tempeh. It’s firm, but also kind of light. It has a bite to it, but isn’t crunchy at all.

I think it’s actually a lot easier to work with than tofu. You don’t have to press it or worry about it sticking or falling apart. It just works.

You can find it these days around the tofu in most supermarkets but it probably won’t be very prominent. You could also just ask someone in the supermarket for it which at a minimum will give you some entertainment because they will have no idea what you’re talking about.

Strange stuff...

Assuming you can find some of this stuff though, cooking it is actually a breeze. Pop it out of the wrapper and chop it into bite-sized pieces.

I sliced mine into 1/4 inch strips and then sliced those down the middle. This stuff cuts really easily.

Flying by the seat of my pants.

The Glaze

The thing about tempeh though (much like tofu) is that I find it pretty bland on its own.

And I don’t really do bland.

So I came up with this quick little Asian sweet heat glaze that was really awesome with the tempeh.

You’ll need this stuff.

These guys I know!

Be sure to chop up the garlic and ginger really well and then whisk everything together. Set this aside until you need it.

Glaze on!

Like I mention in the recipe, I also quickly sauteed some bok choy for the dish. You could use a lot of different greens for this, but I do think some veggies is a good addition if you want to make a whole meal out of this.

For later.

Cooking the Tempeh

This stuff is pretty much the easiest stuff to cook in the world. You don’t need to worry about cooking it all the way through like meat and it won’t fall apart like tofu does.

It’s pretty fail safe actually.

Just add a few Teaspoons of neutral oil to a large skillet and put it over medium high heat. Once it’s hot, add all the tempeh and try to spread it out into an even layer. Let the tempeh cook for a few minutes on each side.

It should get lightly golden brown, like this:

So far so good.

Next, turn your heat down a bit (to mediumish) and pour in your glaze. Give this a good stir so the glaze coats all the tempeh pieces evenly.

Continue to cook for another minute or two until the glaze thickens and sticks to all the pieces.

It’s a beautiful thing.

So far really good!

Whatever greens you choose to use, you can cook them in the same skillet. Just scoop out the tempeh and then add all the greens with maybe another drizzle of oil if the pan is dry.

I served the tempeh over some cooked wheat berries and bok choy with some cilantro on top.

Awesome meal.

This actually turned out to be a pretty spicy dish. The wheat berries and greens help kill the heat a bit.

If you refuse to venture into the land of the tempeh, you could use this glaze for all kinds of things from chicken to tofu as well.

Anybody a tempeh fan out there? Did I just turn anybody into one?

Puttin' my grill to use.

If you’ve been a long time Macheesmo reader (thanks!) then you probably know that one thing I disliked about my cooking setup in DC was that no-grill situation. I had no space for a grill and it drove me crazy. It was one of my top priorities to snag a snazzy grill when I moved to Colorado.

These rants did not fall on deaf ears and my loving mother and mother-in-law pitched in to get us a really nice gas grill. And if you think for a second that I’m just not going to grill because it’s December well then you have a new thing comin’!

Now. Some people might be a bit disappointed that the first grilled thing I’m choosing to post on Macheesmo is tofu, and so let me just address that right away.

1) The first thing I grilled was actually steak. I couldn’t think of a better way to break-in a grill.
2) Tofu is delicious so just get over it.

Grilled Tofu with Spicy Soba

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound extra firm tofu, pressed and cut into 6-8 triangles.
1 10 ounce package of soba noodles
1 Cup fresh basil, loosely packed
1/2 Cup parsley, loosely packed
2 cloves garlic
1 red jalapeno pepper (doesn't have to be red). You could use any number of chilis for this.
2 inches fresh ginger
2 Tablespoons peanut oil
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
Pinch of salt
Sesame oil for tofu

Directions:

1) Press tofu under a flat surface with a bit of weight to press out some of the water. Then slice tofu into triangle pieces that work well for grilling.

2) Brush tofu with sesame oil and set aside until ready to grill.

3) Combine pesto ingredients into a food processor and pulse until a paste. If you don't have a food processor, you can mince all the ingredients well and stir together.

4) Cook soba noodles according to package and then drain and toss with pesto.

5) Grill tofu over medium-high heat for 6 minutes a side, turning 90 degrees halfway through to make criss-cross marks.

6) Serve tofu over soba noodles.

Making the Pesto

This is kind of a modern, Asian slant on pesto. I’m not even sure if it’s cool to call it pesto, but that’s what I’m calling it because it’s just a few things mixed into a paste basically and served over noodles.

Awesome flavors.

If you have a food processor, you can just minimally chop the herbs and stuff and then toss them all in the processor for a few quick pulses.

If you don’t, then make sure you mince all your ingredients really well. The last thing you want is a big chuck of pepper or garlic in with your soba. It should be a pretty even texture.

Add in the oils and vinegar near the end. The little bit of liquid helps bring the pesto together.

Pesto 2.0.

Soba

If you’ve never cooked with soba, I’d really encourage you to give it a shot. If you can make spaghetti, then you can make soba. The only difference is the flavor. While spaghetti can be a bit bland, soba has a fantastic flavor on its own. It’s a bit nutty and is fantastic with the other flavors in this dish.

Soba soba.

Just cook the soba according to the package. Be sure not to overcook it or it’ll get really mushy. When it’s done, drain it and then immediately toss it with all the pesto.

This is a pasta that’s great hot or cold and makes awesome leftovers the next day.

Yum.

The Tofu

This might shock you, but tofu is actually really easy to grill. There’s no need to worry about cooking it all the way through or anything like that. Basically, all you’re looking for is to heat it up, get some nice grill marks on it, and infuse some nice flavor.

Anytime you are grilling or pan frying (which you can do for this recipe if you don’t have a grill), it helps to press the tofu block between a few paper towels with some weight on top to get out a lot of the liquid in the tofu. Then you can chop it up.

The only issue with tofu is that it does have a tendency to stick to things. So, I brushed all of my triangles with sesame oil which made them easy to move around on the grill.

Sesame oil is key.

I turned my grill on medium-high heat and grilled these guys for about 6 minutes a side, turning them 90 degrees at 3 minutes to get some criss-cross marks.

The criss-cross gives the tofu a nice even grilled texture over the whole piece. It also looks good!

BAM.

While your noodles are cooking and your tofu is grilling, you can chop up some scallions and peanuts for topping the dish.

Optional stuff. Sort of.

Then just toss a tofu triangle or two on a big mound of soba and add some garnish if you want.

It’s a really healthy dish that’s definitely not lacking in the flavor department.

Healthy stuff.

I don’t know if you guys picked up on this from this post but…

I’M REALLY EXCITED TO HAVE A GRILL.

Anybody a grilled tofu fan? Leave a comment!

Who needs take-out?

I’ve been a bachelor all week because Betsy is in Colorado taking the bar exam. Well, a bachelor plus a cat I guess. But still. It means I don’t have to make the bed. So there.

I was super-pumped to make an awesome bachelor meal though and I was pretty excited when Chinese Take-out won the poll last week.

I had dreams of doing some pretty crazy stuff like a bunch of different dumplings or egg rolls or something, but then I remembered that I’m a bachelor and most bachelors are not gonna make dumplings for themselves. So I made chicken lo mein! (based on the suggestion of Julie the commenter).

I chose it because it’s pretty straightforward to make so maybe I can sway a bachelor to put down the phone and pick up the skillet! Plus it’s a ton of food. I’ve eaten it for three meals during the week and still have leftovers.

Chicken Lo Mein

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

1 13 ounce package of lo mein noodles
1 pound chicken, diced. I used boneless skinless thighs but you can use breasts I guess.
1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced thin
6 scallions, diced (mince the greens for a garnish)
2 Tablespoons canola or other neutral oil

Sauce:
4 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons oyster sauce
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
2 Tablespoons water
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and grated or minced

Garnishes: (Optional)
Soy sauce
Scallion greens
Chopped peanuts
Chili sauce

Directions:

1) Slice the mushrooms and scallions thinly. Dice the chicken into small pieces.

2) Mince the garlic and gingers and whisk with all the other sauce ingredients.

3) Cook the noodles (lo mein or spaghetti) according to instructions on package and then drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.

4) Add Canola oil to a hot pan (wok or large skillet). Once the oil is hot, add the chicken and cook until done (about 5 minutes). Remove the chicken and add the sliced mushrooms to the pan. Add another tablespoon of oil if the pan is dry. Cook the mushrooms for a minute or two until they are slightly soft, but not soggy.

5) Remove the mushrooms from the pan and add all the sauce. It should come to a simmer almost immediately. Then add the chicken and mushrooms to the sauce. Reduce for a minute or two.

6) Add noodles to the mix and toss everything together. Cook for another 30 seconds. Add diced scallions and toss to coat.

7) Serve immediately with chili sauce, diced scallion greens, chopped peanuts and extra soy sauce.

Making The Sauce

This sauce is a pretty basic one that’s also good for stir-fries. You can adjust the flavors to your tastes.

Standard sauce stuff.

Just mince or press or grate your garlic and ginger and whisk everything together! Give it a taste. It’ll be pretty strong, but adjust the flavors if you want. You could add a bit of chili sauce directly to this if you wanted the lo mein to be spicy.

All mixed up.

Prepping the other ingredients

Besides the sauce, the ingredients for this dish come together really quickly. Just thinly slice the mushrooms and the whites of the scallions.

Dice the green parts of the scallions for the garnish. And yes. Bachelor dishes can still have garnish.

As for the chicken, just dice it into small pieces as well.

Mushrooms and scallions.

The Noodles

Lo Mein noodles are pretty common at specialty stores like Whole Foods or at any Asian market. These days though you might be able to find that literally any grocery store in the Asian section. I think they cook up perfectly and they’re good cold also which is nice.

In a pinch though, you can use spaghetti honestly. That would be a totally bachelor thing to do.

Cool noodles.

Cook the noodles (spaghetti or lo mein) according to the package. It should only take a few minutes. Then drain the noodles and rinse them with cold water to stop the cooking. You definitely don’t want to overcook these guys because you need to simmer them in the sauce later.

That was easy!

Cooking the Chicken and Shrooms

You need to pre-cook the chicken and mushrooms quickly. Then you can easily combine everything all at once with the sauce. Add your canola oil to a large wok or skillet over very high heat. Once the oil is hot add the diced chicken and stir. Cook it until it’s done, probably about 5 minutes.

I used thighs. Suggest you do the same.

Set your chicken aside and add your mushrooms to the hot pan. If your pan is dry, add another tablespoon of oil. Cook these for a minute or two until they’re starting to wilt, but not soggy at all.

Don't overcook these guys.

Everything Together

So the noodles are done, the chicken and mushrooms are cooked, and the sauce is, well, sitting there. So let’s put it all together.

In the same pan you’ve been using to cook the chicken and mushrooms, add all the sauce over high heat. It’ll simmer almost immediately. Then add the chicken and mushrooms and give it a good stir. Let the sauce reduce down for about a minute and then add all the noodles. Stir everything together.

Finally, add the chopped scallions and give everything a final stir. The sauce should be pretty thick at this point and coating everything evenly.

You’re done Mr. Bachelor. You can eat now.

So good.

Of course, the real bachelor thing to do would be to eat this out of the pan, but I decided to plate it up all pretty. Just for you guys.

OK. I switched to a fork after a few bites.

To be quite honest, this was delicious. I’d put it up against any random chinese take-out place any day of the week. That doesn’t mean that’s it’s the best lo mein I’ve ever had, but it was top five probably and pretty easy to throw together. Plus I’m not trying to impress anyone here. It’s just for me.

Start to finish this was probably a 30 minute meal and it fed me all week long.

Hope all of you bachelors give this one a shot!