Apple-Miso Tofu

Apple-Miso Tofu (page 151) on a bed of baby spinach
served with Orange-Scented Broccoli (page 100) and sticky brown rice

I wasn't sure about this recipe - it sounded a little strange, but maybe good. It WAS good! Delicious, in fact!

I usually prefer a firm, chewy texture in my tofu, and this turns out more soft instead (even though I started with the extra-firm variety), since it is baked with juicy apples in a covered pan. I really didn't mind the softer texture. The flavor was so satisfying. I left the skins on my apples, 'cause they're prettier that way, and served the tofu over a generous bed of baby spinach.

One note about the recipe: the ingredient list calls for one teaspoon of sesame oil. Normally, I try to leave out any added oils in my cooking, but, well, I'm a sucker for sesame oil. It's tasty. So every once in a while, I splurge. You get five grams of fat per serving with this recipe, which isn't so bad, so I figure if I'm extra good for the rest of the day, it shouldn't be a big deal, right? The problem here is that while the sesame oil is listed in the ingredient list, it is not mentioned any where else in the recipe instructions. It's not included in the marinade ingredient list, but the "everything else" category, instead. I decided to drizzle the one teaspoon of sesame oil over the tofu after marinating and before adding the sliced apples.

This is something I would definitely make again. (I might consider cutting the amount of sesame oil in half, to cut out some of those fat grams.) I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. How about you - has anyone else tried this?

Tofu Chimichurri

Tofu Chimichurri (page 150)
served with sauteed zucchini and yellow squash and brown rice

I've had my eye on this recipe for a while. I remember the first time I ever heard of chimichurri: in our pre-child and pre-vegan days, El Hombre and I attended a potluck barbecue at the home of some Argentinian friends, and I saw this guy slathering his cooked steak with a thick green sludge like it was salsa. Curious, we gave it a try, too, and it was amazing! Bright, tangy, and flavorful. Perfect on grilled foods.

Isa says that chimichurri is a marinade, but in my experience, it is also a thick condiment, like salsa. This recipe calls for marinating the tofu in a thin chimichurri sauce. I prepared the tofu and marinade early in the day, and left in the refrigerator for El Hombre to cook up later in the evening.

The girls and I arrived home after ballet folklorico class to find El Hombre standing over the stove, flipping the tofu around in a pan. It was a little messy, and some of the tofu broke apart, but the end result was quite delicious. I liked it, and I think it's safe to say El Hombre loved it, as he devoured quite a lot.

This recipe was good, but I would do it differently next time. Cooking the chimichurri sauce results in a loss of the bright green color and taste, which is what makes chimichurri so beautiful and fresh tasting. I think grilled tofu served with a more traditional chimichurri sauce as the condiment would be great. I'm inspired and will probably do it soon!

Unfried Fried Rice

Unfried Fried Rice (page 70)
with strips of Nomelet (baked vegan tofu omelet)

I have fond memories of making fried rice with egg, back in the day when we were fresh out of college and completely broke. It was so yummy and comforting. So, when inspiration hit me a few weeks ago to combine Isa's Unfried Fried Rice recipe with the Happy Herbivore's Nomelet, I got really excited to give this recipe (well, both recipes) a try.

I kept the add-ins super simple for the sake of the kids. It paid off, because SweetPea, normally not a fan of rice in any form, gobbled this up and asked for seconds. But I think it would also be great with lots of extra vegetables - carrots, zucchini, peas...

I used my cast-iron wok to make this, which I think was important in getting that crispy "fried" taste and texture here. Also, I found it necessary to turn up the heat a little higher than indicated to get things really going.

Served with a hefty portion of no-oil stir-fried broccoli in garlic, soy sauce, and a little tahini, this made a great healthy weeknight dinner.

Peanut-Lime Tofu Bowl

Peanut-Lime Tofu Bowl, page 267
Quinoa, steamed broccoli, tofu, Peanut-Lime Dragon Dressing (page 34), and peanuts

I'm renaming this the Peanut-Lime Dragon Bowl, because that's more fun to say! This is basically one of the bowls suggested on page 267 of Appetite for Reduction, except with broiled and glazed tofu, instead of sauteed tempeh. We just went to Costco this weekend, and there's a drawer-ful of tofu in the refrigerator.

Quinoa, steamed broccoli, broiled tofu lightly glazed with a bottled Thai sweet chili sauce, that wondrous Peanut-Lime Dragon Dressing, and a sprinkle of dry-roasted peanuts. How can you go wrong with this combination?!?

So, so, so good. And incredibly easy to put together, with uncomplicated components. This time around, for the dressing, I whirled all the ingredients in the blender for several minutes until smooth, instead of leaving a few chunky peanut-ty bits like last time. It was great!

Pad Thai Salad with Peanut-Lime Dragon Dressing

Pad Thai Salad with Peanut-Lime Dragon Dressing, page 33

Really, you just can't beat the salads in Appetite for Reduction. I have loved (almost) every single salad in this chapter, so far. I knew I would also love the Pad Thai Salad as soon as I had my first taste of that glorious Peanut-Lime Dragon Dressing. El Hombre commented that he could probably just drink it.

I added a thinly sliced red bell pepper to the salad, and I topped it with some broiled tofu cubes, lightly glazed with a bottled Thai sweet chili sauce. Perfect.

Some very dear friends of ours are moving into a new house in our neighborhood (lucky us!), so I brought them some salad tonight while El Hombre was over there helping them unload the moving truck. There were positive reviews for this recipe, and according to his lovely wife, our friend Bill even remarked that he might consider moving to "Planet Vega" one day. I think that means he has enjoyed my Vegan food, right?

Broiled Blackened Tofu and Pineapple Collards

Broiled Blackened Tofu, page 147, and Pineapple Collards, page 93

This tofu was coated in a Cajun spice mixture and then broiled at high heat. The collards were sauteed with a combination of sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and pineapple. Both dishes turned out tasty and complemented each other nicely.

The tofu recipe made only enough spice mixture to coat about half of my tofu; I had to mix up another batch to finish the remaining slices. I also regularly have to cook my tofu longer than Isa's recipes call for to achieve the desired result when using the oven, and tonight was no exception.

El Hombre and I both really enjoyed the greens with pineapple. It was a nice flavor profile, and I can see us making this recipe again. The kids also seemed to approve of these greens.

Polenta Stuffing (which turned into Polenta Stufffed Jalapenos)

Polenta Stuffed Jalepeno Peppers with a Creamy Lime Sauce
(adapted from Polenta Stuffing recipe, page 66)

I kept looking at the recipe for Polenta Stuffing in Appetite for Reduction, but I just wasn't feeling inspired. It's a stuffing recipe, so I felt like it needs to, you know, stuff something. Isa suggests using it to top off something like the Tamarind BBQ Tempeh & Sweet Potatoes. Now, while I'm sure that's quite yummy and delicious, that's not exactly stuffing... that's dressing.

So I mulled it over for a while, thinking about what I might stuff with this stuff. I went with jalepenos for an appetizer sort of dish to go with our Memorial Day cookout. I think it would also work well to stuff poblano peppers, as more of a main dish. Anyway, the end result here turned out very different than Isa's original recipe for Polenta Stuffing, but I think I rocked this dish. It's so good, in fact, that I'm going to share my recipe adaptation with y'all.

A few words on the use of oil: I went ahead and used the same amount of oil called for in the original recipe, because I was worried about the polenta sticking during the sauteing step. Even with a well-seasoned cast iron pan and the oil, I still had sticking issues, and my polenta cubes eventually fell apart. My stuffing turned out softer and less cube-y that what is intended in the original recipe, but for stuffing those jalepenos, that turned out to be the perfect thing, anyway.

Polenta Stuffed Jalepenos with Creamy Lime Sauce
(Adapted from Polenta Stuffing, page 66, from Appetite for Reduction)

12 jalepeno pepper
2 teaspoons olive oil
18 ounces prepared polenta, cut into small-ish cubes (I used a sundried tomato and garlic variety)
1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
1 small onion, diced small
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon crushed cumin seeds
pepper and salt, to taste
1 box of silken tofu, rinsed well
Juice of 3 limes
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon granulated onion
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes

Cut a lengthwise strip from each pepper. Remove and set aside for another use, like salsa or something. Remove the seeds and white parts from the inside of the pepper and discard. Rinse, if necessary, to get all the seeds out. Don't touch your eyes! Wear gloves, if you must.

Preheat a large pan over medium-high heat. Coat the bottom of the pan with 1 teaspoon of the oil, and add the polenta. Saute for 12 to 15 minutes, tossing often. If the polenta starts to stick to the pan, that's okay - just scrape up the sticky parts and toss it around.

Add the celery, onion, garlic, oregano, cumin, and the remainder of the oil. Saute for another 7-10 minutes. By this time, the polenta should be mostly falling apart and getting mushy. Towards the end of your cooking time, dribble in a little water and stir things around until you get a softer consistency that is good for stuffing those peppers. Make sure you scrape up all the browned, sticky bits from the bottom of the pan and mix that in, too. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Using a spoon, stuff the jalepeno peppers with the polenta mixture. Then, you can either grill these or bake for 10-15 minutes in 425F oven.

To make the sauce, place the tofu, lime juice, granulated garlic and onion, salt, and nutritional yeast in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth and creamy.

El Hombre grilled our stuffed jalepenos. Muy delicioso!

Sanctuary Chef Salad

Sanctuary Chef Salad, page 28

I have been simultaneously looking forward to and avoiding making this salad. It sounded so good, but the prospect of preparing all the individual components seemed like a lot of hassle. I wondered, would it be worth it?

I'm happy to report: it is SO worth it. By the time we sat down to dinner, I was kind of tired and irritable about all the dirty dishes, and skeptical about the pay out for all the hassle. But with the very first bite, my taste buds said, "Oh, yeah!" and each bite after that got even better.

So let me break it down for you here. First, I whipped up the Sanctuary Dressing (you know, because "ranches are not nice places for cows"):

Sanctuary Dressing, page 29

Very tasty. The kids liked it, too, even though they never really liked regular ranch dressing. El Hombre asked, "How did you do that?" I only had soft silken tofu on hand in the pantry, so I used that instead of the extra-firm. It was fine.

Then we have the Eggplant Bacon:

Eggplant Bacon, page 42

You can see that a few pieces got a little burnt, but it was all good. Man, I love that stuff.

Here we have the Basic Baked Tofu...

Basic Baked Tofu, page 144

... which is perfect for a salad like this. Then there is the Herb-Roasted Cauliflower:

Herb-Roasted Cauliflower, page 108

The cauliflower was really, really tasty. SweetPotato especially enjoyed it. I did notice an error in the recipe, however... the instructions said to "drizzle in the oil" and mix it into the breadcrumb and herb mixture, but there is no oil listed in the ingredients. I went ahead and made it without any oil, which is what I would have done anyway, and it turned out great.

And finally, all the other salad veggies:

Chopped Romaine, tomatoes, red onions, carrots, radishes, and bean sprouts

I couldn't find sunflower sprouts at my grocery store, and alfalfa sprouts didn't strike my fancy this week, so I went with bean sprouts. They were nice and crunchy.

Delicious. And filling. And definitely worth the hassle. Bless El Hombre... he did all the dishes.

Potato-Spinach Curry

Potato-Spinach Curry, page 232
with brown basmati rice and Masala Baked Tofu, page 146

Tonight's dinner was a lovely affair of saag aloo, masala tofu, and basmati rice, enjoyed outside in the fresh air of the evening.

While I loved the feature AFR recipe, I must say that the most exciting part of making tonight's dinner was digging up my own potatoes from my own garden. They were so beautiful! Look:

Freshly dug and scrubbed potatoes from my backyard garden

And, they were delicious, too!

But anyway, back to the recipe. SweetPea helped me make the potato-spinach curry; she helped chop up those beautiful potatoes, as well as stir and taste along the way. We added more salt because of the low sodium veggie broth that I've been using (more on that below). We also left out the red pepper flakes to make it kid-friendly, and instead had some available on the table to sprinkle on as desired for the adults.

Also, I decided to revisit the Masala Baked Tofu, because I think I've figured out what went wrong last time. Not that it was bad last time. It's just that I've heard so many people rave about it, and yet it didn't get me all excited like it seems to do for others. The missing factor for my first attempt seems to be salt. Yes, salt. So simple, right? I've been using a no-salt-added vegetable broth in an attempt to be more sodium conscious, and I think the masala marinade suffered as a result. So this time, I added a bit more soy sauce, and it made a big difference. I will also confess that I was feeling lazy and used granulated garlic and powdered ginger in the marinade, instead of the fresh versions, and both seemed to work great here. El Hombre confirmed that this attempt was much better than the first, so whether that was due to the extra soy sauce, or the dried spices, or a combination.... who knows?

Again, everyone enjoyed tonight's dinner. Both kids liked the potato-spinach curry, and my Dad went back for second helpings of everything. As El Hombre and I were cleaning up the kitchen, I saw a lime left on the counter and realized I forgot to add the freshly squeezed juice as the final step in the making of the curry. But oh well - it was still delicious! Nothing seemed amiss. Getting the kids to eat their cooked spinach and my Dad to enjoy tofu so much that he goes for another serving... a win!

Goddess Nicoise Redux

Poolside Goddess Nicoise, page 25
substituting tofu in place of chickpeas

The Goddess Nicoise Salad has been one of my favorite AFR recipes, by far, so far. I decided to bring it back for Easter to share with the rest of the family, since they weren't around the first time I enjoyed it.

We chose to spend our Easter afternoon lounging poolside in this glorious Austin spring weather. As I whipped around the kitchen beforehand, steaming baby potatoes and green beans and buzzing up some goddess dressing in the blender, I suddenly realized that I had no chickpeas for the salad. Ack! Then, inspiration struck as I considered SweetPea's suggestion from earlier that day that we eat some egg-less (tofu) salad sandwiches (I guess veggie salads don't excite her like they do me): why not use some diced extra firm silken tofu in place of the chickpeas? I think the result was lovely; it was light yet still sophisticated.

This marks the third time I've made a batch of the Green Goddess Garlic Dressing. The first time was with my friend Anne, when we made it with young green garlic, and it was positively divine. The second time, I used the full amount of regular garlic; it was still delicious and pleasing, but it had a much stronger bite from the raw garlic that was too spicy for the girls. This time, I made a double batch of the dressing (to use throughout the rest of the week), and I only put in half the amount of garlic. It is again an excellent dressing, but the raw garlic still gives it a fairly spicy kick that makes it hard for the girls to enjoy as much as El Hombre and I do. I am thinking that the next time I make this dressing (because I will - I love it!), I'll try using lots of roasted garlic instead. I'm imagining that it will give the dressing a deep and rich, yet mellow and sweet garlicky taste, rather than the sharp zing of raw garlic.

I haven't been very diligent during the last week or so about sticking to my personal exercise and eating plan... tomorrow morning I will step on the scale to see what kind of damage I need to deal with. Sigh. I have no real excuses; I just need to realize that it's important to stick to the plan even when I'm feeling busy and overwhelmed with all the little details of life. Maybe even more important during those times. Anyway. Moving on...

Masala Baked Tofu

Masala Baked Tofu, page 146
with saag and gobi aloo

This was... okay. Not bad, certainly, but not terribly exciting, either. We ate it tonight as a main dish, along with some saag (spinach) and gobi aloo (potatoes and cauliflower).

The seasonings were fine; El Hombre remarked that he would have preferred it to be more "saucy." The girls, however, loved it, so I suppose that means it is probably kid-friendly, depending on the kid. The seasonings were mild enough to not scare them off. I think I would have like a more bold flavor, but then, the kids might not like it.

Again, like the Basic Baked Tofu, this would be a fine choice for a sandwich, or wrap, or to top a salad. But as a star attraction on the dinner plate, it just didn't have enough ooomph on its own.

However, having said all that: I am totally stuffed after tonight's dinner, but I think it's because I ate too much saag. "Too much" surely doesn't apply to spinach, does it?

Breakfast (for Dinner) Sandwich

Breakfast Sandwich, pg. 269
Whole -wheat English muffin, tofu scramble with wilted spinach, Eggplant Bacon, and Caesar Chavez Dressing

El Hombre started his weekly golf league playing tonight, so the girls and I are on our own for Tuesday night dinner now, for several weeks. The plan tonight was to try Isa's suggestion for a breakfast-type sandwich, something we could take with us as we headed out for the evening for SweetPotato's ballet folklorico class and a few errands. I'm talking about a whole-wheat English muffin stuffed with scrambled tofu, wilted spinach, eggplant bacon (!) from the chapter "Full-On Salads," and that ahhhh-mazing Caesar Chavez Dressing.

This was really good. Tasty, easy, and convenient. I did not do the Curry Scrambled Tofu with Wilted Arugula suggested in AFR; instead, I just whipped up a simple tofu scramble with our family's favorite scramble seasonings, something I knew the girls would like - nutritional yeast, garlic and onion granules, and salt, with a couple handfuls of spinach wilted into the mix.

Basic Baked Tofu

Basic Baked Tofu, page 144
and El Hombre's "Tater-Broc"

Indeed, the Basic Baked Tofu is basic. Which is a good thing. As the recipe indicates, this is the perfect tofu to have on hand for sandwiches, salads, and the like. I began marinating the tofu several hours ahead of time, and while it was good, I did find myself wishing the flavors of the marinade had permeated the tofu a bit more.

But I have to give props to El Hombre. Again, he was in charge of getting dinner on the table tonight, and I left him with minimal instructions - bake the tofu as directed in the cookbook, and fix up some potatoes and broccoli however he liked. Apparently, he had one of those mad-kitchen-genius moments, and created something wonderful. He sauteed up some chopped onions along with the broccoli and potatoes, and then decided to throw the rest of the tofu marinade into the mix. It turned out to be this super yummy, comforting chunky-mashed-potato-and-broccoli-with-onions dish, seasoned to perfection with the marinade. Really! Combined with the baked tofu, it was a perfect, simple yet comforting dinner to come home to after a long day. He called it "tater-broc." Baked tofu and tater-broc... yummy!