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Tasty Tuesday: Peanutty Jap Chae Recipe with Soba Noodles

Welcome to any new readers! Check out my links in the sidebar to the right (must reads), or my tabs above (the salad story, yoga + fitness, recipes, and my recommendations).

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I updated my recipes page. All recipes are waist-friendly, most are vegetarian or vegan, many are raw or macrobiotic – there are tons of options. I will be updating the layout of the page soon (I hope) to make it more navigable and sortable, but for now I am so happy that ALL my recipes are actually listed. Go look! There are 214 recipes on there as of today. I am really happy that I have that as a history of my cooking for the last 3 years. Here is #214.

Korean Recipe Rehab: Healthy Jap Chae Recipe

Last night we ate in, and I cooked. I cooked! I have not truly cooked in ages and I have missed it so. I read Women’s Health this weekend and they had a recipe for Jap Chae (a traditional Korean recipe – it’s a noodle dish) and I wanted to make my own version of it. I used to make Jap Chae all the time, but that recipe is different from this one. It’s lower calorie, but not as filling.

Since I’m not trying to lose weight I’m going to stick with this soba noodle jap chae recipe (which has a peanutty Pad Thai twist). Here is my Very Low calorie Jap Chae recipe. The one I’m about to post is still not that hefty either! It is certainly a waist-friendly recipe. (Note the options in parentheses after ingredients that can make it a lower calorie recipe – the mods are simple and shouldn’t change the taste.)

I opted to do this in typical Maggie fashion: a fusion Asian dish – soba noodles (Japanese), jap chae sauce (Korean recipe), and the addition of peanut butter (Thai) – it was awesome. Bobby agreed. This dish is even kind of macrobiotic; I approve of eggs on a macrobiotic diet.

Peanutty Jap Chae Soba Noodles (AKA Spunky Soba with a Twist)

Ingredients (serves 3-4, depending on appetites)

  • 8 ounces soba noodles
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon (organic turbinado) sugar
  • 1 teaspoon chili flakes (could do less)
  • 3 tablespoons PB2 or 2 tablespoons peanut butter (could do less but this makes it tasty)
  • 1-2 tablespoons peanut oil (could do less; could use sesame oil if you don’t have peanut)
  • 1/2 large onion, chopped
  • 5 cloves of garlic, crushed and roughly minced (could do less)
  • 2 medium carrots, sliced
  • 2 (non-recalled) eggs
  • 3-4 celery stalks, sliced
  • 1 medium zucchini, julienned

Method

  1. Prepare the veggies. You will add them in the order listed above.
  2. Prepare the noodles according to the package. (Usually boil for 4 minutes then drain.)
  3. Mix the sauce while the noodles are cooking: soy sauce, sugar, chili flakes, PB2/peanut butter. (Do not need to dissolve the sugar yet.)
  4. Heat the peanut oil on high heat in a wok or large pan. Add the onion, garlic, and carrots. Saute for 3 minutes.
  5. Beat the eggs with a fork. Push the veggies to one side of the pan; add the eggs and scramble them there. It is ok if everything mixes together.
  6. Add the other veggies: celery and zucchini. Saute for 3-4 more minutes.
  7. Add the noodles (drained) and the sauce; stir a few times then turn off the heat. You can continue to mix to make sure everything is distributed evenly.
  8. Serve! This jap chae recipe is perfect alone: protein, carbs, and fat. Yum yum yum.

For dessert I had grapes; Bobby had a nectarine. I haven’t been into sweets lately. So strange.

What’s your favorite noodle dish?

Here are some of my other noodly recipes:

Enjoy, bookmark, share 🙂 Let me know if you make any of them!

P.S. Did anyone notice that Chrome had an update? I like it.

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Recipe: (Organic) Roasted Veggie Bi Bim Bap

Last night (on the fourth of July) I made bi bim bap for dinner. Bi bim bap is a Korean dish – it’s rice, topped with lettuce, various cooked veggies, and an egg. And meat, for non-vegetarians. (Like that yolk, Sophia?)

In the spirit of being local/homegrown/American (it was fourth of July) I made this with mostly organic produce from our farmers’ market; the eggs are also organic and free range and delicious. I think the rice is even organic too. I’m making a serious effort to be more local/organic these days.

That is Bobby’s bi bim bap. It’s brown/white rice (a mix), some lettuce, a fried egg, and roasted veggies.

Maggie’s Organic Roasted Veggie Bi Bim Bap

Ingredients

  • brussels sprouts, quartered
  • green beans
  • burdock, finely sliced
  • turnips, sliced (I used a mandoline)
  • zucchini, sliced (mandoline again)
  • peanut oil (a few tablespoons)
  • soy sauce (a few teaspoons)
  • lettuce
  • rice (brown or white)
  • red spicy Korean sauce (we used ketchup + hot sauce – a good approximation!)
  • 1 fried egg per person

Method

First I coated the brussels, beans, turnips, zucchini, and burdock in peanut oil and soy sauce. I put the brussels, burdock, and beans on one pan because those have to cook for longer; the turnips and zucchini can go on another sheet. I baked them at 400F for 35 minutes. I took out the turnips/zucchini early (25 minutes or so).

(Note: in the picture above I had put the burdock with the turnips/zucchini – I had to move it to the other pan because it wasn’t done after 25 minutes!) Then they came out:

Once the veggies were done, we simply made bowls of rice + lettuce + fried egg, and added the toppings. Here is the bi bim bap base (Bobby’s):

And here is the finished product (mine – extra lettuce, obviously):

We topped it with homemade ketchup + organic hot sauce. Yum!

This was so much better than some of the other things I have made recently – not because the other things are bad, but because this was made with fresh, organic, local ingredients. I am finally converted. These veggies were fabulous and it’s not worth it to me to save money with non-organic produce anymore. I’m going GREEN.

Exercise of the day: I’m about to do my Diane von Furstenberg exercise, and then Bobby and I are going to the Met a little later to meet up with a friend. We’ll walk there (over a mile) and back.

Do you buy organic? Is it worth it to you? Can you get organic produce/products where you live?

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Korean BBQ NYC… Seoul Garden.

On Bobby’s birthday we went out for an old favorite – Korean barbecue. Seoul Garden is on West 32nd Street right in K-town (Korea-town) across from H-Mart (one of my favorite places). I did not get bbq (Bobby did); instead I got cold bi-bim-bap, which is a salad-type-thing with a side of rice. (Bi-bim-bap literally means “mixed rice”.)

I forgot to snap a pic before I mixed it! This one came with lots of things: carrots, spinachy stuff, burdock, lettuce, an egg, bean sprouts, mushrooms, and I don’t even know what else. All (or most at least) of the veggies are cooked, sauteed, oiled, and seasoned, so you don’t need much dressing – I just add a bit of that special Korean red sauce.

What you get before the meal, though, is the best part…

Side dishes (banchan/panchan)! My favorites were the broccoli and cauliflower (we got seconds) and the bean sprouts. The fried tofu and potatoes are yummy too; they also gave us 2 kinds of kimchi, which I love (but not all do). That is a raw egg for Bobby’s soon dofu, a boiling hot spicy tofu soup. You crack the egg in when it gets to the table (broth still bubbling).

I’ve been busy with work, wedding planning, and classes, but I’ve managed to get in some good exercise, which I will update about soon – I have some great recs for all you Netflixers!

Do you like kimchi? I love it.

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Make A Meal With Side Dishes (Korean)

I adore Korean food. On Sunday I ended up stopping at H-Mart, the Korean market on 32nd Street (it’s in K-town).

At H-Mart I was seduced by pre-made panchan (side dishes; also spelled banchan). I picked up a few of the cheap ones ($1.99 each). First there was an egg pancake thing with some veggies:

Then I got an amazing daikon kimchi. This was slightly sweet and different from any kimchi I’ve ever had. It’s the best kimchi I’ve had though!

I got shredded and pickled daikon too… (A little sweet, a little sour, just right.)

And some steamed (or sauteed?) spinach with sesame seeds and soy sauce. (This is very similar to gomaee, a Japanese spinach dish. My gomaee recipe is here.)

And my other favorite (aside from the cool daikon kimchi) – sprouts! I don’t know how these are prepared but they’re really yum.

I also got a Japanese side dish, takuan (a different pickled daikon). This is one of Bobby’s favorites. We always soak it in water for a little bit before we eat it, otherwise it’s too salty.

We didn’t just have the side dishes though. We took lettuce leaves and filled them with white rice, then added different side dishes for topping, then dipped them in hoisin and hot sauce. I was out of that amazing Korean red sauce, but hoisin+hot sauce worked almost as well. Must remember to pick up the red sauce next time I’m at the store.

They kind of reminded me of the FUSHI I made all the time last summer.

Ahh, yum. I will make that again soon too.

What’s your favorite Korean side dish? Which ones would you want to try?

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Friday Fix: I’m out of here!

I’m so glad you all liked my education links yesterday! I didn’t realize they would generate such interest. I guess learning is cool after you get out of school.

Today I guest posted at my longtime friend’s blog, I Swim For Oceans. Melissa writes a book blog and she’s always giving me good ideas. I have known her since I was in middle school and we’ve reconnected via blogging – I did get to see her at my reunion back in November though. I also won her contest a while back and got a signed book from a local author (Brooklyn). So go check out the guest post called Friday Fix.

That’s all for today… just wanted to stop in and link to my guest post! Have a great wonderful amazing weekend. I’m off to K-town with Bobby for some banchan and bibimbap.