Enoki, Broccoli & Kimchi Tofu Rice Bowl (Vegan Bibimbap)

In addition to cycling through Houston, Rob and I are also discovering Houston, one grocer at a time. After chowing through our organic produce, we started exploring my hitlist of ethnic grocers, one weekend at a time.

First of all, though, our Rawfully Organic broccoli lasted 3 weeks. WOAH! Gotta love that!

Second, because I love Asian produce, the first ethnic grocer we picked was H-Mart, a Korean market. It is a chain that has branches as far as California and New York, so you may be familiar with it. It reminded a lot of T&T, actually. A large, clean store with fresh produce, mostly Asian with a heavy Korean slant, with reasonable prices. They had a whole giant section just for kimchi. Rob picked out a house-made vegan kimchi for us to try. Turns out it wasn’t as blow-off-your-face hot as kimchi can be… score for me!

We also picked up a few different bags of brown rice. I am very particular about my brown rice and we both absolutely loved these finds. While both are short grain brown rice, the Sukoyaka Genmai Brown Rice produces the most fluffy and sticky rice (that doesn’t even taste like brown rice, imho). I can’t seem to find the other one online (it is made by Organic Farm and is a 50/50 blend of organic short grain brown rice and brown sweet rice). It requires a 2 hour soak, but it is very nice as well. Not sticky in the slightest, and less aromatic, but good rice. I was quite impressed by their wide selection of brown rice at H-Mart, which is usually hard to find. Now the dilemma will be whether to gamble and try a new brand or stick with these two we like a lot.

Lest you think we have gone all raw here, have no fear. A perfect rice bowl, akin to Korean bibimbap, complete with fresh rice waiting for me when I come home from work (thank you, Rob). A quick stir fry with tofu, broccoli and enoki mushrooms in a sweet maple infused sauce that is matched well with a side of not-so-fiery kimchi. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but we’ve made the quickie kimchi from Vegan Eats World, although it is really spicy if you use the full amount of Korean chili flakes. I am quite partial to the ginger-only version, actually.

So, have you ever been smitten by brown rice? What is your favourite brand?

This is my submission to this month’s Bookmarked Recipes.

Enoki, Broccoli & Kimchi Tofu Rice Bowl
Adapted from My New Roots

1 tsp coconut oil
1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
100-200g firm tofu, pressed and chopped
2 cups chopped broccoli (~150g)
2 tsp maple syrup
2 tsp rice vinegar
2 tsp tamari
1 package enoki mushrooms, chopped (or your favourite mushroom) (100g)
2 tbsp chopped kimchi, or to taste
cooked rice, for serving

1. In a large non-stick skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Once hot, add oil, garlic and tofu. Cook tofu until browned, flipping to brown on each side, approximately 5 minutes per side. Add broccoli and saute for 3-5 minutes, until bright green and crisp.

2. Meanwhile, mix together the maple syrup, rice vinegar, and tamari. Deglaze the pan once the broccoli is cooked to your liking. Add the mushrooms. If using enoki, you will only need to cook 1-2 minutes. Larger mushrooms may take longer to cook. Remove from heat.

3. Serve overtop cooked rice with a side of kimchi. Stir kimchi in for best flavour.

Serves 1.