July 03, 2009

Katrina's cold Chinese noodles

© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking
We were recently treated to a dinner at the home of Katrina, one of my husbands graduate students. The food was all wonderful (I forgot my camera, of course) but I particularly wanted to share one of the recipes - a cold noodle dish - with you. It's perfect for summer, tastes fabulous and is so easy to make. I used Ancient Harvest quinoa noodles which are made with corn flour and quinoa and are gluten-free. I had considered making this with udon noodles or whole wheat spaghetti but opted for the quinoa instead, and it was perfect. I also think buckwheat noodles would be a good choice.

Katrina, who is from China and thus knows the best ingredients to use for this traditional Chinese dish, gave me a package of specially seasoned nori to use in the recipe, but I think you could use plain toasted nori as well. When she gave me the noodle recipe, Katrina told me what ingredients she used, but didn't give me any quantities, so the amounts I'm listing are what I decided to use. The finished dish tasted wonderful, but feel free to make adjustments if you disagree with my quantities.

Katrina's noodles

  • 8 ounces spaghetti (I used Ancient Harvest quinoa pasta)
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon tamari or soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon Chinese black vinegar (or brown rice vinegar)
  • 1/2 teaspoon red chili sauce (sambal oelek)
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 inch fresh ginger root, cut fine (about 1 tablespoon)
  • 1 large clove garlic, minced very fine
  • few grinds black pepper
  • 1 sheet seasoned or plain toasted nori, cut with scissors into small rectangles
  • chopped cilantro, optional
  1. Cook the spaghetti according to package directions al dente. When cooked, drain and rinse under cold running water to cool quickly. Drain noodles again and place in a bowl.
  2. Add the oil and toss to coat the noodles.
  3. Add vinegar, tamari, chili, garlic, ginger, sugar and pepper, and mix well.
  4. Just before serving, add the nori. Mix some in and transfer the noodles to a serving bowl. Arrange the remaining nori over the top of the noodles.
  5. Optional: Sprinkle with chopped cilantro.
Makes two average, or three to four very small servings.

© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking
We served the noodles with barbecued seitan and steamed kale. The seitan was supposed to be barbecued, but since we don't currently have a barbecue, we marinated it in sauce and pan fried it in a small amount of oil. You could also broil it.

© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking
Eating raw garlic doesn't agree with my digestive system, but these noodles are so good I was willing to feel a little sick in order to eat them. Maybe next time I'll try drinking a big mug of peppermint tea with my raw garlic.

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Vegan restaurant alert
Have you ever worried that the restaurant food you were told was vegan, contained animal products? If yes, then you might want to read about this startling undercover investigation taken on by two foodies in LA. It's a long but amazing post, and worth reading all the way to the end. (from quarrygirl)

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11 comments:

  1. You are so lucky to have authentic noodles! And now we can all benefit from that great recipes. :) I read that quarrygirl article--scary, scary!!!

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  2. Alisa,
    I love these noodles, even though the garlic upsets my stomach.

    Ricki,
    I couldn't believe Quarrygirl and Mr. Wishbone (was that his name?) pulled off that investigation with such exquisite detail. Whoa.

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  3. That recipe has everything in it I like! Thanks for sharing it!

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  4. Those look yummy! Great blog, I love vegan cooking

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  5. Yum! Both the noodle salad and the seitan are tempting me! They look great.

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  6. Claire,
    Your welcome.

    Beth,
    Thank you and thanks for visiting.

    Vegetation,
    Both of these dishes have become favorites at our house. Thanks for your comment.

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  7. Wow - that sounds awesome!
    Isn't that investigation freaky? Professionally done, and really scary.

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  8. Shellyfish,
    Yes about the investigation — freaky, professional, scary. I try not to order vegan things with meat names in restaurants unless I know it was made on the premises from things like tofu or seitan. But the cheese thing at Green Leaves was really disturbing, don't you think?

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  9. mmmm... nori in a noodle salad. makes total sense. problem w/ spiced nori is that I will eat all of it right away and have none for the recipe... that is a delicious problem indeed.

    that article on the la restaurants was really interesting. makes me really question the fake meats I get at restaurants.

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  10. Bethany,
    You know, the noodles were so good I wanted to make them again, but I ate all the nori. It's a problem we share.

    ReplyDelete

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