Asian Recipes
467 recipes found
Stir-Fried Sesame Shrimp and Spinach
The classic Chinese way to clean shrimp and ensure a succulent flavor and crisp texture, says Grace Young, author of “Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge,” is to use a combination of salt and water, either dousing the shrimp in two rinses of heavily salted water or rubbing the shrimp with salt, then rinsing with water. If you don’t eat salt, then just rinse the shrimp with plain water. I recommend bunch spinach for this; you don’t have to stem it, just cut away the base of the leaves and rinse well.
Stir-Fried Tofu and Peppers
This attractive stir-fry is inspired by a traditional Chinese dish called rainbow beef. The vegetarian version works well, and it’s also easier to make. If you prefer a very firm tofu, take the extra time to weight it as directed in step 1. I am happy to skip this step and use firm tofu that hasn’t been weighted.
Spinach, Tofu and Sesame Stir-Fry
You can serve this simple stir-fry with grains or noodles, or (my preference) use it as a filling for a whole wheat pita pocket.
Somen Noodles With Poached Egg, Bok Choy and Mushrooms
The perfect salve for cold winter days, this vegetarian noodle soup can be cobbled together in an instant from the contents of a well-stocked kitchen. It takes its flavor from a quick bouillon using just four ingredients: soy sauce, sesame oil, scallions and shiitakes, which deliver a hefty, flavorful dose of glutamate. Poached eggs add richness to the clean and comforting broth. Fresh eggs have stronger, firmer albumen (egg whites) and will thus hold their shape better than older eggs, which have a tendency to unfurl. The main key to achieving that teardrop shape during poaching is allowing the eggs to simmer without disturbance until cooked.
Gingery Fried Rice With Bok Choy, Mushrooms and Basil
An ideal recipe for reducing waste in the kitchen, fried rice is a great way to use up spare tofu, leftover meats or wobbly vegetables. Master Sam Sifton’s fried rice technique, and you’ll have the tools to repurpose leftovers and surplus vegetables. But if it’s a bright, fresh slew of greens and herbs you’re after, this recipe supplies a high ratio of vegetables to rice. Everything cooks quickly, so your mise en place truly counts here: Get everything chopped and prepped before you pick up the pan, and dinner can be ready in 20.
Stir-Fries With Fresh Vegetables
Over 50 percent of this colorful chicken stir-fry is composed of vegetables. Use chicken tenders or chicken breast.
Chicken Stir-Fry With Mixed Peppers
I used green peppers only for this stir-fry. Try to use a mix of hot and sweet peppers, and feel free to use red, yellow or orange ones if you want to introduce some color. The chicken is “velveted” before stir-frying; a good name for this technique as the texture of the chicken remains velvety and moist after stir-frying.
Stir-Fried Snow Peas With Soba
Snow peas are a great source of fiber, vitamin K, calcium and vitamin C.
Stir-Fried Swiss Chard and Red Peppers
This is particularly beautiful if you can find rainbow chard, those multicolored bunches with red, white and yellow stems. Slice the chard crosswise in thin strips. If the pieces are too thick, they’ll be tough.
Glazed Cod With Bok Choy, Ginger and Oyster Sauce
This quick one-skillet meal gets a boost of flavor from oyster sauce, a salty-sweet condiment made from concentrated oyster juice and soy sauce that’s often used in Chinese cooking. Here, it melds with garlic, ginger and butter to create a velvety glaze for cod fillets. If cod is unavailable, hake, striped bass or even salmon are fine substitutes. Steamed rice, soba or egg noodles are all perfect canvases for soaking up the flavorful juices.
Grated Carrot, Kohlrabi and Radish Salad
This recipe is based on the Vietnamese carrot and daikon salad that found in so many restaurants. (It also is used to fill vegetarian spring rolls.) My version is less sweet than the authentic salad and employs a mix of vegetables.
Asparagus Salad with Soy-Mustard Dressing
There are real differences between skinny and fat asparagus spears, aside from appearance, and it's worth attending to them. With either, you must first break off the woody bottoms (magically, they snap off in pretty much the right place every time), a quick but necessary chore. But it is always worth peeling thick asparagus, from stem to the bottom of the flower bud. The best way to do this is with a vegetable peeler. Lay each spear on a flat surface and give it a few quick strokes. The difference between peeled and unpeeled thick spears is substantial. When they are peeled, they can be cooked for considerably less time, leaving them bright green and perfectly crisp-tender, rather than a soggy mess. They're done when you can easily insert a skewer or a thin-bladed knife into the thickest part of the stalk. (If you don't peel them, the soggy mess is just about the only way to get the skin tender.)
Vegan Braised Chinese Mushrooms and Baby Bok Choy
A classic Chinese dish is bok choy served with dried black mushrooms, soaked until soft and then flavored with soy sauce and other ingredients.
Chicken and Rice Soup With Ginger and Turmeric
Many countries have some form of creamy rice porridge in their culinary canon, such as Chinese congee, Filipino lugaw or arroz caldo and Korean juk, to name just a few. Seasonings vary, but all call for simmering a little bit of rice with a lot of liquid until the grains tenderize and break down to create a deeply comforting soup. Ideal for those harboring colds or seeking comfort, this brothy chicken-and-rice soup begins with poaching an entire chicken, which takes time, but guarantees tender meat. The rendered fat creates a rich, flavorful broth, while coriander and turmeric add earthy notes. Fresh cilantro, red chile and ginger brighten the dish.
Vegan Thai Curry Vegetables
Drew Spangler Faulkner, a cooking teacher at L’Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, Md., makes a Thai green curry that is a kind of comfort food. The sauce, made creamy with coconut milk, and gently spicy with the curry paste, is flavorful yet soothing. The vegetables, which are simply dropped into the sauce, and gently simmered for about 12 minutes, turn out tender, not soggy. It is startlingly simple. She makes her own green curry paste, but the recipe calls for any one of three store bought pastes. Although some green curry pastes contain fish or shrimp paste, she has found three brands which do not: Thai Taste, Maesri and Thai Kitchen.
Roasted Salmon With Miso Rice and Ginger-Scallion Vinaigrette
This simple weeknight meal makes great use of pantry staples to create complex flavors with minimal work. Miso is often used to flavor soups or sauces, and here, it is added to raw rice before cooking, which results in a delightfully sticky, savory steamed rice. Fragrant and nutty basmati is called for, but any long-grain rice will work. Shredded cabbage brings freshness and crunch to the finished dish, but use whatever crispy vegetable you have on hand: shredded brussels sprouts, carrots, snap peas, radishes and iceberg lettuce are all great options. For a heftier meal, add some canned chickpeas, white beans or black beans. To finish, the vibrant tang of the bright ginger-scallion vinaigrette balances the richness of the roasted salmon.
Vegan Vietnamese Vegetarian Noodle Salad
Cha Yen (Thai Iced Tea)
This homemade Thai iced tea gets its complex flavor from black tea, rooibos tea, star anise and cloves, and its sweetness from condensed milk. Adapted from the cookbook “Bangkok” by Leela Punyaratabandhu, this version is hardly typical: Most Thai iced tea sold on the streets of Bangkok — or in Thai restaurants stateside — contains an immoderate amount of sweetened condensed milk and uses a store-bought mix, which contains food coloring. The tea blend used here is intense on its own, but mellowed by ice and milk. Chill the tea fully before pouring it over ice so its flavors don’t get diluted.
Spring Rolls With Thai Basil
Peach Sake
Make-It-Your-Own Udon Noodle Soup
This incredibly easy soup, which was developed for a special kids edition of The Times, is just the thing to warm you from fingertips to toes on a chilly day. It starts with a simple garlic-ginger broth, to which you add pretty much any vegetable, tofu or cooked meat that you like (meatballs are fun). Just be sure to slice any firm vegetables thinly, so they can cook quickly. Toss a tangle of cooked noodles in to the broth, and add a frenzy of toppings – halved hard-boiled eggs, roasted peanuts, sliced scallions, sprouts, nori (a type of seaweed), a drizzle of sriracha – whatever excites you. As for noodles, we like udon, because they're delightfully soft and chewy, but you can also use spaghetti, bucatini or even ramen. (Fun fact: Udon dough is traditionally kneaded with your feet.)
Balinese Tomato And Lemongrass Broth
Scallion Meatballs With Soy-Ginger Glaze
Set these juicy turkey meatballs out on a platter, drizzle with a ginger-spiked sauce of soy, mirin and dark brown sugar and serve with toothpicks alongside wine or cocktails. They'll go quickly.
Grilled or Pan-Fried Marinated Tofu
This is one of my favorite ways to eat tofu. Keep some marinating in the refrigerator, then grill or pan-fry at will.