Fried Daikon on Rice

 

I used to hate daikon. It's a huge Japanese radish that has a mildly yucky taste. I've never been a fan of radishes in general. They taste musty raw, and even worse when cooked. So...yeah, I avoid the radish like crazy.

...And yet... here it is, the king of radish recipes! I've learned to love daikon with the use of this little recipe! Of course, I had no idea how to fry a daikon properly, so I looked it up first & modified a neat little recipe I found here. (Basically, I tried making this recipe, and it didn't work for me so I added this simmer sauce to soften it up & enhance the flavor!)

 

This is a sliced half of a daikon. 

These things are huge. Like, as long as your forearm huge.

Daikon are versatile things.They're nutritious, filling, super low cal... and bland. Don't let anyone tell you they taste good plain. It's a lie. But this...actually makes them taste good.

  

 Fried Daikon on Rice

1/2 Daikon, peeled & sliced into 1cm rounds
2 tbsp sesame oil (or a little less)
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1 tbsp miso
1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp shoyu
sesame seeds* (optional, for decoration)
1 green onion, sliced fine* (optional, for decoration)

DIRECTIONS
Heat sesame oil in a frying pan with a lid on MED-HI heat, until it's about to start smoking. Add daikon slices CAREFULLY (as the oil can splash, slowly slide the pieces into the pan and DO NOT drop them in). Heat for 3 minutes on one side. They should look cooked but not burnt (a few black marks will be fine). Flip & cook on the opposite side for another 3 minutes.

After frying the daikon, add the vegetable broth and quickly put the lid on the pan. (It will start steaming immediately, and you don't want to lose any vapors). Let the vegetable broth "steam" the daikon until it evaporates - this should take about 3 minutes.

Whisk together the miso, sake, mirin & shoyu. After the vegetable broth has evaporated, add this new broth to the pot & steam again for another 2 minutes.

After a total of about 5 minutes of steaming, maybe more but no less than that, take off of heat.

Place daikon slices on a plate with rice. The pan should have a decent amount of "broth" remaining. Add it to the top of the daikon slices & rice as a sauce. Sprinkle with sesame seeds & green onion slices for display.

Notes: Make sure that the timing is right. Daikon are like carrots... they take a while to soften, but you don't really want them to get too soft either. And the amount of oil looks like a lot, but yeah...it's the right amount for this because it adds the perfect amount of sesame flavor.

Butternut Squash Soup

This soup is SO easy and versatile. This is easily my favorite soup to make...and eat.

These are the main ingredients, chopped up!

Most traditional butternut squash soup is sweet. This is, too, but it's definitely more savoury. I don't add the traditional spices to it. Instead, I keep it really basic, and it's delicious this way, too.

Please feel free to see my notes section at the end if you want to add some traditional spices.

Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients
1 Buttnernut squash (or 1/2 LARGE butternut squash...these things can get pretty huge) cubed
1 small onion, diced**
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
2 cups veggie broth
1 1/2 tsp earth balance


Instructions

Sautee diced garlic & onion in soup pot with earth balance until they become fragrant. Add diced squash. Mix & heat through.

Add veggie broth. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes with lid on the pot.

After 10 minutes, turn off the heat and place all soup contents in a high-speed blender. Slowly increase speed, and blend at highest speed for a minute or two. Make sure it's really smooth.

My little Cuisinart blender

That's it!

**Either red or yellow onions are good, of course. Red onion gives it a bolder flavor, while yellow is mellower and allows the squash flavor to be stronger.

Notes: It's not the traditional "sweet" butternut squash soup, but a butternut squash in its prime will taste naturally very sweet. If you want to add the sweetness commonly associated with this soup, add maybe 2 tablespoons of maple syrup and/or brown sugar, about 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon & nutmeg, with a pinch of allspice and/or clove to taste.

Vegetable Broth

I love making soup. I actually used to hate it until this year, and now I'm hooked. It's like a drug...but a really, really delicious and healthy one. I guess.

The base of every soup is a good vegetable broth. Well, every western-style soup, at any rate. I make a lot of Japanese-style soups with a broth called "dashi" made out of kombu seaweed and shiitake mushrooms, which is even easier to make than this, which therefore makes Dashi the EASIEST recipe I know... but I digress...

A good vegetable broth is the heart of a good soup! It's better to make your own fresh broth than to use pre-made or cubes. However, I use vegan stock cubes more often than I care to admit. They're not bad or anything...just neither as nutritious nor as satisfying as making your own.

This here is my most basic veggie broth recipe. It's basically the bare minimum that you'll need to make a tasty broth. Feel free to omit the salt, add other things, and generally mess with this recipe as much as you see fit.

VEGETABLE BROTH
(makes about 7-8 cups)

1 tbsp olive oil
1 med-large onion
3 cloves garlic
2 carrots
2-3 celery sticks
9 cups water
*pinch of salt


DIRECTIONS

Chop veggies coarsely.

Heat oil in LARGE stock pot on medium. Sautee garlic & onion until fragrant. Add carrots & celery. Heat through. At this time, if you want to add herbs, spices, or salt, do it now.

Add all 9 cups of water at once. Mix well. Heat until it starts to boil. Simmer on med-low with the lid mostly on (leaving a small space for vapors to escape) for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

Filter out the veggies through a strainer, and toss them away (they taste disgusting at this point). Save the broth in a glass container, or use it right away in a soup!


Notes: Vegetable broth is an extremely open-ended recipe. You can add root vegetables as you desire - parsnips, potatoes, turnips, rutabaga... whatever you want. The more things you add, the richer it will become. Add herbs, fresh or dry (such as parsley, rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, etc) to add a "provincial" flavor. You really can't go wrong. And if you don't plan to use it within about 5 days or so, then freeze it.

Pancakes / Waffles

I don't really eat wheat a lot. I do have an intolerance, but not an allergy. But hey, my boyfriend sometimes craves pancakes or waffles on a Sunday morning, and ya know, I love making 'em. I will just suffer with the side affects later (lol).

One of these days I will make these with gluten-free flour. One of these days...when I stop being lazy.

Anyway, this recipe is super easy and absolutely delicious! You can't really go wrong.

I've used a bunch of flour combinations... 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 unbleached white flour... all whole wheat pastry flour... 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 unbleached white flour. It all works out in the end, but admittedly the best flavor comes from...

1/2 whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 unbleached white flour!

Anyway, enough chatter! Let's get down to the business of making the easiest & tastiest pancakes ever!

PANCAKES

(or waffles)

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp canola oil
1/2 tsp sugar
1 cup water


INSTRUCTIONS

Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add canola oil & sugar, then whisk together again. Add water, and whisk until very well blended. The batter will actually look "fluffy."

Fluffy batter!

Cooking - Pancakes version

Heat some canola oil on a griddle on a strong MEDIUM temperature. Make sure the oil is evenly distributed across the griddle's surface.

Add batter in 1/4 cup batches. Heat through till you start to see bubbles on the surface (about 2 minutes, maybe 3). Flip with a very smooth spatula. Heat again for the same amount of time. And... you're done!


Cooking - Waffles version

This recipe will make 2 belgian waffles! You need a waffle iron for this, of course. Add some oil to the surface, heat it up, and pour on the batter in 3/4 - 1 cup incriments. Heat on one side for 2 minutes, flip, and heat on the other side for another 2 minutes. Time it right, and they'll turn out perfectly every time.

Notes: Of course, serve these however you like. I do prefer a dab of vegan margarine and some maple syrup, but banana slices or jam are also really tasty options. Fruit in general is a great alternative to the traditional sugar-and-fat combo of maple syrup and margarine.

Alternately, you can add things to the batter - such as banana slices, pumpkin spices, etc - and cook with 'em. My boyfriend's favorite is the banana slices. I bet it would be good with chocolate chips... have fun expirimenting!!

Cream of Broccoli Soup

I have a bag of broccoli in the fridge, soymilk, some sweet white wine, and an onion. What should I do? Well, besides have a glass of wine.

Cream of Broccoli Soup, of course!

 

This is what the soup looks like unblended in my really cute donabe / clay pot

This kind of soup is neither light nor heavy. The heaviest thing about it is the soymilk, really, and I tried to lighten that with using half soymilk and half veggie broth.

Cream of Broccoli Soup
(serves 2)

2 tsp earth balance
2 1/2 cup broccoli
½ red onion
1 tsp tsp Garlic powder
1/4 - 1/2 tsp Celery salt (to taste)
1 cup soymilk
1 cup veggie broth
¼ cup chilled white wine
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch


INSTRUCTIONS:

Heat earth balance on low-med heat. Sautee chopped onion until it starts to become transluscent. Add broccoli & spices (garlic powder & celery salt). Combine well.

Add the soymilk/broth combo; mix well & add the lid. Heat on low till it starts to simmer. Simmer for about 5 minutes till the broccoli is tender. After broccoli is tender, remove the lid.

Blend thoroughly in a good blender. Return blended soup to the pot, on medium heat, until it starts to simmer again. This should be pretty quick, since it's still hot.

Whisk together cornstarch & wine. Add to the simmering pot & allow it to thicken (should take about 1 minute). As soon as it’s thickened, turn off the heat.

Serve hot, over rice or pasta.

Notes: Adding fresh garlic & celery is always better, but these were what I had on hand at the time. If adding fresh, replace powders with 2 clove(s) garlic, and 1 stick of celery. Sautee minced garlic with onion, and add diced celery before adding broccoli.

Cheesy Broccoli Soup: At the very end, after you've thickened the soup, add about 1/3 cup Nutritional Yeast flakes. You can, of course, add any regular vegan cheese alternative instead of nutritional yeast, but the yeast is healthy and cheese alternatives are, well, not healthy in the slightest.

Mushroom Soup

2 posts in one day! Well, the truth is that I made the gyoza yesterday and was too lazy to post it. :)

This Mushroom Soup is light with a thin broth...perfect for dipping bread in! I don't really eat bread, since I have a bit of a wheat intolerance, but if I had some gluten-free bread or crackers I'd be using it in a heartbeat!

This soup is perfect for a cool, rainy autumn afternoon...just like it is here today! And it is SO simple and easy, you'll be pleasantly surprised for sure. Please enjoy any time of year you crave mushrooms, or just want a light soup to tide you over on a chilly day.

MUSHROOM SOUP

Base
1 1/2 tsp earth balance or olive oil
1 small red onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, sliced thin
1 1/2 cup diced mushrooms (I quartered button mushrooms and 2 shiitake)

Herbs/Spices
1/4 - 1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 - 1/2 tsp rosemary
fresh ground black pepper to taste (about 1/4 tsp pre-ground)

Broth
1/2 cup sweet white wine
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

Thickener
1/4 cup chilled white wine
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch

DIRECTIONS

Heat oil in your soup pot on low. Sautee garlic & red onion until onion starts to become transluscent. Add diced mushrooms & sautee for about 2-3 minutes. Add thyme, rosemary, and pepper (and salt, to taste, if you want).

Add the white wine first and sautee for a minute or two to allow the wine flavor to permeate the base. Then add vegetable broth, and mix well.

Put the lid on the pot and heat until it starts to boil. Simmer on LOW for about 5 minutes.

Whisk together cornstarch and chilled wine mixture (the more cornstarch, the thicker it will be), then add to boiling soup. After it thickens just a bit (it should take no longer than a minute, and it will still be quite thin), then take soup off of heat and serve.

Quick Pot Stickers

This should really be "quick and easy" potstickers because, well, that's what they are!

The fun thing about pot stickers is that you can get them in the frozen section of the grocery. They might not be as super healthy as making them yourself, but since I don't have the nimble fingers to make good potstickers myself, there's always a vegetable-only bag of frozen gyoza goodness in my freezer; and I've never seen a package of frozen veggie potstickers with egg in them, so hurray for vegan pot stickers!

 

Pot stickers are also called gyoza (the Japanese term for it).

The Trader Joe's "Thai Vegetable Gyoza" are my favorite brand, hands down!

But how do you make pot stickers? If you look n the back of one of those frozen bags, you'll find a variety of methods! There's on the stove, in the oven, steamed, microwaved...basically, if there's a will, there's a pot sticker!

My favorite method is 100% on the stove! There's no way you can do it wrong. But if you want to create the best flavor, you want to really know how to make it taste great...right??

These babies are frozen!!

For this quick dish, you'll need a frying pan with a lid, and pre-made rice.

QUICK POT STICKERS
(serves 1)

5 frozen potstickers
4 tsp mirin
2 tsp sake
3-4 tsp shoyu
1 tsp sesame oil
*1 green onion (optional but delicious topping)
*sesame seeds (optional topping)


INSTRUCTIONS

Heat sesame oil in frying pan on medium heat. Wait a minute or 2 for the pan to heat up. Add the pot stickers (they should immediately start to sizzle lightly). Stir-fry these frozen pot stickers in the oil for 4 minutes flat.

Mix together the sauce made of mirin, sake, and shoyu. After the potstickers have been stir-fried for 4 minutes, pour the sauce into the pan and IMMEDIATELY put the lid on.

The vapors from the sauce will "steam" the potstickers. Leave the lid on and let them steam for about 4 more minutes, and no longer than 5.

Once done. turn off the heat. Pour the potstickers and sauce onto pre-made rice. Chop the green onion into thin dime-shaped slices, and sprinkle on top of the pot stickers. Add a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

Eat and enjoy! See? I told you it was easy, and SO much tastier than eating them plain.

NOTES: To alter the flavor slightly, use different oils for sauteeing the pot stickers. I use sesame oil the most, but I've also used homemade roasted garlic olive oil and hot chili oil with FANTASTIC results. Remember, a little oil goes a long way!

Garlic Baby Bok-Choy

This is a steamed dish! It is best enjoyed on rice or asian noodles (mine's on Somen noodles! Somen is kind of like Japanese Angel-hair Pasta).You'll need a pan that is good for sauteeing and has a lid. I use a medium sized wok with a lid, but have used basic tools such as a frying pan and a ceramic plate... they all work, so if you don't have a wok, I suggest...improvise! (lol)

This recipe also calls for some ingredients that you might not know. I'll try to explain how they can be replaced or omitted.

From left to right: Sake, mirin, shichimi pepper blend, shoyu

Sake - if you've been to an "Asian" restaurant, you've probably seen it on the menu. It's just rice wine, and can be easily replaced with a dry white wine.

Mirin - it's the Japanese equivilant of cooking wine. Mirin is simply sweetened sake. Replace with: dry white wine or sake with a dash of added sweetener. A tsp or tbsp of powdered sugar works miracles here.

Shoyu - the proper term for Soy Sauce. Avoid any soy sauce/shoyu that has preservaties or added ingredients. The best shoyu has any combination of the above: Water, Soybeans, Seasalt, and sometimes wheat.

Shichimi Pepper - it's Japanese 7-pepper blend. It's kind of like Chinese 5-spice blend, only used specifically to add HEAT to a dish. If it's just a sprinkle, it won't add a too much heat at all, but it does pack a good flavor.

 

The ingredients all diced up!

Chopped bok-choy

3 heads of bok choy might seem like a dauntingly large amount, but remember that when cooking greens, they always wilt and become very small and condensed.

Garlic Baby Bok Choy
(serves 1 or 2)

ingredients:
1 tsp sesame oil
3 baby bok choy
4 small cloves garlic
1 silver-dollar/thumb sized chunk of fresh ginger
3 green onions
2-3 shiitake mushrooms
1 handful / 1/2 cup of shredded carrot

spice/toppings: (optional)
shichimi pepper blend
sesame seeds

sauce:
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp sake
2 tbsp shoyu

thickener:
1 1/2 tsp - 1 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp soymilk or cold water


INSTRUCTIONS

Dice garlic & ginger into small pieces. Chop green onions into 3/4" slices. Chop shiitake mushrooms into thin slices. Separate bok choy - bottoms (thicker part) into 3/4" chunks, and tops (greens) into thinner slices.

Heat sesame oil in pan on medium heat. Sautee garlic and ginger until strongly fragrant. add carrot and heat for a minute. After that, add mushroom, green onion, and the BOTTOMS of the bok choy. Sautee until the bok choy appears wilted.

Combine the "sauce" ingredients & add to the pot. Notice that it will start to steam. QUICKLY add the lid. As it continues to sautee, the sauce will basically "steam" the ingredients. STEAM for about 5 - 8 minutes, depending on how crunchy or soft you want it to be.

After steaming, remove the lid; add the TOPS of the bok choy and mix well. Heat through until the tops are decently wilted.

After the tops are wilted, add the soymilk-cornstarch mixture to the sautee while stirring continuously. It will quickly thicken. (the more cornstarch you use, the thicker it will become). Don't heat/stir for too long, or the starch will unbind. A minute should do just fine.

After that, take off of heat and pour on top of noodles or rice. Top with shichimi pepper blend and/or sesame seeds.

Curried Acorn Squash Soup

For some reason, my camera wouldn't focus at all today...! 

I love me a good curry. I mean, a really good curry. And when you're in the mood for a really spicy curry, and a really filling soup, this really hits the spot.

This recipe might call for a few things that you've never heard of before, or don't even have in your kitchen, like garam malasa and asofoteida. That's OK. Spices can be replaced as long as you know how they each influence the dish! That's how you start getting creative.

Garam Masala is a spice blend used in North Indian cuisine. It isn't "hot" spicy at all, but it is certainly aromatic. Main spices in Garam Masala can be: cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, peppercorns, cumin, cardamom, coriander, and the like. Please check out the wikipedia link to find out more about this versatile blend.

Asofoteida is kind of like onion powder... except with a really nasty aftertaste. Despite how much displeasure I have in using asofoteida, using just a PINCH of it really rounds out the flavor of any Indian-inspired dish.

The majority of ingredients in today's soup

Even if you have only a simple "curry powder" you can remove most of the spices and replace them with the curry powder. Here's how that would work: Remove the cinnamon stick, bay leaf, mustard seeds, garam masala, cayenne, and asofoteida; replace it all with about 2 tsp of curry powder instead. It will still be pretty good, but there's an added richness that you get from combining these ingredients separately.

And this soup turns out SPICY. Beware! It's pretty darn hot! (If I wanted to make it more "authentic," fresh chili peppers would have sauteed with the onion & garlic instead of adding a dash of cayenne pepper. Those are, naturally, even hotter than the powder!). In order to remove the heat, either 1) reduce the amount of cayenne pepper, or 2) eat this soup with a lot of rice. (I eat this soup with a LOT of rice! It's sooo filling.)

The more heat, the better, I say. Hot foods improve digestion, and I'm all about good health. Enjoy the recipe!

 For this recipe, you'll need a medium size soup pot with a lid, and a good blender.

Curry Acorn Squash Soup
(serves 2)

1 1/2 tsp earth balance
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 small red onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 acorn squash
1 carrot
1 tsp garam masala
1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 pinch asofoteida
2 cups vegetable broth

DIRECTIONS

Heat soup pot on low. Sautee cinnamon stick, bay leaf, & mustard seeds in earth balance till fragrant. Add garlic & onion. Sautee till wilted & fragrant. Add diced squash & carrot. Mix till warmed through. Add spices (Garam masala, cayenne, asofoteida). Mix well.

Add water and mix. Keep heat on low. Once boiling, simmer with the lid on the pot for 10-12 minutes. After the carrots & squash are soft, turn off heat. Transfer soup to a high-speed blender. Blend thoroughly.

Notes: This soup tastes better the next day, after being refrigerated. The spices are really enhanced this way. I always make it the night before, then eat it over the course of the next day over lots of brown rice.

Potato Soup

I realized with some dismay that I had a nearly full container of practically unused soymilk in the fridge that needed to be used asap. I decided that the quickest way to make good use of soymilk is either hot cocoa...or soup!

Now I will surely be using it for hot cocoa over the next few days. Despite that, I did some search for soup recipes using soymilk because I didn't have any good ones on hand for the ingredients that are currently available in my kitchen. So my search ended on one of my FAVORITE foodie blogs... the famous Fatfree Vegan Kitchen!

If you haven't been there, go there NOW and drool at her massive collection of delicious recipes. :)

So I found a particular recipe on her site called "Quick and Easy Potato Soup." This indeed was quick and easy! It called for something called "Nutritional Yeast," which I love-love-LOVE but it might be hard to come by in some places & you might not have seen it before. It basically adds a "cheesy" flavor to vegan food, and is a good source of B vitamins. I avoided it for years because I didn't want to spend any money on any bulk food item I wasn't sure I'd use often or even like. But now that I have it, I'm hooked and use it a lot! Here's a picture of what it looks like:

Yummm, nutritional yeastttt... (It kinda sounds gross, but it really packs a great flavor!)

Never one to imitate well, I did not follow the original recipe exactly. I won't copy and paste her recipe here, of course (please follow the link to see her original masterpiece!) but here's my modified version:

Potato Soup
(serves 2)

About 1 1/2 - 2 cups diced yellow potato
2/3 cup soymilk
1/2 cup veggie broth
1/2 red onion
1 1/2 tsp earth balance vegan margarine
a big pinch of dried rosemary needles
1 1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast
a sprinkle of smoked paprika* (not necessary, but delicious!)

DIRECTIONS
In a medium soup pot, heat the pot on med-low. Add the earth balance & sautee the onions until fragrant. Add the diced potato & rosemary. Combine well & stir until warm.

Add the soymilk & veggie broth. Mix well & cover with the lid. Once it starts boiling, simmer for 10 - 12 minutes.

After 10 - 12 minutes, turn off the heat and transfer the soup to a high speed blender. Add the nutritional yeast & blend thoroughly. If the soup is too thick, add more soymilk in splashes until it blends easily. (It's easier to thin out a soup than to thicken one).

Transfer soup to a bowl and sprinkle with smoked paprika.

Notes: The soup is great on its own, but the smoked paprika adds a bold but complimentary flavor that your tongue will more than appreciate. Don't use regular paprika - it doesn't taste the same at all.

Tomato Soup

I love a good tomato soup!! Been craving it over the weekend and finally decided to try my hand at making it. However, I've never made it before and had to do some research before making any attempts.

So I found a few different websites and recipes and discovered that most call for canned ingredients. Canned? If I wanted canned soup, I would just buy it pre-made! So I did some more searching and discovered a really inspiring Tomato Soup recipe on the "Your Vegan Mom" blog and decided I'd work with that one!

The really great idea that I saw on her blog was to thicken the soup with potatoes, not just use tomatoes. Potatoes, eh? Combining potatoes and tomatoes sounded strange, but I flew with it. Here are the main ingredients that I used in this recipe:

You know what? Everything is so fresh & simple, and it turned out great!

In order to make this recipe, you will need a medium size soup pot with a lid, and a good blender

I guess the only thing I would add to this that I didn't have on hand was fresh basil. I'd also love to make this soup with roasted garlic instead of fresh. A few cloves of freshly roasted garlic would turn this simple soup into something extravagant. Add about 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper if you prefer a spicy soup. However you prefer it, please enjoy the recipe below!

Tomato Soup
(serves 2)

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 tsp earth balance (vegan margarine) or olive oil
3 large tomatoes, diced
1/2 medium red onion
4 garlic cloves
large handful of mini yellow potatoes (or 1 large yellow potato)
2 cups vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp thyme
*A pinch of saffron or 1/2 turmeric (not necessary)

DIRECTIONS

Add earth balance or olive oil & heat soup pot on low. Once that's hot enough, sautee bay leaf, diced garlic & onion till fragrant. Add potatoes & heat through. After the potatoes are warm to the touch, add the tomatoes. Mix well.

Add vegetable broth and stir well. Keep the heat at LOW. Put the lid on the pot and wait till it starts to boil. Once it starts boiling, add the thyme and a pinch of saffron or turmeric. Let it simmer with the lid on for about 15 - 20 minutes.

After it's done simmering, turn off the heat and transfer the soup to a blender. Blend thoroughly & serve hot plain or over rice.

Welcome to Soup & Salad!

Hi! This blog is really meant for posting recipes and pictures of delicious food. I guess the first post will be a bit of a description of my foodie tastes. I am a long-time vegan who's dabbled in raw foodism (and loved it!), and has found nothing to be more pleasurable than spending time in the kitchen. I love world cuisine, but most especially anything that goes well with rice. My favorite types of food are Thai, Chinese, and Indian. I have a passionate love for spice & garlic... because of the chilly November weather here in the suburbs of Chicago, I've been making lots and lots of soups lately; as such, the next post will definitely be soup!