veganmofo - breakfast

First day of #veganmofo - Vegan Month of Food! I know that many people across the vegan blogosphere await the return of veganmofo with bated breath. In fact, many folks prepare their themes and even begin writing posts well before the arrival of the month.

This year the mofoers threw a wrench into well-laid plans and changed the rules, shaking things up quite a bit! The narration has changed a bit and now each day comes with its own unique suggestion of what to post.

The first day's suggestion is breakfast. As soon as I saw that, I knew that my first post would be about the breakfast options in my new cookbook, Vegan Bowls (Amazon, B&N).

This is amazingly exciting for me because breakfast/brunch is always the more challenging meal of the day because aside from standard go-to ideas - cereal, pancakes, waffles, bagels, oatmeal, granola, scrambles -  there is not much of a shake-up.

For Vegan Bowls I pulled all the punches and went around the world to bring you unique breakfast bowls - bowls that maybe you haven't come across or ones that we might not think are traditional breakfast fare, yet they nourish people around the globe.

Take, for instance, Ful Medames Breakfast Bowl. This fava bean bowl is a daily breakfast bowl in the Middle East and North Africa. It is a staple breakfast bowl served with pita bread and a quick radish salad. This stuff is addictive!

From Asia comes THIS typical breakfast/brunch meal: Congee.

Congee is a rice porridge that can be as plain as just the rice cooked in water, to something dazzling and complex with the rice cooked in broth and topped with a variety of extras, such as fried tofu, marinated tempeh, scallions, fried garlic slices, scallions and ginger.

Find out how to make this breakfast in under 30 minutes - a dish that normally needs to cook for about an hour.

Back from my homeland, I bring you this Hungarian Breakfast Bowl, complete with a Hungarian scramble, sausage-style mushrooms and roasted tomatoes. Served with some crisp rye toast, you will be in-the-know with these delicious Hungarian breakfast flavors.

Quinoa has been a staple in South America for eons - they knew long before we did the benefits and nutritious qualities of this tiny pseudocereal.

This mildly sweet take on the normally savory quinoa will have you making it again and again for breakfast. I pair quinoa with oranges, nuts, cardamom and pears. These ingredients all harmonize, and when you make it, you'll see why.

From Mexico, I re-create Huevos Rancheros, an egg-based dish with corn tortillas and ranchero sauce. This one is out of this world and I am very proud to say that I have finally (after years!) got it to taste just right.

In all, there are 12 delectable Breakfast Bowls in Vegan Bowls. Want to see the other recipes in this chapter?

I can honestly say that I love them ALL! I can also testify to the fact that breakfast at our house is no longer a dilemna.

Vegan Bowls (Amazon, B&N) will be released September 15 - in the middle of MoFo! A little more than two weeks off! Eeek! Exciting!!

indonesian stir-fried noodle bowl from "vegan bowls" + #2

These are a few of my favorite things...about Vegan Bowls:

Over the next few weeks, I will share with you my most favorite aspects of my new cookbook, Vegan Bowls (Amazon, B&N).

#2.
My next most favorite aspect of Vegan Bowls is that all of the recipes are on one page (except for a few that have substitution suggestions spill over to the next facing page).

This is really important since the recipes contain no sub-recipes needing to be made first. This means that once you turn to the recipe you want to make, there will be no further page turning needed to complete the dish.

My publisher and I really worked hard on making this a reality - especially since these are complete meals! Complete meals that you can prepare without any sub-recipes or page turning. I love this concept when I cook for my own family and I wanted to bring that uniqueness to this special book.

If you missed it, Reason #1 is posted HERE.

Below I am sharing my recipe for Indonesian Stir-fried Noodle Bowl from Vegan Bowls and felt it was appropriate to let you see the rest of the Chapter 5: Pastas. This chapter includes 14 delicious pasta recipes, including recipes from Europe, Asia and regions of the U.S.

If you have heard of the Laos dish of larb and have been wanting to make an authentic vegan version - look no further than Vegan Bowls. The Reuben Mac and Cheese is my homage to Tami Noyes of Vegan Sandwiches Saves the Day and the upcoming cookbook, The Great Vegan Grains Book (Amazon, B&N).

The list really goes on and on and not a single recipe is your ordinary, run-of-the-mill vegan renditions of pasta dishes. After you peruse the list, get in the kitchen and make the stir-fried noodle bowl below. It is quick and so, so good!

Indonesian Stir-Fried Noodle Bowl
SERVES 4
Mei goreng or bami goreng is a popular street food all over Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. It is a sweet and spicy dish of noodles fried with vegetables and eggs. The sauce usually calls for kecap manis, a thick, sweet sauce, but here we will make our own sauce using tamari, mirin, fresh ginger, and garlic. (Recipe from Vegan Bowls,  copyright © 2015 by Zsu Dever. Used by permission from Vegan Heritage Press, LLC.)


NOODLES
8 ounces medium-thickness brown rice noodles

SAUCE
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1/4 cup reduced-sodium tamari
1/4 cup mirin
1 tablespoon sambal oelek, or to taste
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon natural sugar

VEGETABLES
1/4 cup vegetable broth, divided
1 small red onion, cut into 1/8-inch slices
3 cups small broccoli florets
3 cups finely shredded cabbage
1 celery rib, cut into 1/8-inch slices
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil or vegetable broth
6 ounces baby kale or baby spinach
1 cup frozen shelled edamame, thawed in a bowl of hot water and drained

NOODLES: Bring a medium saucepan of water to boil. Add the noodles and cook just shy of al dente, stirring frequently, about 3 minutes. Drain the noodles and cool under running water. Set aside.

SAUCE: Combine the broth, tamari, mirin, sambal oelek, ginger, garlic, and sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.

VEGETABLES: Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of broth and the onion. Stir and cook until the onion is browned, about 5 minutes. Remove from the skillet and set aside in a medium bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of broth to the skillet. Add the broccoli. Stir and cook until the broccoli begins to char, about 2 minutes. Add the cabbage, celery, garlic and 1 tablespoon of broth. Stir and cook until the cabbage begins to char, about 2 more minutes. Remove from skillet and set aside with the onion. Add the sauce to the skillet and simmer until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add the oil or 2 more tablespoons of broth, the kale, the edamame, the reserved noodles, and the reserved vegetables. Stir and cook until the pasta is warmed through and beginning to brown, about 4 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning with more sambal oelek and tamari. Serve hot in bowls.