Vegan Eggrolls

I miss egg rolls. A lot.

We were ordering Chinese take out one night and I finally decided to use the wheat wrappers I found to make myself some egg(less) rolls. It's really actually quite simple. I decided to pan fry these, I was just not in the deep frying mood. Nor did I want that much oil.

Vegan Egg Rolls

• 1/2 cup seitan, finely shopped
• 1/2 cup shredded cabbage
• 1/2 cup mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1-2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
• Bragg's Liquid Aminos (or soy sauce), to taste

Mix seitan, cabbage and mushrooms together in a small mixing bowl and drizzle with just a small amount of Bragg's. In a large pan over high heat, briefly saute the mixture in the sesame oil. Cook about a minute or 2, just until it's hot and a bit wilted looking. Scoop mixture back into the bowl, and prepare your wrappers. Spoon about 1-2 heaping tablespoons into the middle of the wrapper. Then fold. I had a hard time folding, but there is a great tutorial here. I'll have to work on that part. 

Spray a large pan with cooking spray and heat over medium high heat. Add rolls to the pan, but try not to crowd, I was cooking 4 at a time. Cook a few minutes, flip and cook, until all sides are evenly cooked and about a golden brown. 

My rolls, were delicious, but not very pretty looking, so no photos of this round. But don't worry I''ll be practicing...

Soup Day

I woke up this morning craving my mom's spinach egg drop soup. It was the perfect thing on a cold day or anytime you're feeling under the weather, which for me is actually pretty often. Since my mom is 300 miles away, and I can't find a quick & easy substitution for "egg drop", into the fridge it was to whip up a new soup. Here's what I came up with.

Sick Day Soup

-3 scallions, roughly chopped

-3 carrots, cut into small coins

-2 cloves garlic, grated/minced

-handful of mushrooms thinly sliced (I used cremini, about 10-12)

-a bunch of baby bok choy, roughly chopped

-1 cup of barley

-Braggs to taste (optional)

Saute the scallions and carrots in a drizzle of olive oil over medium high heat for about 5 minutes. Add garlic, saute for a minute then add mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms until they are nice and soft, about 5-7 minutes, then fill the pot with water ( you can also use some vegetable stock, I just didn't have any). Bring to a boil then add barley. Give it a quick stir, after it boils a minute turn it down to a simmer. When the barley is almost done, add the bok choy. At this point, I just left it on a low simmer until I was ready to eat (as you can tell I wasn't exactly timing this one). I finished it off with a splash of Braggs, a couple of shakes of celery seed and a few generous cracks of freshly ground pepper.