On the menu today—Thai Noodle Stir Fry

A recent cold snap in our area forced me to make a vegan dish that I hadn't made in a while.

I had been storing some excess vegetables—bags of carrots, onions, squash, beets and cabbages in my garage. I was experimenting with the concept of constructing a cold storage area in the garage. My grandparents used to have a cold storage in their basement. It was not insulated, had a dirt floor, no windows and I remember it being cool in the heat of summer. This type of storage is low tech, effective and environmentally friendly; so in my mind, worth investigating as an option for food storage.

I was attempting to figure out how much the temperature fluctuation could affect vegetables in the garage when bamm...temperatures of -29 C hit. Nothing uncommon for Canada, but too cold for the veggies.

The result of the cold snap was a bunch of frozen veggies. The two, 2lb bags of carrots were frozen solid. Instead of throwing them out, I decided to thaw and juice them. It was perfect because I have a vegetarian recipe for Thai noodles that need 5 cups of carrot juice. The 5 cups of juice = 2 bags of carrots juiced.

The recipe had been given to me from a friend at work and I was initially hesitant to try it because the main ingredients of the sauce are carrot juice, ground sunflower seeds and coconut. I wasn't sure if I would like the taste. That being said, it has ended up being one of my favorite vegan recipes so far.
Thai Noodle Sauce

3 inches of ginger root, minced

12 cloves of garlic

2.5 tbs sesame oil

2/3 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup grated, unsweetened shredded coconut

2 tbs chili powder

2/3 cup fresh lemon juice (~ 3 lemons)

2/3 cup tamari (or soya sauce)

5 cups of carrot juice

4 tsp paprika

                                                     1 stalk of lemongrass, one end cut off and smashed to release fragrance

Cook the ginger and garlic in the sesame oil for a few minutes in a deep pot.

Grind up the sunflower seeds. I used a spare coffee grinder that I keep around for grinding seeds or spices. You can pick up a cheap one for around $8.

Add the ground seeds and the remaining ingredients into the pot,bring to boil and then reduce the heat. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the lemongrass stalk.

Serves 6
Nutritional Breakdown Per Serving of sauce:
  368 Calories
  23g Fat (52.6% calories from fat)
  11g Protein
  36g Carbohydrate
  7g Dietary Fiber
  0mg Cholesterol
  1878mg Sodium

The recommended serving is to use the sauce in a stir-fry of rice noodles, chopped greens (kale,swiss chard and/or bok choy), chopped tomato, cubes of tofu or seitan ( marinated in 1/2 c tamari and 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar or teriaki sauce). Top with bean sprouts, roasted peanuts and a lemon wedge.