Tag: #vegetables

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Refreshing Healthy Quinoa Salmon Salad

Refreshing healthy quinoa salmon salad is delicious for all seasons but especially in the summers when you make the dressing from fresh lemon juice and honey. However, making this salad will take a bit of effort in multitasking in preparing the ingredients but you will for sure love it at your first bite.

A suggestion is to make a double portion and keep one portion for max two days in the fridge. I prepare most ingredients for 2 consecutive meals in one go but do the salmon, cucumber, tomatoes, and dressing separately when I eat it the next time again. This will save you time in making the salad from scratch. You can keep the cooked quinoa & pan-fried vegetables after it cooled off for max 2 days in the fridge. Make sure you keep it in a contained box.

Quinoa seeds are rich in fibers, protein, vitamin B and nutrients and is lower in calory than rice. When you add a small piece of salmon on your salad, it brings a healthy tasteful light meal for your body.

Cooking time 1 portion: 35min

Ingredients & Tools

  • 60gr tri-colour quinoa (60gram per person or 1/3 cup)
  • 8 stalk green asparagus or a handful sugar snaps
  • 4-5 shitake mushroom
  • 1 toe garlic
  • ½ fresh yellow lemon juice
  • 1 tsp extra verge olive oil
  • 1 tsp liquid honey
  • Olive oil & butter to pan fry the vegetables
  • Pepper & salt to taste
  • 125gr salmon with skin
  • 4 cherry tomatoes
  • 8cm cucumber
  • Optional garnish: roasted sesame seeds or garden cress
  • 1 pot to cook quinoa
  • 1 big glass/ceramic bowl
  • 1 bowl/cup for dressing
  • 1 frying pan
  • Kitchen paper towel

What to do?

  1. ————- Cook Quinoa ————-
  2. Boil water in the water boiler.
  3. Put 60gr or 1/3 cup quinoa in the pot and pour gentle boiling water in with 1,5 cm water above quinoa level.
  4. Boil the quinoa with the lid on medium-low heat and let it simmer for about 12 minutes.
  5. Once all water is evaporated, switch off the heat and put the pan aside. Stir through the quinoa and let the heat steam off.
  6. Scoop the quinoa over into a big glass bowl to let it cool off further.
  7.  ————- Prepare Vegetables ————-
  8. Rinse 8 asparagus stalks under the tap.
  9. Dispose the end (this part is often hard and not nice to eat) and cut the asparagus sideways in bite sizes.
  10. Remove any dirt from 4 shitake with a brush or rub dirt away with a kitchen paper towel.
  11. Cut shitake in medium-thin slices including the stalks.
  12. Chop 1 toe garlic very fine.
  13. Heat the fry pan with a bit of olive oil mixed with a bit of butter.
  14. Fruit the garlic in the pan and add the asparagus and shitake in the pan. If you like crunchy vegetables, pan-fry it short and try one if it’s to your texture.
  15. Sprinkle salt & pepper to taste and scoop the vegetables in the quinoa bowl to cool off.
  16. Bear in mind, the heat in the vegetables is still in a cooking process. You might not want to cook it too long if you like it crunchy
  17. ————- Panfry Salmon————-
  18. Re-use the fry pan without cleaning and add a bit butter on medium-low heat.
  19. Dry the salmon off with a kitchen paper towel and put the skin side on the pan.
  20. On the skin side, you can cook it the longest to make it crispy and easy to remove if you don’t like to eat that part.
  21. Bake on each side until the salmon is cooked.
  22. ————- Salad dressing ————-      
  23. Meantime while baking the salmon, squeeze ½ fresh lemon juice in a small bowl/cup.
  24. Add 1 tsp extra verge olive oil
  25. Add 1 tsp liquid honey and mix it well.
  26. ————- Mix the Salad ————-        
  27. Cut 4 cherry tomatoes in quarters and add into the quinoa bowl.
  28. Unseed 8cm cucumber and cut in bite sizes and add in the bowl.
  29. Add the dressing in the bowl but not everything. This is to keep a last splash for the salmon.
  30. Mix all ingredients in the bowl.
  31. Add the salmon on top and splash the remaining dressing sauce over the salmon.
  32. Optional: garnish on top with garden cress or roasted sesame seeds.

I would like to hear your feedback once you tried this salad 😊 Bon appetite!

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General Tso chicken

General Tso chicken is a very popular Chinese American dish and was invented by a Taiwan based chef who moved to New York in the 70’s. He named this dish as an homage to his Hunan heritage and their beloved general Zuo Zongtang. However, the name of this dish has no connection to general Zuo nor it’s known in China Hunan province. If you like to know more about the history of General Tso chicken dish, you can read this on Wikipedia.

The chicken is crunchy deep-fried yet still juicy and tender and has a sweet spicy flavour. My method of deep-fried chicken is slightly different than the original recipe and is mainly different in the batter. I also like to cook my choice of vegetables together with the sauce and chicken to serve it as a main (bowl) dish accompanied with steamed rice.

Cooking time: approx. 45 minutes for 2 persons

Ingredients & Tools

  • 300gr chicken thigh filet
  • 1tbsp cooking rice wine
  • Maizena or potato starch
  • Sunflower oil to deep-fry
  • 15cm Dutch type cucumber
  • 8x cherry tomatoes
  • Optional to add: 150gr bimi, broccoli or bell pepper – yellow bell pepper would bring a nice colour pallet)
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • Salt
  • Garnish: roasted sesame seeds
  • Steamed rice to accompany the chicken dish

For the sauce:

  • 2tbsp light soya and 1tbsp dark soya – or just 3tbsp light soya
  • 1tbsp white vinegar
  • 1tbsp ketchup (Heinz)
  • 1tbsp white sugar
  • 0,5 tsp white pepper
  • 2x small garlic clove fine grated or 1x big clove
  • 1x chili
  • 1tbsp fine grated ginger (~3cm)
  • 1x deep fry pan
  • 1x big fry pan
  • Sieve and/or wooden chopstick to get the chicken out of the deep-fry pan
  • Kitchen paper
  • Very fine grater
  • 1x medium bowl to marinate chicken
  • 1x big bowl to powder chicken or use a 3-5L plastic bag
  • 1x big bowl
  • 1x small bowl for the sauce
  • 1x small cup for maizena mix

What to do?

  1. ————- Marinate chicken ————-
  2. Remove fat and cut the chicken in bite size pieces and put in medium size bowl.
  3. Marinate the chicken with 1tbsp cooking rice wine.
  4. ————- Prepare sauce ————-
  5. Use a small bowl to prepare the sauce.
  6. Put 2 Tbsp light soya and 1 Tbsp dark soya in bowl. Or just 3 Tbsp light soya if you don’t have dark soya. Dark soya has a stronger flavour of saltness.
  7. Put 1 Tbsp white vinegar in bowl.
  8. Put 1 Tbsp ketchup in bowl. Personally, I prefer using Heinz.
  9. Put 1 Tbsp white sugar in bowl
  10. Put ½ tsp white pepper in bowl and mix all the ingredients.
  11. ————- Remaining sauce preparation ————-
  12. Put below ingredients separately on the side (not in the sauce bowl) as these will used to get aromas when we heat the oil in the pan.
  13. Grate 2x small garlic cloves.
  14. Grate 1xtbsp ginger.
  15. Chop 1x chilli fine.
  16. Use a small cup to prepare maizena mix: put 1tsp maizena and 2tbsp water and mix it well.
  17. ————- Cut vegetables ————-
  18. If you do not like cucumber skin, you can peel this off. Then slice the cucumber lengthwise in 4 and remove the seeds.
  19. Then cut cucumber in bite pieces.
  20. Cut cherry tomatoes in half.
  21. Cut optional veggie of choice in pieces. Wash beforehand if needed.
  22. ————- Deep-fry chicken ————-
  23. Powder the chicken in maizena or potato starch. There are 2 easy ways to do this. Put all the chicken in a big bowl and mix the powder bit by bit in the chicken until the meat is lightly covered. Don’t use too much maizena. Or put all chicken in a 3/5L sandwich plastic bag and sprinkle a bit of maizena in and shake the bag. Repeat this until the meat is lightly covered by the powder.  
  24. Bring the oil on heat in the deep-fry pan (stand 7). The oil is ready when you see tiny bubbles coming up on the surface.
  25. Depending on the size of your deep-fry pan, you may need to fry the chicken in batches. The chicken will not deep-fry well if the pan it’s too full.
  26. Put the chicken piece by piece slowly in the pan and fry for 3 minutes. Meanwhile, put kitchen paper in another big bowl. This is to absorb the oil from the chicken after deep-frying.
  27. Fish the chicken out the pan with a sieve and/or wooden chopsticks and put in the paper bowl.
  28. Fry next batch for 3 minutes. Repeat the process if you have a lot of chicken.
  29. Once all chicken has been fried, a second round of 3 minutes deep-fry is required. This will give the chicken a crunchy texture and keeps the tenderness. The chicken should have a golden-brown colour.
  30. Let chicken rest in the kitchen paper bowl
  31. ————- Pre-stir-fry optional bimi or brocolli ————-
  32. Heat the stir-fry pan with 1 tbsp frying oil from pan or olive oil.
  33. Stir-fry the veggies for a bit. If you like the crunchiness, then only stir-fry for about max 2min.
  34. Sprinkle a pinch of salt, stir and scoop the veggies on a plate.
  35. ————- Start cooking sauce & blend ingredients ————-
  36. Continue with the same stir-fry pan. Put 1tbsp sesame oil and heat the pan on medium (stand 6).
  37. Fry the grated garlic until it’s yellow-ish.
  38. Add the grated ginger and chili in the pan, and fry for about 30 seconds.
  39. Pour the sauce mix in the pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes and keep stirring the sauce.
  40. Then re-stir the maizena mix well and add in the pan while stirring the sauce until it gets thick
  41. Add all the vegetables in the sauce and keep stirring in the pan
  42. Then add the fried chicken and stir all well in the sauce for a short time and switch of the heat.
  43. ————- Finishing touch ————-
  44. Scoop steamed rice in a bowl or plate.
  45. Scoop General Tso chicken on top of the rice or on the side.
  46. Garnish your dish with roasted sesame seeds on top.

Hope you like this dish and don’t find it too much work. You may agree it’s worth the effort after you have tried it 😉

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Asian stir-fried vermicelli rice noodle dish, quick and easy

Asian stir-fried vermicelli rice noodle dish is quick and easy to make within 30minutes. I make this dish often when I don’t have much time to spend in the kitchen and have cravings for a delicious Asian noodle dish.

Ingredients to use can vary on what you have in the fridge. Meat ingredients can be chicken, pork tenderloin, frozen/left-over roasted duck or shrimps. Main vegetable can be Chinese bok choy (there are different types and each type can be used in this stir-fry dish), kai-lan or easier to get from the supermarket is bimi, broccoli or tauge (bean sprouts). Side vegetables can be carrot, canned sweet kernel corn or baby maize and spring onion for the finishing touch.

Cooking time: approx. 30 minutes for 2 persons

 Ingredients & Tools

  • 250gr chicken thigh filet – I like to use chicken thigh or roasted duck meat
  • 100gr rice vermicelli – I prefer the brand Wai Wai because of the refine texture but any will do
  • 2x stalk shanghai baby bok choy
  • 1x carrot
  • 1x garlic clove
  • Optional: 1x chili
  • 2x stalk spring onion
  • 70gr canned sweet kernel corn
  • Seasoning: sesame oil, soya sauce, white pepper, salt
  • Oyster sauce
  • (Extra virgin) olive oil
  • Big frying pan
  • Bowl for marinating the meat
  • 2x spatula
  • 2x sieve

What to do?

  1. ————- Soften the vermicelli ————-
  2. Soak the vermicelli in cold water until it gets a little bit soft. Optional is to cut the noodle in approx. 10cm length, this makes it easy to stir in the pan and to eat. Drain the noodle in a sieve and makes sure it’s almost dry before you cook, otherwise it will become a moisty noodle dish. You can drain the noodle a few hours before cooking.
  3. ————- Cut the meat ————-
  4. Remove fat and slice the chicken in thin slices and put in bowl. If you use roasted duck, slice this in slices, not too thick and not too thin. You don’t need to marinate as the roasted the duck is marinated and pre-cooked.
  5. Put 1 tbsp sesame oil in the chicken.
  6. Put 1 tbsp soya sauce in the chicken.
  7. Put a pinch of white pepper and salt, and mix the marination in the chicken.
  8. ————- Cut the vegetables ————-
  9. Cut the bok choy in bite pieces. Rinse in water and drain in a sieve. Important is to dry the vegetables as much as possible, otherwise it will become a moisty noodle dish. You can wash it a few hours before cooking or dry it out with kitchen paper.
  10. Peel the carrot skin and cut in thin slices.
  11. Chop the garlic fine or use a garlic presser. If the latter, only do this when you start cooking.
  12. Optional: slice the chili in thin slices. Keep the seeds as well if you like a spicy punch.
  13. Slice the spring onion.
  14. Drain the liquid from the canned corn.
  15. ————- Start cooking ————-
  16. Heat the frying pan and put 3tbsp olive oil. Do not overheat the oil in the pan.
  17. Fry the garlic in the pan to light brown and add half of the chili slices.
  18. Start frying the chicken until cooked and put it back in the marination bowl. Keep the oil as much as possible in the pan.
  19. Stir-fry the bok choi in the pan, first the white stalks and later the leaves together with the carrots and corn. The stalks take a bit longer to cook than the green leaves. Don’t cook the vegetables too long if you like veggie crunchiness.
  20. Then move the vegetables on the side of the pan or make a whole in the middle.
  21. Put the vermicelli in the pan, half of the slices spring onion and stir it together with the vegetables for about 1 minute.
  22. Put 2 tbsp oyster sauce, a pinch of salt and stir everything in the pan for a very short time and serve it on the plate.
  23. Sprinkle the remaining spring onion over the noodle as finishing touch.

Hope you enjoy this easy vermicelli dish 😊

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