Homemade BBQ Sauce

November 11, 2014
by Stephanie Pellett
2 min read
Add Comment

Vegan BBQ Sauce >> Life In Limbo

I’m over at Guinea Pigging Green today sharing photos and thoughts on a new recipe for homemade vegan BBQ sauce I made this week. It’s seriously yum.

As with most of my recipes these days, the original recipe is from Oh She Glows. At this point I’m not totally sure what I’ll use it on, but it’s fun to have an extra sauce in the house. I’m sure it’ll come in handy for all kinds of different recipes – right now I have it in mind for these tacos, trying to recreate this flatbread in a skillet, something like these sliders, and maybe the old classic of easy BBQ tofu. I’m not too worried about using it all up! That said, it made a ton of sauce, so I might consider freezing part of it, as the original recipe recommended.

BBQSauce03

I love making condiments – it’s so much fun and they always come out a hundred times tastier than their bottled counterparts. Plus, my apartment always ends up smelling absolutely amazing. It’s a win-win!

You can find the recipe and more photos over on Guinea Pigging Green right here.

PS. This is one of the 24 new recipes I’m trying to make before I turn 24 next April. It’s #15! See all the others here.

Carrot Ginger Soup

October 7, 2014
by Stephanie Pellett
2 min read
1 Comment

Carrot Ginger Soup

I’m over at Guinea Pigging Green today sharing the recipe for this delicious, cozy soup. Ever since the weather shifted to become cooler, I’ve been trying to soak up every minute of Fall. It’s my favourite season and it’s so short in Canada, but in Busan I’ve heard it stretches out over a few months. I now consistently need a scarf when I go out, and have started to add some layers to my outfits as well. I’ve been drinking hot beverages and gravitating towards warm meals, including soups. At home, my mom makes a soup every week for lunches and dinners and I’ve been trying to follow suit, although less reliably than once a week. This is only my second of the season, but I am hooked on the simplicity of them – both the making and the eating. My mom will laugh because I never wanted to eat much soup at home, but how things change when you’re living on your own!

Carrot Ginger Soup

I’m excited to start making soup more often and eating it in the cool evenings after work. This one is perfect because it has a little bit of a kick to it from the ginger, garlic and black pepper. Plus it’s bright orange! So it’s beautiful to boot.

You can find the recipe right here.

Classic Falafels

July 21, 2014
by Stephanie Pellett
3 min read
Add Comment

DSC_3996

Today feels like a day when I need to count my blessings. I was just editing the latest episode of Guinea Pigging Green (out tomorrow!) and when it was over our episode about The Line started playing and I just let it run. (Side note: is it weird to listen to your own podcast? I think the jury’s still out on that one.)

I needed to hear it. I’ve been feeling caught up in my head and stressed out lately, and the idea of the line hasn’t been on my mind very much over the last couple of weeks. I’d also forgotten that we’d talked a lot about practicing gratitude in the episode, and I think I needed that reminder. I’m so grateful for that healthy dose of soul talk and perspective with Laura this morning. Life has been moving really fast lately and it’s been easy to let my automatic reactions carry me along, but being present and refocusing is so much harder. Even so, I have so very much to be grateful for.

DSC_3970

As I was listening to the episode, I was making falafels. They remind me of home: our big wooden kitchen table, my mom’s delicious garlic sauce, people coming and going. I’d never made falafels before today (heretofore I’ve just purchased them premade from Costco or President’s Choice) but they were so easy and really delicious. They aren’t deep-fried, so of course they’re less crunchy-crispy, but since I haven’t had falafels in months, they were perfect.

DSC_3974

I loosely followed this recipe from Oh She Glows, and it worked out perfectly. I substituted bread crumbs for ground flax, plus added maybe a 1/4 cup more breadcrumbs than she called for since I was using an Asian-style breadcrumb (more like Panko) that seemed a bit less dense than what I’d normally use. I also used chives instead of the fresh cilantro and parsley she calls for, because those particular fresh herbs are hard to come by in Korea. The chives gave the falafels such a beautiful green colour!

DSC_3978

On the side, I made a little garlic yogurt sauce and just chopped some tomatoes and cucumbers, mixed together with a bit of salt and lemon juice. I ended up eating some of my falafels in a whole wheat pita with the sauce and salad all mixed in with a bit of extra lemon juice, and it was the perfect lunch.

DSC_3991

Again, the recipe for these yummy falafels is right here. Enjoy!

Fresh Summer Rolls with Peanut Sauce

June 30, 2014
by Stephanie Pellett
2 min read
1 Comment

Summer Rolls

I posted a “recipe” for summer rolls – aka non-deep-fried spring rolls – a few years ago, but I recently developed a new favourite ingredient combo (this time fully vegan) so I thought they’d be worth posting about again. I’ve been taking these into work with me lately and even though they often fall apart by dinnertime, they’re so tasty that I usually don’t even mind. It’s like mini packages of salad! So fresh and so clean.

DSC_3428

My current favourite mix of ingredients is tofu, leeks (or green onions), peanuts, red pepper, tofu and sweet chili sauce. I don’t need to handhold you here – just chop them all up! It’s all raw, so this is a very easy meal to prepare. Soak your rice paper wraps in warm water for around ten seconds, then spread them out on a flat surface and pile everything on! Like so:

DSC_3445

Then you want to tuck up the bottom, fold in the sides, and roll it all up like a burrito. It gets easier and tidier with practice, but sometimes I still end up with a floppy mess. One time, I just wrapped the whole mess in another rice paper, which was surprisingly an excellent fix!

DSC_3431I’ve been eating these with a homemade peanut sauce, which really makes them that much better. I usually half this recipe and season it to taste (since I don’t have sesame oil at the moment). It has good proportions though, and the resulting sauce has a great texture.

DSC_3532Yummy, right? This is exactly the kind of food I want to eat when it’s really hot outside. No standing over a hot stove please! My apartment doesn’t need to be stuffier than it already is.

DSC_3521

You could definitely customize this “recipe” in any way you want to! Different vegetables, maybe even some fruit like pineapple or mango, and fresh herbs would of course be wonderful. I’m sure I’ll be mixing it up quite a bit as the summer progresses. Happy eating!