Grillin'

I have been grilling up a storm since May. Below are some photographic evidence of my skills, or lack there of.

Cous cous, broccoli, tofu, and garlic:
Tofu and Cauliflower:
Tofu and Greens:

Green Beans and Avocados:

I was inspired by a show on the food channel. They had a bunch of not-ripe-enough avocados and decided to grill them with lemon, olive oil, and garlic. I gave it a try and stuffed them with a carrot, bell pepper salad. It was okay, but not as good as I was expecting. It was a good way to use up unripe avocados.
Tofu and Brocolli:
Onions, Zucchini, eggplant, tofu:
Tofu and Greens:

I have some pineapple, corn, and zucchini waiting to be grilled this week.

Breading

This is my favorite breading for anything from tofu to eggplant.

Basic Breading:
1 cup corn flakes
3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon seasoning

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until small crumbs remain.
You can always add other spices depending on what you're cooking. Garlic powder, onion powder, basil, oregano and cumin are always good.

Breaded tofu with a side of roasted corn salad.
The tofu was marinated in a soy sauce and powdered vegetable broth.

Canned wheat chicken with roasted vegetables and rice.
My local Asian grocer has a variety of canned fake meats. I pick them up every once and awhile. This canned setian I breaded and baked before serving with some roasted veggies over rice.

Simple Meals and Pie

I got a new tool - a julianner. It makes cutting quicker!

I was a bit too excited to use my new julieanner and didn't think about the whole of my meal because I was too hungry and excited. I started cutting the carrots, but I was already boiling rice noodles and sauteeing garlic. Then went the sun dried tomatoes. It really wasn't a good meal, but it looked good and the salt really helped. This was one of those times when you understand the importance of a flavored salt when it makes a meal.
Skinny Oven Fries:
These tasted much like hash browns. The potatoes were sprayed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt before baking.


Melon Baller!
Another fun kitchen tool, but doing an entire watermelon - it's a lot of work. I always wanted to serve punch out of a watermelon so I balled most the melon. I forgot to take a picture of my watermelon punch bowl though!
I threw in some leechies for color.


Coconut Cream Pie with Lime Sauce:
I am still working on my pie recipe. This recipe is a mixture of this recipe and a vanilla tofu pudding recipe. Unfortunately, the pie didn't set. But it tasted damn good!

Simple Meals

This one wasn't as great as I wanted, but it was good enough to fill me up.
Green Bean Sandwich:
Steamed green beans tossed with a bit of garlic aioli. Placed on bread with a thick slice of tomato.


What to do with a bunch of broken chips?
Baked Tofu:
Tofu crusted with ground tortilla chips, flour and a bit of spices, then baked for 20 minutes.
Served with a side of salad.

Fried tofu and greens

Every time I am in Austin my aunt takes me to NuAge Cafe. Last time I was there, last year, I got a dish called sizzeling setain, or something like that. It was fried pieces of setain with a glazed sauce on top of a big pile of greens. It was so fantastic. Not just the taste, but the combination of healthy and fried food. I decided this was the best was to feel okay about eating fried food - on top of a big pile of greens.

I attempted to make something similar but with BBQ tofu.

BBQ Tofu and Greens:
1 block of firm tofu
1/4 cup corn starch
1 bunch of greens
1/4 bottle BBQ sauce
oil for frying

Drain and press the tofu. Cube and coat with corn starch so it looks like a marshmellow. Fry tofu in oil until it becomes a light yellow color. Place on a drain board to absorb some of the oil
Steam the bunch of greens as normal.
Place the tofu carefully into a bowl and coat with your favorite BBQ sauce. Be careful not to smooth the tofu too much.
Layer a place with greens and top with BBQ tofu.


Enjoy your fried food!

Tofu Scramble

Last weekend I attended the Post Punk Kitchen Vegan: The Gathering and cooked a large amount of tofu scramble Sunday morning. People were really happy with the dish and hearing Julie tell me it was "the best tofu scramble" she'd ever had, was a compliment to many any heart smile.

Sun dried tomato Tofu scramble with Basil

I don't really have a recipe but it usually goes like this:
Saute onions, add garlic, mix. Add tofu, a bit of soy sauce and any dried spices and cook until the tofu starts to brown.
Add veggies related to their firmness (carrots, to green beans, spinach and tomatoes) and add fresh spices last.

Tofu Apple Quesadilla

I've been enjoying the panini grill to the extreme.

Tofu Apple Quesadilla:
Marinaded and grilled tofu
Sliced Fuji Apples
Follow Your Heart cheese

Place it all together and grill.
I was trying to figure out a dipping sauce for this. I kept munching on it thinking and by the time I thought of using a Balsamic Vinaigrette, I was finished.

Tofu Marinade:
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tsp. all purpose seasoning salt
1 tsp. thyme
water - enough to cover the sliced tofu.

I usually just keep a block of tofu marinading in the fridge with this mixture.

It's a very plain, and white meal. Spinach would look better in here.

Christmas in July

My friend Shelley throws the best parties, so much so that she throws two Christmas parties a year. I wanted to come up with a a new way to enjoy something common. With that in mind I came up with a dessert dip - cheese and crackers.

Cheesecake Dip with Ginger Snap Cookies:
1 8 oz. container Tofutti Cream Cheese
1 12 oz. container vacuum packed firm tofu
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons corn starch
2 Tablespoons soy milk
2 Tablespoons raspberry jelly.

Blend cream cheese, tofu, lemon juice, corn starch and soy milk in a food processor until smooth.
Place in square baking pan and bake at 375F for 25 minutes.
Let cool completely.
In a glass dish spread sides with a bit of raspberry jelly. Layer cooled cheesecake dip with some raspberry jelly in a decorative fashion.
Put in the fridge for 2 hours before serving with ginger snap cookies.


The dip was a hit!

Scrambled Tofu

Scrambled tofu is such an easy dish: crumble some tofu and pan fry, add some spices and veggies and serve warm. I love to shred my tofu before cooking it. The small texture of it is a perfect crumble for me. This one I added shredded onions, garlic, carrots, purple cabbage, kale, tummeric and other random spices.

I was kind of bored with it though so I decided to use up the rest of my phyllo. I put the phyllo in muffin tins and filled them with tofu scramble and put them in the oven. This would be a great way to serve a breakfast food at a buffet brunch.

Tofu, Salad and Pie

My posts have been lacking because either my photos have not been turning out or my recipes have not been. Below are a few of the things that have turned out.
Tandoori Tofu:
My mother bought me a jar of tandoori marinade awhile ago and it's been such a treat to use with tofu. Here I marinated the tofu for two days before broiling. I also made a red bean and onion side to go with the tofu and rice.


Roasted Corn Salad:
Inspired by a Whole Foods salad I saw. This is great for picnics, which I hope to attend more of this summer.
1 bag of frozen corn
1 large handful of baby carrots, chopped
1 cup loose spinach, chopped
1 tsp. fresh chopped herbs of your choice. I used tarragon and a bit of rosemary
2 bulbs of garlic, roasted
1/4 sweet onion, chopped
Spices

Panfry the corn until browned. Turn heat to low and throw in carrots herbs and garlic. Add more oil if necessary. For a more smoky flavor, add 1/4 tsp or less of liquid smoke.
Once cooled added the chopped spinach and onion. This is a good dish to add red pepper if you're into them.
Julie's Chocolate Pie with Webly's Raspberry Topping:
At Vegfest a few weeks ago I attended some cooking sessions and was inspired by Julie's Chocolate Espresso truffle Pie. I love versatile recipes!
1 1/2 box of silken tofu
10 oz. melted chocolate
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup espresso
2 tsp. vanilla
1 9" crust

Put everything but the crust in the blender, blend until smooth, poor into pie crust and let set over night in the fridge.

Alright, I like this because it's easy as pie too!
My version is similar but with raspberry. I used soy milk in place of espresso. Before the pie set I carefully folded in some bone-free (seedless) raspberry jam. I then mixed silken tofu, raspberry jam and powdered sugar to make a thin raspberry topping.


I am currently working on a coconut cream pie, which is odd because I am not sure I ever had the non-vegan version. I'm also still working on the perfect cheesy sauce.
Outside of my cooking experiments I am planning the wedding, trying to fix up the house and keeping up to date on Jess and my other website: Stumptown Vegans.

Pickled Protein

There's probably another word for this old recipe but since I heard about it on The Signal podcast I don't have much else to go by. The Signal is a Firefly/Serenity, one of my favorite tv shows/movies, podcast. Other Firefly fans, Browncoats, got together to make a cookbook based on the theme of the show: Big Damn Chefs, and gave the proceeds to charity.

The podcast has been reviewing recipes within the cook book. The directions for this one seemed simple enough:
Cover some tofu with miso paste.
Let it sit on the counter a few days with a damp cloth over it.
Serve with crackers as an ageed cheese.

The reviewer thought this was a much better alternative to the vegan cheeses of the world, so I gave it a shot.
I took 1/2 block of tofu, cut it in half and coated each one with red miso. Set it on the counter for two days with a plate under it and a damp cloth over it.
The miso is supposed to take out the water from the tofu while the tofu absorbs the miso flavor.

Here's what it looked like day two:I tasted the miso and it was flavorless. I wanted to know more about this old recipe, but since I didn't know the name I didn't know what to search for. Do you know about this recipe?

This is what it looked like at day 3:
I cut it open and it did taste like miso on the inside, a lighter miso. Maybe I should have coated it thicker with miso? I don't know. It is a bit creamy on the inside and I do eat it as a spread but it's not something I am really thrilled about. I just feel I've done something wrong. Got any ideas?

Savory Vegetables Abound!

My food from this last week all has the same theme but I can't quite figure out the theme.
Here's some random food from this past week:

Cashews Green Beans and Sprouts:
This really wasn't as good as I wanted it to be.
Pan fried brussel sprouts, green beans and cashews with a soy sauce flavoring. As I was pouring the soy sauce in I was even thinking how soy sauce and sprouts just don't seem to go together. And they don't. Don't try this one. Brussel Sprouts and Tofu:
So what does go with brussel sprouts? garlic and lots of it!
Broiled tofu, brussel sprouts, garlic, olive oil and salt! Perfect!Aspargus and a Secret Sauce:
Now I know I don't post many of the Post Punk Kitchen test recipes but I couldn't get enough of this creamy garlic sauce. I salavate just thinking of it.
Have you noticed my theme of keeping the vegetables fairly simple?
Tofu and Green Beans:
This one is a bit fancier so I'll give you some rough directions after the photo.
1. Set the oven broiler to high. Slice tofu slab into 6 pieces and cut into triangle pieces. (Triangles just taste better.) Put a little of soy sauce on each piece before putting it in the oven for 10 minutes.
2. Steam the green beans.
3. Turn the tofu over and put a little bit of tomato sauce on each one, just enough to cover the tops. Broil again for another 10 minutes or until done.
4.Arange tofu on a plate, I used 4 slices. smother with some extra maranara/tomoato sauce. Layer the green beans on top and then coat with your favorite garlic sauce. Serve warm.
If I was to make this again I would maranade the tofu before.


Fried Green Beans and Rice:
Ths was wonderful! Healthy and not to healthy at the same time. Again you see that mysterious creamy garlic sauce! I told you I couldn't get enough of it!

For the breading I roughly followed the directions in The Dirty South Cookbook. I used about 1/3 cup flour and another 1/3 cup glutten flour (I thought it was another flour. I need to label my bulk foods better!) onion powder, lots of soy sauce and enough soy milk to make it a good consitancy. I threw all the green beans in the batter and coated them until frying time.
At first I thought the batter was going to be too soy saucy but it was just enough flavor to be perfect with a bite of rice and green beans.

I'll show you some chocolate pie later, but for now I must finish painting the house. (I keep being asked how I have so much enegry and I guess it's becuase I eat so many dark green veggies!)

More Broil Tofu Scramble

One of our favorite breakfast places here in Portland, Beaterville, has this wonderfully textured tofu. So I was inspired by both the delicious scramble tofu I had the previous weekend and the Beaterville tofu so I tried the following.

Broiled Tofu Scramble:
1 block of tofu
2 Tbl. Braggs
Light oil

1. Turn the broiler onto high.
2. Cut tofu into cubes and scatter on cookie sheet. Spray with oil and broil for 10 minutes.
3. Toss the tofu and spoon over some Braggs.
4. Stick it back in the oven and continue to broil, repeating the above process until your tofu reaches the desired consistency. You might want it drier than you think because if you'll be adding any vegetables to it, it will absorb some.

1/2 onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 bag baby spinach
1 Tbl. roughly chopped sun dried tomatoes

1. Saute the onion and garlic in some oil.
2. Add the sun dried tomatoes and tofu and cook until it all reaches the same temperature.
(Your tofu will change texture the longer you cook it because it will gain moisture.)
3. Add spinach, cover and cook until wilted, making sure to stir and add spices to your taste.

I love the strong flavors of the tomatoes and don't feel this dish needs much extra spice.
Serve with home fries, juice and toast of your choice.
Enjoy!

Breakfasts!

Multi-grain Muffins:
Okay, these aren't really multi-grain and it doesn't really have a recipe.


Here's the process:
Blend in a blender about 3/4 oatmeal with 1 tablespoon flax seed, 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar and about 1/4 cup nuts - I used cashews. Add cinnamon, nutmeg and your other favorite spices. Set aside.
Bend 1 apple, 1 cup apple juice, 1 tablespoon molass, 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Mix the wet and the dry together. Add 1/3 cup dried blueberries and put into muffin tins. Put a dollop of blueberry jam on top and bake for 35 min at 350F.

These are very chewy and more like health bars than muffins.



Tofu Scramble:
It can be hard finding a good tofu scramble when eating out. Usually they make it too wet or bland, or both! I like mine a little crispy/chewy so I tried broiling it.

1 block tofu
1/2 medium onion
3 coves of garlic
2 tablespoons chopped sun dried tomatoes
4-5 large capers cut into quarters
3 tablespoons pinenuts
Large handful of spinach
Some Braggs

Turn broiler onto high.
Squeeze out as much water from the tofu as possible. Crumble tofu and place on baking sheet. Put that in the broiler/oven.
Saute the onion with some oil until translucent.
Check tofu, mix the tofu and pour some Braggs or other liquid seasoning over it and put it back in the broiler.
Add the chopped garlic to the sauted onions and satue for about 3 minutes. Add the sun dried tomatoes and pinenuts. Saute another 2 minutes.
Turn the broiler off and move the tofu into the frying pan. Continue to let the mixture cook together.
Add capers and other spices at this time.
place a big handful of spinach on top, cover and let steam for 1 minute. Uncover, stir and let cook another minute or so until the spinach is your favorite consistancy.
Serve warm.

A side of blueberry toast goes nicely with the strong flavors of the capers and tomatoes. Next time I make this I'll either add the capers or the tomatoes because they both have such strong unique flavors they kind of fight with each other when pared up.

Sweet Tofu and Green Beans

This was fantastic! But there's no real recipe, but I will try my best.

Hazelnut marinated tofu with almond breading on a pile of Sweet onion sauce sauteed with green beans.

At my local farmer's market I found this hazelnut marinade. It's pretty much soy sauce with a lot of hazelnut flavor. That's the main part of this recipe.

I marinaded one block of tofu over night in this hazelnut marinade.
The next day I breaded the tofu in a mixture of chickpea flour, almond flour, cayenne pepper, salt and a dash of ginger.
These were baked on a cookie sheet at 425F for 12 min. each side.

The sweet onion sauce is a wonderful recipe I tested for Isa and Terry (of the Post Punk Kitchen fame). They have a new cookbook coming up and though it's far from being ready for sale, you should keep a look out for it.
The sweet onion sauce was mixed with green beans and sauteed until done.

The sweetness of these two dishes went together nicely. If I drank wine, or knew anything about wine, I would have served wine with this dish because it just seems appropriate.

Sweet Scramble

This was made for the livejournal Vegan_cookoff.

I'm a big fan of sweet things for breakfast, but I wanted to play along in the vegan_cookoff community, so this is what I came up with. It's a lot like oatmeal, but has a different texture. Next time I will add more apples and roast them.


Sweet Scramble
1/2 block firm tofu
1/4 cup agave
1/4 cup chopped apples
1/4 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup blue berries
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
large dashes of: clove, nutmeg and ginger

1. Shred tofu and start to saute with some olive oil an 1/4 cup agave
2. Add chopped apples and spices, saute more.
3. Add apple sauce and saute until sticky. Add sliced almonds.
4. Place blueberries on top of scramble and let cook for about two minutes.
5. Mix together and serve with sprinkled almonds.

Baked Ricotta

Baked Ricotta
My mom got a non-vegan version similar to this at a resturant the other night and it inspired me to make this. I am unsure if it's really called baked ricotta, but this is what I am calling it now.

1 block firm, silken tofu
3-5 cloves garlic
1/2 cup chopped basil
1 cup chopped spinach (I used frozen)
1/4 cup finely chopped soy moz.
2 Tbl. chopped sun dried tomatoes
salt and pepper

Place in a bag and let marinate over night.

I rolled them into balls, making sure to squeeze out as much liquid as I could before frying.
At first I used too much oil and they fell apart, as you can see in the picture. They stayed together much better using just a bit of oil. However, they weren't that beautiful.

Dinner is served with a salad with basil and balasic vinegar dressing and some steamed summer squash. The baked/pan fried ricotta was served on a bed of tomato sauce with some soy cheese served over it.

D-lish!