Kale and Fennel Brown Rice Noodles are for dinner on Sweet Caramel Sunday!

Kale and Fennel….sounds like an interesting combination, right? Well, yes, you are indeed right. For this week’s Meatless Monday Vegan dish, I took inspiration from a recent cookbook I was reading. The book is called Eat Clean and is by Luke Hines who was once on My Kitchen Rules. For his recipe, he makes an Epic Kale and Fennel Frittata. When I read that recipe, I was lying in bed and I was looking at the picture and I may have started drooling, just a little bit. I have used fennel quite a bit in my cooking especially when making meat balls. But in all of those cases it was the spice not the actual vegetable I was using so the taste and texture sparked my curiosity and I could not get the idea of the combination out of my mind.

So, being the cook, I love being and want to further develop into, I decided I had to give the combination of ingredients a go, but by doing it my way. In Luke’s recipe he uses black sliced olives, which I switched out for pitted kalamata olives. His recipe is also a vegetarian dish, but as I wanted to make a vegan recipe, I knew I needed to brainstorm further to go full vegan. So, I had a little tune going in my head, which sort of went like ‘kale and fennel, kale and fennel’. It was quite an enjoyable brainstorming session!

When I went to get the fennel, there were only 2 bulbs left at the shop and they looked like they had seen a better day, so I waited until another day and then grabbed the freshest looking bulb I could get my hands on. I am also not a massive fan of brown onions in cooking, much preferring red ones, so that became my ingredient base combo, you can see it in the pics below. The before shot, of the veggies prepped and ready to be roasted and after the roasting.

The only thing I did to the veggies before cooking other than cutting, was to season with salt and pepper and then drizzle with a bit of olive oil.

I know I could have done it by cooking the veggies in the oven but for this dish, I didn’t want to do a quick ‘wham, bam thank-you mam’ dish, I wanted to take some time, use the oven, get some delicious smells wafting through the house and so it is a part oven, part wok dish.

I hope that you all have a great week and that it goes super quickly so that we can all get back in our kitchen on the next coming weekend.

Adrianne x

Kale and Fennel Vegan Noodles

Kale and Fennel Vegan Noodles are for dinner on Sweet Caramel Sunday! With simple ingredients and step by step instructions, you will be able to make this dish tonight!

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Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Australian, International

Keyword: kale and fennel noodles, vegetarian noodles

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 4

Calories: 334kcal

Author: Adrianne

Ingredients

• 1 fennel bulb thinly sliced
• 3/4 cup kalamata olives pitted
• 1/2 red onion
• 2 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 200 grams brown rice vermicelli noodles

Stir Fry Sauce

• 1 tbsp ginger minced
• 1 tbsp garlic minced
• 1 tbsp chilli minced
• 1/3 cup vegetarian oyster sauce mushroom sauce
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp corn flour

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a baking tray with grease proof paper 
• Slice vegetables and combine fennel, olives and onion on the baking tray, season well with salt and pepper, drizzle oil over and bake for 20 minutes 
• Make stir fry sauce by combining oyster sauce, soy sauce, chilli, garlic and ginger in a jar. Shake with lid on to combine. Then add cornflour, stir till there are no white lumps 
• Put the noodles in a heat proof bowl and cover with boiling water, leave sit for 15 minutes and then drain 
• Add a little olive oil to the fry pan, add chopped kale, season with salt and pepper, then fry off for approximately 4 minutes or until the vegetable turns bright green. 
• Add the roasted vegetables to the wok, add approximately 1/4 of the sauce, stir and cook for approximately 3 minutes. 
• Add the noodles and another 1/4 of the sauce and stir to combine. If you would like more sauce, continue to add it. If you are happy with the sauce at this point, save the rest for another night when you won't have to prepare it from scratch. 

Notes

1. The sauce will keep in the fridge for at least a week. Best to use a jar with a lid so it is sealed. 
2. The noodles will be thick and stick in a bunch when cooked, add small amounts of them at a time to the wok to ensure good consistency of texture 
3. I refer to oyster sauce in this recipe - you can get a full vegan version of this which is a vegetarian oyster sauce (mushroom). If you can't find it, check your local Asian Grocer. 

Nutrition

Calories: 334kcal | Carbohydrates: 52g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 0mg | Sodium: 2354mg | Potassium: 326mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 215IU | Vitamin C: 14mg | Calcium: 58mg | Iron: 1mg

More Meatless Meal Ideas

Can I now take the opportunity to talk to you about some of my other vegan dishes……..well, thanks, I would love to :). So here is another Meatless Monday noodle dish. It used the same sauce but a different combination of veggies as I wouldn’t want you to get bored and have to cook the same thing all the time!

Or, one of my most popular dishes is my Vegan Brown Rice Noodles, I hope that I am showing you the wide variety of options you have when you take some staples like the stir fry sauce and brown rice noodles and make different combinations out of them.

One last yummy vegan option is my Vegan Yellow Curry Noodle Bowl that recipe is, SO, SO good, I am sighing as I type this as the yellow curry is such a great flavour combination with the salty crispy tofu, you my friends, can get the recipe for that one right here, right now!! Or come back a little later and you will find it here x

Alright……….I’m going to let you go now, WAIT, nope, nope, you can’t leave just yet, I really want you to see my Pine Mango Passion Fruit Paddle Pops as they are also vegan and then you can have a dinner dish and a dessert sticking with the vegan theme.

Adios my friends and let me know if you have suggestions please for a cat who likes to scratch the carpet instead of his fancy smancey ebay post!

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