I love rice. Period. If you ask me to go even two days without rice, I would go crazy. Its basically because I'm Asian and for all Asians, rice is a staple food. But the only catch is that too much rice, even brown rice, tends to lead to flabby arms, love handles, belly fat which doesn't seem to go away no matter how hard I tried. So, for the past 3 weeks I have reduced my rice intake to only 2-3 tbsps at every meal. Just so that I can trick my mind to believe that I am still eating rice! It seems to be working so far albeit rather slowly though I am often hungry. So I decided to try alternatives to rice firstly quinoa and after reading countless recipes on cauliflower rice, today I tried using that as an alternative.

My first reaction after I cooked Fried Cauliflower Rice? I went WOW! It was so delicious. And I mean out of the world delicious! I wished there and then that my travelling husband was there to try it. He would have been totalled blown away as well. Do you know what's the best part ? I could eat as much as I want!! They are no carbs here. Just the goodness of cauliflower, mushrooms and spinach! Next time I ought to add tofu to get my protein fix as well. I bought prepackaged cauliflower rice but you can easily make your own by processing cauliflower into little rice-like crumbs.

if you are amazed by the higher quality of the photos in this post as I am, I have to give credit to the camera feature of the latest Iphone 11... amazing HD quality! It even beat my DSLR camera!!

Ingredients (Serves 1-2)
1) 2 tbsps oil and another 2 tbsps oil
2) 5 cloves garlic, minced
3) 250gm white button mushrooms
4) A small piece of red capsicum sliced thin
5) 3 cups baby spinach
6) 300gm cauliflower rice
7) Salt, pepper and chilli flakes
8) 2 tbsps chopped scallions for garnish

Method
​1. First heat a medium sized pot and fry the garlic in 2 tbsps canola or any other veg oil.

2) Add in the salt, pepper and chilli flakes.

3) Add in the mushrooms and red capsicum strips at this juncture. Let them simmer till they are soft and cooked. 

4) Your next step would be to add in the spinach. Let the whole mix cook on low to medium heat till all the water evaporates. 

5) In the meantime, add 2 tbsps of canola oil into a skillet pan and fry the cauliflower crumbs for 5-10 minutes till its golden brown.  

6) Once all the water has evaporated from the mushroom mix and the cauliflower rice is cooked, pour the mushroom mix into the skillet pan.

7) Mix and stir fry the cauliflower rice and the vegetables. Once all mixed well, taste for seasonings and add accordingly.  

8) Serve warm with chopped scallions as garnish.

2) Heat the vegan butter in another pot and fry the chopped onions until softened.

3) Then, add the crushed garlic, oregano and the sliced mushrooms. Fry till the mushrooms are cooked and softened.

4) Add the all purpose flour and stir fry for around 1 min. 

5) Then, add in the coconut or any other non dairy milk you are using and vegetable stock. Keep on stirring till it reaches a simmer. It should be perfectly thick and creamy by now.

6) Add in the salt, pepper and dijon mustard together with the cooked pasta. Toss well.

7) Garnish with thyme and serve warm. If it thickens up after some time, add 1/2 cup hot water, stir and warm it up. It should loosen up and be creamy. 

(223rd Recipe Credit :  LovingItVegan)

Method
1. Heat a medium sized saucepot and fry the pounded ginger.

2) Add in the mushroom powder and sambal oelek.

3) Now, pour in 3 cups of water and add the hardier vegetables like zucchini, snow peas and capsicum first. Let the soup boil then reduce fire and let it simmer for 5 mins.

4) After 5 mins, add in the cherry tomatoes, shimeji mushrooms and peanuts. Boil again for another 5 mins. 

5) Lastly add in the silken tofu and stir. Cook for another 2-3mins on low heat. 

6) ​Add the corn flour mix and let the soup thicken. This will happen instantly.

7) Serve warm garnished with sesame seeds and coriander leaves. 
(222nd Recipe) 

I recently tried this delicious Grilled Tofu on Quinoa at the Food For Thought Cafe at the National Museum of Singapore. I'm not usually a fan of quinoa but to be honest, this was quite delicious. Quinoa was not cooked plain but with veg stock and it was topped with a vegetable tomato gravy and again topped with the grilled tofu.  Its vegan and gluten free too! The portion size was quite small for a whopping $16 but its a good take away recipe to try at home. The ingredients below serves 1.

Ingredients (For Flavoured Quinoa)

• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 2 cups vegetable stock (low salt)
• Salt if required

Ingredients (Vegetable Tomato Gravy)

• 2 tbsps canola oil
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped small
• 3 garlic cloves, pounded 
• 1/2 can of Hunts diced tomatoes/1 large tomato cut into medium sized cubes
• 1 tsp garlic herb salt (see picture below)
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 1/4 of a large zucchini cut into strips
• 1/2 of red capsicum, cut into strips
• 1/2 cup of shimeji mushroom (10 heads), rinsed
• Salt per preference
• 1 block of firm tofu, cut into 4 rectangle steaks

Method 
1) Firstly, rinse and cook the quinoa in the vegetable stock till all the liquid has evaporated.

2) Next, grill the tofus in shallow oil. Remove them when slightly golden brown and leave them on kitchen paper to absorb the oil. 

3) Start getting the ingredients of the vegetable tomato gravy ready. Add 2 tbsps of canola oil to medium sized pot and start frying the chopped yellow onion and garlic.

4) Next add the garlic herb blend spice powder and chilli flakes.  

5) Add the sliced zucchini, red capsicum and shimeji mushrooms. Let them cook on medium heat for 5 mins.

6) Afterwhich, add the diced tomatoes from the can or chopped tomatoes. 

7) Let the whole gravy cook on medium heat for 10 mins. Check for seasonings and add more salt or garlic herb salt, if required.

8) These are the ingredients I used for this recipe.

9) Serve the tomato vegetable stew on top of a bed of quinoa and top this with the grilled tofu steaks. Garnish with a sprig of coriander leaf.

There are perhaps 50,000 capsicum varieties grown worldwide and they have been classified under 5 major species of cultivated capsicums:

• Capsicum annuum, which includes bell peppers, sweet/Italian peppers, serrano, cayenne, paprika and jalapeños
• Capsicum baccatum, which includes the South American varieties, such as ají amarillo, ají limon and criolla sella
• Capsicum chinense, which includes all of the Habaneros, Scotch Bonnets, Trinidad Scorpions, the Bhut Jolokia and the Carolina Reaper.
• Capsicum frutescens, which includes the Tabascos and many of the peppers grown in India; sometimes not distinguished as a species separate from C. annuum.
• Capsicum pubescens, which includes the Rocoto and Manzano pepper, and are distinctive plants in having violet flowers, black seeds and hairy dark green leaves and grows as a large, multi-stemmed vine up to 5 meters long.

Dangjo Peppers comes under the main species Capsicum Annuum and they originate from Korea. They are light green or bright yellow chilli peppers with mild heat.   

Have I bored you enough? :) So, I came across these peppers while grocery shopping at NTUC Finest in the east of Singapore last weekend. A young lady of perhaps 20 was dressed in a beautiful traditional Korean Hanbok and I was curious to see what she was promoting. At first sight, I was horrified at these chilli peppers! They were huge and looked quite menacing. But she laid my concerns to rest and claimed they were only mildly hot and that they taste very much like our regular capsicums. She had these lettle plastic cups with samples of these cut Dangjo peppers in a mild tomato gravy. I tried a small piece with a tissue on hand in case I needed to spit it out immediately.

​Contrary to what I thought, it actually tasted yum! I was bought! The packet of around 15 of these premium peppers costed around $7.50 Singapore dollars but they are truly worth it. Plus, I wondered how long she must have been standing there the whole day and wondered if anyone had bought her pretty expensive bell peppers. I just wanted to help her out in her promotion.

Who says we can't mix Korean and Indian cuisine? 
Today I tried making an Indian version of these peppers. It turned out quite delicious. The tomatoes added a sour taste to the peppers and it complemented their mild heat.  My husband thought so as well. No way I could introduce peppers to my teen daughters! These Dangjo peppers are so versatile - because they are quite large, you could stuff them with tofu brown rice mix and bake them or you could even make a simple Chinese version by frying ginger and adding light soy sauce and serve them topped with toasted sesame seeds.  

Ingredients (serves 4 as a side dish)
300gm Dango Peppers cut at an angle
1 medium sized red onion, sliced
1 ginger garlic paste
1 to 2 tsp turmeric powder
1 to 2 tsp cumin powder
1 large ripe tomato sliced
Salt per preference
A  sprig of coriender leaves, chopped roughly 

This is a relatively easy recipe so I didn't take photos of the actual method. 
​
Method
1. Take a medium sized cooking pot and fry the sliced onion.
2. Add the ginger garlic paste and saute for a while.
3. Add the spices and salt and stir well.
4. The sliced tomatoes go in next.
5. After a few minutes when the tomatoes get pulpy, add in the sliced Danjo peppers and coriander leaves.
6. Stir, add half a cup of water and cover.
7. Cook till the Dangjo peppers are soft.
8. Serve it at your next gathering - I'm sure it will be a conversation starter!!