Thursday, April 15, 2010

Thai Thursday

Normally if there is vegan Thai food happening it is taking place over at Rose’s blog. She is the queen of Thai food, in my opinion. But when Heather and I were joking around about Mexican Monday earlier this week she mentioned Thai Thursday and I thought why not, I need to come out of my comfort zone a little. Heather made Thai pizza tonight and it looks great. Please stop by her blog and check it out. I decided to make something more on the order of munchies for dinner. We had fresh spring rolls with spicy walnut dipping sauce, quick cucumber pickles and mushroom and veggie stir fry with yellow curry paste.


For the fresh spring rolls (or summer rolls) I used the same method I posted here, but I used slightly different veggies. These are always a function of what I have on hand. I like to include savoy cabbage and green onions when I have them since they were both shown to inhibit all forms of cancer cell growth in this study. To go with this we had a spicy walnut dipping sauce. It would have been more traditional to use peanut sauce but walnuts have a better lipid profile so I made that substitution for health reasons. With the flavorings you can’t tell that I used walnuts versus peanuts.


To accompany the spring rolls we had quick sweet and sour pickles with cilantro. I considered adding a few chopped peanuts but decided we had enough fat in the dipping sauce. I made these without sugar or salt and they are surprisingly good. They may be my favorite item from dinner tonight.


The stir fry is a quick dish with fresh onions, garlic, ginger, lime zest and juice, maitake mushrooms, cilantro and cucumber slices. I choose the maitake mushrooms because they are reported to help fight cancer. Cloud ear mushrooms would be a much more traditional choice. Overall this had a big flavor punch and good texture from the freshness of the cucumber that I added at the end.

I want to spend a little time with my hubby tonight since he came home early for a change. I will post the individual recipes tomorrow morning. This post was just to let you know what will be coming. I hope you are all having a great evening. Talk to you tomorrow.

19 comments:

  1. THis looks amazing! I wish I had a plate of everything! I can't wait for the individual recipes!

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  2. Brandi,

    Thanks that is very nice of you. It was a very filling and veggie dense (which I liked).

    I hope you had a great day today. Mine was a little busy, but in a good way. ;-)

    Don't forget to check out Heather's Thai tofu pizza. It looks great!

    talk to you later,
    Alicia

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  3. The rolls look so fresh and delicious, and the cucumber salad looks so crunchy and attractive. I love the sound of the yellow curry paste!

    I wonder, did you ever find out whether there is a nutritional difference between dry and fresh turmeric?

    Thanks for the compliment on the Thai thing...but I beg to differ...your Thai food always looks really tasty and full of authentic flavors.

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  4. Tiffany,

    I don't make Thai often so when Heather mentioned it, I thought it was an opportunity to branch out a little. ;-)

    Rose,

    I never did find anything about the nutritional difference between the fresh and dry turmeric. Bummer, right?

    Your Thai food always looks great to me. I guess we can be the president of the others fan club. LOL. ;-) So we will agree to disagree on who makes better Thai, but I think it is definitely you!! LOL.

    talk to you later,
    Alicia

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  5. That stir fry is calling my name.:)
    I love a good stir fry.

    I haven't used spring rolls before.
    Do they contain gluten?

    I'm headed over to Heather's, I have a great gluten-free pizza crust recipe.

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  6. Cindy,

    Thanks! We enjoyed it. It was mush quicker and easier than it looks.

    Naina,

    The spring roll wrappers are made from: rice four, tapioca starch, water and salt. I would assume each brand is different, but don't know that for certain.

    We don't intentionally try to avoid gluten, it just seems to happen by accident since we are avoiding flour. You will see me make seitan periodically though.

    Have you posted your gluten free pizza crust on your blog? I would love to see that recipe. ;-)

    Alicia

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  7. Hey Alicia!! Everything looks soooo good and so fresh. Those spring rolls...please send some my way. YUM. I used to make egg rolls quite frequently (baking rather than frying). I haven't made anything like that in ages. May need to make up some spring rolls this weekend now. Love the inspirations!

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  8. Heather,

    Thanks, it all turned out well. Dan liked the stir fry and I liked the pickles. The rolls are something I make regularly.

    I used to bake my egg rolls too. Great minds think a like. LOL. I haven't made any since we gave up oil. I wonder if there is something I can sub for oil? Hmmmm. That may be something for area 51. LOL.

    talk to you later,
    Alicia

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  9. I love spring rolls--so fresh and good! Would you share your cucumber salad recipe? I love that it has no sugar added!

    Thanks
    Courtney

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  10. Courtney,

    I hope to get all the recipes from yesterday up today. I need to knock out my exercise and run a few errands first. But I will post the pickle recipe first when I get back. ;-)

    Alicia

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  11. Looks like a great meal. We love to have spring rolls for a light supper in the summer.

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  12. Andrea,

    We enjoyed it and it was a reasonably quick meal, which is always good. At our house spring rolls are more like hand held salad. I tend to fill them with veggies and sometimes baked tofu, but don't often use the rice noodles that are standard unless they are going to be our entire dinner.

    Alicia

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  13. Oh, it all looks so good, Alicia. How many minutes is Baltimore from Sacramento again? Five, ten? :)

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  14. Blessed Mama,

    LOL, by plane, train or automobile it is still much further than that. But thanks for the nice compliment. ;-)

    Alcia

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  15. Heather,

    That is very sweet of you. Thanks! :-)

    Alicia

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  16. Just finished catching up on all of your posts from the last week, you have been busy! And everything looks delish! The stir fry is calling to me;)
    Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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  17. Janet,

    It has been a hectic week. But it ended well so that is all that matters.

    I hope you have good weekend too!

    Alicia

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