Stir-fried French Beans with Shiitake Mushrooms

Delicious stir-fried dishes that are easy to make are indispensable dishes in daily meals, especially for people who try to consume more vegetables in their diet. Today, I will introduce to you stir-fried French beans with fresh shiitake mushrooms. All the necessary ingredients are easy to find at Aldis. This dish will surely enrich the meal for those of you who want to eat more green vegetables. 

 Ingredients:

For 2 servings  

3 cups green beans (300gr)

2 cups shitake mushrooms 

4 garlic cloves, minced

Stir-fry sauce ingredients:

1/4 cup water

1 tbs hoisin sauce

2 tbs soy sauce

1/2 tbs sugar or honey

1/8 tsp black pepper

1 tsp mushroom seasoning

Other ingredients:

Cooking oil

Salt

Garnish with chopped cilantro

Serve with rice

Directions:

Remove the hard head of the green beans. However, if you buy the French beans at Aldis, they already remove this part for you. Cut the green beans into 2 inch lengths. Wash and dry. Boil the beans in boiling water with some salt until they are 50% cooked. Take them out and drain in cold water.

Combine the sauce ingredients and mix well set aside.

Mushrooms should be washed and dried. 

Heat 2 tbs oil in a pan. Sauté the garlic until fragrant. Add the mushrooms and stir-fry the mushrooms for 1 minute. I like to sprinkle a pinch of salt on the mushrooms (optional).  Add boiled green beans. Stir well and add the sauce. Cook over high heat until the sauce is reduced in half.

If you want to thicken the sauce, mix 1 tsp cornstarch with 2 tbs water and add in to the stir-fried green beans. Adjust the seasoning.

Sprinkle chopped cilantro and serve.

A variation for this dish is to add tomato. With this recipe, just add one large tomato. 

Wash the tomato, remove the seeds, use only the flesh, and cut into bite-sized squares. Add this just a few minutes before the green beans are done.

Japanese Pickled Ginger

If you are viewing my cooking and baking blog, enjoyasimplelife.blogspot.com, for the first time or are a frequent viewer, I have not made many additional entries to the blog for quite some time.  The reason for this is that I have made a move to a new home, and the cooking arrangements are not quite ideal at this time. There are additional reasons that should be resolved soon. When this happens, I will gladly post additional easy-to-follow, photo-illustrated entries that I am certain you will enjoy preparing for yourself and others. In the meantime, I have already published more than 1300 recipes on this website that you can have access to now at no cost to you except for your time and your own desire to try something new. To search for something of your liking, simply enter a word or group of words, such as shrimp, chicken, egg rolls, or dipping sauce, etc., in the search box in the upper left-hand corner or the Search This Blog at the very bottom of this page. Then click the magnifying glass search symbol or the word Search to the right of the word(s). Immediately, all the recipes I have in my blog that contain the word or words just entered will appear in the order they were posted.

Occasionally, depending on the search engine, such as Google, other websites will appear before my blog address. You may need to look for the words, Enjoy Life, when looking for my blog as you scroll down the entries that appear first. Good luck! And thanks for visiting my blog.

Japanese pickled ginger is often served with sushi. Pickled ginger enhances the flavor of Asian dishes. The blush pink color comes from very young ginger, and it is hard to find in most supermarkets. However, this recipe makes it very easy to create pickled sushi ginger at home with the ginger that is sold in most supermarkets. To make the pickled ginger have authentic Japanese flavor, the rice vinegar is required. If the rice vinegar is not available, then other vinegar can be used, and adjust the amount of sugar.

Ingredients:

4-6 oz. Ginger (1 large piece)

2 cups water

1 tbs pink salt

1/4 cup sugar

½ cup rice vinegar

3 frozen sweet cherries (or) piece of beet

 Directions:

 Peel and slice the ginger into very thin slices.

Add the water, ginger, pink salt, and the cherries into a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the salt.  The cherry will give the ginger its blush pink color. Drain the ginger and let it cool.

Once the water comes to a boil, let it cook for about 5 minutes.

In another pan, add sugar and vinegar and bring to boil. Stir until sugar dissolves and turn heat off.

Add the ginger to the jar.  Then, transfer one of the cherries to it followed by the ginger slices.

Pour in the rice vinegar.  Be sure to pour enough vinegar to submerge all of the ginger.

Place the ginger in a refrigerator for at least 2 days before serving

Butternut Squash Coconut Soup

I have recently started to become a vegan, and there were so many recipes that I have learned in just a few months now through the YouTube Channel or other Internet websites of the vegan world.  I am confident that this is an easy recipe to bring the butternut squash soup to the table and make all friends and family say “Ooh! Aah!”. This soup is not just healthy, but is also very tasty.

Ingredients:

1 small butternut squash

1 cup broccoli 

1 cup shitake mushrooms (your choice of mushroom)

1 medium size carrot

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

2 tbs coconut oil

Salt and pepper to taste

A few sprigs of thyme

1 tbs sugar

2 cups vegetable stock

1 cup coconut milk (for creamier taste, use coconut cream in a can)

1/4 cup dried shredded coconut (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375°

Carefully slice the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.  Then, place the squash onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper skin side up. Bake in the oven for 35-45 mins., depending on the size of the squash.  When the thickest part is fork tender, it's done.  Let it cool for about 10 mins.

Chop about 1/2 cup of broccoli into small pieces and thinly slice about 1/2 cup of mushrooms.

Dice the carrot and onion.  Coarsely chop the garlic.

Peel the skin from the butternut squash and then mash the butternut squash. 

Heat up a stock pot to medium heat or use an instant pot with the sauté mode on. Add the coconut oil followed by the carrot, onion, and garlic. Season with the pepper and 1 tbs of salt.  Sauté for 5-8 mins.

Add in the thyme, and sauté for another few minutes.  Add in the squash and the sugar.  Sauté for another minute.

Add in the veggie stock, water, and coconut milk.

Turn up the heat to medium high, cover, and bring to a boil or cover instant pot lid and use broth function for 1 minute. 

Transfer the soup to the blender or use a stick blender if you have one.  Blend on high until nice and smooth. Close the lid and keep soup hot

Heat up a frying pan over medium heat.  Add in the shredded coconut.

Toast for a few minutes until golden brown.  Set aside.

Use the same pan sauté the broccoli for 3 minutes.  Add in the mushrooms and a pinch of salt.  Sauté for another 3-4 mins.

To serve:

Place veggies in the bottom of each serving bowl.  Then, pour soup around it.

Sprinkle some toasted coconut on top.  Add some fresh cracked pepper.  Drizzle some olive oil and drizzle some of the coconut milk on top.

Easy Homemade Chili Oil

Chili oil is part of Chinese cooking. Many chili oils are sold in grocery markets. It is also true that many people demand to have this recipe to make chili oil at home. It is so easy to make the chili oil at home with the ingredients that are in your kitchen. This chili oil can add phenomenal flavor to any dish. Now I can share this chili oil recipe from scratch.

Ingredients:

4 tbs red pepper powder (Korean superstore)

2 tbs toasted sesame seeds

1 tsp Szechuan peppercorn, crushed

2 star anises

1 bay leaf

1 tsp sesame oil

1 cup peanut oil or grape seed oil

Directions:

In a glass jar with lid, add in all the dry ingredients. Add the sesame oil.

Heat the peanut or grape seed oil in a saucepan over medium heat for about 4 minutes.

Pour the hot oil into the glass jar. Let the incredible flavor infuse for a day or so. Then the chili oil is ready.

Vegan Potato Curry

Curry dishes are probably among the most flavorful dishes around the world. The most curry dishes come from Asian countries, such as India, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, and there are infinite possibilities and variations!  However, that's not even the best part – they are super easy to make.  For vegans out there, this is an easy curry recipe with potato, that also can substituted with different kinds of potato to suit your taste.

Ingredients:

4 medium sized potatoes, boiled, peeled and cut into bite size pieces

Spices:

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 shallot chopped

1 small piece ginger, chopped

2 tbs coconut oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

2 tsp cane sugar

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp pink salt

Other ingredients:

1 tomato, diced

One 15.5 oz. can of coconut cream or milk

Garnish with chopped cilantro

Serve with white rice or basmati rice or bread

Directions:

Heat a sauté pan over medium high heat. Add the coconut oil; then stir in the cumin and coriander seeds.  Fry for 30-45 seconds.

Add in and sauté the shallot, garlic, and ginger for 2 minutes; then add in the rest of the spices and sauté for 30 seconds.

Add tomato to the pan; then sauté for 2-3 minutes.

Add the coconut cream.  Turn the heat up to medium high and stir.

 Add in the potatoes.

Turn the heat down to medium low and simmer for 5-7 minutes.

Sprinkle chopped cilantro and serve.

Vegan Chili and Garlic Fried Brown Rice

Fried rice is a very special dish that is well loved all over the world. It is easy to put together in your own kitchen. The flavor combinations are endless! I always like to cook a big pot of rice, and the next day the day old rice is the perfect choice to make fried rice. I changed my diet recently to vegan, and this is one of my easy recipes for healthy eating habits. Let's begin.

Ingredients:

4 garlic cloves, minced

4 green onions, sliced

4 dried chilli peppers

1/4 cup chopped white or red onions

3 tbs chili oil (homemade or store-bought)

2 cups day-old rice (leftover brown or white rice)

1 1/2 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs coconut oil

Directions:

Remove the seeds from the chili peppers and roughly chop them.

Heat up a nonstick pan to medium low heat.

Add in the chilli oil. Add in and sauté the onions, garlic, onions, and peppers for 1-2 min.

Turn up the heat to medium. Add in the rice, the soy sauce, and salt .Sauté for 4-5 min.

The rice is ready to serve.

Tips: adding an egg to the fried rice is the Asian tradition way to make fried rice. It is your choice to break one egg and add to this recipe. If you want to add an egg, add the egg after sautéing the garlic and onions.

See the homemade chili oil recipe in my blog.