I haven't had a chance to do a blog post about my New Year's Resolutions, yet...
but one of them is to eat more Meatless Meals. The "goal" is to switch over to a healthy vegetarian diet (the key word being healthy), but if I make that a resolution I know that I will find myself starving and then just wolfing down a bag of potato chips to fill the void. So, all I'm resolving to do is to try out more meatless recipes, figure out some things to do with tofu to make it taste good, work on my homemade seitan, and discover what to do with the package of tempeh that is sitting in my fridge. I'm going to try to post a Meatless Monday recipe idea every week, but don't hold me to that, either. If I learned anything from last year's "Pie a Week" resolution it's that...I tend to change my mind about doing stuff. Sometimes with (very) good reason!
So, let me just tell ya' that I actually have been eating a LOT of Meatless Meals over the past couple of weeks. Since Christmas I have only had chicken once! The rest of the time I have been eating beans, and lentils, and tofu! The hubs has even made a few tofu dishes that have been really good! He made a vegan soup with lentils and a vegan stir-fry with crumbled tofu. If you are a tofu hater because of the texture...then you should definitely try it crumbled. Even helps more if you freeze it first, then thaw, then crumble (into your stir-fry or...whatever). Then the "rubbery" texture is completely gone!
My absolute favourite new discovery when it comes to cooking with tofu is....
MARINADE!!!
Of course, tofu is just chalk full of water - so, if you press all that water out (between some paper towel with, say, a plate and some cans stacked on top...for about half an hour) you can then put your tofu into a marinade and it will just soak all those yummy flavours up like a sponge. I have read about this technique before, but I never actually tried it. Until now.
I got my Curry Tofu marinade recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's and Terry Hope Romero's book, "Veganomicon" (pg. 127), which is really simple--consisting of just some veg. broth, rice vinegar, olive oil, soy sauce, and spices. I cut my tofu up into eight equal pieces and let it marinade for the afternoon.
I then heated up my grill-pan to about medium high and cooked the pieces on top for about 5 minutes on one side and a couple more minutes on the other -- making a nice cross-hatch pattern on the first side (fancy shmancy!). I also took the reserved marinade and heated it up with an equal amount of veg. broth to make a delicious sauce for my tofu steaks and served it all on a bed of basmati rice.
Let me tell you...it was DELICIOUS!! My hubby even loved it. He said if meat was an "8 or 9" (he is a carnivore) then the tofu was a "7 or an 8". That is really, really, good...because he isn't a tofu fan.
I will make this one regularly from now on (in fact, I'm having it for lunch again today...so good!!), but I'm going to keep experimenting with other veggie dishes so I can bring you another episode of Meatless Monday next week. ;-)
Stay tuned!!
;-)
but one of them is to eat more Meatless Meals. The "goal" is to switch over to a healthy vegetarian diet (the key word being healthy), but if I make that a resolution I know that I will find myself starving and then just wolfing down a bag of potato chips to fill the void. So, all I'm resolving to do is to try out more meatless recipes, figure out some things to do with tofu to make it taste good, work on my homemade seitan, and discover what to do with the package of tempeh that is sitting in my fridge. I'm going to try to post a Meatless Monday recipe idea every week, but don't hold me to that, either. If I learned anything from last year's "Pie a Week" resolution it's that...I tend to change my mind about doing stuff. Sometimes with (very) good reason!
So, let me just tell ya' that I actually have been eating a LOT of Meatless Meals over the past couple of weeks. Since Christmas I have only had chicken once! The rest of the time I have been eating beans, and lentils, and tofu! The hubs has even made a few tofu dishes that have been really good! He made a vegan soup with lentils and a vegan stir-fry with crumbled tofu. If you are a tofu hater because of the texture...then you should definitely try it crumbled. Even helps more if you freeze it first, then thaw, then crumble (into your stir-fry or...whatever). Then the "rubbery" texture is completely gone!
My absolute favourite new discovery when it comes to cooking with tofu is....
MARINADE!!!
Of course, tofu is just chalk full of water - so, if you press all that water out (between some paper towel with, say, a plate and some cans stacked on top...for about half an hour) you can then put your tofu into a marinade and it will just soak all those yummy flavours up like a sponge. I have read about this technique before, but I never actually tried it. Until now.
I got my Curry Tofu marinade recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's and Terry Hope Romero's book, "Veganomicon" (pg. 127), which is really simple--consisting of just some veg. broth, rice vinegar, olive oil, soy sauce, and spices. I cut my tofu up into eight equal pieces and let it marinade for the afternoon.
I then heated up my grill-pan to about medium high and cooked the pieces on top for about 5 minutes on one side and a couple more minutes on the other -- making a nice cross-hatch pattern on the first side (fancy shmancy!). I also took the reserved marinade and heated it up with an equal amount of veg. broth to make a delicious sauce for my tofu steaks and served it all on a bed of basmati rice.
Let me tell you...it was DELICIOUS!! My hubby even loved it. He said if meat was an "8 or 9" (he is a carnivore) then the tofu was a "7 or an 8". That is really, really, good...because he isn't a tofu fan.
I will make this one regularly from now on (in fact, I'm having it for lunch again today...so good!!), but I'm going to keep experimenting with other veggie dishes so I can bring you another episode of Meatless Monday next week. ;-)
Stay tuned!!
;-)
*painting by Rachel Maguire (www.rayarray.com)
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2 comments:
Dreena Burton has a really good recipe that calls for tempeh, sweet potatoes and a thick BBQ-type sauce. It's in Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. Hopefully you can find it at your library.
Thanks Stefania!
I have so many veggie/vegan books...but not that one, yet. I think I'll have to get it. I just LOVE veggie cookbooks. So nice when none of the recipes gross me out. :)
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