5 Fun Asian-Inspired Recipes That Will Impress Anyone!

Through the pandemic I’ve been able to do so much more cooking at home, which means I’ve been able to try out so many more recipes than ever before. Been going back to my Asian heritage for lots of inspiration…thought these 5 easy, but fun recipes would be great for a family party, get together with friends, a date night, or a weeknight favorite! Check them out and let me know what you think.

Fresh Spring Rolls

Looking for something fun to make, but also something pretty healthy? Fresh springs roll definitely fill you up, but are also pretty healthy as it’s mainly veggies you are eating. There’s quite a lot of prep work for these, but these are fun to have on special occasions! Always eat day of if you can as they taste best fresh, but if you need to store them, wrap individually in plastic wrap otherwise they will stick together.

Photo Credit: https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/fresh-spring-rolls/

1. Cut all veggies and place on large cutting board. Cook the shrimp and cut in half, set aside. Cook up the rice noodles and also set aside. Create a working station for yourself to create the rolls
2. Pull out the spring roll wrappers and dip the first one in some shallow water. Let soak about 15–30 seconds — it’s still a little firm, but bendy enough to fill with veggies
3. Add all the filling you want to the middle of the wrapper! I usually put the shrimp down first, then lettuce, carrot, mango, daikon, herbs, cucumber and then the rice noodles last
4. Now it’s time to wrap it up. Take a little bit of water and run it around the edges. Take the sides and fold over the filling. Now take the other edge and wrap around and tuck like a burrito trying to keep all filling inside. Make sure to secure tightly and seal with a little bit of water
5. Make the peanut sauce. Mix all ingredients together. You might need to add more water as it thickens. Taste as you go and alter if need be…sometimes it needs a dash more hoisin or soy sauce

Ingredients:

• Thin vermicelli rice noodles (small handful per roll, cook about 1/4 of a package)
• Rice wrappers (8–12 per recipe)
• Large cooked shrimp — peeled, deveined, cut in half (use about 3–4 per roll, about 24–30 shrimp)
• Herbs: Thai basil, mint leaves, fresh cilantro
• Lettuce chopped
• 1/2 Cucumber (sliced long ways)
• Daikon (if you like, sliced)
• 1/2 Mango (sliced long ways)
• Peanut Sauce: 1/4–1/3 cup peanut butter, 1–2 T hoisin sauce, 2–3 tsp soy sauce, 1 clove garlic mashed, 1–3 T warm water, can add crushed peanuts if you want

Hot Pot

Another easy and fun cold day dinner is a hot pot. The best thing about a hot pot is that you basically throw anything and everything in it. You can use any veggies from the fridge and it’s just a big pot of yummy soup! This recipe makes about 10–12 cups so you have lots of leftovers normally. It heats up well next day as well!

1. Get a big pot or InstantPot and boil about 10–12 cups of water
2. While waiting for the water to boil cut all your veggies/meats
3. Once water is boiled pour in the Little Sheep Mix, let it boil
4. You do not need to add all of the spices in if you don’t want to. It’s all by taste for you
5. Add in meats and veggies, let simmer for 7–8 minutes
6. Pour into bowls and enjoy!

Ingredients:

• Little Sheep Hot Pot Mix
• Meat: thinly sliced beef, shrimp, tofu, fish cakes
• Veggies: carrots, onions, bok choy, green onions, Chinese mushrooms (soak beforehand), napa cabbage
• Noodles: yam (I like using these the best), udon, yakisoba, etc…

Curry (Green, Yellow, Red, Panang, Japanese style)

One of the easiest and most delicious things to make is curry. Depending on your flavor palette there are so many variations between green (little spicier), yellow (savory), red or Panang (pretty spicy), or Japanese style (sweet but a little kick). Each one is so tasty, but depends on what flavors you are looking for. I use more veggies than most recipes and sometimes I love curry with noodles an not just rice! It’s all up to you!

Photo Credit: Harbor Café

1. Chop all veggies and place in bowl, chop meat up and set aside (I usually use chicken)
2. Start the rice cooker
3. In a wok or skillet place a little bit of sesame oil in the pan, add in 1/4 cup of curry paste and 1 can coconut milk
4. Stir until curry is fully dissolved, no chunks
5. Add in the meat and cook about 10 minutes
6. Add in veggies and stir, let simmer for 10–15 minutes, make sure meat is fully cooked
7. Add rice to a bowl and serve with the curry on top

Ingredients:

• Curry paste (yellow, green, panang, red, Japanese curry mix, etc)
• 2 cans of coconut milk
• 1–2 tsp sesame oil
• Meat: chicken (I use 2 chicken breasts), beef, pork, tofu, shrimp, etc
• Veggies: carrots (3–4 chopped), peppers (yellow or red are best, use half of each), 1/2 onion, 2 heads of broccoli
• 3–4 cups of white rice (you can use brown rice or noodles too!)

Tempura

Photo Credit: Justonecookbook.com

1. Chop all your veggies to desired lengths
2. Make the batter → put flour, egg, lemon, salt/pepper in bowl and add ice-cold water to the mixture, mix slowly, should be a little thick
3. Create dipping sauce → mirin, soy sauce, sugar (all to your desired taste) and set aside
4. Dip pieces into just plain flour to lightly coat and then into the batter, let excess batter drip
5. Add pieces into deep fryer or into a wok with at least 1–2 inches deep of oil
6. Fry until a little brown and then flip to the other side
7. Put pieces on paper towel to let dry off excess oil
8. Eat with your dipping sauce!

Ingredients:

• Batter: 1 cup Mochiko flour or all-purpose flour, 1 egg, 3/4 –1 cup water, dash of lemon, salt and pepper
• Sauce: 3–4 tsp mirin, 3–4 tsp soy sauce, 1–2 tsp sugar
• Meat: shrimp, oysters, etc…
• Veggies: carrots, onions, mushrooms, green beans, squash, etc

Steamed Dumplings

I’ve never made my own steamed dumplings before, but for Lunar New Year we thought we try it out. With the pasta roller we made our own dough and added filling and boom dumplings!

1. Make the dough using you dough blade attachment (mix flour and pour hot water in the middle)
2. Mix until water is incorporated, scrape the flower and mix again. Dough will start to form if it hasn’t add a little bit of water to form into ball.
3. Take the dough ball out and knead by hand a couple times (you can also make the dough by hand or with a bread maker)
4. Let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes to an hour
5. Time to make the filling — take the marinated meat and add any veggies and herbs you want. Throw in dashes of soy sauce, sesame oil, and mirin. Set aside.
6. Create the dumpling wrappers by rolling out your dough. We have a pasta roller so we sent pieces through that to get them pretty thin. We then used a pint glass as a cookie cutter and cut out our circular wrappers
7. Take a wrapper in your hand and trace an outline around the edge with water
8. Scoop about a tablespoon or a tad more of the filling onto the wrapper. Begin to start sealing the edges. You can seal the wrapper in many ways — pinching and folding is typically the best technique. But you can play around with it.
9. You can place your dumplings in a steamer basket or put them on a baking sheet to just cook in a little boiling water for 2 minutes as well
10. You can cook them later by placing on baking tray or freezing them in a air tight sealed container to use later
11. Cook up and enjoy. You can also pan fry as well!

Ingredients:

• Dough: 1–2 cups flour, 1 cup hot water, add tablespoon of water to form dough, oil
• Filling: 1–2lbs ground meat (typically ground pork works best), veggies, herbs (1–2T of each herb)
• Dumpling filling ideas — pork & cabbage, lamb with carrot & zucchini, pork with shiitake mushrooms, sweet potato with sage
• Dumpling sauce: 1 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp vinegar, 1/2 tsp chili oil (you kind of have to play around with measurements to find out your liking.

Hopefully these recipes are fun for you, your friends, and family! They will definitely impress people!