The Lustful Vegan

Tonight I’m having a belated Valentine’s dinner with someone, and so spent part of this morning preparing this:

It’s a Thai dish calld Laab Nuea, and it’s soooooo tasty. It’s one of the only dishes I make using prepared ‘veggie ground’, and in this case combines that with lime juice, shallots, coriander, basil, and mint. Oh, and galangal, which is a lovely relation to ginger, with a hint of sweet mustard. It’ s hard to describe, but fortunately not that hard to find.

The man who passed this recipe on to me served it with jasmine rice, which was divine. I’ve also enjoyed it immensely in wraps. Tonight we’ll have it with Basmati, and a Thai mango salad. [Edit: The mango salad was divine!]

Laab Nuea

Base:

• 4 large shallots (or use onion), thinly sliced
• 1 pkg veggie ground
• oil

Tasty stuff:

• juice of 1 1/2 to 2 limes (I like mine zingy)
• 1.5 T tamari sauce
• 1/2+ tsp galangal powder (to taste; I like a bit more)
• 1+ tsp ground red Thai chili pepper paste
• 1.5+ T chopped cilantro (to taste)
• 10 mint leaves, chopped
• basil leaves, chopped (to taste)
• couple handfuls baby spinach, chopped
• 1.5 T finely chopped green onion

How to:

1. Start the onions in a cold pan and sautee in a little oil until softened.
2. Add the veggie ground and continue until it’s very slightly seared.
3. Add the lime juice, tamari, galangal, and chili paste, then stir well.
4. Add the remaining ingredients. Stir in and let simmer until the spinach is wilted.
5. Adjust taste as needed.
6. Remove from heat, serve topped with chopped herbs or green onion.

Tasty!