Mongolian Beefless Beef and Szechuan Snow Peas with Shiitake Mushrooms

One of my favorite dishes at Chinese restaurants is Mongolian Tofu (formerly it was Mongolian Beef). If it's an option on the menu, I usually get it. VegeUSA makes these dehydrated beefless beef strips that I thought would be spot on for a mock Mongolian Beef recipe. They also make dehydrated chicken and duck slices. I found these products at my local Asian groceries over in the Uptown area of Chicago. I usually go to Broadway Supermarket, but Tai Nam Food Market has a large amount of faux meat products as well. I'm not sure where you could get these otherwise. I found some of their other products like the duck and pork slices on Amazon. You could probably use just slices of seitan from West Soy or LightLife Steak Style Strips. You could even do this recipe with just slices of tofu or tempeh if you have a wheat allergy or just don't dig on that much gluten.

Mongolian Beefless Beef

* Prep Time: 30 minutes - 1 hour
* Cook Time: 20 minutes
* Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce*
• 1 tsp hoison sauce*
• 1 tbsp garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp ginger, minced
• 1 tbsp brown sugar*
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine*
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, sliced
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 2 cups vegetarian beef slices
• peanut oil, for frying
• 1-2 oz. saifun

* Recipe:

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1. Rehydrate the beefless beef slices (if you are using VegeUSA - otherwise skip this step) in boiling water. Strain.
2. Combine the marinade ingredients (first 9 ingredients) in a baking dish. Add the rehydrated beef slices (or seitan, tofu, tempeh, etc.). Cover all slices in marinade completely.
3. Marinate for at least 30 minutes up to 1 hour.
4. In a large frying pan or wok, add the peanut oil over medium heat. Cook the onions until translucent. Add in the marinated beef slices with the marinade sauce to the wok.
5. Cook for about 5-10 minutes. Add the green onions and cook for another few minutes.
6. Remove the Mongolian beef from the wok. Add a tiny bit of peanut oil and then the saifun. It should immediately puff up and get crispy. It only needs to be on the oil for seconds. Remove and drain on a paper towel.
7. Serve the Mongolian Beefless Beef over the saifun and with rice. Top with a few extra green onion slices.

* Note: Dark soy sauce is a thicker soy sauce often used in marinades. You don't need a lot of it. I found mine at my local Asian grocery. I got my vegetarian hoison sauce at Whole Foods. Make sure your sugar is vegan! Chinese sherry is basically cooking wine. You could sub regular cooking sherry instead. 


Szechuan Snow Peas with Shiitake Mushrooms

* Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
* Cook Time: 20 minutes
* Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
• 1 tbsp ginger, minced
• 1 tbsp garlic, minced
• 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp chili garlic sauce*
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• 1/8 tsp five spice
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 cups snow peas
• 1/2 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• salt and pepper, to taste

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* Recipe:

1. In a large frying pan or wok, heat the sesame oil over medium heat. Add the ginger, garlic, snow peas, and mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes.
2. In a bowl, combine the vegetable broth and cornstarch until no clumps remain. Add to the pan.
3. Let the broth reduce for another few minutes. Then add the cooking wine, red pepper flakes, chili garlic sauce, sugar, five spice, salt, and pepper. 
4. Cook until the sauce is thick.

* Note: Chili garlic sauce is often found at Asian restaurants and grocery stores. You can usually find it in the Asian section of your grocery store.

Moo Shu Tempeh

These last couple posts have been inspired by just your average weeknight meal sort of thing. It is not everyday one can make something like an Italian "Beef" Sandwich!

Moo Shu Tempeh

* Prep Time: 1 hour
* Cook Time: 20-30 minutes
* Ingredients:

• 5 tbsp soy sauce
• 5 tbsp sake
• 1 tsp + 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 4 oz. tempeh, sliced thin*
• 5 shiitake mushrooms, sliced thin
• 4 button mushrooms, sliced thin
• 1/2 cup green onions, sliced thin
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp ginger, minced
• 1/2 medium Japanese eggplant, sliced into thin strips
• 1 cup snow peas
• 1/2 medium red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
• 1/2 medium yellow bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
• 1 14 oz. can chop suey vegetables*
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 tsp sugar*
• 3-4 tbsp hoisin sauce*
• 1 cup napa cabbage, chopped

* Recipe:

1. Combine 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp sake, 1 tsp sesame oil, and 2 tsp cornstarch in a small bowl. This is the marinade for the tempeh.
2. Add tempeh to a small ziplock bag, pour in the marinade mixture, and chill in refrigerator for at least one hour.
3. Add 1 tbsp sesame oil to a medium sized frying pan. Heat on medium heat.
4. Add the mushrooms, green onions, garlic, ginger, eggplant, snow peas, bell peppers, chop suey vegetables, salt, and pepper to the pan. 
5. In a small bowl, combine 3 tbsp soy sauce, 3 tbsp sake, 1/2 tsp cornstarch, and 1/2 tsp sugar. Add to the vegetable pan. Also add the hoisin sauce. Cook for about 10 minutes.
6. While the vegetables are cooking, in small pan add the last 1 tbsp of sesame oil to the pan. Heat on medium heat and add the marinated tempeh. Brown on each side; about 5-10 minutes.
7. In the last several minutes of cooking, add the tempeh and napa cabbage to the pan with the vegetables. Cook for a few more minutes.
8. Serve with moo shu wrappers, tortillas, or homemade moo shu pancakes.

* Note: I used Lightlife Organic Garden Veggie Tempeh. It's my favorite out there. For chop suey vegetables, I used La Choy brand. Feel free to use fresh been sprouts and some canned water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, etc. Make sure your sugar is vegan! For hoisin sauce, I used the Iron Chef brand at the store. Personally, I didn't care for it. I'm sure there are a lot of other brands out there that are better. Now I know!


To serve this, I used a really basic homemade moo shu pancake recipe I found. It wasn't amazing and I added some egg replacer to it. I would recommend trying to make a much more fancy moo shu pancake recipe. I remember how they taste and this was not doing it for me at all. In contrast, if you are feeling lazy or don't want to mess with the pancakes, just use tortillas. I couldn't find any moo shu wrappers in the store, but from Googling, they all seems to have egg in them. If it were me next time, I would just toast up some tortillas!