My mom's request was "Asian" for this past Monday, and, with such a wide array of possibilities, of course I went with complicated and labor intensive (but always pleasing) fried things. Potstickers, spring rolls, and tempura lotus root. Delicious.
Some of the things that went into the spring rolls:
Sauteed cabbage and carrots-
Sauteed mushrooms, yellow bell pepper with green onions-
I also put bean thread noodles with peanut oil, miso baked tofu strips, fresh basil, sliced garlic, and bean sprouts in the spring rolls. I was experimenting with the wrappers and was using something I had found at Grand Mart recently. The label said frozen green onion pie, but they were vegan, and the picture showed them rolled up into something resembling a spring roll. So I made them into spring rolls, and it was delicious. I believe this is what they were:
Anyway, we unfortunately didn't get any good pictures of the spring rolls by themselves, but here are the potstickers: (Edit-there may actually be more and better pictures somewhere. We will find them, and show you.)
My little brother came by while we were eating and he tried one---he said they "actually are good" and everyone agreed that you couldn't tell there wasn't meat in them. Haha, so, I guess that's a good thing. There WERE delicious. I filled them with a mince made of mushrooms, onions, tofu, carrots, cilantro, ginger, and probably other things. So good.
Here is the whole spread-
We unfortunately also didn't get a picture of the tempura lotus root, but you can glimpse it wayyy in the back. See it up there? Delicious. And so were the spring rolls---you can see them in the middle there.
We also had fresh pineapple and a few different dipping sauces. The one at the front was made with a little soy, mirin, ginger, and garlic, and the one in the back was a fresh pineapple chutney.
So, as you can tell, Monday nights are definitely enjoyable around here. I hope this stays a tradition for a long time. It is good to be with family.
Here are some unflattering pictures of the empanadas I made the Monday before.
They looked better than that in real life, and were really good, too. Some of them had mushroom, onion, and spinach in them, some spicy sweet potato and raisin, and some barbecue tempeh and peas. Mmm.
The week before that was a big, hearty vegetable soup, and the first week was curry. A much prettier food than soup. For that I made a build-your-own curry station and put out a ton of ingredients. Fun and delicious.
This was yellow curried shiitake and seitan-
Here is the toppings plate I made-
It had coconut, raisins, raw tomato, banana, cucumber, and roasted yellow peppers and onions. Delicious.
Here is a blurry picture of someone's plate-
I also served panang tofu. I'm sure it's under there somewhere.
So yeah, minus the soup, those were all of the last month of Monday meals. 'Sure as heck makes Monday something to look forward to.
Next Monday: homemade pasta.
