soy sauce

Chock full of crunchy vegetables and Asian flavors, this vegetarian stir-fry is hearty and delectable. The meal comes together in minutes, because the vegetables — bok choy, snow peas, radishes, and spinach — are flash cooked in a large sauté pan. Meaty, soy-glazed tofu and a fresh ginger vinaigrette add layers of delicious depth to the veggies. This recipe is highly adaptable, so feel free to substitute bell peppers, mushrooms, or any other vegetable.

Chicken, pork, shrimp, or beef are nice alternatives to tofu. To get the versatile recipe, read more

Make midweek meals more exciting by using ingredients that take your family on a culinary vacation. Unlike other exotic recipes, this one utilizes familiar, everyday components like brown sugar and soy sauce. You'll travel to the tropical paradise of Hawaii with this simple chicken dinner. The chicken is seared and topped with a flavorful pineapple sauce. To find the recipe please read more

When you're stuck in a middle-of-the-work-week rut, a great way to spice things up is through food. While this exotic meal may sound difficult to make — the ingredients are a bit unusual — the cooking techniques are simple and ordinary. Plantains are sautéed with onions, bell pepper, and garlic before being tossed with chunks of pork tenderloin. The final dish is mouth watering, exciting, and complex. To look at the recipe — I discovered it on MyRecipes.com — read more

Giving leftovers a whole new taste — with seasonings from another culture — is a great way to make last night's meal more appetizing. For example, turn leftover African inspired harissa crusted tri-tip into a Thai-style steak salad.

The sliced steak is tossed with a lime soy oil. Then, the steak is mixed with shaved carrots, romaine lettuce, and fresh mint for a scrumptious and filling salad. To take a look at the recipe, read more

Pork tenderloin is a lovely, lean piece of meat and a nice alternative to chicken. In this recipe, it is flavored with soy sauce, ginger, and molasses. Crushed red pepper flakes add a hint of heat, while rice vinegar balances out the sweetness of the sauce. Peas pair nicely with the Asian inspired pork, but if you prefer broccoli or green beans, substitute those for the peas. For the recipe, read more

Here's the scenario: you are at home and hungry for food. You have to cook up something scrumptious for you and your boyfriend/girlfriend/ spouse/child/friend, but the ingredients you have on hand are limited.

You have a couple of fresh salmon fillets, avocado, and soy sauce. Using these products, along with whatever you currently have on hand in your cupboard and refrigerator, what would you make?

To see what I would make, read more

Wondering what to do with leftover quail? Here's an idea: make a delicious soy citrus glaze, brush it on the quail for maximum flavor, and serve over a bed of greens and soba noodles. It's a wonderfully elegant use of the leftover game. Also, this meal comes together quickly so you won't have to spend lots of time slaving in the kitchen. To take a look at the recipe, read more

I recently received a copy of Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking and have been meaning to try some of the recipes. Author Harumi Kurihara, who is often called the Japanese Martha Stewart, specializes in easy, home-cooked dishes with simple but elegant flavors. While looking for dinner ideas, I was inspired by the ease of her recipe for Chicken With Soy and Balsamic Vinegar. It looked absolutely delicious and wonderfully simple. She suggested pairing it with cabbage, but I opted for bok choy. I also decided to serve it with a side of Forbidden Rice. To get the recipe for a deliciously easy dinner, read more

Just because it's a weekday doesn't mean that you should cook a boring, lackluster meal. Sophisticated dishes packed with layers of flavor don't have to take forever to make. For example, tonight's meal, with its glamorously long name and chic Japanese ingredients, sounds like it's complicated to prepare. However, it's quick and simple to put together because it uses familiar cooking techniques. It's also a great way to introduce new tastes to your family. Get the recipe for this crispy pork with spicy sauce when you read more

I have heard much talk about the connection between soy and breast cancer. I've heard eating soy can prevent breast cancer, but I've also heard that it can increase your risk, or be harmful for breast cancer patients.

First off, let's bring up the fact that soy is not some new food we just discovered. It has been eaten in many Asian cultures for thousands of years, including products such as tofu, edamame (steamed whole soybean), soymilk, and fermented soy products such as tempeh, miso, and soy sauce.

Recently, in North America, soy has become a huge hit. All these products are becoming widely available, in addition to some new ones like soy nuts, soy-based meat alternatives, soy-based beverages, soy chips, soy ice cream, soy yogurt, and soy cheese.

Soy contains phytoestrogens, a group of chemicals that act like the hormone estrogen. Estrogen is a hormone necessary for having babies, and is also involved with bone and heart health in women. Higher exposure to estrogen over a lifetime is linked with increased breast cancer risk. Therefore, you can see why people might be worried about the estrogen-like phytoestrogens in soy products.

So can phytoestrogens from soy foods affect breast cancer risk? To find out read more