Raw Asian Salad

Chinese food has long been one of my favorite cuisine, although I would always get the same thing (chicken and broccoli- yuck!)from a somewhat-dirty place. I finally began to really appreciate Asian food after going vegetarian and discovering a veg Asian restaurant not too far from me. And, especially after going vegan, I found it so nice to be able to actually look through a menu and have options rather than just getting the house salad or plain pasta.
I was happy to find that making raw vegetables Asian-style was easy and tasty. I decided to take raw Asian food a step further when I found some cabbage and mushrooms in the fridge that just needed to be used.
The outcome wasn't bad at all! My meat-loving dad even rated it a 7 out of 10 as a meal and a whopping 8 1/2 as a salad! (My mom gave it 8 out of 10 for a meal and 9 out of 10 for a salad)



Asian Salad serves 3

Ingredients:
1 ½ C shredded cabbage
3 carrots, grated
2 stalks celery, diced
1 C snow peas, chopped
1 C button mushrooms, chopped
1 shallot, diced
2 scallions, chopped

Marinade:
2 ½ Tbsp Olive Oil
1 ½ Tbsp Sesame Oil
2 Tbsp Nama Shoyu
½ Tbso rice vinegar
1 Tbsp Water
½ Tbsp Lemon juice
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp white pepper

Prepare all of the vegetables and mushrooms, and toss in a large enough dish.
Mix the marinade ingredients together in a bowl, and pour over the vegetable mixture. Mix well.
You can eat it now, but it tastes better if you let it marinate for an hour or so.
Serve over a bed of spinach.

Very Vegan Birthday Party! (And my Lemon Cake Recipe!)

It's hard to believe, but I'm reaching the end of my sixteenth time around the sun.
To celebrate, my parents actually allowed me to do all the cooking for my birhday party.

I had picked out recipes, made shopping lists, even made an itinerary for preparing the food. I was happy and excited to do this. Of course, nothing really went as planned, as a going-on-17 year old preparing a feast for 15 people, with dessert, can be a little overwhelming. But the results came out wonderful nonetheless, and almost all (except for a couple picky eaters) were impressed! Even my little cousins were eating mugwort soba noodles!
The meal was Asian themed, with some Mexican appetizers courtesy of my sister :)

Here are some of the wonderful recipes I made that are definitely worth noting:

Spring Rolls
General Tao's Tofu
"Beef" (Seitan) Teriyaki
Lo Mein
Raw Wild Rice Salad

I will admit I did not do everything on my own. My aunt prepared a delicious seitan dish and a rice salad, and also helped me make the spring rolls.

And of course, dessert!
Along with my thin mint cookies, I made a raw carrot cake, an igloo cake, cupcakes, a lemon cake, and featured a vegan ice cream cake, too!



Almost everyone seemed to agree that my lemon cake with raspberry topping was the best, so I figured I'd share it with whomever happens upon this blog (which probably isn't too many at this point)

My Lemon Cake:
2 C while whole wheat flour (or all-purpose)
1 C sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp lemon zest
1/3 C applesauce
2/3 C grape seed oil, or any mild flavor oil
1 C plant milk (I used almond)
1/2 Tbsp lemon extract
1 T fresh lemon juice

1) Preheat oven to 375.
2) Mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda and powder, salt. Add the remaining ingredients and mix.
3) Pour into greased cake tins or cupcake pans. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes up clean.

Raspberry sauce:
1 C frozen raspberries
1/2 C vegan brown sugar

Heat the ingredients in a saucepan on medium-low heat just for a few minutes, until the brown sugar has dissolved.
Spread on top of the cake, or on the bottom to let it soak.

The ice cream cake was much easier than I thought. I did try to make my own ice cream, but it was too much work using my little ice cream making ball, so I gave in and bought coconut ice cream from the health food store.
Let the ice cream sit on the counter so it is soft enough so that you can easily spread it in a springform pan. Once you get it to a thick enough layer, sprinkle on cookie crumbs, graham cracker crums, fruit, or what have you, and freeze it while you allow the rest to melt completely. Once the first layer is hard, and the top layer ice cream is melted, pour on the top layer so it's smooth and pretty. Sprinkle on some more of the filling to decorate it, and freeze it, and voila!
Just let it thaw a bit when you're ready to serve it, and take off the top part of the pan.

It was a fun day, to say the least, and I'm certain almost everyone enjoyed it!