Tag: green onions

Categories
Main Dish Soup

Easy potsticker soup will have you shouting for ‘choy’

Potsticker soup is a hearty meal, full of delicious Asian flavors, such as bok choy, soy sauce and sesame oil. Combo that with the ease of using frozen potstickers, and you have a fulfilling meal that is quick to prepare.
Potsticker soup is a hearty meal, full of delicious Asian flavors, such as bok choy, soy sauce and sesame oil. Combo that with the ease of using frozen potstickers, and you have a fulfilling meal that is quick to prepare.

Just when I think I have explored every part of the produce section, I find something new to try. This time, it was bok choy.

Bok choy, according to the Food Literacy Center website, is considered the oldest green in China, harkening back to the fifth century.

It is sometimes referred to as “Chinese cabbage,” and if you’re unfamiliar with it, that’s probably the best description I could give. Flavor wise, it’s kind of like a less intense green cabbage.

I absolutely loved it, and it added some brightness to the fabulous soup I’m sharing with you this week.

This comes from the awesome food blog “Gimme Some Oven.” You can find the original post at https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/potsticker-soup-recipe/. I put extra garlic in my version and used regular bok choy instead of baby bok choy, since that’s what I could find locally.

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Potsticker Soup

Potsticker soup is a hearty meal, full of delicious Asian flavors, such as bok choy, soy sauce and sesame oil. Combo that with the ease of using frozen potstickers, and you have a fulfilling meal that is quick to prepare.
Course Main Course, Soup
Cuisine Asian, Chinese
Keyword 30-minute meal, baby bellas, bok choy, chili crisp, easy soup, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, fresh mushrooms, frozen potstickers, green onions, potstickers, quick dinner, sesame oil, sesame seeds, shiitake, soy sauce, vegetable broth

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 8 ounces baby bella or shiitake mushrooms sliced
  • 5 green onions thinly sliced
  • 2 tablespoons fresh ginger minced
  • 8 cloves garlic minced
  • 6 cups vegetable broth
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • about 20 ounces frozen potstickers
  • 1 bunch bok choy roughly chopped to spoon-sized pieces
  • 2 teaspoons sesame oil
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large stock pot or Dutch oven.
  • Saute the mushrooms and green onions until they are softened, and then add the ginger and garlic. Saute for another couple of minutes until the garlic is lightly browned and fragrant, and pour in the vegetable broth and soy sauce scraping the bottom of the pot to incorporate any stuck-on bits.
  • Bring the mixture to a boil.
  • Add the potstickers and bok choy, and stir to combine. Let everything boil, stirring occasionally, for about four or five minutes until the potstickers are heated through and the bok choy is cooked to your liking.
  • Turn the heat to low and add sesame oil and pepper. Be sure to taste the broth before adding salt.
  • To serve, this soup can be garnished with a variety of goodies. We used sesame seeds, soft-boiled eggs and chili crisp in ours.

This was so, so good. We really enjoyed this and decided that this must go into our regular rotation for quick, cold-weather meals. Despite using frozen potstickers, this felt completely homemade, with lots of delicious Asian flavors. It was a really hearty soup, too, with plenty of veggies to fill us up.

I made soft-boiled eggs to go in our bowls, and that added a creamy component that we really enjoyed.

Plus, I can mark a new vegetable off my list. I’m guessing those fifth century farmers never imagined the new veggie in their gardens would be enjoyed over 1,000 years later and 7,000 miles away, but whoever they were, I’m a big fan of their work.

This piece first appeared in print Feb. 20, 2025.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Salad Side Dish

There’s a kernel of summer flavor in this pasta salad

Mexican street corn pasta salad uses lots of fresh vegetables to create a flavor profile reminiscent of elote. It’s an excellent side dish for a summer meal.
Mexican street corn pasta salad uses lots of fresh vegetables to create a flavor profile reminiscent of elote. It’s an excellent side dish for a summer meal.

When the Mexican American Fastpitch Softball Tournament rolls into Newton every summer, Joey and I try to make it out to watch a few hours of the action.

The games are definitely entertaining, but if I’m being honest, I’m mostly there for the food. Trying to pick what to eat from the various vendors is sometimes tough to do. Everything looks and smells amazing.

A couple summers ago, I decided to get elote, which is a roasted ear of corn, slathered in seasoning and mayonnaise and crumbly cheese. Trust me. It’s delicious.

I was thinking about that elote when I ran across this week’s recipe for a Mexican street corn pasta salad. It features a lot of the same flavor profiles, but it’s a bit easier to eat without making a huge mess.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Female Foodie” by Tyler Anastasio. You can find the original post at https://www.femalefoodie.com/recipes/mexican-street-corn-pasta-salad/#recipe. I added extra jalapeno, cheese and garlic in my version and changed up the instructions just a bit.

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Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad

Mexican street corn pasta salad uses lots of fresh vegetables to create a flavor profile reminiscent of elote. It’s an excellent side dish for a summer meal.
Course Salad, Side Dish
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword adobo peppers, chipotle peppers, cilantro, cojita, ditalini pasta, fresh cilantro, fresh corn, fresh garlic, frozen corn, green onions, jalapeno, lime juice, lime zest, mayonnaise, Miracle Whip, queso fresco, sour cream

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 16 ounces ditalini pasta or another small pasta
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
  • 3 cups fresh or frozen corn
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 jalapeno seeds and ribs removed, diced
  • 1 bunch green onion sliced thinly
  • 1 bunch cilantro roughly chopped
  • 10 ounces queso fresco or cotija cheese
  • salt and pepper to taste

Dressing Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup sour cream I used fat free
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
  • 2 to 3 whole chipotle peppers packed in adobo
  • 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
  • zest from one lime
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain it and rinse it with cold water, and set aside.
  • Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat. Once it’s hot, add the corn to the skillet and stir regularly, getting a light char on the kernels. Add the garlic into the pan and saute for just about a minute, and then remove the skillet from the heat. Set it aside to cool.
  • Prepare the jalapeno, green onion and cilantro and add it to a large serving bowl. Crumble in almost all of the cheese, keeping back a handful to top the salad when you’re done.
  • Combine all of the dressing ingredients into a blender or food processor and process until it is smooth.
  • Add the pasta, cooled corn and dressing to the serving bowl, and stir it well. Stir in any additional salt and pepper, if desired. Refrigerate the pasta salad until it’s completely chilled. Just before serving, top with the reserved cheese.

I really liked this, and even Joey, who is a notorious mayonnaise hater, liked the dressing, so you know it had to be pretty good. This will be an especially good pasta salad to put together once everyone’s gardens begin producing this summer.

And if you’re afraid of the jalapeno, you can easily leave it out. It does add a very nice crunch, though.

I’m also not going to pretend that this pasta salad is a perfect recreation of elote, but it does scratch the itch. You can bet, though, once July rolls around, I’ll be on the lookout for the real thing once again.

This piece first appeared in print on May 23, 2024.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

You have to try this delicious ‘mein’ dish tonight

Chicken lo mein is a delicious dinner with tons of flavor and plenty of fresh, sauteed vegetables over yummy Asian noodles.
Chicken lo mein is a delicious dinner with tons of flavor and plenty of fresh, sauteed vegetables over yummy Asian noodles.

An article from “Eat This, Not That” by Cheyenne Buckingham breaks down all the differences between Italian and Asian noodles.

I started wondering a bit this week, after I bought a package of lo mein noodles and the finished product really didn’t look a whole lot different from spaghetti, so of course, I had to do a deep dive on the subject.

There is a difference, it turns out. Buckingham interviewed Chef Chris Barch, who said ingredients are the main variation.

“For example, soba uses buckwheat, lo mein uses eggs, rice noodles use rice,” he said. “Italian pasta essentially has two main pasta doughs: egg dough and non-egg dough.”

So, yeah, you totally could use spaghetti instead of lo mein noodles, but you’re probably not going to get the full flavor and texture you’re looking for. So even if they’re a little tougher to find, when you try this week’s recipe, I highly recommend traditional Asian noodles.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Dinner then Dessert” by Sabrina Snyder. You can find the original post at https://dinnerthendessert.com/chicken-lo-mein/. I added extra garlic in my version and left out the bean sprouts.

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Chicken Lo Mein

Chicken lo mein is a delicious dinner with tons of flavor and plenty of fresh, sauteed vegetables over yummy Asian noodles.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Asian
Keyword cabbage, carrots, chicken, Chinese takeout, fresh ginger, garlic, green onions, lo mein, red bell pepper, sesame oil, sesame seeds, soy sauce

Ingredients

  • 10 ounces lo mein noodles
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil divided
  • 2 large chicken breasts cut into thin strips
  • 1 red bell pepper cut into thin strips
  • 1 large carrot cut into thin strips
  • 1/2 cup green onions thinly sliced
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger minced
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon oyster sauce or fish sauce
  • 1/2 cup cabbage shredded
  • sesame seeds and/or green onions for garnish

Instructions

  • Cook the noodles according to the package instructions; drain them and toss them with the sesame oil. Set aside.
  • In a large skillet, heat two tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium-high heat.
  • Saute the chicken in batches, cooking four or five minutes on each side until it is cooked through. Remove the chicken from the pan to a plate for now.
  • Add the pepper, carrot and green onion to the skillet and saute until they are cooked through to your liking.
  • Add the ginger and garlic to the vegetables. Saute for one to two minutes or until the garlic is very lightly browned.
  • In a small bowl, mix 3/4 cup water, soy sauce, cornstarch, one tablespoon vegetable oil and oyster sauce, and then pour it into the skillet. Also add the cabbage. Let it cook for just a couple minutes, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens and the cabbage wilts.
  • Add the chicken and noodles back to the pan, and stir to coat everything in the sauce. Turn the heat to medium-low. Once everything is heated back through, serve, topped with sesame seeds and freshly sliced green onions, if you like.

On her blog, Snyder notes that this is a lot like takeout Chinese food, and I have to agree. It was a fabulous dinner, and then it heated up for leftovers about as well as normal Chinese restaurant leftovers do. We served ours with some fried rice (Joey accused me of stacking carbs), and it made for a great dinner.

When you do this, make sure to thinly cut your vegetables and really try to get a consistent thickness on your slices. That will help everything cook quickly and evenly.

And don’t forget to get the right noodles for the job. Spaghetti is great in a lot of applications, but in this case, lo mein is a must.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 18, 2024.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Side Dish Snack

‘Eggs’plore a new treat with Mayak Gyeran

Mayak eggs are marinated soft-boiled eggs that take on a ton of flavor from sauces and vegetables. In Korean cooking, they are traditionally eaten as a side dish over rice.
Mayak eggs are marinated soft-boiled eggs that take on a ton of flavor from sauces and vegetables. In Korean cooking, they are traditionally eaten as a side dish over rice.

I have made a lot of dishes over the years that are extremely recognizable to many Midwesterners.

From cornbread and biscuits to casseroles and pies, I haven’t made too many recipes that scared folks off.

This week, though, I’m afraid that I may have upped the fear factor for some of you who aren’t overly adventurous with your palates.

Honestly, I was pretty unsure of trying this recipe when I first found it, too. While this is a very popular Korean side dish of marinated eggs, it conjured visions of grocery store shelves with jars of pickled orbs, floating in mysterious pink liquid, to my mind, and I was a little scared.

I didn’t need to be, though. These, while definitely different than any egg preparation I have ever tried, were pretty darn good. The name of the recipe in Korean is “Mayak Gyeran,” which translates to “drug eggs.” The good news is, there’s nothing addicting outside of the flavor, though.

This comes from the blog “What Great Grandma Ate” by Jean Choi. You can find the original post at https://whatgreatgrandmaate.com/mayak-eggs/. I added extra garlic in my version and did not follow the original recipe’s way of making this soy and gluten free. See her blog post for those ingredients.

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Mayak Eggs

Mayak eggs are marinated soft-boiled eggs that take on a ton of flavor from sauces and vegetables. In Korean cooking, they are traditionally eaten as a side dish over rice.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Korean
Keyword chile peppers, drug eggs, green onions, honey, jammy eggs, marinated eggs, Mayak eggs, Mayak Gyeran, minced garlic, sesame seeds, soft-boiled eggs, soy sauce

Ingredients

  • 6 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon white vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
  • 3/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 3 tablespoons honey
  • 4 green onions chopped
  • 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 chili peppers red or green, chopped (I used serranos)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

  • Fill a saucepan large enough to fit all of your eggs about three-quarters full with water. Add in the vinegar and salt. Bring the water to a boil.
  • Once the water is boiling, carefully add the eggs and let the water continue to boil for six minutes.
  • While the eggs boil, prepare a large bowl with cold water and lots of ice. After the six minutes, carefully transfer the eggs from the boiling water to the ice bath, and let them cool for at least five minutes. Carefully peel the eggs and return them to the ice bath while you prepare the marinade.
  • Heat a dry skillet over medium heat. Once it is hot, add in the sesame seeds, stirring them regularly, until they are lightly browned. Remove them from the heat.
  • Choose a container (with a lid) that will fit all the eggs and let them be fully submerged in the marinade. In that container, combine the toasted sesame seeds, soy sauce, water, honey, onions, garlic, chili peppers and salt. Stir well to combine and add the eggs.
  • Seal the container and refrigerate at least eight hours.
  • These can be eaten on their own, if you desire, or more commonly, over rice, along with some of the marinade as a sauce.

We ate these in two ways: once by themselves and once on top of some toast, slathered in fresh avocado. Both were good, and I think we’ll make these again to eat over rice or added to some garlic ramen.

It’s tough to explain the flavor of these eggs. The soy sauce ends up taking on a less strong flavor, thanks to the other additions, and despite the spicy peppers, there was no heat to these at all. Also, because you only boil the eggs for six minutes, you end up with a soft-boiled, jammy egg that adds a nice texture.

This might cause a few folks in your household to raise an eyebrow when they open the fridge, but if you can convince them to give it a try, they might stop thinking you’re crazy and start thinking you’re a genius. At least, that’s always the hope.

This piece first appeared in print on June 8, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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