Sequestration Meal #666

 

This meal is entitled, "What I Did with the Vegetables You Gave Me." It's sort of vaguely Asian in that very Western way, but still quite good: Rice, stuffed napa cabbage rolls, ketchup pepper and onion stir fry, spicy cucumber salad, and an Asian-style tomato salad.

Some neighbors of mine were growing weary of their CSA and asked me to take some of their veggies. Among other things, there was a napa cabbage. I rarely if ever buy napa cabbage, but wanted to make some napa cabbage tofu rolls, so I was excited about it. I based the rolls roughly on this recipe at Vegan Bunny Chef, substituting a few things but mostly using the same techniques. I think my cabbage was smaller because I had a lot of filling left; I will figure out what to do with that. It was time consuming but fun to make the rolls.

And then a holiday gathering was held at work and there was a veggie tray, and I was essentially begged to take the vegetables. So I had bell pepper strips and tomatoes from that (I will use the celery and carrots later on). 

I took inspiration for the tomato salad from Wegmans, though I did not have chili garlic sauce and therefore used sriracha, some chopped garlic, and an extra splash of soy sauce along with the hoisin, rice vinegar, and other seasonings. It was pretty good, if somehow not what I had envisioned; sriracha is no chili garlic sauce. I'll keep my fingers crossed for the return of chili garlic sauce someday.

I sliced the bell pepper a bit more thinly and added some sliced onion, then sauteed that over really low heat while I made the cabbage rolls. When it came time to finish it, I added soy sauce, ketchup, and sriracha, though I think I usually make this with crushed red pepper flakes and I think that would have tasted better. No matter; it was good.

And now I just have to figure out how to use a giant turnip, some fennel fronds, and some other random veggies I've recently been given...