Another thing that has taken up our time lately is the upcoming Green Kitchen iPad-app. We are currently beta-testing it and expect to release it in October. It looks so nice and it feels really good to flip through the recipes with the touch of a finger. The pictures are bigger than here, we have added some new features, made the recipes even easier to cook from and added a bunch of new ones. We will definitely let you know when it’s out.

One new recipe that will be on the ipad-app is a really good noodle and tofu salad. As we were shooting it we talked about that we actually haven’t showed any noodle recipes on the blog. It is kind of strange since we use buckwheat noodles often in our cooking. So today we came up with this Miso Noodle Soup for you. Miso is a fermented soy bean paste from Japan. It is very healthy, with supposedly high sources of vitamin B12 (which is important if you are a vegan) and a lot of other good stuff. Make sure you don’t boil it, since it will reduce its nutritional values. This is one of those incredibly quick recipes that is perfect when the first cold days of autumn arrives. Have it for lunch or add some tofu and have it as a light dinner.

Miso Noodle Soup
Serves 4

1/2 fresh chili
2 cloves garlic
2-inches (5 cm) fresh ginger
1 stalk fresh lemongrass
1/2 leek
4 small carrots
1/2 cup (1 1/2 dl) romanesco (or broccoli)
6 brown mushrooms (or shiitake)
1/2 cup (1/2 dl) fennel bulb with greens
1/2 cup (1 1/2 dl) green beans

8 cups (2 liter) water, boiled
4 -6 tbsp miso paste (to taste)
1 tbsp soy sauce

soba (buckwheat) or wholegrain noodles for 4 persons

1 handful cilantro
sesame seeds
1 lime

Preparing the vegetables: Finely slice the chili, mince garlic and ginger, cut the lemongrass in half and “bruise” it with the bottom of your chef’s knife. Finely slice leek, carrots (use a peeler) and divide the Romanesco into small pieces. Cut the brown mushroom into quarters, slice the fennel bulb and chop the fennel greens. Trim the green beans by removing the top stems.

Preparing the miso: Pour 4 cups boiling water in a pot, add miso paste and whisk. Add soy sauce, chili, ginger, garlic, lemongrass and set a side for a couple of minutes.

Preparing the noodles: Meantime, pour the remaining water (4 cups) in a new pot. Place it on the stow on medium heat, add a pinch of salt and the noodles, cook them according to the package.

Assembling the soup: When the noodles are done, place them and all the vegetables in the miso soup and reheat it, makes sure it doesn’t boil. Pour in 4 bowls and top with freshly chopped cilantro, lime juice and sesame seeds. Enjoy!

Ps. We are nominated in the German magazine Brigitte food-blog-award. You can read about us here (if you understand German, we don’t …) and vote for us here.

Remember what we wrote in our last post about moving to a house here in Thailand for a couple of weeks. Well we did, and guess what … it was awful. We had rented it unseen, appealed by the close location to the beach, the incredibly low rent, and the kitchen. Without going in to any details, we quickly understood why the rent was so low and cancelled the deal. David’s mother has travelled all the way here from Sweden to spend some time with Elsa (what a grandparent has to go through to be with her first grandchild), and with her help we were able to instead rent a house directly On the beach. It’s the perfect house!

The last couple of months has been all about flying-boating-cabdriving-strolling-bargaining-hoteling-moteling-bungalowing-packing-unpacking-exploring & experiencing. And now we are finally sitting here on our porch in the shade – just relaxing – watching the ocean, the fishing boats and the children playing (Elsa has made a bunch of new friends). Whenever we get bored we take our tuc tuc to a market or to this incredibly cute Little Handmade Shop that we found. Next time we go there we’ll be looking for a birthday present for Elsa.

Of all the thai food that we have tried, the classic Tom Kha soup still is one of our favorites. It is creamy, mild and yet very flavorful from the big chunks of lemongrass and galangal. Another favorite is the pomelo salad, being both sweet, savory and a little spicy. And it’s the first time we have seen a recipe where the lemongrass is chopped so thin that you actually can eat it. We learned these recipes from one of the small restaurants that we have been visiting frequently. They always serve good food, so instead of attending a big arranged thai cooking class we asked if we could step in to their kitchen to learn the recipes directly from the chef.

Thai Pomelo Salad (Recipe adapted from Lanta Round House)
Serves 2

1 medium size pomelo or grapefruit
2 kaffir lime leafs, remove the thick mid-rib, roll them tight and shred very thin
2 tbsp roasted dried coconut
1 small hand full roasted cashew nuts
1 small red onion, finely chopped
2 lemongrass (about 10 cm/4 inch each) slice it with a sharp knife very thin

Marinade:
1 tbsp sweet thai chili paste
a pinch of dried chili powder
1 tsp olive oil
1 lime, juice
10 mint leafs

Peel the Pomelo with a knife, cut of the ends and place it on the side and cut vertical slices down the sides and peel the rest by hand. In order to get to the sweet flesh, you have to peel past the thick rind and the bitter membranes that seperates each slice too. Seprate the fruit flesh in quite big pieces by hand, place it in a bowl and set aside.

Roast the coconut flakes and the cashew nuts on a dry pan until golden and let it cool of. Mix all the ingredients for the marinade in a medium size bowl and add pomelo, coconut, cashew, onion and lemongrass. Place the salad on a plate and garnish with mint leafs. Yum!

Tom Kha Tofu (Recipe adapted from Lanta Round House)
Serves 2

1 tbsp olive oil (in thailand they mix a bit of sweet chili paste in the oil, to get the red color)
1/2 chili (without seeds)
6 coriander (cilantro) leaves
2 tomato
2 lemongrass (about 10 cm/4 inch each)
8 cm galangal (also called Kha root or blue ginger), you can also use fresh ginger
500 ml coconut milk
2 kaffir lime leaf, remove the thick mid-rib, roll them tight and shred very thin
1 handful mushrooms, cut in halfs
1/4 white cabbage, sliced
300 g tofu (firm) cut in quarters
1 lime, juice
a pinch of salt
a little bit of vegetable stock

Place oil, chili, koriander and tomatoes in 2 bowls and set aside. Crush and slice lemongrass, galangal or ginger roughly and put it in a pot, add coconut milk, when it boil add lime leaf, mushroom, cabbage, tofu, juice from the lime, salt and stock. Let it boil on high heat for 1-2 minutes and taste. Pour the coconut milk soup over the tomatoes and spices in the bowls, garnish with fresh koriander and chili. Enjoy!

We are very excited to be back on the blog again. It is actually something we have been missing a lot. And at the same time we are incredibly grateful for the help from our guest bloggers. Without you, our trip would never have been this relaxing. Right now we have about six weeks left before we are going back to Sweden, we will spend most of those weeks in a house (with our own kitchen!) 80 feet from the beach on an island in southern Thailand. We are moving in tomorrow!

While being away from the blog we have been coming up with a couple of ideas for new blog posts. Some are food related, others are not. They are just ideas right now, but here are some of the stuff that we probably will turn into posts during our last weeks of this dream trip:
• Our favorite recipes from Thailand.
• Elsa turns 1 in less than a month (5th of March), of course we have to bake some kind of sugar free birthday cake for her.
• We have been drinking many different varieties of green tea, maybe we should do a guide about it?
• Traveling with small children – here is what we’ve learned.

If there is anything else that you want to read about – something from our trip, or any recipes in general – please let us now by leaving a comment.

Here are some photos from our last days in Vietnam, and further down a recipe for Banana Blossom Salad.

Sugarcane juice with lime and fresh strawberries. It is quite the process to make this juice, they crush the cane by hand in an antique machine, with pieces of lime, mint and strawberries in between. It tastes very sweet and beats coca cola any day of the week.

You wouldn’t believe all the stuff that the Vietnamese can carry with them on a small motorbike. We have seen families with up to six people on one motorbike. One guy crossing a red light while balancing a 50-inch plasma screen on the seat behind him. And it’s actually not and unusual sight that they – like this guy – drive around with a tree behind their back.

On our final day in Vietnam we took a cooking class. It was fun learning how to hold your chopsticks right (it turns out we have been using the wrong grip all the time), how to make fried spring rolls, the simple trick how to know when the frying oil has got the right temperature, a classic phó chay recipe, and this delicious banana blossom salad. We of course realize that most of you probably don’t have banana blossoms growing in your backyard (we actually have it right now!), but you can easily replace it with any kind of cabbage, and you will still have a fresh, spicy and very asian inspired salad. We have made a few adjustments from the original recipe. We have added papaya or green mango, which is very common in asian salads, and used agave instead of sugar in the marinade.

Banana Blossom Salad (adapted from the Saigon Cooking Class)
Makes 1 salad that could serve 2 as a starter

1 (300 g) young banana blossom (you can also use white cabbage, red cabbage, kale)
500 ml ice water with 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1/4 papaya or 1/2 green mango, shredded into thin slices
1 onion thinly chopped
1 carrot, cut or shredded in thin sticks
1/2 green pepper, thinly sliced
1 tbsp long coriander (polygonum leaf) or ordinary coriander/cilantro
1 tbsp vietnamese mint leaves
2 tbsp crushed peanuts
1 tbsp shallots to garnish (crispy fried or fresh)

Marinade:
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp agave or acacia honey or maple syrup
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp shallots, chopped
1/2 tsp red long chili (medium spicy), chopped

Place the layers of the banana blossom (or the cabbage leaves) on top of each other and roll them tight together. Slice them very thin and place them in a bowl of ice water and lime for about 20 minutes, then squeeze until dry and set aside. Make the marinade, add all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir around until dissolved. Combine banana blossom, papaya, onion, carrot, green pepper, coriander, marinade and peanuts in a large bowl and toss until well blended. Arrange the salad on a serving platter (or as we did, on a thick part of the banana or cabbage leaf) and sprinkle with shallots, peanuts and if you are up for it some extra red chili. Serve and enjoy this spicy classic vietnamese dish!

The main reason why we chose Vietnam was because of its food. Fresh spring rolls has always been one of our favorite foods. As it turns out it is also a favorite for Elsa. Whenever she gets hold of a spring roll she won’t let it go until it has completely disintegrated in her hands.

We posted a recipe for fresh summer rolls a year ago, and after trying it here in Vietnam we must say that our version actually comes pretty close to the original. We had never used freshly grated coconut before, it’s a great addition. And we cannot be more clear about this: don’t forget the fresh mint leaves, they give the most important flavor to the spring roll.

Random shots from food markets that we have visited.

We have tried a number of different restaurants, cafes and street food stalls in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). Some of the restaurants were crowded with europeans and americans while the food stalls mainly were visited by vietnamese people. We had a great dinner at Hoa Tuc, their homemade tofu was a favorite. The cafe and lifestyle store L’usine feels very european, but we still found it pretty cool and tasty.

Two new favorite dishes are rice pancakes and vegetarian pho. Rice pancakes are served with fresh mint leaves, salad and sometimes shrimps or chicken, and dipped in sweet chili sauce. Phó is the Vietnamese rice noodle soup with lots of fresh herbs, lime, chili and big chunks of tofu and vegetables. It can be a little bit tricky finding vegetarian versions, since most of them are made on chicken or beef broth. We did however find a very tasty one at Pho 2000. And when we get home we will try this recipe.

Another version of the rice pancakes are these mini coconut rice cakes. They are made in small clay pots. You wrap them in a salad leaf together with fresh mint leaves, and dip them in peanut sauce or fish sauce. You shouldn’t miss these if you are in Vietnam!

Elsa is now used to eating lychee, dragon fruit, fresh coconut and pomelo every day. How will we ever get her to eat oranges, apples and pears when we get home?

To call the traffic in Saigon crazy would be a huge understatement. There are motorbikes everywhere. They usually don’t stop for red light and they drive in every direction possible. Even the sidewalks are occupied by parked motorbikes. Imagine that we were a little bit shaky after our first walk with the stroller. After a while we learned the unwritten rule: Don’t stop once you have started crossing. Even though it feels like they will drive straight into you, they will drive around you. As long as you don’t make any sudden moves.

After a while here we began wondering why we couldn’t find beans and peas in any recipes. That was until we started reading the dessert menus. Soy beans, red beans, black beans and even black rice are all being used in sweet desserts. We bought this dessert from a woman selling it from the back of her bicycle. It’s different variations of sweet sticky rice, with soy beans, chick peas and grated coconut. It’s very sweet and very yummy!

Apart from eating, we have spent some time on the paradise island Phu Quoc, together with David’s sister and her boyfriend. We stayed in small bungalows without hot water and with only four hours of electricity each day. It took a while getting used to the quiet life, but once you are used to it you get completely hooked. Elsa has been practicing her walking skills on the beach. She loves to be on her feet, but she probably has a couple of weeks left until she manages on her own.

We have 1 week left in Vietnam, after that we are going back to Thailand. Our plan is to rent a small house on an island, so hopefully we’ll have a kitchen again pretty soon!

When we were traveling in California we still lived a pretty normal life. We had a kitchen, we went grocery shopping, we drove a car, we washed our own clothes and we shared new recipes on this blog. Here in Asia our life is very different. We haven’t cooked a single dish ourselves, since we haven’t had a kitchen. We live in hotels and bungalows, eat in restaurants and on the street, and take a tuk tuk when we need to go somewhere. As much as we love our usual daily routines, it is very relaxing living like this. Without our daily chores we have been able to focus even more on ourselves and on spoiling Elsa with all our love. The only downside is that we can’t share any new recipes with you, even though we get so much food inspiration here. We will just have to save it for the next time we find ourselves in a kitchen.

This leads us to some great news! Since we still want to share healthy and inspiring recipes with you, we have asked a couple of our favorite bloggers (which have a similar food philosophy as us) if they would like to do a guest appearance on Green Kitchen Stories. We visit these blogs often and always find them mind-blowing and beautiful, and we are certain that you will find their recipes and photos inspiring too. We won’t reveal the names of the bloggers just yet (since everything isn’t 100% decided yet), but we already know that we will have a very impressive line-up! So check back soon for our first guest.

We’d also like to tell you a little about our traveling plans for our final three months here in Asia. We have just spent two weeks in a village in Thailand called Cha-Am. And on New Years Eve we took a plane to Saigon, Vietnam. We will travel around here for a month before returning to Thailand where we will spend our last two months. It might seem a little strange going back and forth to Thailand but it is a visa-issue-thingy. During our last months in Thailand we intend to rent a house or a bungalow with a kitchen, so hopefully we will be back with some Asia inspired recipes by then. If you know of any places we must visit or food that we must try in Thailand or Vietnam, please let us know.

Finally, we would like to wish you all a Happy New Year! Thank you so much for making it such an incredible year for us. You have given us so much strength and energy through your loving comments, tweets and e-mails. Without you this blog would not have made it through the year.

On this trip around the world almost everything has turned out like we planned it. Most of the time even better. But during our four days in China we had to spend three of them in our apartment. Elsa got a nasty stomach virus on our first day and we spent two days calling doctors, visiting a hospital and giving her as much fluid and hugs as possible. We had one day out on the streets before Luise was down with stomach cramps and a 24 hour fever. We had planned to visit the forbidden city, the local markets, and the restaurants Dali Courtyard and Pure Lotus. We had even practised how to say ‘Wo bu che rou’ (I don’t eat meat). But we will save that for another time. Here are some snapshots from the only day we spent out on the streets of Beijing.

Autumn is here. It’s raining more frequently and the days are quickly becoming darker. Not that we care – we only have two weeks left in Sweden! As you probably can understand there is a lot of packing, planning, ticket booking and apartment renting going on. We haven’t decided yet where we are going after California, but we are dreaming about backpacking in Vietnam, Wwoofing in Costa Rica or just relaxing in Thailand.

With all these things spinning around we haven’t had a second left to share new recipes with you guys. Until today. This spicy pickled eggplant recipe is perfect for the autumn – full of flavors, garlic and chili. You can have it on bread, as a side dish or in a vegetable pot, and it will probably also cure your cold …

Some years ago we attended an Indian Cooking Class together with Luise’s mom and we were amazed how everything that we made that night tasted so genuine Indian. Somehow we lost all the recipes from that night but a couple of days ago Luise’s mom sent us this eggplant recipe together with her story from that night.

I learned how to make this South Indian Pickled Eggplant when we attended an Indian food class in Copenhagen. The class was lead by 2 wonderful danish women, who often travel around India to learn how to cook genuine Indian food. With a great entuthiasm and humor they then arrange their spicy food classes in cold cold Denmark. The classes always end with a feast of 20 different dishes, naan bread and Indian beer. I am very inspired by the South Indian kitchen and since then I always keep a jar of Eggplant Pickles in my fridge to spice up the boring danish kitchen …
/Mona

South Indian Pickled Eggplant
Makes around 2 jars

1/2 cup olive oil
10 cloves garlic, minced
½ tbsp fenugreek seeds
½ tbsp cumin seeds
1 dried red chili, mashed
½ tsp mustard seeds
6 – 10 curry leaves

1 cup vinegar
1/3 cup water
1 tbsp salt

2-3 medium size eggplant, cut into small cubes
2 inches ginger, minced
1½ tbsp tumeric
2 fresh green chili, cleansed and sliced

Heat the olive oil in a thick pot, add fenugreek seeds and cumin seeds. Let it boil for a short while and then add garlic. When it has turned light brown add red chili, mustard seeds and curry leaves. Fry while stirring over medium heat for about 2-3 minutes. Add vinegar, water and salt, stir around and then add eggplant, ginger, tumeric and green chili. Let it boil for at least 20 minutes. Cool off and pour into glass jars. Store them in the fridge.

These weeks in May happen to be our absolute favorite weeks of the year. Not only because of sunshine, picnics, barbecues and the first ice creams, but also because of all the fresh spring/summer vegetables that find their way to our local farmers market, into our box with delivered vegetables, and even to our giant supermarket around the corner. In fact wherever we go to buy our groceries these days we find fresh asparagus, giant rhubarbs, small potatoes, sweet strawberries and enormous cabbages. And they aren’t even expensive!

So with all these fresh vegetables in our home we have started to make a list of early summer vegetable recipes that we intend to try. Here are a few:

Potato Salad with Sugar Snaps & Creamy Tarragon Vinaigrette, from Dana Treat.
Warm Asparagus Salad with Basil, from Sprouted Kitchen.
Rhubarb Hand Pies with Orange and Cardamom, from So Good & Tasty
Baked Stuffed Artichokes with Leeks, from The Italian Dish.
Heirloom Tomato and Quinoa Galette, from Cannelle et Vanille.
Totally Wild Leek Pesto, from My New Roots

But since it’s monday – and we are always kind of tired and lazy on mondays – we decided to go for a wok that you can make in just about 10 minutes. It’s delicious, fresh, a little bit spicy and totally uncomplicated.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have more links for good spring/summer vegetable recipes.

Early Summer Vegetable Wok (adapted from Årstiderna)
Serves 4

1/2 cabbage (can be substituted with 1 pak choy or chard), cut in thin strips
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cleaned and divided in half
1 zucchini, cut into sticks
1 fennel bulb, trimmed and cleaned and cut in thin strips
4 tbsp canola oil
2 cloves garlic, cut in thin layers
1/2 chili (or chili flakes)
4 tbsp water
3 tbsp black bean sauce (can be substituted with oyster sauce)
1-2 tbsp soya sauce
1 bunch bear’s garlic/ramsons (tastes a little bit similar to chives), roughly chopped
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped

Warm a large wok with oil. Fry vegetables, garlic and chili for 1-2 minutes on high heat. Add water, black bean sauce and soya sauce. Let it boil for another minute. Remove from heat. Stir down bear’s garlic and cilantro. Serve as it is or together with rice or noodles.

This is what happened one day when we felt like making our own vegetarian sushi but were too lazy to go through the whole Japanese rice and rolls procedure. Instead we marinated tofu, boiled some brown rice, chopped our favorite vegetables, cut the seaweed into pieces and turned sushi into a salad. And what a salad! The sesame oil, rice vinegar and seaweed gave the salad that sushi feeling, although with a more nourishing twist. We quickly realized that this dish actually had made it to our top-list of favorite dinner recipes (right next to our Lasagna and Quinoa & Kale salad).

We got the inspiration for this recipe from the danish restaurant Sticks n’ Sushi (great restaurant!). They have a dish called KAOS and it literally looks like they have taken pieces of sushi, thrown them in a salad bowl and shaken it all around. Our version is a little bit more refined with marinated tofu pieces, brown rice, and vegetables instead of fish.

Vegetarian Sushi Salad
Serves 4

Make the marinated tofu 1-2 hours in advance. Since we like to keep our recipes as simple as possible we made a little extra marinade and used the left-overs as a dressing to the salad.

Marinated tofu (scroll down for recipe)
Brown rice (scroll down for recipe)
1 large broccoli, broken into 1-inch pieces
1 spring onion, thinly sliced
2 avocado, cut into cubes
12 mushrooms (shiitake or whatever you prefer), cut in quarters
1 handful sugarsnap peas, divided in half
1 handful bean sprouts
1/2 cucumber, cut into sticks
8 sheets nori seaweed, cut into 2×2-inch squares
1 handful roasted sesame seeds
1 handful cilantro

Serve with: wasabi & soy sauce

Making the salad: Blanch the broccoli (pour boiled water over it, let it set for two minutes and then throw it in ice cold water). Divide the rice into 4 large bowls and top it with all the vegetables mixed together. Drizzle the rest of the tofu marinade over the salad, top it with sesame seeds and cilantro and serve it with wasabi and soy sauce.

Marinated Tofu
300 g tofu
5 tbsp sesame oil
5 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 clove garlic
1/2 red chili
2-inch (6 cm) fresh ginger, peeled and minced

Making the marinade: Try to drain the tofu from water by padding it with a towel. Cut it into 1-inch cubes. Mix the ingredients for the marinade in a bowl and add the tofu. Make sure the marinade covers all of the tofu. Put in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

Brown Rice
organic brown rice (for 4 persons)
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
a couple of cilantro leaves, roughly chopped

Making the rice: Boil the rice according to the instructions on the package. When it’s done, stir down rice vinegar, sesame oil and cilantro.

After that dinner we talked about how easy it was and how we should do this at least once a month. Five months later we still hadn’t tried it again. Until yesterday when I invited one of my friends (who is also about to have her first baby) over. I am soon to be a certified instructor in infant massage, and since we have to hold a couple of trial courses before I receive my certificate she was one of my first students. But before we started the course we had fresh spring rolls for dinner. I had prepared the vegetables so that we could roll, talk and eat at the same time. The spring rolls turned out even better than the first time and the course went great. I think I will actually be a good instructor in infant massage.
/Luise

Fresh Spring Rolls
Serves 4

We switched the common rice noodles for cabbage in our spring rolls. Be creative in the use of vegetables, you could add beans, tofu, spinach, Thai basil, apples etc …
We made a marinade that we dripped over the vegetables before we rolled them, you could also marinate some of the vegetables in advance.

Filling:
1 mango
1/2 cucumber
2 carrots
1 avocado
1 small pack sprouts
1 small pack sugar snap peas
1/4 wild cabbage
1 handful cashew nuts or peanuts (chopped)
fresh coriander (cilantro)
fresh mint leaves

Marinade:
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp water
1 lime (juice)
1/2 fresh chili (finely chopped)
1 clove garlic (finely chopped)
salt

rice paper (also called rice wrapper)

Preparations: Slice all the ingredients into thin sticks and put them in separate bowls. Mix the marinade and prepare the other dressings.
Making the spring rolls: Warm some water in a large pot. Dip the rice paper in the water so that it become soft, spread it out on a plate. Put the ingredients in the middle of the rice paper, drip the marinade over the vegetables (in the picture we just used lime), fold the rice paper as shown on the pictures below.

Serve with one dip sauce or several, here are some examples: Peanut butter (as it is, or whipped together with Soy yogurt), Soy sauce (with garlic and some finely chopped fresh chili and coriander), Sweet chili sauce (as it is).