Buddha's Delight
Buddha’s Delight
I first had this dish at a new-age kind of restaurant. It was probably the first vegan dish i ate, though i didn’t know it at the time. I would find Buddha’s Delight now and then, and was pleased with it because it had a lot of vegetables.
But i had no idea that it had a Chinese origin. When i thought of making it at home this month, i only vaguely remembered broccoli, carrots, and pea pods, and the fact that i liked it. I Googled the recipe and found all the entries had a lot of Chinese ingredients.
I tried to put together my faded memory with some of the ingredients, but i really wanted to make an American dish rather than Chinese. What i ended up with was a kind of stir-fry with a few Chinese ingredients. I think many people would find the flavors familiar, even if they never ate Chinese food.
Like all stir fries, the basic cooking method is to cook the veggies as fast and as little as possible. The size you chop the vegetable becomes important so you can cook the dish more or less all at once. The vegetables i chose cook more or less the same amount of time, with the exception of the snow peas and scallions, which you add a little later.
For a pretty dish, slice your vegetables and leave them fairly large.
If you can find them, fresh water chestnuts are far superior to canned ones. You may be able to find them in Asian markets in the bigger cities, or in smaller Chinese markets in China towns. Buy a few more than you think you need in case some are too mushy and brown. You peel off the brown skin, and cut out any brown spots and then slice or chop. They are good raw too, as a snack or in salads or relish trays.
“As suggested by its name, it [Buddha’s Delight] is a dish traditionally enjoyed by Buddhists who are vegetarians, but it has also grown in popularity throughout the world as a common dish available in Chinese restaurants (though often not including all of the ingredients) as a vegetarian option. It is traditionally served in Chinese households on the first day of the Chinese New Year, stemming from the old Buddhist practice that one should maintain a vegetarian diet in the first five days of the New Year, as a form of self-purification.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha’s_delight
Buddha’s Delight
Makes 4 servings
Preparation about 45 minutes
Best eaten as soon as it’s cooked
Freezes okay
1 c. water
2 T. cornstarch
¼ c. rice vinegar
2 T low sodium tamari
1 t. sugar
2 cloves garlic
2 inches fresh ginger
12 medium mushrooms or 4 portabellas
2 stalks broccoli
4 carrots
4 stalks celery
12 fresh or 1 can water chestnuts
1 c. snow peas or snap peas
4 scallions
Stir the cornstarch thoroughly into a little of the water. Pour the rest of the water into a large pot, and add the vinegar, sugar, ginger, garlic, and tamari. When all the vegetables are cut up, heat the water and seasonings to boiling.
You can chop fast and rough or slow and carefully or somewhere in between. Here’s what i did:
Carrots – peel and slice thinly.
Broccoli – cut off the bottom of the stalks and chop them into little ¼ inch pieces. Cut off each stem that ends in the flowers and cut in two.
Mushrooms – cut small one in half, larger ones in ½ inch slices.
Water chestnuts – if fresh, peel and slice into two or three pieces. If canned, drain (you can use the juice in place of the water) and slice if necessary.
Celery – slice unless very large stalks.
Snow peas or snap peas – see if the end has a string that needs to be removed. Cut off the stem.
Scallions – slice thin or thick.
Put all the cut up vegetables in the boiling water and seasonings and cook until just tender, about 5 minutes. Add the snow peas and scallions and cook another 2 or three minutes until the peas turn bright green.
Drain the vegetables in a colander into a big pot. Put the broth back on the stove and stir in the cornstarch mixture, and keep stirring until it is thickened and then cook a minute or two more. Pour over the vegetables and stir.
Serve over brown rice or quinoa.
Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:
Per Serving – 140 calories/5.9 g protein (16.8%)/.9 g fat (5.9%)