Tuesday, July 2 Hmong Sautéed Cabbage and Noodles with Tofu Rating: 4.25

So, one of the things we’ve been getting a lot of in the CSA boxes is cabbage. While we like cabbage, there is a limit to how much slaw two people can be expected to eat, and since that’s what we typically do with cabbage, we’ve gotten a little burned out. I remembered a recipe for sautéed cabbage from a few years ago when we first went vegan that I’ve made a couple of times and really enjoyed. It was in the very first issue of VegNews I ever bought. I had subscribed to Vegetarian Times on and off for more than ten years, but I had no idea there was another vegetarian magazine out there, much less a vegan magazine until I noticed it at the bookstore. Since we were new vegans, I was beyond excited to find it. There was a small feature on Hmong cuisine and I was intrigued. The cabbage recipe is really simple to make and calls for white pepper, which gives it a nice flavor and a little extra kick in the spiciness department. 

The other dish featured in the magazine is a noodle dish with peppers, onions, garlic, and tofu. The noodles are nothing fancy, just basic rice noodles, which I conveniently had in the pantry. The way it’s written the tofu doesn’t need to marinate, it just gets cooked with the vegetables, but we like ours with a little more flavor, so I made a simple Asian marinade and then baked the tofu before adding it to the veggies. The seasonings for this dish are also fairly simple, using a LOT of white pepper, which gives it the same flavor profile and the same nice bite as the cabbage. I’ll definitely make this one again. It was a nice change from the usual basic stir-fries we normally have. There were so many yummy veggies, I just had to share a pic of the prep.