Summarize this content to 100 words These Easy Healthy Vietnamese Recipes Will Elevate Your Weeknight Dinners | Sunset Magazine Upgrade your everyday cooking with these easy, healthy plant-based favorites from Vietnamese cooking expert Andrea Nguyen’s new cookbook, Ever-Green Vietnamese. For decades, author Andrea Nguyen has championed unbridled Vietnamese deliciousness. Her seven cookbooks anchor the Vietnamese-American and pan-Asian culinary canon and are filled with recipes for dishes such as lemongrass pork chops, Vietnamese shaking beef, Chinese chiu chow dumplings, and hundreds of other preparations where flavor comes first. That’s a lot of recipes, a lot of recipe-testing—and a lot of eating. Such are the occupational hazards of being a prolific cookbook author. “You taste as you cook, when the dish is done, when it’s in leftover form,” says Nguyen. “And then you taste it to see how it is after being frozen.” In 2019 a health scare led Nguyen to an honest assessment of her diet, and a resolution to eat less meat and many more vegetables. The result is the excellent Ever-Green Vietnamese: Super-Fresh Recipes, Starring Plants from Land and Sea, loaded with dishes on par with Nguyen’s previous efforts but with, well, less meat and many more vegetables. 1 /3 Copyright © 2023 by Aubrie Pick. Cucumber, Kale, and Spiced Cashew Salad (Gỏi Du’a Leo Chay) Crisp gỏi du’a leo is a classic Viet salad often served as an appetizer with fried shrimp chips for scooping. To lighten the knife workload on weeknights and turn it into a side salad to accompany other dishes, I add kale for texture and a bunch of fresh herbs for punchy notes. Make sure the kale plays well with the other veggies and tastes good when raw by selecting curly kale with frilly, tender leaves resembling a swirly skirt, not a stiff scratchy tutu. A generous amount of spicy-sweet candied nuts stands in for the meat that’s typically found in this salad. In Vietnamese, cucumbers go by two charming names, du’a leo (“climbing squash” in southern Vietnam) and du’a chuột (“mouse squash” in northern Vietnam), so this salad may also be called gỏi du’a chuột. Around my house, we regularly have this salad and call it the 3C gỏi (cucumber + carrots + cashews). 2 /3 Copyright © 2023 by Aubrie Pick. Weeknight Vegetable Stir-Fry (Rau Xào Thập Cẩm) Several times a week, I rely on this versatile vegetable stir-fry to put a fast, tasty side on the table. It features a green veggie that’s cut on a steep diagonal to ensure the pieces cook quickly and absorb flavors well. One or two other vegetables play supporting roles by adding contrasting color, flavor, and texture. Simply seasoning with ginger, garlic, and salt during the steam-cooking process allows the vegetable’s flavors to brightly shine. Choose what’s freshest and in season to produce a winning dish every time. A carbon-steel skillet or wok heats up well to cook this dish in a flash; whatever you choose, have a lid handy. Variation: Don’t want to do a mixed-vegetable stir-fry? Use this recipe to cook 1 1⁄4 lbs. asparagus or green beans. The seasonings and cooking remain the same. Pro tip: Line up all the ingredients near the stove because the cooking happens fast. 3 /3 Copyright © 2023 by Aubrie Pick. Char Siu Roasted Cauliflower (Bông Cải Trắng Nướng Vị Xá Xíu) In tropical Vietnam, cauliflower is a prized cool-weather crop that’s typically stir-fried, added to soup, or pickled. Home ovens are uncommon in Vietnam, so few people roast cauliflower. In my California kitchen, however, I coat cauliflower wedges in salty-sweet-spicy seasonings typically reserved for Cantonese-style char siu barbecue pork, and then high-heat roast them. The contours of the wedges caramelize here and there to develop a deep savoriness that evokes the prized edges and corners of char siu pork. Serve this cauliflower as a satisfying main dish or tuck it into bao and bánh mì. Andrea NguyenReprinted with permission from Ever-Green Vietnamese: Super-Fresh Recipes, Starring Plants from Land and Sea by Andrea Nguyen, copyright © 2023. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Photographs copyright © 2023 by Aubrie Pick. As in her other cookbooks, Nguyen plays the consummate teacher, front-loading the book with the essential pantry staples, shopping lists, and fundamentals written in an exacting yet accessible way that transform instructions into intuition (for example, the difference between “rippling and shimmering oil” and the benefits of each). You’ll find Vietnamese favorites like bánh mì, rice rolls, and stir-fries that are either vegetarian, composed nearly entirely of produce, or with animal protein playing a supporting role. Thus shaking beef becomes shaking salmon, with a hefty dose of greens and herbs; and spicy mushroom and cabbage slaw is an entirely meat-free, umami-packed alternative to Viet chicken salad. Reprinted with permission from Ever-Green Vietnamese: Super-Fresh Recipes, Starring Plants from Land and Sea by Andrea Nguyen, copyright © 2023. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Photographs copyright © 2023 by Aubrie Pick. While the health benefits of a plant-based diet are undeniable, Nguyen is quick to point out that this book is not just for health and that cooking and eating should be grounded in joy and celebration and above all deliciousness. “Vegetables are the source of so much creativity in the kitchen,” she says. “Meat you can manipulate in only so many beautiful ways, but the sheer variety of vegetables is infinitely inspiring.” Here we share three dishes from the book to inspire you, too. Try the Recipes at Home 1 of 3Copyright © 2023 by Aubrie Pick.Cucumber, Kale, and Spiced Cashew Salad (Gỏi Du’a Leo Chay) Crisp gỏi du’a leo is a classic Viet salad often served as an appetizer with fried shrimp chips for scooping. To lighten the knife workload on weeknights and turn it into a side salad to accompany other dishes, I add kale for texture and a bunch of fresh herbs for punchy notes. Make sure the kale plays well with the other veggies and tastes good when raw by selecting curly kale with frilly, tender leaves resembling a swirly skirt, not a stiff scratchy tutu. A generous amount of spicy-sweet candied nuts stands in for the meat that’s typically found in this salad. In Vietnamese, cucumbers go by two charming names, du’a leo (“climbing squash” in southern Vietnam) and du’a chuột (“mouse squash” in northern Vietnam), so this salad may also be called gỏi du’a chuột. Around my house, we regularly have this salad and call it the 3C gỏi (cucumber + carrots + cashews). 2 of 3Copyright © 2023 by Aubrie Pick.Weeknight Vegetable Stir-Fry (Rau Xào Thập Cẩm) Several times a week, I rely on this versatile vegetable stir-fry to put a fast, tasty side on the table. It features a green veggie that’s cut on a steep diagonal to ensure the pieces cook quickly and absorb flavors well. One or two other vegetables play supporting roles by adding contrasting color, flavor, and texture. Simply seasoning with ginger, garlic, and salt during the steam-cooking process allows the vegetable’s flavors to brightly shine. Choose what’s freshest and in season to produce a winning dish every time. A carbon-steel skillet or wok heats up well to cook this dish in a flash; whatever you choose, have a lid handy. Variation: Don’t want to do a mixed-vegetable stir-fry? Use this recipe to cook 1 1⁄4 lbs. asparagus or green beans. The seasonings and cooking remain the same. Pro tip: Line up all the ingredients near the stove because the cooking happens fast. 3 of 3Copyright © 2023 by Aubrie Pick.Char Siu Roasted Cauliflower (Bông Cải Trắng Nướng Vị Xá Xíu) In tropical Vietnam, cauliflower is a prized cool-weather crop that’s typically stir-fried, added to soup, or pickled. Home ovens are uncommon in Vietnam, so few people roast cauliflower. In my California kitchen, however, I coat cauliflower wedges in salty-sweet-spicy seasonings typically reserved for Cantonese-style char siu barbecue pork, and then high-heat roast them. The contours of the wedges caramelize here and there to develop a deep savoriness that evokes the prized edges and corners of char siu pork. Serve this cauliflower as a satisfying main dish or tuck it into bao and bánh mì. Get the Book Reprinted with permission from Ever-Green Vietnamese: Super-Fresh Recipes, Starring Plants from Land and Sea by Andrea Nguyen, copyright © 2023. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Photographs copyright © 2023 by Aubrie Pick. Ever-Green Vietnamese by Andrea Nguyenm $32…
[ad_1]
[ad_2]
Source link