Tet Recipe Ideas

With the Asian New Year just around the corner, I'd like to share some of my favorite Asian vegan and vegetarian dishes with you. As I've mentioned many times, there is a tradition of abstaining from meat from the day before the new year through the day after. With as many vegetarians as I have in my house, I always find myself coming up with new variations on Vietnamese dishes. 

So whether are looking for vegetarian dishes to fill 3 days or 365, you'll find plenty of inspiration in this post. Enjoy!

*My very sweet 17-year-old sister-in-law Sunny bought these adorable shoes for baby Aria on her recent trip to China last month and I wanted to share it with you.

Wood Ear Mushroom and Tofu Stir Fry Recipe

Here's a simple and easy tofu stir fry recipe. Pan-fried tofu is cooked with celery and fresh wood ear mushrooms.  Quick and delicious. That's it!

The Asian New Year is Sunday, and as you may have noticed, I've been cooking a lot of tofu dishes over the past few days. Next I'll share with you some of my favorite New Year's desserts. Stay tuned!

Black Bean Tofu Recipe

This is a simple vegetarian recipe, but simple doesn't mean that it lacks flavor. I pan-fried thick slices of tofu until the outer layer was very crispy, then quickly sautéed it with fermented black beans and snow peas. The greens were still crisp and provided a great color to the dish. 

If you're starting to think about the upcoming Asian New Year celebration (called Tết in Vietnamese), you might be looking for vegan recipes. Well, search no more! Tradition requires us to eat vegetarian food (ăn chay) on the last day of the previous year and first day of New Year and I will be sharing a few more Vietnamese vegetarian dishes with you until the celebration begins.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! (Year of the Dragon)

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới (Happy New Year!)! For Vietnamese and many Asian people, tomorrow will be Tết, the beginning of the Year of the Dragon.

If you'd like to celebrate, here are a few Asian dishes I cooked and shared on the website throughout the year. The weather isn't that great in the Bay Area, so I probably won't step outside (i still haven't lost the baby weight so I don't think I would fit in an ao dai -traditional Vietnamese dress). I hope this year brings you a lot of joyful moments, good health and of course great food!

Happy New Lunar Year! (Year of the Cat)

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới (Happy New Year!)! For Vietnamese, today is the first day of the Year of the Cat (Mèo), which is the "rabbit" in the Chinese zodiac.

If you're wondering what the plant is, it's cherry blossom flowers. It's decorated with red envelopes that contain "lucky money", called lì xì. The first morning of the New Year is a celebration (Tết) where adults congratulate children on becoming a year older by giving them these lì xì. We also decorated the house with a lot of red color, which is a sign of happiness. We cooked quite a few vegetarian Vietnamese dishes to observe the tradition of eating vegetarian food (ăn chay) on the last day of the previous year and first day of New Year.

Finally, if you want to get in on the festivities, I’ve collected a list of some of my favorite dishes for Tết for you to try. Enjoy!