Wok Star Eleanor Hoh

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Eleanor Hoh

Lunch Ideas

By 4 Comments


Curry beef puff from Asian bakery and leftover veggies of bok choy,
zucchini and bell peppers

I’ve written about Wok Breakfasts and One-dish Wok Meals, all cooked in my lightweight, cast iron wok so the only meal missing is Lunch!

Leftover grilled hoisin salmon with spinach, red onion,
dried cranberry, quinoa salad.

Leftover from cooking class: Tilapia, toufu puffs, zucchini,
bell peppers, brown rice made into a curry soup.
Salad of field greens, spinach, jicama,
tomatoes, dried cranberries.

There’s Lunch for my husband and Lunch for me. Lunch for him is easy, usually I make more dinner and he’ll have that. I always pack him a fresh fruit salad, same way I make my Healthy and Delicious Snack.

Leftovers from cooking class: soy chicken, yellow squash,
bell peppers heated in wok with chili garlic sauce dip.
Salad with romaine lettuce, cranberries, cubed jicama,
bell peppers, scallions with French Vinaigrette dressing.

Toufu with salad of field greens, pumpkin seeds,
dried cranberries with naan. Longans for dessert.

Fresh salad is a must on a daily basis, my body craves raw veggies. Lunch for me is usually leftovers from dinner, my cooking classes or food that needs clearing out from the fridge. Some eaten cold, some warmed up in my wok.

Toufu puff with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cubed jicama,
bell peppers with wholewheat toast.

I’m constantly saying it takes longer for me to make lunch than my dinner because you need lots of fixings to make it interesting. Whereas it’s so easy for dinner, it just takes 2 veggies and a protein to make a one-dish meal.

Leftover char siu warmed in wok, Laurenzo’s Greek salad
and Italian bread.

Some typical fixings:
tomatoes, cucumber, marinaded artichokes, cubed jicama, chayote, bell peppers and scallions (all leftovers from Rainbow Lettuce Wraps when I give cooking classes). Quinoa adds an extra protein hit to help balance your protein/carb ratio especially for diabetics.

Here are some ingredients I use to make my own salad dressing:
Eden Selected Ume Plum Vinegar, Rice wine vinegar,
San-J Tamari, Sesame Oil

I love trying different salad dressings:

La Sandwicherie French Vinaigrette, dried cranberries,
pumpkin seeds

Also try Annie’s Goddess Salad Dressing, Makoto Ginger Carrot Dressing
Huy Fong Chili Garlic Sauce, Eden Gomasio Black & Tan Sesame
Seeds & Sea Salt, Ocho Rios Jerk seasoning

I don’t measure, just taste and adjust seasonings. For a simple dressing, here’s a rough proportion: about 4 tblsp. olive oil, half of fresh lime juice, pinch sea salt, teaspoon mustard, few shakes of chili flakes (also curry powder or jerk seasoning). Put in a small jar and shake it up.

Here are some dispensers I use to make pouring my dressing easier, you can pick them up at Asian markets and dollar stores:

Salad dressing, Chili Flakes, spare dressing dispenser

Here are a few lunch blogs that may fuel you with ideas:

This beautiful blog is by lady architects:
https://lunchstudio.blogspot.com/

Talking about lady architects, Wok Star Amy, a lovely Malaysian lady architect living in LA cooks many lunches for her husband in her wok:
https://picasaweb.google.com/amytanwl/Bento#

Ah, I actually deleted the section on Tiffin Carriers because it’s a whole other blog. But I think this is a great lunch blog:
https://tiffintin.net/

This Lunchboxbunch blog has tons of kid friendly ideas:
https://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/08/back-to-school-series-ten-lunchbox.html

For our vegan friends:
https://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/

Chicken sausage with field greens, tomatoes, jicama, pumpkin seeds and quinoa salad.
I would love to hear how you come up with your lunch ideas. Keep ideas for packed lunches for another blog though…If you liked this, share it with your friends…

Other Wok Meals you’ll enjoy:



Lunch Ideas

By 4 Comments


Curry beef puff from Asian bakery and leftover veggies of bok choy,
zucchini and bell peppers

I’ve written about Wok Breakfasts and One-dish Wok Meals, all cooked in my lightweight, cast iron wok so the only meal missing is Lunch!

Leftover grilled hoisin salmon with spinach, red onion,
dried cranberry, quinoa salad.

Leftover from cooking class: Tilapia, toufu puffs, zucchini,
bell peppers, brown rice made into a curry soup.
Salad of field greens, spinach, jicama,
tomatoes, dried cranberries.

There’s Lunch for my husband and Lunch for me. Lunch for him is easy, usually I make more dinner and he’ll have that. I always pack him a fresh fruit salad, same way I make my Healthy and Delicious Snack.

Leftovers from cooking class: soy chicken, yellow squash,
bell peppers heated in wok with chili garlic sauce dip.
Salad with romaine lettuce, cranberries, cubed jicama,
bell peppers, scallions with French Vinaigrette dressing.

Toufu with salad of field greens, pumpkin seeds,
dried cranberries with naan. Longans for dessert.

Fresh salad is a must on a daily basis, my body craves raw veggies. Lunch for me is usually leftovers from dinner, my cooking classes or food that needs clearing out from the fridge. Some eaten cold, some warmed up in my wok.

Toufu puff with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cubed jicama,
bell peppers with wholewheat toast.

I’m constantly saying it takes longer for me to make lunch than my dinner because you need lots of fixings to make it interesting. Whereas it’s so easy for dinner, it just takes 2 veggies and a protein to make a one-dish meal.

Leftover char siu warmed in wok, Laurenzo’s Greek salad
and Italian bread.

Some typical fixings:
tomatoes, cucumber, marinaded artichokes, cubed jicama, chayote, bell peppers and scallions (all leftovers from Rainbow Lettuce Wraps when I give cooking classes). Quinoa adds an extra protein hit to help balance your protein/carb ratio especially for diabetics.

Here are some ingredients I use to make my own salad dressing:
Eden Selected Ume Plum Vinegar, Rice wine vinegar,
San-J Tamari, Sesame Oil

I love trying different salad dressings:

La Sandwicherie French Vinaigrette, dried cranberries,
pumpkin seeds

Also try Annie’s Goddess Salad Dressing, Makoto Ginger Carrot Dressing
Huy Fong Chili Garlic Sauce, Eden Gomasio Black & Tan Sesame
Seeds & Sea Salt, Ocho Rios Jerk seasoning

I don’t measure, just taste and adjust seasonings. For a simple dressing, here’s a rough proportion: about 4 tblsp. olive oil, half of fresh lime juice, pinch sea salt, teaspoon mustard, few shakes of chili flakes (also curry powder or jerk seasoning). Put in a small jar and shake it up.

Here are some dispensers I use to make pouring my dressing easier, you can pick them up at Asian markets and dollar stores:

Salad dressing, Chili Flakes, spare dressing dispenser

Here are a few lunch blogs that may fuel you with ideas:

This beautiful blog is by lady architects:
https://lunchstudio.blogspot.com/

Talking about lady architects, Wok Star Amy, a lovely Malaysian lady architect living in LA cooks many lunches for her husband in her wok:
https://picasaweb.google.com/amytanwl/Bento#

Ah, I actually deleted the section on Tiffin Carriers because it’s a whole other blog. But I think this is a great lunch blog:
https://tiffintin.net/

This Lunchboxbunch blog has tons of kid friendly ideas:
https://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/08/back-to-school-series-ten-lunchbox.html

For our vegan friends:
https://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/

Chicken sausage with field greens, tomatoes, jicama, pumpkin seeds and quinoa salad.
I would love to hear how you come up with your lunch ideas. Keep ideas for packed lunches for another blog though…If you liked this, share it with your friends…

Other Wok Meals you’ll enjoy:



One-Dish Wok Meals

By 14 Comments

Wontons and toufu with lettuce, straw mushrooms in soup.

In this post, I want to focus on weeknight dinners. Hence the One-Dish Wok Meals.

There are so many beautiful food blogs to get recipes from (see sidebar), so what I want to do is share a different approach to cooking. It’s stress free because you don’t have to run out for special ingredients, follow a recipe and there’s very little cleanup. Cook the gourmet dishes when you have more time.

Yes, I cook my wontons in my wok.

Single guys tell me they enjoy showing off their wok cooking to their dates! This made me laugh especially when they said it makes them look like they know what they’re doing.

My posts: Keep Cooking Simple and Tasty, Wok Up Your Own Creations and Stir Frying Without Recipes will give you the complete scoop on how to achieve this.

Why a wok? Because it heats up fast, cooks fast and washes up fast and best of all, you can use this one pan for cooking EVERYTHING, not just Asian stir frys. Less clutter, less oil, less washing up.

Toufu, green beans, cherry tomatoes, straw mushrooms cooked in CurrySimple’s Green Curry Sauce.

(I won’t repeat what I’ve already said in other posts about my preseasoned, lightweight cast iron wok. On my website, I explain in great depth and discuss different types of woks as well as technique to be successful.)

Simple stir fried bok choy and red bell peppers with dash of tamari and sherry.

Buy Char Siu (Chinese roast pork), mix with bok choy dish, dinner!

One-Dish Wok Meals is how my husband and I eat most weeknights and we never get tired of them. It’s really a no-brainer, it gives you the right balance of protein and carbs.

That’s how I was brought up, lots of veggies, less meat. I cut out eating starch a while back because I’m on the cusp of Type II Diabetes, I discuss this in Healthy and Delicious Snack Ideas. When my doctor first told me to cut back eating so much rice, I thought she didn’t realize I was Asian! Asians eat rice at every meal. I cut back a little at a time and finally didn’t miss not having it at all. When I understood starch drives up sugar levels, it was easy to give it up and see my energy soar. As mentioned, we’ll have quinoa more often than rice or noodles. I get into more depth about Diets on my website.

I hear amusing stories from many husbands who are relegated to washing dishes, so you’ll be pleased to know it takes less than two minutes to wash up for a One-Dish Wok Meal.

A typical washup takes less than 2 minutes.

As you can see, I use my cast iron wok for cooking many different things! I’d love to hear what you cook up in your wok?

Yummy Asian meatloaf steamed (ground turkey and omboshi plums)

Tilapia with veggies in soup.