vegan vietnamese bun April 30, 2008
Posted by a-k in noodles and pasta, nuts, raw, recipe, salad, vegetables.trackback
vegan bun: vietnamese noodle salad with fresh veggies, ezekiel sprouted grain linguine, cilantro-habanero-almond sauce, and sunflower-pecan nutmeat, garnished with basil and cilantro
no, it’s not that kind of bun. the baked roll-thing, i mean.
i’m deeply considering a raw fast this summer for the 10 days a is away on tour. so while looking for recipe-contenders for meal-planning (i need this kind of structure for that kind of dedication), i found a website called gone raw, with member-posted recipes. i have been drooling over the creations and feeling inspired to start incorporating some raw meals more frequently. what i came up with for dinner tonight isn’t entirely raw because of the sprouted pasta, tamari, and toasted sesame oil i used, but still ended up a fresh-ful and satisfying meal. so many textures, colors, and flavors! i highly recommend making some version of this meal (the nutmeat topping could be made from tofu or mushrooms, you could spiral-slice some zucchini or daikon as noodles, and possibly add some bean sprouts like i forgot to buy) to celebrate warmer weather.
bun (which refers also to a style of rice noodle) is a vietnamese dish generally consisting of room temperature noodles, large amounts of cool vegetable garnishes, and small servings of warm meat (usually beef) or stir-fried vegetables with a sweet and spicy fish-sauce and chili dressing. i strayed from a lot of these traditions in the necessity of making it vegan; also, mine was a chilled, mostly raw salad. you can use a less fiery pepper than habanero (or omit it completely) if you’re not a big fan of spice. there might be a few leftover vegetables depending on the size and how much you use in your salad – the measurements i am including are rough estimates. and feel free to switch up the vegetables; my choices reflect what i had on hand.
vegan bun (vietnamese noodle salad) (serves 2-3):
1/2 lb. wide pasta/noodles
1/2 c (raw) pecans (soaked if desired)
1/2 c (raw) sunflower seeds (soaked if desired)
1 garlic clove
3 tbsp (or more) tamari or shoyu
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 carrot, julienned
1/2 cucumber, quartered lengthwise and sliced thinly
1/2 c tomato, diced
1 c green cabbage, thinly sliced
1/4 bell pepper, julienned
2 tbsp green or spring onion, sliced thinly
1/4 c cilantro, loosely packed
2 tbsp fresh basil
1 garlic clove
2 tsp lemongrass, finely chopped
1/2-1 habanero pepper, seeded and chopped
2 tbsp (raw) almond butter
1/4 c (or more) water
lettuce leaves for lining plates
fresh basil and cilantro leaves for garnish (optional)
cook noodles according to package directions, then rinse with cold water and set aside. prepare your vegetables, placing them on a large plate (this makes it easier to keep them separate and not crowd your cutting board). in a food processor, pulse cilantro, basil, lemongrass, and chili pepper until finely chopped. add almond butter and enough water to thin the sauce to your liking and process until smooth. toss with cooled noodles and clean out your food processor for making the nutmeat. pulse garlic until chopped fine, then add the sunflower seeds and pecans and process to a coarse meal. add the sesame oil and tamari and process until well blended. taste and season with more tamari or salt as necessary.
line wide bowls with leaf lettuce, then pile on the dressed noodles and vegetables. garnish with fresh basil leaves and cilantro, and serve.
close-up on those crispy vegetables, creamy noodles, and scrumptious ground nut topping
I find the raw diet very VERY interesting, but raw ingredients (besides vegetables) are so difficult to find! Even nut butter is almost always roasted over here. I have to investigate…
Oh my goodness!! This reminds me of all those bowls of vietnamese food I ate in my youth. Yum!!
That looks amazing… wow…
I am doing a 30 day raw (or at least HIGH RAW) challenge this summer…
I want that! For me, the beginning of warm weather always awakens cravings for intense Vietnamese and Thai food.
This looks amazing!
That’s really beautiful!
What a gorgeous dish! You know, I don’t think I’ve ever used a habanero pepper before.
oh, so THAT’s what I wanted for dinner last night!
wow! that’s a beautiful plate of food! and, is that an owl placemat i see peeking out underneath your plate? om my goodness, i LOVE owls…
thanks, everyone, for your compliments! a great bonus to raw food is that you get such brilliant colors (from not cooking them), and they’re fun to put together for that reason.
alice- i hear you on the hard-to-find ingredients. i work at a natural foods store, so it’s fairly easy for me, but there are definitely ingredients in cookbooks that i would have to order online if i were to really commit to a full-time raw diet (which i’m not… too expensive! and, it’s too cold here in the winter for me not to want hot food).
jenny w- i didn’t start using habanero peppers until a couple years ago, because i was so afraid my mouth would never recover from the heat. but the heat, like in all peppers, comes mainly from the seeds, so if you’re not feeling overly adventurous, they’ll still pack a bearable kick.
vegan addict- why yes, they are owls… i love owls too! i got to see an elf owl in texas in april, and it was SO cute. yay owls!
i really like gone raw’s dessert section, which i have browsed quite a bit. (there are some excellent raw brownies on there!) i love the idea of nutmeat, and your bun looks so fresh and colorful and healthy! it looks super fancy, like something they’d serve at ecopolitan.
so gorgeous! i was hoping it was the vietnamese bun you were after. i am so intimidated about raw recipes, they are so complex and require so much time to prepare. i’m lucky if i find the time to crock pot beans. especially when it gets hot, i have no desire to cook. and sorry to be a nay sayer, but cayenne comes from cayenne peppers! way less spicy than habaneros…
xo
kittee
kittee- right you are about the habanero/cayenne thing! my bad. i think it’s because i always see capsicum blah-blah-blah and just link them together. because i’m lazy and inattentive, i guess
not all raw recipes are terribly complex (though some are, for sure – eek!), and i kind of like to balance them out. lots of times it’s just chopping veggies. i was intimidated by them too, especially since the first raw cookbook i checked out was “raw food, real world” which has terribly complex and gourmet recipes. then i found ani phyo’s book, and i was really impressed and made a lot more raw recipes, because they were so easy! anyway, i’m blabbering now. good luck with your green smoothies!
i will definitely check otu the ani phyo book. i am not aiming to be raw, just want to do mostly raw with simple other things like beans and maybe quinoa salads. plus i’ve been walking almost four miles a day and then working out 4 times a week. so we shall see. i’m mostly interested to see how it affects my fibromyalgia, which has been bothering me a bit since we came back from India.
xo
kittee