Vegan Meatless Monday 7 – Not so Thai

A few months back I was wandering about the grocery store and picked up a little jar of red curry paste.  I’m a pretty frugal person and I don’t make a habit of picking up random seemingly useless things and buying them but it  sounded interesting.  That jar has sat and taunted me ever since, because I haven’t had a clue of what to do with it.  But it did make my spice cabinet look that much more international.

Anyways, to get to the point I decided to try and make Thai food for dinner because I think that’s what you do with red curry paste.  Now I have to admit up front I’ve only ever ate Thai food twice in my life and both times it was in the same restaurant.  But it was good and it was spicy, so although that doesn’t make me an expert it did make me a fan.

To get back to the point AGAIN I made a Thai-ish dinner which involved Japanese Buckwheat Noodles (they happened to be in the cabinet) and probably is as anti-authentic as it gets, but it was good so who cares?

I have no name for this, let’s just call it Thai-ish Japanese noodles:

Sauce:

I very slightly modified the sauce from this post on Tasty Yummys.

  • 13.5 oz. can coconut milk
  • 3 Tbsp. red curry paste
  • 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
  • 1/3 c. chunky peanut butter

The stir fry:

  • 1 Tbsp. oil
  • 1 large white onion, cut into strips
  • 3 peppers, cut into strips
  • 1 clove garlic, very finely diced
  • Baby bok choy, cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 1 little can water chestnuts (they too where taunting me)
  • Snow peas (they came in a full strawberry basket, not sure of the weight)
  • 12 oz. box Japanese Buckwheat Noodles, cooked according to package

Since I again picked up some unnamed pepper at the market here’s a  picture of the veggies before chopping them up.  The peppers smelled and tasted like bells, 2 regular bells would be about the same thing.

StirFryVeggies

  1. Heat up the oil at medium high heat in wok (a really big frying pan would probably work, but any excuse to use the wok!
  2. Add onions, garlic and peppers and stir often for 4-5 minutes
  3. Add snow peas and water chestnuts, cook an additional 3-4 minutes
  4. Add bok choy and stir until wilted
  5. Turn off heat and stir in the noodles and sauce

Serve with soy sauce

This was pretty good with soy sauce.  I had really expected it to be spicier, I thought the red curry paste had a major kick but it really didn’t.  I’ll have to aim for a super-spicy Thai dinner another time!

I also made a very simple fruit salad to have both as breakfast and as a snack for the week.

  • 1 cantaloupe, cubed
  • 1 honeydew, cubed
  • 1 very small watermelon, cubed
  • 1 large bag of red grapes
  • Sweetened coconut

Mixed in a large bowl and sprinkled with the sweetened coconut when served.  I think I’ll slice a banana into it too next time I have a bowl, it makes it feel more breakfast-y!

The easiest way (that I know of) to cut a cantaloupe or honeydew:

First cut it in half and scrape out the seeds with a spoon, then cut each half into strips. Cut the melon into bite size pieces without taking it off of or cutting through the skin and then peal off the skin with a small knife. I’m not sure I’m explaining it very well, so here’s a picture before the last step.  🙂

CantelopeBoth of these recipes make quite a bit for my little 3 person household, but I like to eat leftovers for breakfast and lunches all week. I package the extra in meal size portions to bring to work so I don’t have to think much about it for the rest of the week.

Yay to thinking less early in the morning!