Kottu roti

	One of the most common and popular fast foods in Sri Lanka, kottu roti is a stir fried dish of godamba roti (a griddle cooked flat-bread, very similar to a paratha), with assorted vegetables, and sometimes egg or bits of leftover chicken meat. The dish is lightly spiced on it's own, but also commonly served with a few spoonfuls of curry sauce to moisten the mixture and add extra kick.
I served mine alongside a chicken curry (whose recipe I posted yesterday), and made good use of the extra curry sauce!

Beoseot Jeongol (mushroom hotpot)

	Korean food has a reputation of being fiery, classic kimchee being a well-known example. But plenty of Korean dishes are subtle and mild, suitable for even delicate stomachs. This recipe, adapted from a vegetarian version on the excellent Korean Bapsang recipe site, is a prime example of this style of simple and comforting cooking.

Thai mushroom soup

This is a simple but tasty recipe which you can tailor to your favourite mushrooms, or indeed whichever mushrooms you happen to have to hand. Vary the amount of chili to fit your own taste buds - I like mine quite hot, to open up the sinus on a dreary, damp winter's day. You can also use dried mushrooms in this dish - pour over hot water, bring to a simmer for 5 minutes, then steep for an hour. Reserve the liquid (strained through a fine sieve) and use in the soup.

Braised mushrooms

This Chinese-style recipe for braised mushrooms is the simplest dish around. Use whichever mushrooms you like, or have in the house. Add in any other veggies you want to use up. At it's simplest, this recipe takes about 10 minutes to make (including prep). That's not an amazing picture on the left (I find it very hard to get cooked mushrooms to look attractive on film) but - trust me on this - it tastes terrific.

Thai curried pumpkin

This is a very nice, simple recipe adapted from Appon's Thai food website. She uses pre-made yellow curry paste as a key ingredient; for purists and those who like to adjust the heat of their dishes, I've listed a basic recipe for yellow curry paste below. Feel free to play with the proportions to get the degree of heat required. I've also increased her amounts of pumpkin and pork, as I'm a greedy guts, and reduced her amounts of salty ingredients (because nobody's got time for high blood pressure). Enjoy!

Pan-fried paneer and mushrooms with kaffir-lime, garlic and chilli sauce

	Bear with me here: this one has a lot of steps to juggle, and requires a touch of advance prep., but each step is actually quite simple. I'd recommend getting your mise-en-place done before you start cooking. Once you're ready to go, the whole thing comes together in less than 20 minutes.

Tahu goreng (tofu salad with tangy peanut sauce)

A classic hawker dish, fried tofu salad is popular all over Malaysia and Singapore. The sauce varies from stall to stall, but sourness from tamarind should be one of the defining flavours, cutting through the blandness of the tofu. Even if you're not a tofu fan, give this dish a try - you might just be converted!

Stir fried water spinach

	Water spinach (or kangkung, to use its Malay name) is a hugely popular stir fry vegetable. This method of cooking results in a very flavourful dish, sure to tempt even the most jaded of green-veggie haters. You can find bunches of water spinach in Asian markets, but this dish is also excellent with ordinary garden spinach, so just use that if you don't have easy access to water spinach.

Corn curry

Being that I have a massive sweet tooth, I have a real fondness for corn. Sweet, crisp, and tasting of summer, it's one of my favourite vegetables. This recipe from India is traditionally made with corn cobs, but I usually use frozen kernel corn instead - it's a lot easier to find, and cheaper too!

Popiah

Popiah are the Nonya equivalent of a spring roll - lots of fresh ingredients stuffed into a very thin wrapper, and eaten with sauces. The easiest option is to buy ready-made popiah wrappers, but I've also included alternate options of making your own crepes, or using tortillas. Without specialist materials, you won't be able to make them as tissue-paper-thin as the professional ones, but they'll still taste good.

This makes a great assemble-yourself party food, and is also a popular hawker dish across large parts of Asia (the Malaysian / Singapore versions evolved out of Chinese / Taiwanese versions, and you'll also find spring-roll inspired dishes in Thailand and Vietnam). In some areas, the rolls are likely to come sealed and deep-fried. Here in Singapore, they're stuffed with warm minced radish or turnip, shredded lettuce or cabbage, peanut powder, and tiny prawns. There's no right or wrong way to make a popiah, as there are so many regional variations. Whichever way you go, it's bound to be yum, so I suggest you give them a try!

Vegetables in a hot red sauce

This is an adaption of a chicken recipe from one of my trusty old cookbooks. Don't let the secret ingredient (ketchup) put you off, because it actually tastes pretty good! I don't know about you, but sometimes I just crave a big bowl of vegetables. On those days, a nice, quick and easy curry is the perfect way to go.

Roast vegetables with peanut sauce

	As a child, I wasn't a big fan of vegetables. My mother used to have to smother broccoli in Campbell's cream of shrimp soup to get me to eat it. Somewhere along the way, things changed. A lot. Now I'd rather eat vegetables than most other foods (and cream of shrimp soup fills me with existential horror).
Luckily, the world of cuisine has also come a long way from the '70s, and mums have a whole range of tasty sauces they can use to get fussy eaters to finish their veggies. This recipe certainly fits the bill.

Veggie massaman curry

Long-term readers of this blog will already know how much I love massaman curry (I shared one recipe for a traditional version back in January). Here I share a variation - a bit different (hotter and sourer) but equally nice. I've made this version stuffed with vegetables - add rice and you've got a balanced vegetarian meal. You could use chicken or beef in place of the quorn, if preferred.

Thai red curry veggies

There are probably as many variations on Thai red curry as there are Thai grandmothers. And why not? Tasty, quick and easy... it's no surprise these dish has found world-wide popularity. My version is made with sweet potato, aubergine, and deep fried tofu, making it a healthy option, and one that can easily be adapted for vegetarians (I've included the veggie options below). I like my curry dryer than most, so add more coconut milk and water to thin out the sauce if you want it wetter.

Black bean and garlic mushrooms and spinach

Here's my little secret: sometimes I cheat. I buy ready-made pastry, because my own pastry is mediocre at best. I buy jars of minced garlic and ginger, as it saves me time, and means I always have a supply on hand. And I make black bean sauce using a jar of black bean sauce paste. Simple! This sauce can be quite salty, so I only eat this as a side dish, rather than a veggie main.

Panaeng veggie curry

A delicious, warming curry for a drizzly winter evening: use your favourite vegetables if the ones below don't appeal, and serve with a mound of fluffy white rice. Perfect!

Acar

Acar is a simple pickle; there are probably as many different versions of it as there are different grandmas. Use whichever vegetables you like or happen to have lying about the house, and serve alongside fried chicken (ayam goreng) or rice dishes.

Terung sambal

In my ongoing quest to make aubergine taste a bit less pants, I think I've found a winner. Enter terung sambal, or Malaysian spiced aubergine. This very simple recipe is essentially just fried or roasted aubergine, covered in oodles of tasty spice paste, thus obliterating the taste of the aubergine - result! If you want to enjoy (?) more of the natural flavour of the aubergine, just go a little easier with the spice paste.

Eggplant curry

Confession time: aubergine has never been my favourite vegetable. So my preferred recipes for aubergines are those that add lots of strong flavours, like garlic, or Parmesan cheese. This north Indian recipe uses plenty of garlic. ginger and tomato, with added chili to up the punch.

Stuffed tomatoes

I always think of stuffed tomatoes as a Mediterranean dish, something you'll find in Greece or Turkey. But the recipe seems to have traveled, and I stumbled across this Vietnamese version.

I've adapted this as a starter; for a main course, just add cooked rice or broken noodles to the filling, and increase the number of tomatoes per person.