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Rainbow Rice Paper Rolls with Teriyaki tofu, veggies, and fruits

The most colorful, appetizing, refreshing and delicious meal you can make with minimum amount of cooking and without breaking a sweat - summer rolls, or rice paper rolls! All ingredients can be prepared raw and you can go wild with colors. Summer rolls, or Gỏi cuốn, is a Vietnamese dish traditionally consisting of pork, prawn, vegetables, and other ingredients wrapped in Vietnamese bánh tráng, aka rice paper wrappers. Unlike spring rolls, which are wrapped in flour wrappers and then fried, summer rolls are wrapped in a translucent rice-wrapper and served cold. So naturally they're much easier and quicker to make, as well as being lighter on the stomach. I like to wrap a variety of fresh veggies, fruits, and crispy glazed tofu strips in my summer rolls. You could simply slice the tofu and wrap but glazing and pan-frying them gives the dish much more flavor and adds a nice crunch! And if you like them to be fruity, mango, figs, and even kiwi are all good options. My latest discovery
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Baby Chick Onigiri with Wasabi Edamame Fillings

The cutest Onigiri, aka rice balls for your next lunch box, bento box, picnic, kids party, or anytime you need that extra boost of happiness from your meals! These baby chick onigiri are easy to make and filled with a super flavorful and nutritious edamame mixture that has just a little bit of an energizing kick. Isn't it just the best feeling when you sit down for your meal and you just feel this ear-to-ear smile beaming on your face that you can't even help? I love making food that will give people, myself included, that exact feeling. And these baby chick onigiri would definitely be one of them! The beaks are made of sweet corns which also go so well with the rice balls. And the fillings was actually inspired by one of my favorite snacks, roasted wasabi edamame! Wasabi adds such a nice little kick that's so refreshing and unique.  But of course, this is a highly adaptable recipe, you can make the fillings anything you want! My other go-to filling is a chickpea "chun
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Air Fried Oyster Mushroom with Gluten Free Breading

Golden brown crispy outside and juicy, tender, layered, and easily pulled apart inside, no these are not fried chicken they are air-fried oyster mushrooms! These mushrooms are dredged in a gluten-free vegan "buttermilk" batter and whole-grain breading. I know so many people would take one look at this dish and go "oh that's vegan fried chicken", well while they do look similar and indeed some restaurants and home cooks would serve this as an alternative to fried chicken, fried mushrooms is its own dish, especially common in Asian cuisines. My mom made me fried mushrooms all the time, sometimes with oyster mushroom, sometimes maitake, sometimes enoki and my family is not vegan at all. We'd also order fried mushrooms at restaurants quite often. So yes this is a dish I have such fond memories with and have been enjoying since long before I went vegan. I've made the recipe entirely gluten-free and whole grain, plus I opted for air frying instead of deep fryi
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Vegan Jumeokbap Korean Rice Balls 3 Ways

Make your next lunch box or picnic extra special with these Jumeokbap three ways! These Korean rice balls are the perfect grab & go meal and I made three flavors - filled with chickpea "chuna" mash, coated in teriyaki nori, and my personal fave, kimchi vegan cheese! One common confusion would be, what's the difference between Jumeokbap and Onigiri? Jumeokbap and onigiri are both rice ball dishes, but they come from different culinary traditions and have some differences in their preparation and ingredients. Jumeokbap is a Korean rice ball dish, you can usually find the various ingredients such as vegetables, meat, or seafood mixed IN the rice, and then shaped into balls, sometimes with fillings, sometimes without.  Onigiri, on the other hand, is a Japanese dish that consists of cooked short-grain rice that is shaped into a triangle or oval shape and often has a filling such as salmon, pickled plum, or tuna. The rice is usually seasoned with salt and wrapped with a she
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Vegan Okonomiyaki (Japanese Savory Pancake with Veggies)

My absolute favorite Japanese street food, EVER!  Okonomiyaki is like a big savory pancake that is thick, a bit chewy, fluffy and soft on the inside and golden crispy on the outside, topped off with a generous amount of umami and sweet sauce and mayo. Okonomiyaki is a Japanese savory pancake made of vegetables, sometimes meat and seafood, in a wheat flour batter. It's as adaptable as an omelet, if not more, as the word  okonomi  literally means "how you like" or "what you like".You can pretty much stuff it with whatever ingredients you prefer but for this vegan version, I used a variety of vegetables. This is also a great fridge clearing recipe to use up all the scraps of veggies you have on your hand. For the batter, the traditional okonomiyaki recipe calls for grated nagaimo to add fluffiness to the texture. Nagaimo, or mountain yam, is a type of root vegetable that's long and hairy, it's creamy and slimy when grated. However, it's not easy to find
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Easy Vegan Kewpie Mayonnaise with Silken Tofu

This super easy vegan mayonnaise is silky, creamy, velvety, and tastes super similar to Kewpie mayo! It's made of 100% whole food plant ingredients, high in protein, without any oil or raw eggs and takes mere minutes to make! To be honest, I never liked the idea of raw eggs in traditional mayonnaise, I mean raw eggs whipped with an insane amount of oil... ugh... However, I did like its rich, creamy texture, especially the Japanese Kewpie mayo, which could add a nice flair in many dishes. The good news is this easy vegan version comes with all the familiar yumminess with no sanitary problems. The most important ingredient in this is extra-firm silken tofu. Yes, silken tofu can come in many different firmness too! For this specific recipe, I recommend the type of silken tofu that comes in paper cartons, not in a plastic tray with water. However, if you can't find extra-firm silken tofu you can try the regular type, different brands would have different water content in it. If it
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Bunny Coconut Jelly No Gelatin No Agar agar

The jiggliest jiggly bunny treats you can make for Easter! These are so cute and at the same time, so easy to make, you only need 3 main ingredients! Plus whatever color you like to use. They are dairy free, gluten free, sugar free, and made without gelatin or even agar agar! If there ever is a food where it's not only appropriate to play with your food but a MUST, it'd be this one! ^^ These bunny shaped coconut jellies are so fun to make, play with, and eat! They are creamy, tender, and sooo jiggly. Instead of gelatin or agar agar, this jelly is made from arrowroot powder plus coconut milk, that's it, that's the two main ingredients for the structure plus any sweeteners and colorings you like. If you can't find arrowroot powder, you can also use cornstarch! It'll work the same I just personally prefer arrowroot for it's a bit more wholesome and contains more fiber. For sweetener choices, any POWER form you like would work just fine! But I don't recommen
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