When I posted about seasoning rice, I got asked what I was eating it with. Well, here’s the recipe. It’s really hard to find gluten-free vegetarian options at Chinese restaurants. Most of the times I’ve been able to eat out, it’s been fried tofu, which is lovely the first few times but after a while starts weighing you down. Some things are just better to make yourself.

I didn’t press my tofu before making this but it would probably help the texture of the tofu. You could swap in tempeh cubes, seitan, or shredded chicken. To keep it gluten-free, make sure to use a wheat-free soy sauce.

Healthy Tofu Stir-Fry

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 2 servings)

• 1 block firm or extra firm tofu, cubed
• 2/3 cup bean sprouts
• 2/3 cup broccoli slaw
• 3 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/4 cup sugar OR 3 Tablespoons liquid sweetener
• 1 Tablespoon sriracha sauce(optional)
• 2 Tablespoons cooking starch(arrowroot, tapioca, or corn) + 2 Tablespoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil(optional)

Method:

1. Heat up a large frying pan over medium heat and toss in the tofu, bean sprouts, broccoli slaw, soy sauce, sweetener and sriracha. Mix thoroughly
2. Cover with a lid and let the contents steam until the vegetables are tender and the tofu has taken on a brown color, about 5-10 minutes.
3. Dissolve your cooking starch in the water and pour it into the pan. Quickly mix the contents around while the starch turns the cooking liquid into a glaze.
4. Finish with salt and sesame oil if using. Serve hot with vegetables or rice.

This goes great with seasoned rice or healthy Chinese broccoli. I wouldn’t omit the sweetener or it would taste rather bland. If you don’t use the sriracha, add about 1/2 Tablespoon of rice vinegar instead to make the flavor pop.

One of my favorite things about being home so far has been having a stove to use whenever; it’s much more motivating to cook something when your refrigerator and stove aren’t separated by 3 flights of stairs.

Quinoa cakes are something that have always intrigued me; they look so fancy and yet always sounded like something easy to make. Finally after seeing Emily post about them, I knew I had to try them. These couldn’t have been easier to throw together. I just took the ingredients out of my pantry and they were cooked before I knew it.

This recipe calls for precooked quinoa, so if you’re planning on making this note that cooking the quinoa will take extra time if you don’t already have some.

Walnut & Herb Quinoa Cakes(inspired by this recipe)

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 2 cakes or 1 serving):

• 3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons cooked quinoa
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons crushed walnuts
• Oil for cooking

Method:

1. Combine the first five ingredients together in a bowl and mix until it all comes together.
2. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat and add a little oil to keep the cakes from sticking. Drop a lump of the quinoa mixture onto the hot pan and with a spoon or fork flatten it into a patty shape.
3. Cook for 5 minutes on each side, flipping once halfway through to get a nice, crisp crust. Repeat with the other half of quinoa and egg mixture.
4. Serve hot or cold as leftovers.

I loved how the walnuts on the outside toasted up and gave incredible flavor to the cakes. Overall this was a surprisingly easy and delicious recipe, something I’d make again and again.

After weeks of unseasonably warm weather, Winter is hitting and it’s hitting hard. It’s rained the past few days; and the temperature has dipped into the 30 and 40s. It’s no wonder I was craving chicken noodle soup recently.

I was thinking of just riding out the craving, since it’s not the easiest thing to satisfy for someone who’s vegetarian and gluten-free. Then I realized I had enough food lying around to make a decent meat-free, gluten-free soup that hit all the right notes.

I loved how flavorful this was, especially for something that was so simple. It was exactly like any good soup I’ve ever had, with a deep and savory broth. The quinoa and tempeh make this totally satisfying, as well. If gluten’s not an issue, I bet the texture of seitan would work great in this soup, too, in place of the tempeh.

10-Minute Chickenless, Noodleless Soup

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 4 side servings or 2 entrée servings):

• 2 cups precooked quinoa
• 3/4 cup chopped kale, fresh or frozen
• 3/4 cup peas, fresh or frozen
• 1 block of tempeh, cubed
• 3 cups water
• 1 vegetarian bouillon cube
• 1/2 teaspoon salt plus more to taste

Method:

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a large pot
2. Bring the water to a boil. Make sure to mix well enough that the bouillon cube dissolves completely into the broth.
3. Once heated through, remove from the stove and serve hot.

And then I ate this with 2 clementines because I’m paranoid about getting sick during finals period. Nobody sneeze on me, please.

I think you can tell a lot about people based on what they love to eat: If they go to bed dreaming of bagels slathered in cream cheese, or wait each year until grilling season for authentic BBQ, or haunt the same local restaurant week after week for all-you-can-eat sushi.

A few years ago if you asked what my favorite comfort food meal was—the dinner I couldn’t get enough of—I’d say buffalo wings and pizza. It was the same thing we got every Tuesday night from a downtown restaurant where the pizza was particularly doughy and greasy and the wings drenched in batter and hot sauce. It wasn’t a particularly gourmet(or even good) meal but just the sight of it was familiar and inviting.

A lot’s changed since then. Having to stop eating gluten and becoming a vegetarian have opened my eyes up to a whole new set of foods. Most of all it’s shown me that there are healthier options than greasy pizza and fried chicken that can be just as familiar and comforting at the end of a long day.

When I was little I spent most of my Summer at my grandparent’s apartment since both my parents worked and they lived 1.5 miles away. My grandmother knew how to cook a few things, one of them being scrambled eggs that she cooked with a large wooden spoon and served with buttered toast. Now whenever I need that taste of home I go straight for the scrambled eggs—occasionally made with a wooden spoon—and served next to buttered home fries and a bed of steamed kale for color.

A lot of people will tell you the secret to good scrambled eggs is adding milk to the batter. I don’t think that’s it. The key to making good eggs is to take them off the heat before they’re finished cooking—when they’re mostly cooked but still have a glossy, wet shine on top. Eggs, like any protein, continue to cook even when they’re cooling; if you cook them fully on the stove, they’ll dry out as soon as you take them out of the pan.

And the secret to good potatoes? Time. Time in the oven, and then time on a hot pan on each side to get a brown crust. Oil, butter, and sliced onions never hurt either. 

And of course there’s nothing more comforting than the whole plate covered in tangy, salty-sweet ketchup, coarse sea salt and fresh black pepper.

What’s the one meal that feels like home to you?

Over the weekend I saw two recipes for quinoa pecan stuffing that caught my eye. I loved the presentation and photos from this recipe on For The Love Of Food(just try looking at it and not getting hungry). And I loved the addition of butternut squash and pecans in this recipe from The Cooking Channel, but I didn’t love the choice of seasoning. Instead I worked from both recipes, picking what I think is the best of both and making a different quinoa stuffing.

Is it the best I ever had? Not really. But it’s the best I ever had that cooks up in 20 minutes in one pot. If I made this again I’d sauté some onions and celery and perhaps mushrooms like one of the original recipe has to develop the flavor a little more.

Quinoa Pecan Stuffing With Butternut Squash

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 4 servings):

• 1 cup quinoa, washed and drained
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth*
• 1 cup cooked and diced butternut squash
• 3/4 teaspoon savory herbs like thyme and rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup crushed pecans plus more for garnish

*Since there’s very few seasonings in this recipe, using broth and not water is important to add deep flavor.

Method:

1. Bring the quinoa and broth to a boil over the stove. Cover the pot and turn off the heat, letting the quinoa absorb the liquid for 15 minutes until it’s fully cooked.
2. Add in the diced squash, herbs, salt, and pecans and mix those in while fluffing the quinoa.
3. Serve hot and garnish with extra pecans if desired.

I was worried using so few ingredients the recipe wouldn’t hold up to either of the originals, but the broth adds a ton of flavor(I used Rapunzel’s vegan bullion cubes in case you’re wondering). A fun variation on this would be substituting cubed sweet potatoes in for the butternut squash.