A Vegan Lemon Saffron Cake from a New Cookbook by a Chicago-Based Physician and Recipe Developer

From wttw.com

When he published his first cookbook, Plant-Based India, Sheil Shukla was a practicing physician in the Chicago suburbs with an infant who somehow found time to develop vegan South Asian recipes and photograph them for his cookbook and Instagram. Four years later, he’s a practicing physician with a toddler and young twins who still cooks new recipes, photographs them, and shares them, now in another cookbook, Kari, out August 18. 

His approach to food as “an art form” has not changed with the arrival of two more children, Shukla says, but “having kids at that age, it’s tough to really do anything, let alone explore creativity through food.” Kari reflects that reality by showing how Shukla and his wife manage to get home-cooked meals on the table while also working and raising children. They’re still beautiful and ambitious dishes, especially for a working doctor with three children.

Focused on the diverse world of curries that encompasses spice-heavy sauces and stews from around Asia, Kari showcases a mode of cooking familiar to many harried parents and professionals: adding vegetables and proteins to a flavourful sauce. But Kari offers recipes for those sauces instead of having you buy them from the store: makhani or peanut coconut curry in which to serve potatoes or breaded tofu katsu, or top nachos; mango miso masala chutney or creamy five spice sauce with which to dress fried vegetable pakoras or a vegetable-filled rice bowl.

There’s a “more practical lens to my cooking, in that I need to meal-prep in an efficient way and get dinner on the table,” Shukla says. He and his wife now create “flavour bases” like those sauces over the weekend so they’re ready to pull from the fridge or freezer for an easy meal using fresh produce, like that from their CSA, during the week.

As is evident from some of those recipes – katsu, miso, nachos – Kari also reflects Shukla’s embrace of more global flavors and his willingness to mix them together. Whereas Plant-Based India highlighted adaptations of his family’s Gujarati recipes in particular, Kari ranges further afield, from Japan to Thailand and beyond.

It also emphasizes the healthful aspects of its recipes less than Plant-Based India, even while remaining vegan and prioritizing fresh produce and whole grains. “I wanted this book to be me more as a cook, as a parent, as an artist, as opposed to me being just a physician,” he says.

Both the artistry and parenting are evident in Kari’s recipe for lemon saffron cake, which you can try below. Cakes are a celebratory food brought out for family parties and birthdays, and Shukla’s recipe is adaptable to various tastes and occasions; just omit the lemon zest, saffron, and rose water to add in different flavors to the base cake, or switch up the fruit for the topping. The decoration allows for artistry: Shukla tops his cake in the book with not just fresh fruit but also edible flowers and gold leaf.   

“Baking is a great way to extend that artistic expression,” says Shukla. 

Lemon Saffron Cake

Reprinted with permission from Kari by Sheil Shukla, copyright © 2026 by Sheil Shukla. Published by DK, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.

This is my all-time favourite homemade cake recipe. I use olive oil and almond flour to give it a tender and moist crumb. After tasting this cake (and several avor variations of it), my family has unanimously agreed that I will be the designated cake-baker for all birthdays in the family. The lemon offers a wonderful brightness that complements the floral notes and rich colour of saffron. I’ve used two 8-inch (20 cm) round pans here, which allows me to make a simple layer cake with ease. I top this cake with a not-too-sweet vegan buttercream and fresh fruit. Use this recipe as a starting point and feel free to play around with the flavours. 

If you want enough buttercream to coat the sides of the cake and to decorate the top with a piping bag, simply double the recipe.

Ingredients

For the cake:
275 grams (1 1/4 cups) cane sugar
2 teaspoons lemon zest (from about 2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon saffron
280 grams (2 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
50 grams (1/2 cup) almond flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Salt
360 ml (1 1/2 cups) unsweetened plain soy milk
120 ml (1/2 cup) olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice (from about 1 lemon)
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or extract
1 tablespoon rose water

For the vegan buttercream:
150 grams (1 1/4 cups) sifted powdered sugar
113 grams (1/2 cup) salted vegan butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon rose water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For decorating:
Fresh fruit (such as diced mango or whole berries)
Edible flowers, optional
Edible gold leaf, optional

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line two 8-inch (20 cm) round baking pans with parchment paper.

2. Place the cane sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl and rub them between your fingers to combine until evenly distributed and very lemony in fragrance, about 1 minute. Crush the saffron between your fingers and add it to the sugar mixture. Then, sift in the all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon salt, and whisk to combine.

3. Whisk together the soy milk, oil, lemon juice, vanilla, and rose water in a medium bowl.

4. Slowly add the liquid to the dry mixture and combine with a spatula to form a batter. It’s okay if some small lumps remain; it is more important not to overmix the batter.

5. Distribute the batter between the two lined baking pans. Use a spatula to spread it out evenly.

6. Bake for 20 minutes, rotate the pans, and bake for 10 to 15 minutes more, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with dry crumbs.

7. Allow the cakes to cool for about 5 minutes and then invert onto a wire rack. Let cool completely, about 1 hour.

8. Once the cakes are nearly cooled, prepare the buttercream: Whisk together the powdered sugar, vegan butter, rose water, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

9. To assemble the cake, spread about half of the buttercream on top of one cake and top with the second cake. Top with the remaining buttercream and the fruit, and decorate with edible flowers and gold leaf, if using.

10. The cake will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days. Remove from the refrigerator 1 to 2 hours before serving; the taste and texture are best at room temperature.

https://www.wttw.com/playlist/2026/08/18/lemon-saffron-cake-sheil-shukla-kari 

An agency grows from a vegan travel blog

From travelweekly.com

When Rebecca Gade-Sawicki quit her job in fundraising at the start of the pandemic, she wanted her next career move to closely align with her passion for veganism.

While she initially sought a job with a vegan or environmental company, Covid hiring challenges forced Gade-Sawicki to re-evaluate: Instead, she reflected on travels with her husband, who also follows a plant-based diet. And she thought about the questions she fielded from family and friends when she went abroad, including inquiries on what she ate, whether she had to bring food in her luggage and whether she lost weight during travel.

"The questions were quite funny, so I thought, why don't I start a blog?" she recalled. "This is going to open me up to new opportunities and networking with like-minded people."

That blog, Veggies Abroad, has since amassed a following of vegan travellers. It offers destination guides, restaurant recommendations, hotel suggestions and travel advice to about 30,000 visitors to the site per month. In 2023, it expanded into a full-fledged travel agency, also called Veggies Abroad, that offers custom FIT travel services and small-group tours -- with plant-based cuisine and sustainable travel at the core of its offerings.

Rebecca Gade-Sawicki started the Veggies Abroad blog in 2020; in 2023, she expanded it into a travel agency. Source: Rebecca Gade-Sawicki

A 10-day tour to Greece next April, for example, will include stays in Athens, Kalampaka, Delphi, Central Arcadia, Mycenae and Spetses Island. Clients will visit an agro-farm, take part in an olive oil tasting and participate in a vegan cooking class. All meals included with the tour -- nine breakfasts, four lunches and six dinners -- will be plant-based.

                                                  Veggies Abroad often books group tours, like this one in Morocco, with Intrepid Travel

Veggie specialization

Gade-Sawicki joins the growing ranks of travel advisors who are choosing to specialize and customize their offerings to a particular demographic. While there's no single reliable count of how many vegans exist worldwide, the market they're driving is easier to measure: According to DataHorizzon Research, the global vegan food market was valued at $27.2 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $63.5 billion by 2032 as consumers turn to plant-based diets for ethical, health and environmental reasons. 

This year, Gade-Sawicki is seeing tremendous interest in her tours. The agency has grown 40% over last year, and she estimates she'll hit $500,000 in sales by year's end. The Veggies Abroad blog remains one of her biggest drivers of client leads; referrals and prospective clients also find her through a Google search.

Although her agency's trips are open to nonvegan clients, prospective Veggies Abroad customers should be aware that meals will be preset as plant-based, as Gade-Sawicki does her own restaurant research, prioritizes vegan and vegetarian restaurants and negotiates menus with partner hotels in advance.

"In my previous career, I had to say yes to a lot of things that I didn't agree with," Gade-Sawicki said. "I didn't want to end up within the travel space selling things I didn't believe in."

Rebecca Gade-Sawicki praises the plant-based food at Palmaia - House of AiA, an all-inclusive wellness resort in Mexico. Photo Credit: Rebecca Gade-Sawicki

She recalled meeting another advisor who told her: "Hey, here's the one good thing about the travel industry: the buck stops with you. If you want to support certain organizations, you can. If you don't want to support others, you don't have to.'"

Gade-Sawicki also often leads the tours herself, arriving at the destination ahead of time to nail down final details with the hotel staff and chef. If the experience with a supplier is a positive one, she's more likely to return (Playa Viva and Palmaia -- The House of AiA, both in Mexico, received high marks from her).

But when catering to specific diets, challenges can arise: "Hotel communication is one of my biggest headaches," she said. "The salesperson can say one thing [to someone else]… and it's always an awful, awful game of telephone.

When you can develop a personal relationship [with a supplier], then people feel more beholden to making sure that they don't screw up."

Vetting who's for real

Gade-Sawicki's portfolio of tours includes itineraries in destinations across the globe. She prefers to work with B Corp-certified organizations, meaning that the supplier is held to standards for social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. She aims to be equally transparent in her own business; she releases an Impact Report each year, and last year, more than 50% of the suppliers Veggies Abroad worked with were B Corp certified. 

When vetting suppliers, Gade-Sawicki said it's her goal to continue to grow her roster of suppliers that have their own sustainability initiatives, operate with fair labour and purchasing practices and put a premium on community involvement.

"You can tell who is genuine about it and who is just checking a box," she said, adding that she organizes Zoom calls with partners and digs deeper into sustainability practices, charitable endeavours and the like.

" You can determine if someone is greenwashing and someone's not," she said. "Companies that are really interested, and really care, are going to be really excited to tell you about that."

Intrepid Travel, a certified B Corp organization, is a go-to partner for many Veggies Abroad tours, as is Rebecca Adventure Travel, a destination marketing company based in Ecuador, for Central and South American tours.

Although she hasn't entered the cruise space, Gade-Sawicki said she is considering expedition lines such as UnCruise Adventures and National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions. 

Nearly all of this year's Veggies Abroad tours are sold out, but Gade-Sawicki has her eye on the future, with eight to 10 tours scheduled for 2027.

https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Travel-Agent-Issues/An-agency-grows-from-a-vegan-travel-blog

Vegan fish lover? Try these alternatives

From favorflav.com

Have you always been a big fan of fish, but does your vegetarian or vegan diet not allow it? Don’t worry, The Vegan Effect carried out the ultimate test to see which fish substitute is best. Spoiler alert: all three are excellent.

We can certainly imagine that if you follow a vegan diet, you start to miss fish after a while. Fortunately, Quirine from The Vegan Effect tried these three fish alternatives. She ate them on a bread roll with cucumber, lettuce and yoghurt-dill sauce.

The Vivera Fish Burger

According to Quirine, this one wins the test. The burger is firm and its texture is remarkably similar to fish. Why eat fish at all when this burger tastes almost exactly the same? You can get one at various supermarkets for €2.79.

SoFish Fish Burger

Just slightly less good than Vivera’s, but this burger comes close. It is a little less firm, but tastes good. The only minor drawback is that its colour and flavour make the product resemble fish fingers more. You can get the burger at Jumbo and Vomar for €2.99.

Albert Heijn Sea Sticks

According to The Vegan Effect, this product is a copy of the original, which does contain fish. The product is comparable to the SoFish burger. This time, the drawback is that the sticks contain no added vitamins or minerals. They are sold in packs of six for €2.69.

https://favorflav.com/en/food/vegan-fish-lover-try-these-alternatives/

A Vegan’s Guide to Penang

From wellbeing.com.au

By Catherine Lawson

Here in Penang, locals have a reputation for talking endlessly about food, planning their days around what to eat and where. So when our taxi driver discovers that our bellies are still empty at 1pm in Penang, he takes it upon himself to set things right.

Guiding us on a gastronomic side trip, he detours to the best street stalls, cafes and eateries en route to Georgetown, slowing down to point out another place worth eating at, with instructions on when to arrive and what to order.

That he’s dealing with a car full of non-meat eaters doesn’t faze him at all, because we have happily arrived in a vegan wonderland. Thanks to its rich Chinese Mahayana Buddhist heritage, this eccentric island panders lovingly to vegan taste buds with a faux-meat cuisine that turns the tables and hands vegans the whole menu.

Often called temple food or su zhai, this compassionate, plant-based cuisine is normalised in Penang — a way of eating that was originally designed for sixth-century monks and has since spilled out into the streets.

That it flourishes in Penang is no surprise. This island state, with a long heritage that incongruously includes eras of British settlement and Chinese opium trading, is one of the most tolerant places in Malaysia. In an otherwise multicultural country, Penang’s Chinese heritage is everywhere — from the streetside bars where beers are served by white-singlet-wearing old Chinese guys, to the glittering Buddhist-Tao temples.

Our taxi drops us kerbside at Kuan Yin Teng, the Temple of the Goddess of Mercy, all aglow with candles and swathed in incense smoke. “Pray first, then eat,” our driver laughs, “but don’t linger too long or the steamed buns will run out.”

We slip off our sandals and tread across the cool, tiled floor, lighting our just-bought pink lotus candle in honour of the goddess who dwells in temples right across the island.

The goddess of mercy

Kuan Yin is Penang’s most revered Buddhist deity, and she doesn’t just dole out mercy; she’s known for bestowing peace, good fortune and fertility, too. There are other, far more flamboyant dedications to the goddess elsewhere in Penang — in fact, the island’s most prominent hill is crowned with an astonishing 36m-high statue of Kuan Yin.

Yet none is as old or as peaceful as Kuan Yin’s busy little Georgetown temple, where locals come to wave smoking joss sticks and send their wishes skyward. Past the rows of candle sellers at the entrance, beyond the sand-filled censers into which worshippers plunge their lit joss sticks, we discover a beautiful breezy alcove that recounts the temple’s full history in English and a peaceful little back garden fragrant with flowers.

It becomes a favourite ritual for us in Georgetown to light joss sticks and a candle and sit with the calmness that Kuan Yin instils. Then we stroll on to fill our plates with all-vegan delicacies at Ee Beng Vegetarian Food.

Ee Beng vegetarian

Mirroring Kuan Yin Temple’s authenticity, there’s nothing fancy about Ee Beng — a self-serve vegan cafe designed to fill bellies with healthful, delicious, good-karma food.

We grab a plate, add a scoop of wild rice and begin to top it with spoonfuls of an astonishing choice of just-cooked dishes. There are rich, spicy curries and all kinds of stir-fried vegetables, plus mock-meat turned into every Chinese and Malay specialty you could ever imagine.

We choose salt-and-pepper tofu, peanut satay sticks, mock duck, vegan “prawn” chow mein and minced mushroom mapo tofu. We munch on corn fritters, spring rolls and steamed buns stuffed with mock-barbecued pork — so many choices that, despite our repeat visits, we never get even close to working through all the possibilities.

Thanks to those sixth-century monks who wholeheartedly embraced a meat-free diet, Penang’s take on vegan cuisine offers complex, surprising flavours. With soy and wheat gluten taking on elaborate, mock-meat forms, we discover crispy-skin mock-fish that has both the texture of flaky fish and the appearance of fish scales, and local Nyonya Malay curry rendang, Chinese barbecued mock-pork and vegan Mongolian lamb that all mimic their meaty counterparts.

The mushroom-rich dishes usually avoid the five pungent spices said to disturb the mind — garlic, onions, shallots, leeks and chives. And all these dishes that wow us big time are found in simple cafes clustered around temple sites, fluttering their distinctive yellow-and-red-silk flags.

Eating well in Penang, it seems, has nothing to do with fine dining. In backstreet markets full of street carts we order noodles straight out of the wok and devour them on the kerb, perched on tiny stools. We sit elbow-to-elbow with locals slurping breakfast noodles at pop-up bus stop cafes, and sip our rich Malay coffees from wooden crates, watching the world drift by.

Penang famous samosa

Last year, when I was living close by, I had to visit Penang on business for just one day. To please the family foodies, I flew back home nursing a huge box full of Penang Famous Samosas. This unpretentious hawker stall that sports a single menu of deep-fried treats and Indian sweets sells the best vegetarian samosas I’ve ever tasted — at around 30 cents each.

There are no seats and no drinks on offer, just big trays of freshly prepared snacks. And while there are other deliciously deep-fried vegan treats on the menu — pakodas (shredded vegetable fritters), batter-dipped onion bhajis and spicy lentil donuts called vadai — it’s for the samosas that this stall earns its Michelin Guide mention.

The best way to explore Georgetown is with a bag of samosas in hand, munching your way down bustling back alleys and meandering from one historic site to the next. There are highlights for sure; Penang’s Chinese clan jetties, houses and the floating Hean Boo Thean Kuan Yin Temple are still inhabited by families who eat, pray and live on, and over, the sea.

Clan architecture

With its huge doors and ornate ridged rooftop, the Han Jiang Ancestral Temple is one of the most striking of all Penang’s Chinese clan temples. Built by early Chinese immigrants to support newcomers arriving in Penang from their Chinese homelands, it harbours a secret and peaceful courtyard, richly decorated frescos and inner shrines dedicated to the Taoist God of the North, a patron deity of Penang’s Teochew clans.

Penang’s clans are responsible for constructing and conserving much of the architecture that earned Georgetown its World Heritage status, including the clan jetties that stretch far out over the sea. Built from the mid-1800s, these offered lodging and companionship, helped fresh arrivals find work and preserved customs, culture and language dialects that might otherwise have been lost.

Here, where people live without too many airs and graces, no one seems to mind the tourists who peek through open doors or aim their phones at the grandpas sleeping, the meals being cooked al fresco or the kids clowning about and jumping wildly into the sea.

Goddess on the hill

Far from Georgetown, Kek Lok Si is a bustling, brilliant tribute to Penang’s number-one goddess. She sits atop Crane Hill — a peak that auspiciously resembles a crane with outstretched wings — crowning the most famous landmark in Penang and keeping watch over the monastery, halls and temples that make this Malaysia’s largest Buddhist temple complex.

Discovering Kek Lok Si — which aptly translates to “Temple of Supreme Bliss” — requires stamina and time. We swerve around the tacky souvenir stalls and a tightly packed tortoise pond, and climb to the Hall of Bodhisattvas with a lofty ceiling fresco so captivating that we leave with arching necks. Small donations buy us colourful silk ribbons, which we choose for the wishes they bear, hanging them in the breeze to flutter our hopes to the gods.

As we climb ever upwards, we discover great halls and blooming gardens, resplendent shrines and robed monks happily restoring it all. Finally, the goddess beckons us onwards to where her 36.5m-high bronze replica presides over Penang.

More exploring

Nestled at the foot of Kek Lok Si, Purple Stone Vegetarian and I have a history that goes back 15 years. Since that long-ago backpacking adventure, little about this simple eatery has changed and the cuisine is still as delicious as when it first blew away my tastebuds.

My 14-year-old daughter, a lifelong vegetarian, piles up a plate and digs right in, savouring a menu that’s all designed for her. It’s not a small thing to feel so included when you’re a vegan in a meat-loving world, and the vibe of this place washes over us like pure golden sunshine.

Penang’s long list of magical attractions keeps us on our feet for days: visiting a pair of gorgeous temples (Thai on one side, Burmese on the other), taking shaded forest hikes and spending a lazy Sunday afternoon of music, food and art at the Hin Bus Depot Markets.

Here we order organic Malay coffees, icy nutmeg juice and delicious vegan cakes, then traipse through the pop-up stalls selling handmade clothes, collectables and all kinds of earth-conscious original creations. In this thoroughly modern space, we return full circle having eaten our way through the centuries in Penang. And yes, we leave the island with a box full of samosas.

Escape routes

Go
Malaysian Airlines flies to Penang (via Kuala Lumpur) from Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide return. Penang is hot and humid year-round, but it rains less and temperatures are less extreme from December to February.

Stay
For accommodation in Georgetown, the lavishly restored Cheong Fatt Tze’s The Blue Mansion (of Crazy Rich Asians fame) offers luxurious double rooms (cheongfatttzemansion.com). Close to the airport and with impressive sustainability credentials, the Olive Tree Hotel suits lovers of high-rise views (olivetree.my). The Edison’s restored colonial-era deluxe rooms come with complimentary breakfast, free all-day snacks and free pre-dinner wine (theedisonhotels.com).

Eat
Ee Beng Vegetarian on Lebuh Dickens, Georgetown; Penang Famous Samosa on Queen Street, Georgetown; Yun Shan Ge Vegetarian House for five-star vegan Nyonya cuisine on Penang Street, Georgetown.

This article is featured in WellBeing Magazine 223 

https://www.wellbeing.com.au/escape/travel/a-vegans-guide-to-penang.html

 

3 Chinese-Style Vegan Recipes So Good You’ll Skip Takeout

From plantbasednews.org

Put down the takeout app and check out these restaurant-worthy recipes! 

For anyone who has stared at a takeout menu while wondering whether something healthier and more exciting could be made at home, Wil Yeung has the answer. In a Yeung Man Cooking video, the cookbook author prepares three Chinese-style vegan recipes using crisp rice noodle rolls, aromatic fried rice and meltingly tender eggplant.

Born in Hong Kong and based in Ontario, Canada, Yeung is the creator and host of the plant-based YouTube cooking show Yeung Man Cooking. His background stretches well beyond food: He studied music and education, trained as a violinist, and has worked as a photographer, filmmaker, and entrepreneur. He has also published four cookbooks, and the dishes featured in the video come from his collection of recipes.

Throughout the episode, Yeung shows that restaurant-worthy food does not require overcomplicated techniques. Instead, it depends on preparing ingredients carefully, giving them time to brown, and layering flavours with aromatics, chili oil, and fermented sauces.

Pan-fried cheung fun with smoked tofu

In this pan-fried cheung fun, the rice noodle rolls cook until they have absorbed most of the savoury soy-based sauce - Media Credit: YouTube / Yeung Man Cooking

Yeung begins by patting approximately 75 grams of smoked tofu dry before slicing it widthwise. Smoked tofu has a firm texture and an already-developed savoury flavour, making it particularly well suited to quick pan-frying.

He cuts garlic chives into pieces roughly the same size as the tofu, noting that green onions can be used instead. He also chops 50 grams of broccolini into bite-sized pieces.

The foundation of the dish is fresh cheung fun, or rice noodle rolls, which can often be found at Asian grocery stores. Yeung cuts the rolls into pieces about two inches long before gently separating them into smaller bites.

Temperature matters here. Cheung fun taken directly from the refrigerator can be stiff and difficult to separate without tearing. Yeung recommends microwaving the noodles for about 30 seconds or leaving them at room temperature for a few hours before handling them. This softens the rolls and helps them fry more evenly.

The sauce combines one and a half tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce, and one tablespoon of plant-based oyster sauce. Vegan oyster sauces are generally made with mushrooms, often shiitakes, which provide an earthy umami flavour.

Yeung grates a small piece of garlic, then adds toasted sesame oil. This is followed by a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper and a couple of tablespoons of water. He stirs the sauce and sets it aside.

In a non-stick pan over medium heat, he adds one teaspoon of avocado oil, followed by the smoked tofu and broccolini. The ingredients sauté for several minutes until they begin to brown.

“Be patient and allow the veggies to get a little bit of colour,” Yeung says.

Once browned, the tofu and broccolini are removed. Yeung adds one tablespoon of smoky chili oil to the pan, followed by the cheung fun. He allows the noodles to sear undisturbed for several minutes, tosses them, and lets the other sides develop colour.

“Be patient with this, as this is what creates that iconic seared look and flavour,” he says.

Garlic chives and approximately 75 grams of bean sprouts are added near the end so they retain some freshness and crunch. The tofu and broccolini return to the pan, followed by the prepared sauce.

Everything cooks for about a minute, until the noodles have absorbed most of the liquid. Yeung plates the cheung fun and sprinkles white sesame seeds on top. The dish makes roughly one to two portions and combines crisp edges with soft, chewy centres.

Smoky chili oil fried rice

For the second dish, Yeung focuses on one of the most important rules of fried rice: The grains should be relatively dry before entering the pan.

Although leftover rice refrigerated overnight is the traditional choice, Yeung demonstrates how to prepare rice for frying on the same day. He rinses 1 cup of jasmine rice two or three times to remove excess starch. Then he combines it with one cup of water.

The saucepan is placed over medium-high heat. Once the water begins to bubble, he stirs the rice, lowers the heat to medium-low, and covers the pot. The rice cooks for 15 minutes. Yeung then turns off the heat and leaves it covered for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, he finely chops three or four garlic cloves. He also chops three or four green onion stalks. These serve as both an aromatic and the main vegetable in the dish.

Seeds are removed from approximately four dried chili peppers before the peppers are roughly chopped. Removing the seeds reduces some of their heat while preserving their smoky flavour.

When the rice has finished steaming, Yeung fluffs it and transfers it to a large mixing bowl. Using a rice paddle, he spreads the rice into a thin layer around the bowl. This releases steam, draws out moisture, and helps the grains cool quickly.

The rice rests for at least 25 to 30 minutes. Skipping this step could produce soft or clumpy fried rice, while properly cooled grains remain distinct in the pan.

Yeung warms a non-stick pan over medium-low heat and adds two to three tablespoons of chili oil. The green onions, garlic and dried chilies cook for one to two minutes, releasing their aroma without burning.

He raises the heat to medium and adds the rice. This is followed by one and a half tablespoons of soy sauce and approximately one teaspoon of dark soy sauce. The mixture fries for four to five minutes, allowing the grains to absorb the seasonings while becoming slightly drier and more separated.

The finished rice can be spooned directly onto a plate, but Yeung packs it into a tall bowl and flips it onto a serving plate for a restaurant-style presentation. A final drizzle of chili oil adds extra heat and gloss.

It is one of the simplest Chinese-style vegan recipes in the video. However, the combination of garlic, green onions, chilies, and smoky oil produces layers of flavour from a relatively short ingredient list.

Eggplant and tofu in chili garlic sauce

Crumbled extra-firm tofu is pan-fried until lightly crisp before being seasoned with dark soy sauce and added to the chili garlic sauce with eggplant    YouTube / Yeung Man Cooking

The final dish pairs tender Asian eggplant with crumbled tofu in a rich chili garlic sauce, served alongside steamed jasmine rice.

Yeung starts the rice first, using the same basic method: one cup of rinsed jasmine rice, 1 cup of water, 15 minutes over medium-low heat and another 10 minutes resting with the heat turned off.

For the sauce, he finely chops four garlic cloves, a medium piece of ginger and one deseeded long red chili. The long chili is relatively mild, though Yeung says red Thai chilies can be substituted for more heat.

Approximately 175 grams of extra-firm tofu is patted dry and crumbled by hand. The uneven pieces give the sauce texture and body.

Yeung removes the stems from two Asian eggplants, cuts them lengthwise into quarters and chops each long section into thirds. Larger Italian eggplants can also be used if cut into similarly shaped pieces.

A non-stick pan is warmed over medium heat with 1 tablespoon of chili oil. Yeung sautés the crumbled tofu for three to four minutes. This allows moisture to evaporate and the edges to become slightly crisp. He adds two teaspoons of dark soy sauce. This seasons the tofu and gives it a caramel colour, then sets it aside.

Another tablespoon of chili oil goes into the pan. The eggplant is arranged so each piece touches the hot surface. It sears for one to two minutes, is tossed, and then browned on another side before being removed.

In a sauté pan, Yeung heats 1 teaspoon of avocado oil and cooks the garlic, ginger, and red chili for two to three minutes. He adds the tofu and 1 tablespoon of plant-based oyster sauce. Then he mixes in one tablespoon of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of doubanjiang, a fermented chili bean paste that supplies heat, saltiness, and deep umami.

Two cups of vegetable stock are poured in, followed by the eggplant. Yeung brings the mixture to a boil, lowers the heat to medium and covers it for about five minutes.

Meanwhile, he combines two teaspoons of potato starch or cornstarch with water to form a slurry. Once the eggplant is tender, the slurry is stirred into the pan, thickening the liquid into a glossy sauce that clings to each piece.

Yeung serves the eggplant and tofu with fluffy white rice and fresh cilantro.

“There is a reason why this is a childhood favourite,” he says.

The eggplant becomes soft and almost creamy inside, while the crumbled tofu gives the sauce substance. Garlic, ginger, chili and fermented bean paste create a bold, savoury dish that looks equally at home on a weeknight table or a restaurant menu.

Together, the three recipes show how small details such as warming chilled noodles, drying freshly cooked rice, and browning eggplant before simmering it, deliciously transform common ingredients. Yeung’s approach makes staying in feel far more appealing than opening another takeout app.

For more restaurant-quality plant-based recipes from around the world, check out Wil Yeung’s YouTube channel.

https://plantbasednews.org/lifestyle/food/chinese-style-vegan-recipes/