Combine pasta with vegetables to start loving vegetables.
Snack time alert! I wanted to have a snack during the day at that time. But unfortunately, I don't have ready meals to eat. There is only main food for the next dinner time.
Looking for snack ideas, and also looking at the stock of vegetables in the refrigerator. My eyes fixed on the fresh pakcoy vegetables that I just bought yesterday. I also have a stock of vegan noodles in the pantry. Oh, I know what to do.
I will make steamed pakcoy stems which will be filled with noodles. It takes precision to make this type of food and yep, it takes patience to make these healthy snacks.
To be honest, this recipe was inspired by a menu on the internet that I saw before. It's just that, I adjust the ingredients to my taste.
In a recipe I saw on the internet, pakcoy stems are filled with chicken. So, for this recipe this time, I'm using other vegan-friendly ingredients. I'll fill the pakcoy stems with noodles. Noodles are one of my favorite foods.
If you don't want to use noodles as a filling for the pakcoy stems, that's fine. You can look for substitutes for other ingredients such as tofu. Or, if you are not a vegan, you can fill the pakcoy stems with chicken or minced meat.
As a suggestion, you should look for a pakcoy that has a large stem. It's just that the problem is, sometimes in the market you will more often find pakcoy which has smaller stems. Moreover, if the pakcoy is grown using a hydroponic system.
If you find smaller Pakcoy, then you should not use them for this recipe. Because, it won't work at all. We need pakcoy stems that look good to shape into cups.
The use of sauce is the most important thing to complete a meal. We can say that the sauce affects the overall taste of the food. So if we choose the wrong sauce for a dish, then the whole taste might be messed up.
So, to complete this pakcoy snack this time, I'm using a sweet spicy sauce made from a combination of soy sauce, brown sugar, and chili flakes.
The way to make the sweet spicy sauce is very easy. We only need to mix the soy sauce with a little vinegar, also chili flakes, and a little brown sugar if you prefer a sweet taste. All ingredients are adjusted according to your tastes. I do not use a certain measure to make this sauce.
The most important thing is to use more soy sauce, fewer chili flakes, and also brown sugar. If you like a more aromatic taste, you can add chopped ginger to it.
If you can't enjoy the hot sauce, then skip the chili flakes. Combine soy sauce and a little vinegar or just a little lemon juice.
Seasons for noodles:
To fill the noodles into the pakcoy stems, we have to shape the pakcoy stems to look like cups. So, cut the part between the stem and the leaves. Separate them and set aside the pakcoy leaves for another use.
When we have formed the pakcoy stems into Pakcoy cups, it's not finished.
So, we have to throw them out so we can fill the inside with noodles.
You can scoop the inside of the young stems or use a knife. However, because I used pakcoy stems that were not too big, I only used my fingers to remove the inside of the young stems.
Then, don't forget to wash them thoroughly with running water. Make sure the dirt from the pakcoy stems can come out properly.
Bring the water to a boil first. Then, add the noodles until they are soft but not too soft, because we are going to steam them again with the pakcoy stems.
After the noodles are drained from the cooking water, mix the noodles with seasonings such as chili sauce. Or, if you don't like spicy, you can use tomato sauce. Then also add garlic powder and olive oil. Then, stir them well until they are well mixed.
After the noodles are ready to be used, it's time for us to fill the pakcoy cups with the noodles. Do it carefully to fill the pakcoy cups, so that they pakcoy cups don't get damaged.
By the way, don't forget to heat up the steamer so that later when the pakcoy cup is finished filling, the steamer is hot and ready to use.
Steam the pakcoy cups filled with noodles for about 10 to 15 minutes.
Serve the pakcoy cups filled with noodles with the sauce we made before. You can also use the instant sauce of your choice, which is widely available at grocery supply stores, of course.
I sprinkled them with Sesame Seeds. I really like sesame seeds. How about you guys? You can also use other types of seeds such as pumpkin seeds. Good luck!
To be honest, this recipe is the first recipe I made using Pakcoy stem. This really trains my patience to form pakcoy stems into pakcoy cups. And..., it turns out the results are quite satisfying!
How about the taste? Of course delicious! I can spend it all alone. In my opinion, I like the taste because it uses sweet spicy sauce from soy sauce and chili flakes ingredients.
I don't know what you guys think about this sweet spicy sauce. So maybe there will be a slightly different opinion if you taste it with your own tongue. That's because we do have different tastes adapted to the culture of our respective food habits. But overall, I hope you can be inspired by this menu by adjusting some of the ingredients that you like to suit your tastes. Happy holidays.
Best Regards,
Anggrek Lestari
Anggrek Lestari is an Indonesian fiction writer who has published two major books. Now She is a full-time content creator. She has a goal to share life, poem, and food content that makes others happy and can get inspiration.
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