Vegan🌱Tofu Rice Bowl - Piggy's Delight (EN)

【Vegan🌱Tofu Rice Bowl】

This is called Oyakodon in Japanese, meaning of "parent and children" which is originally a chicken and egg dish.

But I made it vegan!

Woohoo!

Oyakodon is one of my favorite Japanese dishes that I used to cook at home in my howmetown since I was kid. Now I'm living in Canada and sometimes it feels like I want to eat something traditional that pulls me back to my Japan life.

Luckily, Canada is a multi-cultural country and there's an quite high accessibility to Japanese food everywhere in my area. So I can cook almost anything! :)

This recipe is:

vegan
gluten free when using tamari soy sauce
nut free

Instead of eggs, I smashed some tofu in pieces and seasoned with kala namak, an Indian black salt, at the end of cooking to give it an eggy flavor.

If you haven't read about kala namak, visit my previous post for details.

In an actual oyakodon recipe, I always put Mitsuba herb on top, but I couldn't find it here. What I did for that part was to change it to Italian parsley.

And it really worked out!

So you don't have to worry about that :)

In Japanese dishes, most of them contain fish stock from bonito flakes which plays an important role in enhancing flavors.

But vegans don't eat fish.

What should they do then?

Use 2 items:

Dried Kelp
Dried Shiitake mushroom

You could use vegetable stock, but kelp and shiitake mushroom are highly recommended for Japanese dishes.

Shiitake mushroom has 2 types of forms which are dry and fresh form. Use dried one because it's more flavorful when putting in water till softened back.

The most essential steps in this recipe are:

1. Soak dried shiitake mushroom overnight and Kee the shiitake soaked water!

The water is full of flavor and you do NOT want to dump that out. Just keep it to use as stock. It makes a huge difference!

2. Soak kelp overnight

Same as shiitake, save the kelp water for stock.

You should cook kelp in the water for more concentrated stock in a pot, but you should remove it right away after the water starts boiling at the point that you see bubbles coming up, in order to prevent from giving it slimy texture and unpleasant taste.

Perhaps, some of you may feel intimidating, but it's not as hard as you think, even those who aren't familiar with Japanese cuisine.

Please follow my recipe step by step.

Tofu Rice Bowl

INGREDIENTS (2-3 Servings)
1/2 lb Tofu, smashed
1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
1 onion, peeled, sliced
1 carrot, skin on, julienne
5 dried shiitake, julienne after soaked overnight
2 1.5 inches kelp, soaked overnight
1 tablespoon sake
1-2 tablespoon maple syrup
2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari for gluten free
1 tablespoon cornstarch + 1 tablespoon water
2 teaspoons kala namak
Italian parsley, chopped roguhly
Cooked brown rice

INSTRUCTIONS

Smash and color tofu with turmeric in a bowl.
In a pot, put soaked kelp and the kelp water, and bring it a boil over high heat.
When you see bubbles coming up from the bottom of water, then remove kelp right away. Discard kelp or keep it in freezer for making other kelp dishes.
Add in shiitake stock, sake and carrot and cook over high heat until carrot softens a bit.
Add in sliced onions, shiitake and colored tofu.
If the stock is not enough to cover the onion and tofu, then add some water in the pot.
When onions and tofu are cooked well, add in maple syrup and cook for 5 minutes.
Season with soy sauce and turn the heat down to low.
Adjust the taste to your liking with soy sauce.
In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and water.
In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and water.
Bring the simmered tofu veggie to a boil again.
Remove the pot from the heat.
Add the cornstarch water while stiring well quickly. You should stir well otherwise it creates some lumps.
Bring it a boil once again.
Turn off the heat.
Add in kala namak and stir.
Place your cooked rice in a plating bowl, and cover the simmered tofu over the rice, then top with Italian parsley.