Asian Rice Bowl with Orange-Lemon sauce

As most of you know, I'm vegetarian but my dear husband is not.  One of the challenges I have had for the past 16 years is creating a meal that will work for both of us.  Because quite honestly, it sucks to have to cook two entirely different dishes.  And I almost refuse to do it.  I will admit that most of the time if someone is the "loser" in my meal plans, it's Josh.  I mean he CAN eat vegetarian and doesn't mind it.  But he doesn't want to actually be limited and enjoys meat.  I, on the other hand, have no intention of eating meat.  So there lies the dilemma.  I do think I've become pretty good at "and then add chicken to his" type of meals.  But the boy can only eat SO much chicken before he rebels.  So tonight, we are doing an "and then add salmon" dish instead!  Who said I'm not versatile? 

This is a simple rice bowl with fresh veggies and some steamed veggies and your choice of protein.  Part of what makes it easy is that you don't have to stick with the veggie combo listed, you can sub for items you have on hand.  Having said that, I do think the list below is the perfect combination!  I adapted my final version from a Sushi Bowl recipe I found on 101 Cookbooks.  This works great for my family as it becomes a BYOB- Build Your Own Bowl!!!!  I've made this for guests as well for the same reason.  Easy for them to eat the items they like without feeling that they HAVE to eat those items they don't.  No guilt!

So first, I will honestly admit that I did NOT cook that salmon.  Neither did Josh.  I hate the smell of fish cooking in the house. Some people like it, or at least don't mind it...I am not one of them. And since we live in a town with summer temperatures comparable to the surface of the sun, Josh did not intend to stand outside and BBQ it either.  The solution for us is a quick trip to our local grocery store, Nugget Markets, where they have awesome prepared items.  Josh picked out his favorite piece of salmon and then had the coffee bar make me a surprise raspberry lemonade.  Why?  Because he loves me and he is the best husband EVER!  (OK, I promise that's the end of the mushy stuff.)

Ingredients

• Brown Rice- I prefer brown but he likes white.  And I had the easy white "rice in a bag" left over from camping.  Shrug.
• Protein- you choose.  We had tofu and salmon.  I imagine this would be great with pork as well.
• 1 head of Broccoli
• 1 Carrot
• 3 Green Onions
• 1 Avocado (not pictured because hubby missed the last two items on the shopping list and made a second trip to the store!)
• 1/2 cup Edamame (not pictured, missed, second trip, blah blah blah)
• 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
• 2 Tbsp Rice Vinegar
• 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• Juice from 1/2 lemon
• Juice from 1 orange

 Directions

1. Prepare your rice- for me the rice in a bag takes only 10 minutes once it's boiling.  If you cook "real" rice then you are going to have more time to prep your other items.
2. Drain Tofu- You need to get much of the water out before you cook it to retain the shape and not end up like a sticky "scramble."  I don't have a fancy press so I cut the tofu in half to make it thin, sandwich it in paper towels, place on a plate, top with another plate and the bowl for my veggies.  Pictures below in case that didn't make a ton of sense.  (I used only half of the block and freeze the remainder.) 
3. Cut your veggies to be steamed- Broccoli & Carrot- into bite sized pieces, place into the "tofu press" bowl above.
4. Boil some water and place veggies in a steamer basket on top.  I like them still a bit crunchy and steam for about 4 minutes.  Feel free to steam them into mushy goodness if that is your preference.
5. Slice your onions & avocado and set aside on a plate.
6. If you bought your edamame shelled, then you are good to add to your onion/avo plate.  If not, start popping those little baby's out of the pods.
7. Tofu- this should be dry enough to use.  Cut it in half once more to make it 1/2 inch thick.  Cut into long, thin strips.  Add to a fry pan coated in a thin layer of oil on medium high.  Just let it sit there crackling and popping and resist the urge to mess with it.  This is also where you could season if you needed to with salt.  I find that the soy in the orange-lemon sauce has enough salt and flavor that I'm not inclined to add more salt at this stage.  But you might.  After about 3-4 minutes, flip and cook the other side.  Place on a paper towel to reduce the amount of oil clinging to your strips.
8. Check your rice- if it's done, take it off the stove.
9. Now to make the sauce-
10. Add brown sugar, lemon juice, and orange juice to a small pot and bring to a gentle boil.  Let it cook for about 2-3 minutes
11. Add the soy sauce and rice vinegar and bring it back to a gentle boil.  Turn down the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes.
12. Everything should be ready to set out in individual containers to create your BYOB station.
13. Pile in what you want, sprinkle with some sauce, and dig in!

Cut in half and ready to be pressed!

Tofu sandwiched between plates and serving as a platform for my veggie bowl.

Golden Strips of Tofu.  So pretty.

Chop your onions and avocado

Fresh veggie plate with edamame safely rescued from their pod prison

I never knew to put the fruit in "backwards" with the peel up until like 2 months ago!

Bring juice and sugar to a gentle boil

Create your BYOB station

And THAT is what it should look like!  Yummy right?

One thing to be clear about- This does have a bit of prep involved.  There are veggies to cut, rice to cook, tofu to fry, and a sauce to make.  So I won't label this "easy" simple because it has many steps.  None of the steps are actually hard.  And I'd say this took me about 30 minutes to make.  All in all, it's absolutely doable so please don't be intimidated by the number of steps.  I have confidence in your multi-tasking skills!

I did chose to leave out the toasted sesame seeds and the nori seaweed sheets from the original recipe.  The first time we made this, I did all of that.  But the nori was more of a pain than it was worth and I don't see myself using it in a lot of other recipes.  Having it on hand just isn't in the cards for me.  And the sesame seeds WERE good.  Hubby liked them.  I can't eat them and quite honestly just didn't bother this time.  Or even mention to hubby.  He's none the wiser and STILL told me how good it was.  Shhhhhh....

Here is a pic of the last time we made it- sesame seeds, nori, asparagus, & chicken instead!  Looks good, right?  Proof that you can change up the items easily.  Now go check your veggie bin and see what will work.  You got this!



Oh!  Did I mention this works GREAT as cold leftovers?  (And no, I have no idea what my hand was doing there...)