Recipes By Hetty Lui Mckinnon
155 recipes found
Sheet-Pan Tofu and Brussels Sprouts With Hoisin-Tahini Sauce
Two powerhouse pantry ingredients – hoisin sauce and tahini – come together to turn this vegetarian sheet-pan dinner into a memorable meal. Hoisin, which is made with fermented soybeans, is often used as a sweet and savory glaze for meat, but it also injects big, deep flavors into vegetable-based dishes. Here, it is mixed with tahini to create a tangy, creamy sauce that is reminiscent of one served with fried rice noodle rolls at dim sum. This dish could be served with rice or noodles, or you could add a few spinach leaves for a salad-leaning meal, but the crispy, earthy brussels sprouts and toothsome golden tofu are more than hearty enough on their own.
Sheet-Pan Fried Rice With Vegan ‘XO’ Sauce
While making fried rice the traditional way isn’t hard, this sheet-pan version is an excellent alternative method: It uses the oven for the heavy lifting and produces the perfect amount of crisping. Fried rice is the ultimate adaptable dish, and here, frozen mixed vegetables — that bag of corn, carrots, peas and beans that home cooks should always keep in the freezer — create a colorful canvas for an XO-inspired vegan mushroom sauce that infuses the dish with umami. The sauce is a wonderful condiment in itself, so make a double batch to keep in the fridge for slathering over noodles or roasted vegetables. You could use mushrooms other than cremini for the sauce; fresh or dried shiitake work incredibly well. Add more eggs if you wish, too.
Liang Ban Qie Zi (Eggplant With Garlic, Ginger and Scallions)
The Shanghainese dish of seasoned and steamed eggplant is typically served cold, but this version can also be eaten warm or at room temperature. Steaming eggplant is a revelation — it brings out the vegetable’s gentle, earthy flavor and creates an astonishingly silky, light texture that soaks up sauces efficiently. Here, the eggplant is topped with an aromatic mix of garlic, ginger and scallions, which release their intoxicating fragrance when hot oil is poured over. Regular globe eggplant is fine, and long Japanese or Chinese eggplant works just as well (use the same weight). A steamer insert, bamboo steamer or stainless steel trivet is a smart investment that makes steaming in a wide, deep skillet simple, but you can also use stainless steel cookie cutters or balls of aluminum foil. Use tamari in place of soy sauce for an easy gluten-free substitution.
Basil and Tomato Fried Rice
Summer’s dynamic duo of tomato and basil make a surprising appearance in this aromatic fried rice. The tomatoes cook down slightly and become sweeter, coating the rice in their vibrant, sun-kissed juices, while basil adds a peppery perfume. This recipe is very adaptable, so make it your own. Use any tomato variety you like. Add more or less basil, or use Thai or holy basil in its place for even bolder flavors. If you want more heat, leave the seeds in the chiles. Finally, for a fresh element, serve with cucumber slices and a lime wedge on the side.
Gado-Gado
Gado-gado is a beloved dish across Indonesia. Each region has a different spin: In Jakarta, it is a “double-carb” dish, featuring both potato and lontong (rice cakes). In West Java, it is known as lotek atah or karedok and served with raw vegetables. At the heart of any gado-gado is the spicy peanut sauce: Some versions call for tamarind, lime, terasi (shrimp paste) or coconut milk. Others use peanut butter instead of freshly pounded peanuts. This particular recipe is inspired by a home-cooked gado-gado eaten in Bali, where the rich, aromatic sauce was powered by shallots and garlic. Its sweetness comes from kecap manis, the thick, caramelly soy sauce foundational in Indonesian cooking, but, if you can’t find kecap manis, make your own (see Tip) or use sweet soy sauce.
Sheet-Pan Pierogies With Brussels Sprouts and Kimchi
This sheet-pan dinner is a sure win in under an hour, with your oven doing most of the heavy lifting. Roasting pierogies yields a crisp, golden skin with a soft, pillowy interior but, if you don’t have pierogies, you could use gnocchi in their place. (No pre-cooking required!) Cooking kimchi at high heat may feel like a surprising move, but it becomes sticky and caramelized, imparting lots of flavor and texture to the final dish. Finally, a dill sour cream adds a fresh richness, but feel free to swap out the sour cream and use a good-quality Greek yogurt, crème fraîche or even buttermilk (it will be runnier, so no need to thin with water).
Soy Sauce Noodles With Cabbage and Fried Eggs
This version of soy sauce noodles, an iconic Cantonese dish commonly enjoyed for breakfast or lunch at dim sum, is hearty enough for dinner, too. While the traditional dish features bean sprouts and often garlic chives, this recipe uses cabbage, which provides a lovely textural crunch, and plenty of scallions for an aromatic punch. The soy sauce seasoning is a simple mix of regular and dark soy sauce (or lăochōu in Cantonese). It gives the noodles its signature deep color. If you can’t find dark soy sauce, tamari works well, too. This dish is traditionally made with thin egg noodles, but in a pinch, any dried wheat noodles will do the job.
Miso-Butter Mushrooms With Silky Eggs
This dish brings all-day breakfast vibes. The earthy, robust flavors of mushrooms are intensified with an unapologetically savory miso butter. (Tip: Make extra and store in the fridge to season roasted veggies or noodles.) Leaving the mushrooms whole saves preparation time and also ensures that they remain plump and juicy inside. The silky eggs are made like Australian cafe-style scrambled eggs, where they are barely cooked, for only seconds, resulting in a custardy finish. If you are looking for some greenery, stir spinach leaves through the hot mushrooms and let the residual heat wilt them.
Mushroom and Cottage Cheese Pasta
This low-effort, intensely flavored pasta dish highlights the earthiness of mushrooms. First, the mushrooms are cooked to release moisture and to concentrate their flavor, then they are puréed into a velvety sauce. Cremini mushrooms are an excellent choice because they are accessible and have a bold mushroom taste, but other varieties also work. For even more mushroom flavor, add a few shiitake mushrooms or a small handful of rehydrated dried porcinis. Cottage cheese is perhaps the most underappreciated of the supermarket fresh cheeses. The curds melt through this pasta to add a feathery light, mildly sweet creaminess.
Crispy Coconut Rice With Tofu
In many cultures, the crispy rice found at the bottom of the pot is the most prized mouthful, known as concón in the Dominican Republic, tahdig in Iran and nurungji in Korea (just to name a few). Inspired by the simple joys of scorched rice, this easy pantry-friendly recipe calls for seasoning a mixture of cooked rice, tofu and coconut with punchy store-bought Thai curry paste, then pan-frying it until a crispy layer forms. The coconut is a surprising addition, delivering a lingering aroma that surprises in each bite. Commercial curry pastes vary in saltiness and spice, so taste it and add accordingly, starting with three tablespoons and adding more if you need. The fresh elements are essential to this dish: lettuce, herbs and citrus bring a welcome contrast in texture and temperatures. Cold leftover rice works great in this dish.
Silken Tofu With Spicy Soy Dressing
This recipe is inspired by the many cold silken tofu dishes from East Asia, like Japanese hiyayakko and Chinese liangban tofu. This no-cook dish is a handy one to have up your sleeve, especially for warm evenings when the desire to cook is nonexistent. Silky soft tofu is draped in a punchy soy dressing, creating a lively dish with little effort. The tofu is ideally served cold, but 10 minutes at room temperature can take the edge off. Make it your own with other fresh herbs such as Thai basil, mint or shiso leaves, or add crunch with fried shallots or roasted peanuts. A salty, fermented element like kimchi, pickled radish or ja choi, also known as zha cai, a Sichuan pickled mustard root, would work well, too. One block of silken tofu is usually enough to feed two people, but for a more substantial meal, serve it with hot rice or noodles to create a pleasing contrast of temperatures. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter .
Rice Cakes With Peanut Sauce and Hoisin
This vegan dish is reminiscent of the classic Cantonese dim sum of fried cheung fun, or steamed rice noodle rolls, which is served with two contrasting sauces: a caramelly hoisin sauce and a nutty sesame sauce. In this recipe, tenaciously chewy rice cakes are stir-fried until crispy, then smothered in a sweet and earthy peanut sauce and finished with syrupy hoisin. Rice cakes deserve to be a pantry staple for many reasons: They can be used as a filling substitute for short pasta, added to stews or quickly pan-fried with your favorite sauce. Sold in Chinese or Korean markets, they come in tubes (like those used in tteokbokki) or sliced disks, and are packaged in vacuum-sealed packs or frozen, so they keep for ages. If you’re looking for a suitable substitute, you could use fresh rice noodle rolls, or even gnocchi. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Cheesy French Toast With Kimchi
When French toast meets kimchi grilled cheese, we arrive at a surprising and joyous union. While any bread can be used here, choosing a soft, plump variety like brioche or milk bread will ensure that the center of the sandwich becomes super custardy. The trickiest part of this recipe is getting the cheese to melt before the toast gets too golden; American cheese melts faster, but other firm cheeses like Cheddar or Monterey Jack work, too. Combining grated cheese with the kimchi encourages faster, even melting, while cooking on low heat and covering with a lid slows browning. If you do find that the outside of your toast is getting too dark before your cheese has melted, simply place the sandwich in a 300-degree oven. (You can also do this to keep your sandwich warm if you are making more than one.)
Crispy Tofu and Broccoli With Ginger-Garlic Teriyaki Sauce
Crispy tofu is attainable without frying. In this mostly hands-off recipe, firm tofu is dredged in cornstarch (one of our pantry’s most versatile staples) before being baked at high temperature. The tofu becomes golden, with an enviable crunch that stays crisp even when drizzled with teriyaki sauce. Traditional teriyaki sauce contains just four ingredients — soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar — but this one also has ginger and garlic, which add a bit more punch. In Japanese cuisine, teriyaki refers to any grilled, broiled or pan-fried food with a shiny glaze. No cornstarch is needed to make a true teriyaki sauce glisten; just cook it down until it looks shiny underneath the brown foam, but make sure not to overcook as it thickens considerably as it cools.
Stir-Fried Tofu With Ginger
Tofu and ginger share equal billing in this easy, economical weeknight stir-fry. The ginger is sliced into fine slivers and added towards the end of cooking so that it retains a fresh, slightly raw bite, while also adding texture to the dish. The bouncy and juicy texture of the tofu is achieved by lightly dusting the tofu with cornstarch which absorbs excess moisture, helps the tofu stay intact and ensures that the sauce clings to every surface. To make sure that your tofu doesn’t stick to the pan use a very well-seasoned wok or cast-iron pan and heat it well, until you can see smoke rising from the surface of the pan. (Or use a non-stick pan, and there’s no need to heat until smoking.) If you do find a lot of the tofu stuck to the pan after Step 3, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of water to deglaze it before adding the ginger, scallions and sauce.
One-Pan Creamed Spinach With Eggs
This pantry-powered dish brings together the decadence of creamed spinach with the comfort of baked eggs. Big flavor with little effort, this recipe requires no chopping and just a handful of staple ingredients: Frozen spinach is combined with cream cheese and garlic powder to create a wonderfully aromatic and silky base for the eggs to nestle and steam within. Covering the eggs while they cook will give you irresistibly soft whites and gooey yolks. If you’d like a little spice, finish with some red-pepper flakes or chile oil.
Mapo Potato
Let’s be clear: Nothing surpasses the hearty deliciousness of a traditional mapo tofu. But for those days when you find yourself without soft tofu in the fridge, or when you are craving something vegetarian, this mapo potato will hit the mark. Potatoes step in for tofu and pork, providing a perfect vessel that eagerly soaks up all of the deep fermented flavors. (If you want a hit of protein, you can add some soft tofu just before you add the cornstarch slurry in Step 3.) Doubanjiang, a fermented bean paste that is a staple in Chinese cuisine, provides mapo dishes with its signature spicy umami richness; each brand will vary in heat so adjust according to your personal preference. If you don’t have doubanjiang, you could substitute with fermented black soybeans, which are less spicy but will give you similar salty funkiness.
Ramen With Charred Scallions, Green Beans and Chile Oil
Scallions can be so much more than a garnish. Raw scallions bring an assertive pungency, but when cooked, they take on a sweet tenderness that is very pleasing to the palate. In this vegan recipe, treat scallions as you would a bunch of greens. Take cues from the Chinese cooking technique used for stir-fries, and add the scallions to very hot oil to let them “bao” (to crack, explode or burst), drawing out their natural aroma. Those packets of ramen noodles stashed in your pantry are perfect for this quick yet intensely satisfying weeknight noodle dish. The chile oil makes just enough for this dish, so if you want extra for future meals, make double.
Sook Mei Faan (Cantonese Creamed Corn With Tofu and Rice)
Creamed corn over rice is a quintessential Cantonese dish often served at cha chaan tengs, casual diners that are ubiquitous in Hong Kong. There are many variations of sook mei faan, or corn rice. Some include chunks of pork or chicken, while another rendition has the creamy corn ladled over fried fish fillets. While this dish is traditionally made with canned creamed corn, this vegan version uses fresh corn, which offers a well-rounded sweetness that still feels bright, and is served over cold silken tofu, offering a pleasing contrast in texture and temperature.
Yo Po Mian
A staple dish from the Shaanxi Province in China’s central northwest, yo po mian literally means “oil sprinkled noodles.” It’s traditionally made with biang biang, or hand-torn flat noodles, but wide wheat noodles are used here for a quick weeknight meal. (In a pinch, any dried noodles will work.) This dish packs a lot of flavor, but its preparation is deceptively simple: Noodles and greens are topped with raw garlic and chiles, then hot oil is poured over the top, which coaxes the flavor out of the aromatics. Yo po mian is typically very garlicky, but that’s been dialed back here with just four cloves. (Use more or less, depending upon your personal preference.) You could add ground Sichuan peppercorns for tangy spice, and if you have dark soy sauce, you can substitute it for half of the soy sauce in this recipe, as it will add deep sweetness and rich caramel flavor.
Mushroom Stroganoff
The first recipe for beef stroganoff dates back to the 1800s and is rumored to have Russian aristocratic origins. This version is a bold, modern vegetarian reimagination that is rich and decadent, thanks to the magic of mushrooms, which deliver walloping umami. A variety of mushrooms adds a nice mix of textures, but a similarly intense dish can be created with just one type. Achieve even deeper layers of flavor by soaking a handful of dried porcini mushrooms in one cup of hot water for 10 to 15 minutes, then adding the mushrooms and soaking liquid, which can replace the vegetable stock, to the dish. Crème fraîche is naturally thick and imparts a velvety tang to the dish, but use sour cream if you prefer. (Vegans can use cashew or coconut cream). To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Dumpling Noodle Soup
Keep a package or two of frozen dumplings in your freezer for this warming weeknight meal. This recipe is loosely inspired by wonton noodle soup, but replaces homemade wontons with store-bought frozen dumplings for a quick alternative. The soup base, which comes together in just 10 minutes, is surprisingly rich and full-bodied, thanks to the trio of ginger, garlic and turmeric. Miso paste brings extra savoriness, but you could substitute soy sauce or tamari. Scale up on veggies if you like; carrots, peas, snow peas or mushrooms would be excellent additions. Any type of frozen dumpling works in this dish, making it easy to adapt for vegan, vegetarian or meat-loving diners.
Stir-Fried Lettuce With Crispy Garlic and Fried Eggs
In Chinese culture, cooked lettuce is a symbol of good luck and is often eaten during Lunar New Year feasts. In Cantonese, the word for lettuce is sang choy, and in Mandarin, it’s sheng cai, which sounds like the words for “growing wealth” in each language. Stir-fried lettuce is commonly served as a bed for braised mushrooms or simply as a green side dish. Here, stir-fried lettuce, fried eggs and crispy garlic chips perch on a bed of rice, a simple meal with comforting flavors and textures. The joy of this preparation is that the lettuce retains a fresh crunch even after cooking; iceberg is preferred, but romaine will give you similar results. Vegetarian stir-fry sauce is a product sold in Asian grocery stores, but you can also use oyster sauce. For a shortcut, skip the fried garlic and top with store-bought crispy fried onions or shallots.
Kung Pao Cauliflower
While kung pao chicken originated in China’s Sichuan Province, it has become an iconic Chinese American dish. The popular stir-fry typically includes chicken, vegetables and peanuts tossed in a dark, salty, sweet and spicy sauce, but in this vegan take, cauliflower steps in for the chicken. Dark soy sauce is more caramel-flavored and less salty than regular soy sauce, and it adds color and richness to the dish. If you don’t have dark soy, substitute with regular soy sauce or hoisin sauce. Make sure you have a lid for your skillet or wok on hand before you start cooking, as covering the cauliflower allows it to cook quicker and more evenly. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.