Zucchini and Pumpkin Noodles

I know, I have an addiction to vegetable noodles. But honestly, after looking at the photo above, how someone could not have an addiction is beyond me. They're so beautiful! Colourful enough to win an art prize and so full of flavour that I wonder why a certain someone I know eats pre-packaged pasta and sauce (yes, the sauce comes as a dry powder sachet). Plus they're faster to cook than normal pasta, and you can use the extra couple of minutes to shred the vegetables with a vegetable peeler.

I used hokkaido squash and zucchini for this batch. Hokkaido, owing to the hollow centre, thin flesh and rounded shape, is much easier to make into noodles than a a stocker squash like butternut. Plus hokkaido can be left unpeeled, which adds a touch of red to the already vibrant colour. Carrots are also a good choice. I like my noodles to have a little 'bite' to them - I don't want squishy noodles, but if you've got an aversion to barely-tender vegetables, then stick to just zucchini. Pumpkin is liable to simply disintegrate if you overcook it. My method of cooking here is to cover the noodles with boiling water and leave it for a few minutes, testing it every minute for texture. There's no need to boil these noodles in a saucepan.

When I was shredding the zucchini, I eventually came to the very inner 'core' of the vegetable, at which point it's impossible to shred any more. At this point, I simply finely chop the rest of the zucchini flesh and mix it into whatever sauce I'm making. The residual heat from the sauce cooks the zucchini. If you're shredding noodles before you make your sauce, then of course you can cut them to whichever size you prefer, and incorporate into the sauce as per normal. This recipe would be easily adaptable to make it suitable for raw foodists, but I chose to serve mine with a piping-hot, spicy and filling TVP mince (textured vegetable protein) and kidney bean chilli.

Zucchini and Pumpkin Noodles

2 zucchini

1/4 hokkaido squash

Finely shred the vegetables, using a vegetable peeler, to make long but thin strands. Rotate the vegetable as you work, so that you're always on the edge of the vegetable - the thinnest strands are made this way. If you have a mandolin, go for your life.

Mix the vegetables together, and sit in a large bowl. Cover with boiling water and leave to soak for a few minutes, depending on the desired texture. Test often (every minute) and drain the noodles as soon as they're soft enough to wrap around a fork.

Serve immediately, with the sauce of your choice. I chose a thick chilli non-carne, and they love tomato-based sauces, but a bechamel or white sauce also works nicely.

Super-quick White Sauce:
3 Tbsp margarine/butter
3 Tbsp white flour
1 & 1/2 to 2 & 1/2 cups Soymilk/milk

Melt the margarine in a frying pan (for maximum evaporation!) and mix the flour into the mix, allowing the paste to cook for a few minutes to remove that raw-floury taste and texture. Lower the heat.
Very slowly add a cup of the soymilk (or milk, I know you don't all love soymilk like I do!) whilst constantly stirring, so that it becomes incorporated completely without creating lumps. Using a whisk is a good idea to remove lumps.
As the sauce thickens, add more soymilk to thin it. Adjust the heat as necessary - I have an electric hotplate, so I turn the heat up to medium and simply remove the pan from the heat when it's thickening too quickly - that way I can add more liquid before it becomes a thick paste.
How much liquid you need depends on how thick you want your sauce to be. At a certain point the roux (flour mix) will reach saturation point at the sauce will stop thickening. Once this happens, simply add liquid to reach your desired texture, and serve immediately.
To use this over pasta, I recommend a few tablespoons of finely chopped, fresh parsley and a generous grind of each salt and pepper.

Stir-fry Veg with Mung Bean Noodles

Hello, easiest dinner ever. It's nice to be looking at you again, especially seeing as how I've neglected this blog lately. I'll see if I can make a few posts today, in order to wade through the backlog of photos in my "eats" folder - it's a poor habit to be in, I know. I've just been a little run off my feet lately, but it should settle down soon. In the meantime, I'm procrastinating by salivating over photos of things that I've cooked lately. Small wonder everyone thinks I'm strange! ;)

So, this was among the many "easy" meals I've cooked lately. Easy in that it's even easier than usual, and it made short work of a) my hunger, and b) the leftover dregs of vegetables that were inhabiting my fridge. I think that a dish like this tends to be pretty invincible - the only way you can do it any harm is if you walk off and forget about it, in which case your vegetables would be overcooked, or worse, burnt. Thankfully, it smells good enough to keep you in the kitchen, and the vegetables only take a few minutes to cook.

This is so shamefully easy that I don't know why I'm going to bother to type out my rough-estimate of a recipe. I'm not a measurer; I just throw things in according to what looks, feels, and smells right. Everyone has their own taste, and everyone uses different ingredients (seeing as I'm pretty doubtful that you, too, shop at the Dom Markt), so just adjust the soy and chilli to taste. I decided to use mung bean noodles because I couldn't be bothered waiting for rice to cook. Ok, other reasons include the great chewy texture and the light, sweet flavour that soaks up the soy and siracha. Rice thread noodles would work just as well.

Stir-fried Vegetables with Bean Thread Noodles

100g mung bean vermicelli-style noodles*

1 tbsp finely chopped / crushed garlic
1/2 small head broccoli

1 large zucchini

250g button mushrooms

250g brussels sprouts

3 tbsp siracha

3 tbsp soy sauce

Slice the vegetables into small, evenly-sized pieces.

In a bowl, soak the bean thread noodles in boiling water. They usually only take a couple of minutes, so cook your vegetables while you wait. The noodles are ready when they're completely transparent, with no trace of the original white colour.

Heat a little oil (I used about a tablespoon) in your wok and sautee the garlic for a few seconds. Add the vegetables, stirring constantly, and cook on a high heat for a few minutes, or until the greens are bright.

Add the noodles to the vegtables, mixing in to incorporate. Using chopsticks to cook is much better than a wooden spoon, when you're dealing with noodles.

Add the soy sauce and siracha, mixing thoroughly so that the vegtables and noodles are completely coated. Cook for a moment longer, until any residual soy has evaporated, and eat immediately.

* Shameless guesswork on my part with the mung bean noodles. I didn't have a full packet, is all that I can tell you.