Little Dishes #14

 

This is a meal that is sort of Korean, and sort of vaguely Asian, and is altogether good: Korean cucumber salad, beet greens and mushrooms (recipe from Food.com), a sort of Korean veggie pancake (but with extra thick batter so I accidentally made more of a fritter) with a dipping sauce, brown rice with everything bagel seasoning, and Gardein orange chick'n pieces.

The beet greens and mushrooms were pretty amazing! They also have mirin, soy sauce, cilantro, and scallions. They were surprisingly flavorful, though I did simmer them without the lid on for a while to reduce the liquid--if you follow the recipe as written, you'll end up with a very watery dish. This means, of course, that the beet greens are no longer that green--more deep olive--but I also kind of prefer tender greens and that works for me.

I had some leftover julienned zucchini and carrots from a salad I'd made, so I added some sliced onion and threw that in some Korean pancake mix. (That package of Korean pancake mix has been the gift that kept on giving for ages!) These were thicker than intended, but delicious.

Korean cucumber salad is always a great, spicy, refreshing foil to a meal like this, and Gardein orange chick'n is an easy choice to pop in the toaster oven on a day I can't think of what to do for my protein. The sauce can be heated in the microwave, too. All in all, a delightful assortment of things that required very minimal stovetop time.

Stay cool out there.