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A quick fix

after a bout of the illness most commonly known as "Common cold"- that is right, I did  (well still do, only mildly though) have cold only it got worsened by my tonsilitis (remember, those little things by your throat that the doctor removed when you were probably 2!). Well I never gave in (neither did my parents) to the "oh the day we remove the tonsils, we will feed you ice cream little one, don't you want yummy ice cream"- ooh....who does not want yummy ice cream, you moron- I just do not want a knife down my throat!



Photo source: Desi comments

Anyway that is not the point of this post, is it- I am here to tell, I am much better and I even cooked something that I call "Doodle a noodle". I call it that because I did doodle a lot with the recipe as I was concocting it. It all began with the thought of finally using the lonely spaghetti squash that has been in the fridge, oh, for just sometime (will not disclose the time period on that!) and ended up with me using half of the cooked squash and some Japanese somen noodles that was in my pantry (again, do not ask me for how long...because I do not remember, yikes!!!)

Ingredients

1/2 of cooked spaghetti squash
1 1/2 bundles of somen noodles, cooked according to the package instructions
1 bunch scallion, chopped
1/2 block of firm tofu, chopped into 1 inch pieces and dry roasted
1/2 bag of shredded carrots
1 small broccoli head, separated into florets
3 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp crunchy peanut butter, melted in the microwave
2 tsp chilli-garlic paste (adjust according to the heat required)
1/2 inch piece ginger, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Method

To cook the squash, pierce with a knife multiple times and place in the microwave for 4 minutes. It will soft after that- cut in half and scoop the seeds out. Place the cut side down on a microwave safe plate and cook for another 10 minutes. Scoop out the pulp with a fork (it will come out as strings and be careful it will be hot!). You can make the noodles with just that but I was not too pleased with the smell of cooked squash so I decided to use it as a vegetable in my noodle dish.

Dry roasting tofu is easy, you can read all about it here.

Heat about a table spoon of oil in a pan, add all the veggies including ginger and the squash to do a stir fry. Add the tofu and soy sauce, rice vinegar, peanut butter,  chilli-garlic paste. Cook for about 2-3 minutes. Salt and pepper addition is best in layers (keep adding them as you need them). Add the noodles, mix well and serve.

Judgement: The noodles tasted good but it was slightly on the dry side. No pictures though as I had to gobble those noodles and get back to work (in the mean time I had to watch the new House episode!).

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