A close friend of mine is a vegetarian, which for some reason stumps me a bit whenever I want to have her over for dinner. For non-meat meals people often lean on cheese to act as a substitute, but since she’s also lactose intolerant I am especially challenged when deciding what to make. I pulled it off this weekend, though, with a veggie-heavy Chinese-influenced meal. The menu included: veggie spring rolls, wonton soup, and a big stirfry with tofu served with soba noodles.
My favorite part had to be the wonton soup. Using vegetable bouillon (what kind of Bay Area grocery store doesn’t carry vegetable stock??) as the base, I threw in bok choy, onions, enoki mushrooms, flat pea pods and carrots. I used store bought wonton wrappers and created a filling out of minced carrots, sauteed kale and garlic, with some soy sauce and honey ginger dressing as a binding agent. The soup cooked up super fast and was delicious.
