Tasty spicy peanut sauce recipe

If you eat Thai or Vietnamese type food, this recipe will get a lot of use. I use it for stir fries, salad rolls and tofu subs. I swear it is better than ANY peanut sauce I've had in a restaurant or grocey store. Not sure why because it's so easy to make.

Basically you need these flavors: sweet, spicy, salty, savory. I use brown sugar, hot sauce, soy sauce and natural peanut butter plus sesame oil.

Here's a pic of my ingredients:

Everyone has different preferences about how spicy or sweet they like things. To start with use these measurements then just add more of the flavour you want:

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tb hot sauce
• 2 tb sugar
• 1 ts sesame oil

Blend them all together. enjoy!

Here is some sauce with homemade salad rolls!

Best Veggie Sub?

Vegetarians in Calgary better like veggie subs, otherwise choice is pretty limited in a foodcourt (its already extremely limited).

I'd say the tastiest was the original veggie sub at Quiznos, they've replaced with a veggie lite sub which is cheaper but not as good (contains cheese). you can still get the orginal at some locations but they are 3 or 4 dollars more. Subway is very good, as their veggies and tomatoes are almost always perfect. Toasted is pretty good. Both the Quiznos and Subway subs are pretty bland without cheese, and I like to eat vegan as much as possible. There's a new sub place in my food court called Chachis which has a pretty tasty veg sub even without cheese (havarti) as it has pesto (yum!) and artichokes (thats original!) which are pretty flavorful. 

The out and out winner though is a good tofu vietnamese sub! I love the crusty buns, the carrots, the onions, the peanut sauce, and the tofu. I use my homemade peanut sauce whenever possible. The only place downtown that makes a tofu sub is Thai Thai, and I got ill everytime I had one. Vietnamese subs with cheese are tasty too, but i prefer tofu.

Rankings

#1 Vietnamese tofu sub

#2 Chachis (because cheese isn't required for tastiness)

#3 Quiznos - the buns are better

#4 Subway - still very good

if only one of these places offered AVOCADO! (not guac, but actual sliced avocado).

Homemade

Inspired by Chachis and some sandwiches my wife made once, I made a pretty tasty sub/sandwich today with pesto (green and red) artichoke hearts, red pepper, spinach, tomato and hummous. Very good, I just need to add avocado and onion to it.

Where to Get Good Veggie Burgers in Calgary

Restaurants:

#1 Harveys - these are very meaty (not grainy) and fairly big

#2 Burger King - these are good, but fairly small

#3 Chilis - you can sub a veggie paddy into any burger. all restaurants should do this rather than have a dedicated veggie burger on the menu.

Frozen

#1 M&M Meats

#2 Grillers from the Seventh Day Adentists

#3 super store has really good ones, but are very expensive

Veggie House

Restaurant Review: Veggie House

I've been going to this place for 15 years with my vegan brother. It's located in a little food court in Chinatown on centre street and 3rd ave. It's where I first discovered gluten as a tasty fake meat. It makes gluten meats unlike most others. They use regular flour instead of gluten flour. It takes longer but tastes better. Its about $8 for a plate of rice and gluten.

Restaurant Review: Metropolitan Grill

Calgary Metropolitan Grill. I went there for a company team lunch yesterday. I would rate is as very bad. First the coke the brought me was almost pure carbon soda, they didn't notice that is was lighter than an ice tea. It also took them over 45 minutes to take our order. Probably because they have a guaranteed tip with corporate groups. Veggie specific problems: there is NOTHING on the menu thats vegetarian other than perhaps a salad. I ended up getting a chicken/bacon sandwich with avocado swapped for the meat. It's nice they have avacoda at least. I asked for no mayonaise so the sandwich had no condiment so was pretty bland. I should have asked for vinegeraite or margerine but changing a menu item usually confuses the server enough that I thought substituting a condiment was pushing it (anyone else have problems making simple substitions, it seems like its brain surgery sometimes). The fries were extremely greasy (if you like arby's fries, then you will like these I heard). Overall, probably the worst veggie restaurant in town. I'll never go back unless its just for drinks.

Sunterra

I've gotten salads at the downtown Sunterra (+15 level, 5ave and 1st SW) the past couple days. Man are they good! There's such a great selection with stuff like artichokes and beets that you don't get in many restaurants. It's not the cheapest (its usually at least $7 for me) but worth it for sure. Lots of salad dressing to choose from too. Highly recommended to any downtown Calgary veggies out there.

Hearty Bean & Barley Soup

A pretty tasty soup with very little seasoning required!

1/2 cup of barley or more
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
black beans (i use black bean soup mix)
1/2 onion
optional potato or pasta
4 cups of water with veggie stock

1. fry the onions and celery in oil
2. add water and barley
3. wait 15 minutes
4. add carrots and potato and black beans and pasta
   
5. add salt and pepper
6. cook for another 30 min or so
7. when everything is tender, add several handfuls of spinach

enjoy!