Vietnamese Rice Bowls

Is it summer yet?

This is a perfect simple, healthy meal. It's easy to prep a bunch of the ingredients and eat these bowls for days, just baking the egg rolls and heating a portion of protein each time.

It's also completely customizable depending on what vegetables and proteins you have on hand. We will be trying a CSA this summer, and I'll have to keep this meal in mind when I have lots of veggies to use up.

The "Recipe": ("Recipe" is in quotations because I don't have any kind of helpful quantities to offer here)

Jasmine rice

Lots of sliced vegetables (this time I used cucumbers, carrots, scallions, and lettuce)

Protein (I like cubed tofu, tossed in olive oil and salt and baked at 350 for 40 minutes, or shrimp)

Nuoc cham (I mix water, lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, and chili paste to taste)

Peanut sauce (I like Cookie and Kate's recipe: 1/3 c peanut butter, 2 tb rice vinegar, 2 tb soy sauce, 2 tb honey, 1 tb sesame oil, 2 cloves garlic, and 2 tb water.)

Fried spring rolls, baked and sliced into 4 pieces

Optional garnishes: cilantro, fried shallots, chopped peanuts

Layer everything in a bowl, in the order listed above.
Eat.

The Verdict:
Overall grade: B+
Overall reason: Healthy, cheap, and pretty easy.
Time to prepare: About 1 hour, including baking tofu and cooking rice
Husband quote: "I'm out of clever things to say. But, well, it was good."

Comments

Kitchen renovation!

BEFORE: AFTER: Still to come: a beautiful new induction range and some wood shelving on the left side, above the backsplash. And maybe the shelving unit on the wall facing the cabinets should be green, but we're going to live with a while before making that decision.

Adzuki Beans with Black Rice

I hope I don't turn any readers away by featuring cilantro in my first photo. My current food obsession is black rice. I was first introduced to it at Sushi Pure . It's purple when cooked, and I was completely smitten when purple sushi arrived at our table. I mean, purple sushi! It was like my birthday or something. Actually, it might have been my birthday, because I pretty much always have sushi on my birthday, but anyway. It's kind of sweet and has this great chewy texture. When I learned how healthy it is , my crush evolved to full-out love. Sushi Pure's Spicy Tuna Roll (photo from FoodSpotting.com) In my ongoing research for ingredients that are low in calories but high in nutrition, adzuki (also spelled azuki) beans came up. I learned that these are the sweet red beans used in Japanese desserts, including red bean ice cream, which I've been obsessed with since I was a kid. But since turning them into ice cream probably negates the health benef...

Spicy Tomato Jam

Little pot of bubbling goodness seeks lentil patties, sweet potato fries, or pretty much anything else. I recently made this recipe from Crumb Blog for lentil patties with tomato jam. The lentil patties were pretty good, but the tomato jam was really something to write home about. It's one of those foods that makes you feel warm, even when it's cold. It has just the right balance of sweetness, acidity, and spice. The mustard seeds are a must (haha, must ard seeds). Their crunch, and the little burst of toasty peppery flavor that follows, are amazing in contrast to the rest of the flavors. The next time you're tempted to put ketchup on something, consider this instead. I have a little bit of this gold left over in the freezer. I'm thinking I may thin it out with vegetable broth and use it as a sauce for a stir-fry. Stay tuned for the results. The only change I made to this recipe was upping the amount of mustard seeds. I think 1 tsp is the perfect a...

Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

Search This Blog