Jade Sea: Chile Lime Coconut Curry Soup

This soup is mainly a slow-cooker meal, but the tofu takes a little extra work so that it becomes tiny little flavor-bombs instead of tasteless mush in some soup.  I will admit that some of these ingredients won't be able to be exactly replicated, but I'm sure you can come close.   For example, we were given some lovely homemade curry spice for christmas.  We also have some dried red chile peppers that we found at a flea market awhile back.  No idea what they are, but they are slightly spicy and slightly sweet and lend a really nice flavor to dishes.  The weather has taken a cold turn lately, so this soup was nice to cozy up with on a chilly night!

What you need:

• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups unsweetened coconut milk (I generally use Silk brand)
• 1 tbsp coconut mana
• 1 bunch of green onions, finely chopped
•  3 tbsp lemongrass paste
• 1 dried red chile pepper, finely chopped
• 1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 head bok choy, chopped lengthwise
• 14oz. Extra Firm tofu, drained and pressed
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 2 limes, juiced, with the juice of 1/2 lime separated
• 1 1/2 tbsp chile powder
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

This recipe really couldn't be any easier.  To start, mix together the juice of 1/2 lime, lemon juice, and chile powder, then cut your tofu into small squares.   

Our curry spices!  Curry and ginger is a wonderful combination.

Place the tofu and the chile-lime mixture in a plastic bag and really shake it up to make sure each piece of tofu gets coated.  Place in the refrigerator.

Mystery Chile

Put all of your other ingredients in the crock pot and cook on high for 3 hours or on low for 6.  In the last hour of cooking, pull the tofu out of the fridge and place in the freezer, and preheat the oven to 400 Fahrenheit.  Once the oven is ready to go, pour the tofu onto a greased baking sheet, and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Put the tofu squares into the crock pot and serve.  We ate it with some delicious sourdough bread from the farmer's market, and it was a great combination!  

Gregor Clegane's Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai

No more rhymes now - I mean it!  Anybody want a peanut?

Princess Bride

I've never been very good at making pad thai, but it's one of my favorite things to eat.  For example,  I once tried a raw pad thai with bean sprouts instead of noodles.  It was fine, but definitely tasted nothing of good pad thai.  This time, I think I finally made a recipe that I will try again.  Stoney complained about the lack of spiciness, but I really enjoyed it.  I opted to make the recipe with spaghetti squash instead of noodles, and went with tofu as the protein.  In the future I might also add in some mung bean sprouts to the recipe, because I love them, but I didn't have any of those on hand this time.  The recipe is delightfully simple to make, and the lengthiest part came in cooking the spaghetti squash.  So overall?  I'm super happy with this one!

What you need:

• 14oz. container extra firm tofu, pressed (If you aren't sure how to press it, see our post here) and cut into small squares
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 4 green onions, sliced 
• 1/4 cup dried cilantro
• 1/3 cup peanuts (raw or roasted, either will work)
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/4 cup vegetable broth
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup tamari (you can sub soy sauce for this, but soy sauce is a bit saltier)
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 3 tbsp raw honey (but any honey will probably work)
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• Chile pepper or black pepper to taste

Step 1: Cook the spaghetti squash

To cook, simply preheat your oven to 350, cut the squash in half, removing the seeds and "guts," and spray or brush olive oil onto the meat.

Place the squash flat-side down on an oiled baking sheet, and bake for 45 minutes.  When it's done, take it out of the oven and let it cool before scraping the inside "spaghetti" part out with a fork.  I would recommend scraping it into a colander to let it drain a bit.

Step 2: Make the sauce

Combine vegetable broth, rice vinegar, tamari, lime juice, honey, 1 tsp sesame oil, and chile/black pepper in a small sauce pan.  Set the temperature to low and let it get warm while you cook do step 3.

Step 3: Everything else

Heat your sesame oil in a large skillet or wok, and add your tofu (realistically, you can use any protein you want, or just add in more veggies and forego the protein altogether!).  Cook until your tofu has started to become golden, then add in the green onion, carrot, and pepper.

Cook the veggies and tofu until the veggies have softened a bit (they should still be pretty crisp).  For the final step, stir in the squash, cilantro, peanuts, and sauce.

And that's it!  Enjoy!  I know I did!