Chinese Vegan Char Siew Recipe (Mock Roasted Sweet Pork)

You can cook many types of dishes with taukan (wet beancurd strips). Char siew is a dish that every kids love and adults too. LOL!
There are many versions of vegetarian Char Siew. Here is my simplified Chinese Vegan Char Siew Recipe.

Ingredients
Taukan, 1 block
Five Spice powder, 1/2 teaspoon
Light soya sauce, 2 tablespoons
Sugar, 3 tablespoons
Vegetable oil for deep frying

Marinade the taukan with all the ingredients. Heat up wok and put in the vegetable oil. Slowly put in the taukan pieces one by one. Taukan cooked easily, so you just have to fry it until they turned golden brown in colour. Take out the taukan and drain away excess oil. Cut the taukan into strips.
Use the leftover marinade as the sauce. Cook it in the frying pan and bring to a boil. Pour a little of the sauce into the fried taukan before serving.

Simple Vegetarian Chinese Style Stir Fried Spinach Recipe

I bought a bunch of fresh Chinese spinach from the wet market last weekend. My favourite way of cooking the spinach is by frying it in a hot wok. If the wok is hot enough, you will have a spinach dish with nice ‘wok hei’ (wok burnt) smell.
Cooking the spinach briefly would help to break down some of the nutrients to enable our body to absorb them better. This is a rather healthy way of cooking green spinach.

Ingredients
Green Spinach, 1 bunch, cut into bite sizes
Olive oil or Vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Garlic, 3 pcs, chopped finely

Heat up wok and put in the vegetable oil. Put in the garlic and stir it quickly to avoid burning it. Add in the spinach and fry until it turn a little light green in colour. Add a little water and salt to taste. Serve while still hot.

Vegetarian Wet Twisted Tau Kee (Bean Curd Strips) and Cauliflower in Tomato Sauce Recipe

I still have some leftover tau kee in my freezer and I guess it would go along well with the cauliflower that I have. My kids love dishes that are cooked using tomato sauce. They would flood their rice with the savoury tomato sauce gravy. The best thing about these wet twisted Tau Kee is that they are very versatile ingredients and suitable for any type of vegetarian dishes.

Ingredients
Twisted Wet Tau Kee, 10 pcs
Cauliflower, 1 cup
Onion, 1 pc, cut into slices
Tomato sauce, 8 table spoons
Chilly Sauce, 1 teaspoon
Basil Leaves, 1 pc
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste

Heat up wok, add a little olive oil and sauté the onions until they turn soft. Put in the twisted tau kee and cauliflower. Stir fry for a short while. Add a little water, tomato sauce, chilly sauce, basil leaves, salt and sugar to taste. Serve hot with steamed rice or corn bread.

Vegetarian Baked Brinjal (Egg plant) with Tomato Recipe

Brinjals or egg plant belongs to the nightshade family of plants like tomato, which contain traces of solanine. Therefore those with Rheumatoid Arthritis should not take these types of vegetables because they could make the joint pain worse.
However, eggplant is really nice and easy to cook. For those without joints problem, I guess it should be ok to eat egg plants!

Ingredients
Brinjal (egg plant), 2 pcs
Tomato, 2 pcs
Salt to taste
Soya sauce, a dash
Paprika, 1 teaspoon
Olive oil, 3 tablespoons
Pepper to taste
Butter, 1 tablespoon
Garlic, 3 cloves, chopped finely

Cut brinjals into four. Cut off the top part of the tomato and a little of the bottom part so that it can stand upright. Put both brinjals and tomatoes on baking tray. Pour olive oil over them. Season the tomatoes and brinjals with salt, paprika and pepper. Add butter and olive oil. Sprinkle the chopped garlic over the brinjals and tomatoes. Bake the brinjals and tomatoes in preheated oven at 200 Dec C for 20 minutes.

Simple Stir Fried Choy Tam (Brussel Sprouts Leaves) with Garlic

I love the crunchy texture of Choy Tam (Brussel Sprouts) leaves. It tastes real good if it is plainly stir fried with garlic. Some vegetarian do not take garlic but some do. Anyway if you don’t take garlic, then you can omit this ingredient when stir frying the Choy Tam.
My family normally eats this dish with steamed rice. It is very simple to prepare and probably takes you around 5 minutes! The secret to preparing a good and nice is that your wok must be very hot. If you fry it at high temperature for a short period, there will be a very nice ‘wok hei’ (wok burn) aroma.

Ingredients
Choy Tam, cleaned
Garlic, 3 cloves, chopped finely
Salt to taste
Vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon

Heat up wok and add in some vegetable oil. Adjust the heat to high and put in the choy tam. Fry for a short while and add little water. Add salt to taste. Quickly take out the choy tam from the wok to prevent further cooking.

Vegetarian Potato with Thyme and Tomato Recipe – Hailam Style

I used Hailam style (a Chinese Clan) chicken chop gravy for this potato recipe. I could not use Worcestershire sauce because it is non vegetarian therefore I just have to use a little vinegar and Chinese soya sauce as substitutes.
However this is not a fully Vegan dish because I used normal butter. I wonder if this would be a good side dish to tofu steak. LOL!

Ingredients
Potato, 3 pcs
Tomato, 1 pc, cut into four
Thyme, ½ teaspoon (dried)
Vinegar, 1 teaspoon
Chinese light soya sauce, 2 table spoons
Sugar, ½ teaspoon
Butter, 1 tablespoon
Pepper, a dash or more
Bbq sauce, 1 tablespoon
Corn flour mix with little water to thicken gravy
Salt to taste

Boil potato until it turn soft. Remove skin and cut into bite sizes. Then put the potato aside.
Heat up pan and put in the butter. Add a little water, thyme, vinegar, light soya sauce, sugar, pepper, barbecue sauce and salt to taste. Bring to a boil and add in the tomato. Thicken the gravy with the corn flour and water mixture. Pour it over the potato! Bon Appétit!

Baked Vegetarian Sweet Potato with Vegeroni Pasta Recipe

I love this recipe because it is very simple to prepare and everyone in my family likes it. Since it is a vegetarian dish, I used sweet potato to give an extra natural sweetness. For the cheese I just use normal one but if you are a full time Vegan, you can opt for Vegan cheese. I choosed multicolored sweet potato, so the dish turned out to be very colourful!

Ingredients
Sweet potato, boiled until soft, cut into chucks, 1 bowl
Onions (optional), 1 pc, cut into small pieces
Oregano, 1 teaspoon
Hickory Barbecue Sauce, 5 table spoons
Cheese, or Vegan Cheese, to taste
Vegeroni, 1 bowl, boil in hot water until soft
Corn, green beans and carrot frozen mix, ½ bowl
Capsicum, 1 pc, cut into small pieces
Salt to taste
Olive oil, 2 table spoons

Put all the ingredients in a baking tray. I normally put the vegeroni pasta at the bottom so that it will not dry out during baking. Arrange the cheese on top of all the ingredients. Cook the dish in preheated oven at 200 Dec C for 25 minutes. Serve while still hot!

Simple Chinese Style Stir Fried Broccoli with Snow Peas Vegan Recipe

My kids love broccoli and it is a very easy dish to prepare. Simple stir frying gives the dish a nice aroma and it can be considered a healthy meal too.
I have added garlic and Chinese Wine to this recipe, so if you don’t take these two ingredients, you can exclude them.

Ingredients
Broccoli, portion around 1 rice bowl
Carrot, 1 pc, cut into bite size
Snow peas, ½ rice bowl
Ginger, 4 to 5 slices
Garlic, 3 cloves, minced (OPTIONAL)
Vegetarian Oyster Sauce, 1 table spoon
Salt to taste
Corn flour mixed with a little water
Sesame oil, 1 teaspoon
Chinese Shao Shing Chiew (cooking wine, OPTIONAL), 1 table spoon

Heat up wok and put in a little vegetable oil. Sautéed garlic and ginger until fragrant. Put in the carrot, broccoli and snow peas. Stir fry for a while. Add the vegetarian oyster sauce, salt, sesame oil and Chinese Cooking wine. Add a little water and then thicken the gravy with corn flour water mixture. Serve with white rice.

Vegan Luohankuo (momordica fruit), Longan (Euphoria Longan), Pear and Pong Tai Hai (Kembang Semankuk, Scaphium Macropodum) Dessert Recipe

This Chinese style dessert is good to balance the yin and yang energy in our body. Longan can help our body to relax, luohankuo & pear is good for the respiratory system and Pong Tai Hai is good to cool down our body!
Anyway, the drink tastes great too!

Ingredients
Luohankuo, 1 fruit, smashed
Pear, cut into thin strips
Longan, 1 cup
Pong Tai Hai, 10 pcs, soak in water and remove seed plus fibre
Brown sugar to taste
Water, 4 bowls

Bring water to a boil and add in all the ingredients. Boil for around one hour. Best eaten if served chilled!

Chinese Vegetarian Fried Tofu with Long Beans and Celery

Actually I wanted to cook fried tofu with celery only but since I have got some long beans that have been sitting in my fridge for quite some time, I decided to add this into the dish. Fried tofu itself is already very tasty but then if it is cooked with celery it taste even better.
Here is the recipe for vegetarian fried tofu with long beans and celery

Ingredients
Tofu, 1 block, 3”x3”x3”, cut into 1”x1”x1” cubes
Celery, 2 stalks, cut into thick slices
Long beans, 3 pcs, cut into 1 inch length
Salt to taste
Soya sauce, 1 teaspoon
Garlic, 3 pcs, chopped finely
Onions, 1pc, cut into four
Vegetable oil

Deep fry the tofu in hot vegetable oil until crispy. Drain away excess oil from the fried tofu and put aside.
Heat up wok and add in 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Sautéed onions and garlic until fragrant. Add in the celery and long beans. Fry for a short while. Add some water, soya sauce, tofu and salt to taste.

Chinese Vegetarian Clear Tofu Celery with Tomato Soup Recipe

Celery (Scientific name, Apium graveolens) is the most common vegetable that is used as a base for soup or stock. The leafy stalk and taproot of celery can be eaten. Celery is a great source of Calcium. In this recipe I used Pascal celery from North America, which has a ‘U’ shaped stem.

Ingredients
Celery, 3 stalks, cut into slices
Tomato, 3 pcs, cut into four
Carrot, 2 pcs
Pepper, a dash
Soya sauce, 3 table spoons
Onions, 2 pcs, cut into four
Thyme, 3 sprigs
Hard tofu, 2pcs, cut into four
Salt, to taste
Vegetarian Oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon
Olive oil, 1 teaspoon

Pour 4 bowls of water in to pot and bring to a boil. Add carrot and onions. Boil for 15 minutes. Put in the rest of the ingredient and boil for another 15 minutes. Add salt to taste. Serve with steamed rice.

Clear Vegetarian Chinese Cabbage Soup Recipe

Clear soup is one of the essential dishes whenever my family ate steamed rice. Chinese style soup is normally clear and watery.
The nice sweet cabbage soup compliment many other dishes and it also helps smoothen the rice grains so that they are easier to be swallowed.

Ingredients
Water, 4 bowls
Carrot, 1 pc, cut into cubes
Shallots, 3 pcs, cut into slices and fried until crispy
Cabbage, 1 small, tear out the leaves and cut into 3”x3”x3” size
Corn, 1pc, to make sweet soup stock

Boil water in pot and add in the corn. Boil for half and hour. Add carrot and cabbage. Boil for another 20 minutes. Add in dash pepper and the fried shallots. Add salt to taste.

Simple Chinese Stir Fried Choy Sum Vegetable- Vegetarian

The secret to cooking this simple Chinese dish is the ‘fire control’, ie how you control the heat of your wok and how fast you can fry it under the high heat. You will have to get all the ingredients ready before you start cooking because you will need to put in one after another ingredients real fast.

Ingredients
Choy Sum Vegetable, 1 bunch, cut into 1 ½ “ size
Garlic, 5 pcs, chopped finely
Light soya sauce, 1 table spoon
Salt to taste
Vegetable oil, 1 table spoon
Vegetarian Prawns, 3 pcs (optional, I did not use in this dish)

Heat up wok and put in the vegetable oil. Turn up the heat and then put in the garlic. Quickly add the vegetable before the garlic burn and turned into charcoal. Add salt to taste and soya sauce. Put in a little water and take the dish out from the wok. Serve with steamed rice.

Chinese Stir Fry Scrambled Eggs with French Beans

This is a very easy dish to prepare and kids are sure to love it. A good way to get kids to eat French beans. The taste of fried eggs with a little garlic chilli sauce is nice. My kids love to eat the eggs with tomato sauce!

Ingredients
Eggs, 3 pcs, beaten slightly
Onions, 1 pc, chopped finely
French beans, 7 pcs, cut into small strips
Light Soya Sauce, 2 table spoons
Cilantro for garnishing

Heat up 2 table spoons of vegetable oil in wok. Stir fry the onions until fragrant. Add in the French beans. Fry until the beans are cooked. Add the eggs and then the soya sauce. Remove the cooked dish from the wok and put in a bowl. Turn it over and put it onto a plate, so that the dish will take the shape of the bowl. Garnish with cilantro and serve with white rice.

Vegetarian Jiu Hu Char – Fried Turnips, Penang Nyonya Style

Jiu Hu Char, (Fried Turnips) is an all time favourite among the Babas and Nyonyas in Penang and it is a must have dish during Chinese festivals. The secret to a good Jiu Hu Char; the dish needs to be simmered for a while to bring out the sweetness of the turnips.
Normal non vegetarian version uses dried cuttle fish slices and sometime also lard. For vegan version, you can replace the cuttle fish with dried bean curd strips.

Ingredients
Turnip, 1 pc, cut into small strips
Carrot, 1 pc, cut into small strips
Bean Curd Strips, cut into small pieces
Garlic, 5 pcs, chopped finely
Vegetarian oyster sauce (optional), 1 table spoon
Light Soya Sauce, 2 table spoon
Salt to taste

Heat up wok and add in 2 table spoons of vegetable oil. Sautéed garlic until fragrant and then add in the bean curd strips. Put in the turnip and carrot. Stir fry until fragrant. Add soya sauce and vegetarian oyster sauce. Add a little water and let the dish simmer for a while or until the turnips turn soft. Add salt to taste. You can wrap the fried turnips with leafy vegetable and eat it with white rice. Alternatively, you can also use the fried turnips to make spring rolls!

Simple Recipe - Vegetarian Tomato Sauce Tau Kan (Wet Bean curd Blocks)

Fresh Tau Kan blocks.

Tomato Tau Kan Dish

Tau kan (Wet Bean curd Blocks) is a very versatile bean curd base product and there are many ways of cooking it. My kids love Tomato Tau Kan and we eat them with steamed rice. If you cannot find Tau Kan in your area, you can use dry bean curd sheet. Soak them in water and fold it into blocks and cut into 2”x2” blocks.

Ingredients
Tau Kan, around 8 blocks, Steamed for 20 minutes
Shallots, 5 pcs, cut into thin slices
Tomato Sauce, 6 table spoons
Plum Sauce, 1 table spoon (optional)
Hickory Smoke BBQ sauce, 1 table spoon
Salt to taste
Sugar, 1 teaspoon

Sautéed shallots until fragrant. Add tomato sauce, plum sauce, BBQ sauce, salt and sugar. Pour this sauce over the steamed Tau Kan and serve.

1) http://veganformation.blogspot.com/2009/06/vegetarian-sambal-goreng-fried-chilli.html

2) http://veganformation.blogspot.com/2008/09/simple-recipe-vegan-sambal-petai-tau.html

Simple Recipe – Vegetarian Tofu with Mushroom - Halal

Oyster Mushroom, already cut into strips


Vegetarian Oyster Mushroom with Tofu

Ingredients
1) Tofu, 400 gms, cut into 1”x1/2”x1/2”
2) Oyster Mushroom, 7 to 8 pcs, cut into strips
3) Soya sauce, 1 table spoon
4) Salt, 1/4 teaspoon or to taste
5) Sesame oil, 1 teaspoon
6) Shallots, 5 pcs, cut into thin slices
7) Corn Flour, 1 teaspoon mix with a little bit of cold water
8) Oil for deep frying the tofu
9) Vegetarian oyster sauce (optional)

Heat up oil and fry the tofu until golden brown. Put the tofu aside. Leave a little oil in the wok and add the sesame oil. Add in the shallots and stir fry it until golden brown. Add ¼ cup of water, soya sauce, salt, vegetarian oyster sauce(optional) and oyster mushroom. When the water starts to boil add in the corn flour (remember to mix with cold water first) to thicken the gravy. Bring to a boil and then pour the gravy onto the fried tofu.

Simple Recipe – Vegetarian Chili Potato - Halal

Draining away excess oil

Chili potatoes, yum yum

Calling all hot and spicy food lovers! This recipe is easy to prepare. Taste good if eaten with steam rice.

Ingredients
1) 3 medium size potatoes, cut into thin slices
2) Chili powder or chili paste, 1 table spoon
3) Sugar, 1 teaspoon
4) Salt, ½ teaspoon
5) Tomato sauce, 1 table spoon
6) Shallots, 5 pcs, cut into thin slices
7) Vegetable oil

Heat up vegetable oil in wok and deep fry the potato until golden brown. Take out the potatoes and put aside. Leave a little bit of oil in the wok and stir fry the shallots until crispy. Add in chili powder and stir the chili under low heat until for around 3 minutes. Then add in salt, sugar and tomato sauce. When the salt and sugar dissolve, add in the potatoes and stir until the chili coat the potatoes evenly.