Vegan sushi with miso soup, tempeh dumplings and sesame green beans

supercarrot and sam16 came over last night for dinner.  I wasn't as on the ball as I was for lunch with Lindsay but everything still went well and once Carrie arrived, I had a helpful set of extra hands!  She toasted the nori while I set the table and then we took turns rolling our sushi.  Or as Molly calls it "shushi".  

For fillings, we had avacado, roased red bell pepper, carrot, shitake mushrooms, spicy tempeh filling and teriyaki eggplant.  For a reasonable tutorial on how to roll, click here.  

I learned a valuable lesson with miso soup.  BUY A CONTAINER OF MISO and don't waste your money on those instant soups!!  It's like two bucks for three packets of 'soup mix' that you had hot water to.  I think each packet makes half a cup of soup!  That's nothing!  For about four or five dollars, you can get a container of miso [the Korean grocery store has like 20 different kinds ranging in price and variety] that will stay good in your fridge FOREVER [it's already fermented so it won't go bad!] and all you have to do is add a teaspoon of it to some hot water and BOOM!  Miso soup!  Plus you can use it in all sorts of stuff.

Here is the teriyaki eggplant filling recipe:  skin and slice the eggplant[s] into medallions and cover with salt.  Let them sit for thirty minutes adn then rinse them off.  They are ready for use after that.  In the meantime mix: 1/3 cup tamari/soy sauce, 1/4 cup mirin, 2 Tbs canola oil, 2 Tbs sesame oil, 3 Tbs brown sugar, 1 Tbs garlic powder, 1 Tbs ginger.   When the eggplants are ready, dice them up and toss them into a pan.  Pour the mixture over them and stir until they are all covered.  Let the sauce simmer down and then remove from heat.  

For the tempeh dumplings: boil half of a package of tempeh for ten minutes.  Afterwards, smash it up really well in a dish and pour it into a frying pan.  Put a little oil in and saute in tamari, garlic powder,  ginger and a dash of white pepper.  Once you have that going.  Remove tempeh.  For the ones last night, I used about 1/4 a head of cabbage and some carrots from the food processor but save yourself a ton of time and buy some coleslaw mix.  Cook it down in the pan and when it is signifigantly reduced in size, at the tempeh back in and let it cook together.  If you want to add a little more seasoning, you can.  When it is mixed well, add a tablespoon of both corn starch and sugar and mix it in well with the rest of the ingredients.  Remove from heat and pour into a bowl.  I have a dumpling press but you don't need one.  Take a wonton shell [I got mine from the Korean place but you can get them in the produce section of any decent grocery store but I don't think they are vegan] and with a small spoon, pour a bit of the mixture into the center.  Have a small bowl of water on hand and dip your finger in.  Trace the outside of the shell with your damp finger and fold the shell over and press the edges together.  Set them down on a plate until you are done folding however many you want.  If you are making a lot of them and need to stack them on top of eachother, I recommend using wax paper in between layers.  Trust me.  You can steam them or fry them.  I chose to fry mine.  They take no time at all to cook so don't walk away from them.  They need you.  For dipping sauce: mix a tablespoon of sugar in some warm water and add a few good dashes of tamari or soy sauce.