Jackie's Thai Peanut Noodles with Seasonal Veggies 

OK, based on discussions in my kitchen this lunchtime, a new concept has been born. Guest bloggers. (Wait, that's not a new concept? What!?).

Well, from now on, guest contributors are invited to submit ideas and I'll feature their favorite new recipe/ingredient/technique here on Charlie's Kitchen Blog. The only requirement is that everything needs to be vegan and within a grad student budget. To make things easy, I will begin by featuring a recipe by my housemate, Jackie Ballard, since she was already in the kitchen cooking something fabulous when I had this brilliant idea. Talk about convenient! Jackie claims that she is not a vegan, but almost every time I run into her she is cooking something deliciously plant-based. Today, she is excited to be working with Thai peanut sauce (a good choice, in my opinion).

Oil for sautéing

2 cloves garlic

1/2 yellow onion

2 cups chard, including stems

1 cup sugar snap peas

1 package yaki soba noodles

Peanut sauce

Mince your garlic, tear up your chard into bit-sized pieces, cut up your onion and slice your sugar snap peas into 1 cm pieces. Then heat oil in a pan. When hot, add the onion, garlic and sugar snap peas. Allow them to sauté for up to 5 minutes, depending on how al dente you like them. Next, add the chard and stir it around. It might look like a lot, but it will soon wilt. Open and drain your package of noodles, add them, and stir the whole thing together. Leave on the stove until everything is piping hot, stirring regularly, then add peanut sauce to taste - I think 2tbsp is probably about right. This recipe makes one generous serving.

Jackie used San-J peanut sauce. Both that and the yaki soba noodles are available at Safeway. The peanut sauce is with the Asian specialty foods - usually somewhere near the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, etc. The soba noodles are in the produce section. They come in a thick plastic bag and can be found in the refrigerator near the tofu and fake deli meats. Thanks, Jackie!