Vegan Vietnamese Dipping Sauce ( Nước chấm)

I prefer South Asian cuisine than Italian or Mexican  since I don't like too much of cheese in my food. For kids, I just overload it but for me and hubby its a big nono. So I was making my usual Summer rolls  and wanted to try different dipping sauce and since summer rolls are Vietnamese dish I wanted to make same cuisine  sauce. I know that part of the world heavy on Fish sauce and Since now I have vegan , gluten free Fish sauce I can make anything so tried this and I just loved it. If you don't mind real fish sauce then you can make it with that too.

This is a dipping sauce they use in everything, They just keep this sauce ready in the fridge for regular meals for the week but when they make a special dish , they make fresh batch and as always fresh taste much better. 

Ingredients : 

6 tbsp water

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 cloves of fresh finely chopped garlic

2 thinly chopped Thai chilies

small finely chopped carrot

Method :

Combine warm water and sugar in a bowl, so it is easy to dissolve sugar.

Add lime juice in increments until its as per your liking. 

Add fish sauce in increments too. 

Top it with garlic, chilies and carrot and mix it.

Leave it for 30 minutes to mix the flavors. 

Use it for summer rolls or top it on pho

Cajun Spiced Crunchy Tofu Tacos

I dont like hard shell tacos but my daughter loves that one, I was tired of making Enchiladas , burritos , Quesadillas and wanted to have something light and different so I got soft tacos and made this one. But with that too I didn't wanted to make regular one. I  already  have ready made bottle of Cajun spices bottle in my pantry so didn't have to make from scratch but if you are wondering what is Cajun spiced so its a spice blend comes from Louisiana. Everyone have their own spin on it but in general its a spicy blend featuring lots of paprika, cayenne, garlic powder , pepper and oregano.  

You can make your blend and keep it in pantry. 

My go to is 

3 tbsp paprika

2 tbsp salt

2 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp each black pepper powder, white pepper powder, onion powder, dried oregano and cayenne , Mix and store it

Ingredients :

1/2 block of Tofu, Pressed and make it dry 

3 tbsp Cajun Spice mix or as per your taste

Fresh Pico de gallo

Few slices of fresh avocado

4 soft corn tortillas

Few pickled onions, jalapenos

2 tbsp oil 

salt as per taste

Method : 

Pressed tofu and put the tofu in between pieces of kitchen paper. Put some heavy weight on top of it and leave it for 30 minutes or more till it becomes dry.

Once its dry , cut the tofu in cubes and sprinkled spice mix on top and leave it for 15 minutes. 

Heat a pan and add oil in it. Add tofu cubes in oil and cook it till becomes crunchy.and add salt in it. 

Take it out. 

Warm the corn tortillas , add tofu, then add pico de gallo , picked onion, jalapenos, avocado and fold it and eat it. 

You can sprinkled some lime on it before. 

You can add pickled cabbage, red cabbage, beans, rice, anything is possible.