Meatless Monday with Vegan Chinese New Year Feast

Welcome (back) to the Miratel blog for a special Chinese New Year edition of our Meatless Monday recipe share. The Meatless Monday pledge aims to reduce meat consumption 15% by eliminating it one day per week to preserve planetary health. Miratel took the pledge to support this great movement and include it as part of our CSR business strategies to spread awareness of the impact of food choices on our environment.

Even though it’s a special occasion, you can still go meat-free and today we’re featuring a completely vegan meal in honour of the 2013 year of the snake. If you are looking for an appetizer, checkout this delicious baked vegan egg roll recipe we posted a while back. Today we’re serving Cantonese-Style Vegetable Chow Mein, Roasted Tofu with Leeks and Black Bean Sauce and Baked Banana Tempura all from Chow Vegan. Let’s get started.

Cantonese-Style Vegetable Chow Mein Ingredients (serves 1)

• 3 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked in water until soft, then sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed, coarsely chopped
• 1/4″ piece fresh ginger, minced
• 2 ounces sliced water chestnuts
• 6 stalks yu choy or bok choy or other green vegetable, trimmed and sliced
• 2-3 ounces snow peas
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 6 ounces noodles (I used O’Hana Organic Chow Mein Style Noodles)
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 stalk green onion, chopped for garnish
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce or to taste
• Salt to taste
• Corn starch dissolved in water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Heat water in a medium size pot to boil. Add noodles for 1 minute. Drain and toss with 1 teaspoon oil. Spread noodles out onto a baking sheet.
2. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, flip over, bake for 8-10 minutes on the other side until crispy. Pull apart the noodles and place on serving plate. Another option is to set aside the noodles and add to the wok at the end so it’s mixed with the cooked vegetables instead of being at the bottom.
3. Heat a wok to hot. Add a teaspoon of oil and heat to hot, then add the mushrooms, garlic and ginger, stir-fry for about a minute. Add the yu choy, snow peas and bean sprouts – always add in the order of the quickest cooking last, cook until crispy-tender.
4. Add the water, soy sauce and salt, seasoning to taste (If you like your chow mein with sauce, add most of the water and more if you really like a lot of sauce. I prefer a lot less sauce, so I only used about half of the 1/3 cup water).
5. To thicken the sauce, slowly add the corn starch mixture and stir to desired thickness. Serve on top of the noodles and garnish with the green onions.

Roasted Tofu with Leeks and Black Bean Sauce (serves 2)

• 1 16-ounce block of extra-firm tofu
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika

Sauce

• 1 medium leek, white and some green part, cut into 2 inch sections
• 2 tablespoons fermented black beans, mashed with a fork
• 1 teaspoon oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/3 cup water
• Arrowroot dissolved in water

Direction

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. In a bowl, combine the oil, salt and paprika. Cut the tofu into cubes and gently toss to coat with the mixture. Place each tofu cube in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Roast for 15 minutes on each side.
2. Heat a wok to hot, add the oil. Swirl the oil to coat the wok. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and black beans. Stir-fry for a few seconds, then add the leeks. Stir-fry for a few minutes, add the water and cook until the leeks are tender.
3. Slowly add the arrowroot mixture and stir to thicken the sauce to desired consistency. Add the tofu and mix well. Serve with rice.

Baked Banana Tempura Ingredients (serves 2)

• 2 small to medium size bananas
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• Ground cinnamon for dusting

Batter

• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground flax meal
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Direction

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly oil a baking sheet.
2. Combine batter ingredients in a bowl and blend well with a whisk. Set aside. Place bread crumbs in a bowl or plate and set near the batter bowl and baking sheet.
3. Peel and cut the bananas crosswise into 3/4″ slices. Give the batter a quick stir and then place a banana slice into the batter, coating well. Then into the bread crumbs, making sure it’s totally covered. Place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with each banana slice.
4. Bake for 4 minutes, flip over and bake another 4 minutes. Arrange on a serving dish and dust with cinnamon. Serve immediately.

Serve some oranges or tangerines with dessert as eating these fruit is said to bring luck. This meal also incorporates other “lucky” foods as the noodles and greens from the Chow Mein dish represent long life when kept whole (long) and serving desserts is said to bring a sweet life in the new year.

If you haven’t already, we encourage you to visit the Meatless Monday website and join us in taking the Meatless Monday pledge today. Spread the word at home and at work and promote CSR business initiatives to make your green call centre, office, factory, shop, restaurant or salon even greener.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services and mail house operations and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.