Swiss chard with udon, raisins, garlic and toasted pumpkin seeds / baked marinated tempeh

First, I should mention that I've never really liked Swiss chard. It's just too beety tasting, and I'm not thrilled with beets. That said, I will eat these things if I come upon them at the table. My son and d-i-l in Seattle are very fond of Swiss chard and when they cook it it always tastes much better than I think it will. It tastes good, and makes me think I don't dislike it after all. But it's not something I would buy on purpose at the store. I'd rather have kale.

The garlic is added to the wok.

However, this year when we planted the garden - a garden that will be beneficial mainly to our renters since we'll be gone before most of it is ready to eat - I decided to plant Swiss chard because it grows fast, and the thought that I might be able to actually eat something from the garden other than lettuce, was enough to get me past my true feelings. Well, yahoo, the chard is indeed ready, and today I gathered a huge bowlful of thinnings. (The pole beans are also doing well and who knows, maybe we'll get a few of those. And the broccoli plants have tiny broccoli heads forming. And the Tumbling Tom tomato is covered with green cherry tomatoes, so there's a glimmer of hope that we might get to harvest something besides Swiss chard before August 15.)

The Swiss chard gets stir-fried in the wok.

Anyway, faced with this giant bowl of fresh greens, I had to cook something. I made a simple dish from the chard with crimini mushrooms, lots of garlic, raisins and toasted pumpkin seeds, and it wasn't too bad. It was seasoned with Shark brand sriracha. (I read that Shark sriracha is a more traditional chili sauce than the commonly used rooster brand. It's what is used in Thailand, and unlike Rooster sriracha, it has no preservatives. Now if only it didn't have 20% sugar. In Australia, my husband was able to find chili sauce that contained neither preservatives or sugar, but we haven't found anything like that here. If you know a good brand, please let me know.)

This is a very flexible recipe, and in keeping with that theme (and because I didn't measure), I'm going to be a little vague with ingredients and cooking directions. It's the basic idea that counts.

Swiss chard with udon noodles

• about 2 cups crimini (or whatever) mushrooms, sliced
• handful of raisins (1/4 cup?)
• olive oil
• lots of fresh garlic, minced fine (at least 1 tablespoon)
• 1 tablespoon sriracha chili sauce (more or less to taste)
• handful of grape tomatoes, halved (I would have added these but we didn't have any!)
• BIG bunch Swiss chard, leaves and stems, roughly cut
• 10 ounces udon noodles
• fresh ground black pepper
• handful of pumpkin seeds (or sunflower seeds), toasted
• chopped green onions might be nice added at the end, though I didn't add any

1. First toast the pumpkin or sunflower seeds in a wok until browned and fragrant. Set aside in a small bowl.
2. Cook the udon. Drain it, rinse it well with cold running water and drain again. Place it in a bowl and toss with toasted sesame oil.
3. Cook the mushrooms and raisins for a minute or two in oil in a wok. As they begin to soften, add the garlic and cook for a minute. (Add a little more oil if needed.)
4. Mix in the sriracha and tomatoes, then add the chard and stir fry briefly until the chard is wilted, mixing ingredients together.
5. Add the noodles to the wok and toss for a minute until noodles are heated.
6. Place in serving bowl and grind pepper over the noodles.
7. Sprinkle the toasted pumpkin seeds over all.

We had our chardy noodles with Basic Oven-Baked Marinated Tempeh from Crescent Dragonwagon's "Passionate Vegetarian."

What's cooking? Udon, veggies, Vietnamese soup

It's been a stressful week as we're trying to find a place to live in the city where two of our our kids and their families live, nearly 2,000 miles away from where we live now. We've got our kids helping by visiting in person the places we find online, but it's still confusing to know what to do. We found what seemed like a perfect house to rent, but the kids think it might be a little too urban and not "neighborly" enough, and also too far from one of their homes. They looked at another one tonight they think would be good, but it's only for one year, which means we'd have to move again in a year. One minute I'm excited to be moving near the kids, and the next I'm upset about leaving our home and friends, and freaked out over how complicated the whole thing is. Not much of my energy has been going towards creative cooking, but that doesn't mean we haven't been eating well. We've been depending on old (and newer) favorites that we don't have to think about. I'm posting a meal my son made (he doesn't use recipes, and I walked in to late to see what he did) and a great soup we've been eating ever since I saw it on Vegan Feast Kitchen. Bryanna has graciously allowed me to reprint her recipe, and I've noted the changes we made to suit our tastes.



Here's a delicious udon, tofu and green pea stir fry created by my son.


The udon was accompanied by a red pepper, bok choy and mushroom dish, plus rice.

Make soup!
The following great recipe, which we recently tried and loved, comes from Notes From the Vegan Feast Kitchen written by Bryanna Clark Grogan, and is reprinted with permission. I loved it so much I wanted to share it with my readers.

Vegan Vietnamese Fisherman's soup

BRYANNA'S VEGAN VIETNAMESE "FISHERMAN'S SOUP"
Servings: 6
The fresh-tasting soup, despite the long list of ingredients, is easy to put together. (If you are really in a hurry, you can use chopped garlic and ginger from jars, and already-shredded cabbage in a bag.) It's very low in calories and fat, but filling and spicy. You can use authentic Vietnamese ingredients, or substitute more common North American ones, still with good results. Bean sprouts are a must, though!

• 6 large dried shiitake (or Chinese black forest) mushrooms
• 2 cups boiling water
• 3 cups good-tasting vegetarian "chicken-style" broth
• 2 cups shredded cabbage (I use savoy)
• 1 can (19 ounces) pineapple tidbits, unsweetened, with juice
• 1 large onion, chopped or thinly sliced
• 2 medium carrots, in matchstick pieces
• 1 cup canned or fresh diced tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 stalks lemon grass OR 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
• 2 tablespoons sugar or 1 tablespoon agave nectar
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped (1 teaspoon)
• 1 teaspoon Asian (fish-free) red pepper sauce (or to taste)
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 8 ounces medium-firm tofu OR extra-firm silken tofu, cut into small cubes (can be reduced-fat)
• OPTIONAL: 2 tablespoons dulse flakes or nori flakes OR a small piece of kombu seaweed

Last-minute additions:

• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped mint, basil, or cilantro (or 2 teaspoons dried)
• 2 tablespoons tamarind concentrate or paste OR 1/4 cup lime or lemon juice
• 2 pinches salt

Garnish: fresh bean sprouts, and chopped or slivered green onions for garnish

1. Soak the dried mushrooms for 30 minutes in the 2 cups boiling water, covered. After 30 minutes, drain them, saving the soaking broth. Trim off the tough stems, which you can discard. Slice the mushroom caps thinly. While the mushrooms soak, prepare all the other ingredients.
2. In a large pot, mix the broth, cabbage, pineapple and juice, onion, carrot, sliced mushrooms, mushroom soaking water, tomatoes, soy sauce, lemon grass or lemon peel, sugar, ginger, optional seaweed, garlic, red pepper sauce, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then turn down to medium-low and simmer, covered, just until the cabbage and carrots are crisp-tender-- about 15 minutes. Add the tofu, stirring gently, and simmer about 5 more minutes.
3. Add the herbs, tamarind concentrate or lemon or lime juice, and salt.
4. Taste for seasoning. Serve each bowl topped with fresh bean sprouts and slivered green onions.

Our changes: We used low sodium vegetable broth, bok choy instead of cabbage, only 2 tablespoons of tamari soy sauce and no extra salt. We added fine rice vermicelli and yuba. (Yuba is Chinese, not Vietnamese, but we really like it.) We didn't have bean sprouts this time.