Tag Archives: bowl

Magic Coconut Cilantro Sauce

The best part about Vegan MoFo is reading the hundreds of other blogs participating and getting ideas for meals to eat, places to go, things to covet, cookbooks to buy, and dogs to maybe someday pet.  It can actually get kind of overwhelming as the month goes on and the unread posts in your reader start to pile up. Mine is starting to get pretty bad even though I’m reading tons every day. On one of the first days I pinned this post by Tahini Too about a bowl she had ’cause it sounded so good, “quinoa, black beans, steamed kale, carrots, maple tempeh, local hazelnuts, and a magical sauce”. It sounded perfect I love hazelnuts and a magical sauce that maybe contained cilantro and coconut sounded like the perfect sauce to add to my bowl repertoire. Somehow between reading it and recreating it I forgot about the maple tempeh (which was arguably the most exciting part) and decided to go a little Indian with the sauce. Over the weekend we had a cilantro chutney from a recipe from Lord Krishna’s Cuisine and the magic sauce was a riff on that. It was very different than the chutney in the end, really simple to make but was kind of a unique flavor and pretty delicious. All that cilantro made it taste really vibrant and the siracha added just a little pep. I even wrote down the recipe.

Magic Coconut Cilantro Sauce
1 teaspoon cumin
3 teaspoons gomasio (sesame seeds with sea salt)
1/2 cup of coconut milk
2/3 cup cilantro
1 teaspoon of Siracha

Toast the cumin and sesame seeds for a minute or two in a dry skillet, blend with other ingredients.

I poured it on top of quinoa, chickpeas, steamed red chard, grated carrots, and toasted hazelnuts.

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Grain-Bean-Green bowls

Lately I have been eating almost exclusively bowls. Well, bowls for dinner anyway and tacos for breakfast. Ok, truth police it’s really been iced coffee for breakfast, breakfast tacos for lunch and then bowls for dinner. I think it started with a trip to the Steeping Room… or maybe the Fire Bowl Cafe. Both places have been regulars for me lately and I am still kind of easing back into cooking after not really being able to for a year. Bowls are kind of perfect since they are so simple and can suit any desire. 

This one was especially delicious, my boss gave me an acorn squash from his garden and I roasted that along with some herb & panko covered tofu. I also cooked some French lentils with tarragon and some other spices and topped everything in miso tahini dressing. The whole thing probably took me less then 20 minutes to prepare which is just about perfect. Lazy meals for those lazy summer days. I love it.

Kentucky Fried Tofu Bowl

What if the colonel had a pink haired grandaughter that took over the company and changed it to Kentucky Fried Tofu and instead of commercial featuring flying pieces of dead birds they had flying pieces of tofu. Would people still protest the company but for different reasons? Would the food still be gross?

These are the topics that we could have discussed while eating my version of KFC’s bowls. Actually, the inspiration came from something we used to eat at summer camp, fried fish mixed with mashed potatoes and corn. I didn’t feel like cooking and this seemed like an easy and hilarious meal to replicate.  I bought popcorn tofu and canned corn from Wheatsville, made some mashed potatoes with sauted garlicky kale so I wouldn’t feel totally deprived of any nutrition, and leftover gravy. Everyone really liked their bowls but who doesn’t like popcorn tofu?