Mmm, my first post-detox dinner. I had some spinach, broccoli and chili to use up, so I went to the supermarket and bought some marinated tofu, mushrooms, spring onions, beansprouts and hoisin sauce (oops, processed food, naughty) and managed NOT to buy any wine and went home and heated a bit of sesame oil in a wok, stir-fried the tofu and veg, added the hoisin sauce, boiled some basmati rice and had my first hot, cooked, solid food of the week, eaten out of a bowl with a fork and not drank out of a smoothie jug.

And I didn’t even have a massive portion. Full of self-control, me.

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More Quorn for dinner tonight.  Blimey, anyone would think I got sent some free samples or something.

Still, I don’t really need an excuse to eat noodles.  Especially chilli ones.  And these Quorn Chilli Stir Fry Strips are already marinated so you don’t need to add any spices of your own.  I usually end up pouring more chilli sauce onto my dinner but these were tasty enough but not too spicy for The Meat Eater who’s a bit of a wuss when it comes to chilli.

Here they are, along with the rest of the ingredients I added to the stir fry.  (They’re the bright orange things in the black tray.  The other things are vegetables, which can be found in all good supermarkets.)

Oh yeah, there’s a jar of Lazy Garlic there that I got sent to try.  It’s chopped up garlic preserved in white wine vinegar and when you sniff the jar, all you can smell is vinegar and not garlic.  Tasted fine in the stir fry but wouldn’t fancy trying to make garlic bread with it.  Personally, I think white wine should be drunk out of a glass, not used to preserve garlic. 

Anyway, back to the Quorn.  The finished result, served with egg noodles.

Quorn Sweet Chilli Stir Fry
(serves 2)

250g (1 pack) Quorn Sweet Chilli Stir Fry Strips
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 red pepper de-seeded and sliced
1 red onion finely sliced
1 garlic clove crushed

stir-fry vegetables sufficient for two portions:
baby sweetcorn
mange tout sliced
pak choi

Rice or noodles to accompany the dish

Method

1. Pre-heat the oil in a wok and fry the onion, garlic and pepper for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add the Quorn Sweet Chilli Stir Fry Strips, mange tout and baby sweetcorn.  Stir fry for 5 minutes.
3. Add the pak choi, stir through and allow to wilt slightly. 
4. Serve with rice or noodles.

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Veganomicon

Tonight’s dinner was made from the brilliant Veganomicon.  I love this book.

This is the only vegan cookbook I’ve ever made anything nice out of, although a lot of the  ingredients are items I’d find difficult to get hold of in London, let alone in a small village in Kent.

I kept quiet about it being vegan to The Meat Eater until he’d told me (without prompting or being kicked under the table) how nice it was and how he liked the fact that although I had spilt a lot of curry powder all over the hob, there wasn’t too much curry powder taste to it (probably because I’d spilt it all over the hob…).

The original recipe calls for Seitan Cutlets but I swapped that for tofu.

Curried udon noodle stir-fry

Ingredients (serves 4)

½ pound fresh udon noodles or dried udon noodles

Curry roux sauce
2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons curry powder
½ teaspoon garam masala
½ cup vegetable broth
2 teaspoons sugar

Udon stir-fry
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 large yellow onion, sliced into thin strips
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced into thin strips
1 hot red chili pepper, sliced very thinly (optional)
1 block of tofu, cubed
½ pound broccoli florets, sliced into bite-size chunks
¼ cup vegetable broth
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce

Prepare the curry roux sauce

Combine the flour and 2 tablespoons peanut oil in a small saucepan.  Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture browns to the colour of rich caramel and smells toasty, about 10 minutes or less.  Stir in curry powder and garam masala, and cook for another minute while stirring constantly.  Switch to using a wire whisk, then pour in the vegetable broth in a steady stream.  Whisk in the sugar and cook the roux, stirring constantly, until a thick sauce forms, about 2 minutes.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

To prepare the stir-fry

Heat the 2 tablespoons of peanut oil in a large (at least 11-inch) non-stick frying pan or a wok and cook the sliced onion for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened and translucent.  Add the ginger, red bell pepper, hot chili, and tofu, and stir-fry for another 5 minutes, until the pepper starts to soften.  Add the broccoli and stir-fry for 4 to 5 minutes, until it turns bright green.

Add the udon noodles to the stir-fried vegetables, sprinkle with soy sauce and stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes.

Whisk ¼ cup of the vegetable broth into the curry roux sauce in the saucepan.  Pour the sauce over the udon stir-fry and stir to coat everything completely with the sauce.  Stir and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the sauce is simmering and the noodles are warm.  Remove from the heat and serve.

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I seem to be having themed meals recently.  The week before last was Italian (home made pizza, sweet potato & mushroom lasagne, mushroom & asparagus pasta); last week was Mexican (white bean chili, spicy bean enchiladas) and now this week seems to be taking on a Quorn theme as on Monday we had Quorn chicken style tikka masala and tonight’s offering was Quorn beef style teriyaki.  And very nice it was too.

Quorn beef style teriyaki

Ingredients (serves 2)
300g Beef Style Quorn Pieces
75ml groundnut oil
50ml soy sauce
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp ginger, finely chopped
½ an orange, juice and zest
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
125g dried egg noodles
½ red pepper, thinly sliced
50g mushrooms, thinly sliced
6 spring onions, sliced diagonally into 1cm pieces
½ lemon juice
2 tbsp coriander, finely chopped

Method

1. Place the Quorn pieces into a bowl and add 50ml of the groundnut oil, the soy sauce, garlic, ginger, orange juice and zest and rice wine vinegar.  Leave to marinate while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
2. Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet, drain and set aside.
3. Place a wok over a medium heat and add the remaining 25ml of groundnut oil.  Add the Quorn and marinade and cook for a few minutes.  Add the red pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the mushroom and spring onion and cook for 2 minutes more.
4. Add the lemon juice and coriander.
5. Add the drained noodles and combine in the wok with the other ingredients.

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