Vegetarian Chinese Meal

 Okay, let's be real, it's Chinese American. Fine. I am excited to share with you a recipe I just put together that is DIVINE. I always consider my vegetarian meals a triumph, because I'm not vegetarian, and when my strictly vegetarian fiance says, "Add this to the list [of recipes we keep reusing]," I get goosebumps! 

Something I recommend for this recipe is to shop at Walmart, where you can find all of these items on a budget. 

What you'll need:

• General Tso sauce
• 1 Eggplant
• 1 Zucchini
• handful of baby carrots
• 1 Green Onion
• 1/2 serrano pepper
• ginger
• garlic
• oil
• Rice Noodles
• Peanuts
• Sesame seeds
• Soy sauce
• A deep and large pan. Maybe a wok would be best
• a medium pot of boiling water
• White rice
• Rice cooker (or small pot with lid)

First, I marinated. UGH. I know, it sucks because you are like I NEED FOOD NOW. MARINATING IS FOR PEOPLE WHO PLAN. Fine, don't marinate, I don't care. Maybe this added to the flavor, maybe it didn't. I don't know, we'll see. I cut the eggplant and the zucchini up into 1 inch cubes and placed in a giant bowl. I sliced half of a serrano pepper and added that in the bowl. I splashed soy sauce over them, then dumped half the bottle of General Tso sauce in there, gave it all a mix, covered in clingfoil and refrigerated for about 1.5 hours. 

Once you are ready to begin cooking, get the starches going. I started with the white rice. It's cheap, not the kind you are supposed to ever use, but again, it's cheap. To really bring up the gourmet here, I washed the rice maybe 4 times with water, then let it sit to soak in the water for about 10 minutes. The rice will start making little crackly noises, which is cute. Next, I got that medium pot of water boiling on the stove, took it off the heat, and added my rice noodles to cook for 8-10 minutes. Go back to the rice, dump out the soaking water. Add twice the amount of water as there is rice. Set to cook in your usual method, I used a rice cooker. 

I got out the deep pan (what are these called?) and added a ton of oil. I don't mean like purposefully, but I went to put some oil in and it just glugged in there and I was like, "Oops, oh well." Shrug. Kept going about my business. I added some thinly sliced baby carrots to the hot oil and let those cook down. Meanwhile, I chopped some green onion and added the whites of the onion to the carrots. Once the carrots started turning brown, I added 1 tsp of garlic and ginger. Then, I poured all of those marinated vegetables into the pan. I gave it all a stir and covered the pan with a lid. After about 2 minutes, I added the rest of the green onion, a handful of peanuts, a sprinkle of sesame seeds, and more sauce. 

I dumped the water from the rice noodles and washed in cool water. Then, I added the rice noodles to the pan with everything else. Gave it all a good stir. Added more sauce. 

I knew it was done when the veggies were soft, everything was coated in sauce, and it tasted wonderful. To be honest, I was worried about the sauce because it smelled sour out of the bottle, but it dissipated with cooking and turned sweet. To serve, give yourself a scoop of white rice. Pour that noodle/veggie mix next to the rice. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Dig in!