The sauce isn’t exactly visible in this picture, but the recipe does make just enough for a stir-fry for two, or even for three if a milder flavor is desired.

The Peanut Sauce:

• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon agave syrup (or brown sugar)
• 3 big cloves of garlic, grated
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger
• 1 teaspoon dried chili flakes
• 10 cm of a lemon grass stalk, finely minced
• 1 dl vegetable stock

I just whisk together all the ingredients and that’s it.

This time, our meal consisted of chili noodles, fried tofu, onion, cucumber, carrots, and new crop cabbage, all thinly sliced. First, we cooked the noodles, and then rinsed them in cold water to stop the cooking process. Then we fried the tofu until brown and crispy, and removed it from the pan. Then we added the onion, fried a few minutes, added the carrot, fried a minute, added the cabbage, fried a little more, and added the cucumber, and fried it too until heated through. Then we added the noodles, a small amount at a time, and the tofu last, frying until everything was hot again, and then mixed in the peanut sauce.

The stock recipe we adapted from the Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure by Lorna J. Sass, a book we very much recommend for anyone with a pressure cooker. There is a little planning ahead to do for this dish: the tempeh needs to be put in the marinade on the day before, the wrappers need a few hours to thaw, and the filling has to cool down before the assembling process can begin.

The Marinated Tempeh:

• 200 g tempeh, crumbled
• 1/2 dl light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger

Heikki mixed all the ingredients and let the tempeh marinate overnight in the fridge.

The Filling (for about 64 wontons and a little extra):

• 1 red bell pepper, finely cubed
• 1 leek, the white part, finely chopped
• the marinated tempeh from above
• canola oil for frying

We fried the marinated tempeh crumbs in the oil for about 15 minutes on medium heat, until they were all nicely browned. Then we added the veggies to the pan, and fried for a few minutes, until they’d softened a little bit.

The Stock:

• 2 carrots, sliced
• 2 dl shredded cabbage (new crop)
• 1 leek, the green part, chopped
• 5 large garlic cloves, sliced
• 4 cm piece of a ginger root, sliced
• about 4 dl loosely packed fresh cilantro, with roots (scrubbed)
• 1 stalk shopped lemon grass
• 1 and 1/2 litres water

We placed all the ingredients in our pressure cooker, brought it to high pressure, cooked it for 10 minutes, and then let the pressure come down naturally for 10 minutes. Then we strained the stock through a fine sieve and added:

• 4 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil

Without a pressure cooker, the stock needs at least an hour of simmering.

Assembling the Wontons:

The wrappers need to be defrosted first, which takes a few hours at least. They do keep in the fridge for a while after defrosting, so this can be done on the day before. Not all wonton wrappers are vegan, so it’s important to read the labels carefully!

While I was assembling the wontons, I took care that the additional wrappers were covered with plastic. The method I used for assembling is very easy and seals tightly, but there are many other possibilities, like the fun boat shape in Veganyumyum‘s wonton recipe.

First, I placed a little less than a teaspoonful of the filling on one end of a wrapper, and brushed the edges of the wrapper with water. Then I rolled the wrapper tightly around the filling, and pressed down the ends of the resulting roll, adding a dab of water on each end. I took care to press the excess air out of the roll while doing this – the dumplings will be prettier that way.

Now, I folded the wonton roll gently in half, bringing the two ends together, and pressed them firmly with my fingers to seal. And then I repeated the process 63 times, keeping the already filled wontons covered under a kitchen towel while working on the rest.

The Boiling and Serving of the Wontons:

When all the wontons were ready, we brought a big pot filled with water to a brisk boil, and cooked them for 1-2 minutes, until all had floated up to the surface. Then we picked them up with a slotted spoon, and placed in the hot vegetable broth we’d just made.

We sliced some new crop cabbage into our bowls, scooped a generous amount of soup over it, and enjoyed!

Spring rolls are actually quite simple to make. We made them on two separate occasions. The first time we just fried them on a pan, and the second time we baked them in the oven. The following instructions are for the oven, but they apply to pan-fried spring rolls too. Just don’t brush them with oil, but put the oil in a frying pan instead.

This is what we used:

• ready-made wheat spring roll wrappers (we got them from Aseanic Trading on Kolmas linja)
• 1 onion
• 2-3 tablespoons canola oil for frying and brushing
• 1 tablespoon of crushed ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 150 g firm tofu
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon raw cane sugar
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 teaspoon potato starch

This makes enough filling for about 12-15 mini spring rolls.

For the dipping sauce:

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• ½ teaspoon sesame oil
• ½ tablespoon brown rice vinegar

First, we preheated the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, chopped the vegetables into small pieces, and minced the tofu with a fork.

We put a frying pan over medium-high heat, added 1 tablespoon of oil, and fried the onions for a few minutes, until they turned translucent. Next, we added the garlic, ginger, chili powder, and bell pepper into the pan, and fried them for a couple of minutes more. Then we added the minced tofu, and fried it for an additional two minutes or so.

It was time to season the filling with soy sauce and sugar. We mixed the sugar with the soy sauce, and poured the mixture into the frying pan, stirred it in, and removed the pan from the heat. When the filling was done, it was time to fill the rolls.

Assembling the spring rolls:

First, we wet the edges of the spring roll wrapper using our fingers dipped into a bowl of water. This helps the pastry edges to stick together. Then, we put a tablespoon of the filling in one end of the wrapper, leaving about 1 cm space between the filling and the edge.

Next, we folded the sides of the wrapper together, and started wrapping tightly from one end.

We kept on wrapping until we reached the end.

The first spring roll was ready to be baked or fried now. Next, we started from the beginning, doing two at a time:

Once the spring rolls were ready, we brushed them with canola oil on both sides, placed them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, and put them in the oven for 7 minutes. We ate our spring rolls with rice, dipping them in a sauce made of soy sauce, sesame oil and brown rice vinegar.

Marinade:

• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon raw cane sugar (optional)

After rinsing about 500 grams of choi sum, we cut a slice of the stems off, and then just steamed it for about 5-7 minutes, until the leaves had turned dark green. Then we placed the choi in a serving dish, sprinkled the marinade over each and every piece, and devoured it while it was still hot.