Vegan Fazool: tofu

Showing posts with label tofu. Show all posts

Friday, February 2, 2018

Finger Food!

Say whaaaa? We gotta cook again?

Nahhhhhhhhh.

Don't feel like cooking but the Superbowl is swooping down on you like Challenger the Eagle?

Try you some Veggie Fingers!

They are even good for dinner with mashed potatoes, lol.

As a finger food, they are really good hot or cold served with dipping sauces of any ilk. And, surprisingly, they are not terribly messy.

Note: You can use any roast-able vegetable here: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sweet potatoes, whatever. Cooking time may be a bit longer for carrots/potatoes/root veggies. Just check them at the 20 minute mark and see if they are done, if not, let them go longer.

Veggie Fingers

(Tofu and Broccoli here, but, feel free to go crazy!):

1 bunch of broccoli (or like 2-3 cups or so of your veggie "fingers" of choice) cut into florets or, um, "fingers"

1 brick of tofu, pressed and sliced into "fingers"

(or whatever shape you want)

1 1/2 cups non-dairy milk (any kind, full fat is better)

3-6 Tablespoons garbanzo bean (chickpea) flour

1 box of Shake'N Bake (several varieties are vegan) OR about 2-3 cups Panko or other breadcrumbs mixed with any seasonings you dig (onion powder, garlic powder, salt, nutritional yeast, herbs/spices, whatevs)

few teaspoons of oil (neutral or olive) to grease pan.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Method:

This is really just breading some stuff and baking it in a hot oven, guys. Make anything a "finger!"

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

2. Prepare a baking sheet with foil and spray the foil with a light coat of oil (I use a Misto sprayer) or just brush some oil on there.

3. Whisk chickpea flour into non-dairy milk until a reasonably thick batter forms. Thinner milks will take the higher amounts of flour, use more if needed. You don't want it too thick or too thin, so add a tablespoon at a time until you get it to coat the back of a spoon, i.e, it needs to stick to your veggies and your tofu but not be super thick :). What I like to do is pour the milk into a jar or tupperware with tight lid, stir in your chickpea flour, close the lid and shake until well combined. Otherwise, use a bowl and whisk in with a fork or whisk. You can season this, too, if you want, but I didn't.

4. In a medium tupperware with a good lid, put your broccoli florets (all of mine fit in this one, but if yours don't, just do two or more batches) and pour some of the batter over them, I'd say about half the batter, start with less, you can always add more.

Now, put the lid on and shake and turn gently until all your broccoli is evenly coated.

Like so.

5. Put some Shake'N Bake (or your homemade Panko or breadcrumb mix) in a bowl and coat each bite/finger:

Like so. I'd use a lighter coating than this next time. Shake'N Bake is pretty heavily seasoned!

Arrange the broccoli on the prepared baking sheet.

6. Now, batter and bread the tofu fingers. I battered the tofu individually rather than use the shake-to-coat technique since I thought it might break up if I did that. I just poured the rest of the batter into the same tupperware the broccoli was in and used a fork to turn the tofu fingers in it. Then transfer each finger to the Shake'N Bake or Panko mixture and coat.

Arrange the tofu on your baking tray.

I fit everything on one tray.

7. Bake at 425 for about 20 minutes.

I didn't flip mine, but you can if you want. Mine were done at the 20 minute mark, but if you use other vegetables, they may need a little longer. Keep an eye out to not burn the breading!

Serve!

I ate mine for dinner, lol, but these are a great appetizer.

You can serve them with any kind of dipping sauce: Sriracha mayo, mustard, ketchup, dressings, hot sauce, even mushroom gravy or marinara would be good, whatever you dig. Or, just eat them plain.

They are good at room temperature and don't seem to suffer for it.

Oh! And while your oven is still at 425...if you feel like it, throw in a batch of:

Roasted Chickpeas!

YUMMMMY.

This is just cooked or canned (rinsed and drained of course) chickpeas mixed in a bowl with a little oil and any spices or seasonings you want (tamari, nutritional yeast, onion/garlic powder, spices/herbs, lemon juice, add a little agave, whatever!). Now, stick them in that same oven you just used on a foil lined, lightly oiled baking tray. Roast about 20-25 minutes at 425. Stir halfway through. YUM.

You can also make anything else, really, lol.

Chips/Dips/Salsa (of course)

Veggie dogs or veggie "pigs in a blanket"

Veggie Burgers (homemade or pre-made)

Veg Onion Dip (vegan sour cream with a packet of Onion soup in it)

Crudites, cheeses, olives, etc.

Pizzas, pasta salads, sandwiches...

You can basically make (or buy) an awesome vegan version of anything the omnis are chowing down on!

Just give it a look up on the ol' internet.

Vegan versions for the win! :)

What are you going to serve at your Superbowl

(or anti-Superbowl) party??

Yeah, uh, Eagles are probably going to get crushed. At least they went to heaven? Lol.

P.S. The Veggie Fingers make an outstanding burrito!

Yet another incarnation (choice language, lol) of the Veggie Finger. Highly recommend.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Holiday Ham'fu Roast and Lemony Asparagus

I had no idea what I was making with potato "eggs" and my Lemony Asparagus for Easter until I was cooking them today! Then, a question...would it work to roast a whole block of tofu like a ham...with a smoky, pineappley glaze? Oh yes! Yes, it works, and yes, it's delicious! Here's the recipe, guys and I have to say, it was really good and has a very fun presentation. I'd make one roast per every two hungry guests. You can do a bunch of them in a big roasting pan, no problem. Double, triple, or quadruple the recipe below and just use a big enough roasting pan for however many roasts you require.

Holiday Ham'fu Roast!

Holiday Ham‘fu Roast

This makes one ‘fu roast. Double, triple, etc. as needed!

Ingredients:

½ cup pineapple juice (basically all the juice from a can of pineapple slices)

2 T. Tamari

2 T. Vinegar (I used Rice Vinegar)

2 T. Packed Brown Sugar

1 T. Texas Pete Hot Sauce

Dash of liquid smoke or a good sprinkle of smoked paprika, smoked salt, or whatever “smoky” ingredient you like.

1 T. Nutritional Yeast

1 tsp. Breakfast Sausage Seasoning (Penzeys)

Sprinkle of Onion powder (I would have put more but it was an afterthought).

One block of extra firm tofu, drained and “lightly” pressed*

*You don’t want to press the heck out of this or your presentation and roast will suffer, about 20 minutes should do it (I use a TofuXPress).

A few pineapple slices

Method:

First, make some marinade holes! Using a metal skewer, poke holes through the center of the tofu, all the way through, to produce two parallel rows of holes along either the length or width of the tofu (doesn’t matter) . See photo. Twist your skewer so that it expands the holes a bit. If you’ve got a flavor injector, you can just inject the marinade instead of making these holes. I couldn’t find mine!

Keep making the holes all the way across, about every centimeter or so.

Then, make another row about a centimeter below that one.

Now, score the tofu as you would a ham, cutting almost to the bottom of the ‘fu (but not through it!) to create spaces for the marinade to really get into the ‘fu!

If you look closely, you can see the two rows of marinade holes here, too.

Carefully transfer the scored tofu roast to its marinating container. I used the TofuXPress for this, too, as it is the perfect shape to allow the marinade to get all the way up and into the loaf. Cover with the marinade. Marinate for an hour or up to overnight.

Of course, you can always just slice your ‘fu however you like and marinate and bake the slices!

Top your roast with a pineapple slice! Bake your Ham'fu roast at 375 for about 45-60 minutes, basting every 15 minutes or so. Some of the marinade will get absorbed by the ‘fu and the remaining marinade will thicken up into a nice glazy sauce. When the ‘fu is roasty and has nice brown edges, and the sauce is reduced by about half or more, your ‘fu is done!

This roast is almost done!

Serve with the reduced glaze sauce, potato “eggs” (or just some mashed potatoes!) and Lemony Asparagus. I modified Joni Marie’s Potato Mochi recipe from her new vegan fusion book, then shaped them like eggs before sautéing. Super yum!

This was deeelish!

Lemony Asparagus is just fresh asparagus spears sautéed for about 12 minutes over medium heat (in a cast iron pan) in some olive oil and rosemary salt. The juice of one organic lemon is added at the end to steam the asparagus a bit. Cover your pan for the last minute or two after adding the juice. Serve with more salt, pepper and organic lemon zest. You can roast the asparagus in the oven, too, if you want. It takes about 25 minutes if you put it in with the ‘fu, just drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and lemon juice.

Quick pics of Lemony Asparagus:

Just hit the pan, almost raw.

After about five minutes or so, it's taken on that gorgeous bright green color!

And after the full 12 minutes, here they are, fully adorned with lemon zest and rosemary salt:

Lemony Asparagus

Hope you all had a wonderful day! Happy Spring!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Sweet Chili Tofu, Korean Fresh Noodles and Betty Goes Vegan!

I made Joni's Sweet Chili Tofu tonight (but I pan fried it on my cast iron pan vs. grilling it) over Korean Fresh Noodles from my Asian Market haul with Broccoli and an Easy Asian Dressing. This was an unbelievably delicious dish!

That tofu! Those noodles! That broccoli! OMG.

Marinating the tofu (it was already pressed in my TofuXPress) in the Sweet Chili Sauce:

Pan Frying the tofu in one of my cast iron pans (the crepe pan, actually!).

Served over Korean Fresh Noodles with Easy Asian Sauce, garnished with Scallions and Sesame Seeds

My Easy Asian Sauce is EASY!

This was one of my favorite Asian Noodle and Tofu dishes ever. OMG.

And for those of you who know and love Annie and Dan Shannon and their Betty Crocker Project, their book came out yesterday (I received it yesterday because I had pre-ordered it on amazon months ago) and they were even on The Today Show!

There are so many amazing recipes in there, I don't know where to start, though I think Salted Caramel Apple Whoopie Pies is a good place! Or maybe Inside-Out Peanut Butter Cup Whoopie Pies! I may have just bought a heart-shaped whoopie pie pan, you know, for Valentine's Day Whoopie (Pies) :-)

XOXO!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Testers: Spicy Korean BBQ Jackfruit and Pull Apart Buns!

Here are three more testers from Joni's new book, Vegan Fusion! This is an amazing Pull Apart Bread filled with Spicy Korean BBQ Jackfruit. I made all three recipes (the BBQ sauce, the Jackfruit and the bread itself) yesterday!

BBQ Bun Pull Apart Bread from Vegan Fusion

This was made from three recipes...

The Spicy Korean BBQ Sauce:

Delish!

The BBQ Jackfruit Story:

This was my first time working with jackfruit, it is very hard right out of the can.

Here it is just starting to cook with the sauce, etc.

I couldn't really begin to break it up until it had been cooking a good while, though I got some of the pieces apart a little using two forks at the beginning. Next time I may chop up the jackfruit with a chef's knife before adding it to speed up cooking a bit (I was a little impatient last night, if I had more time I wouldn't have worried about it, it gets soft as it cooks).

After 45 minutes and a bit of effort (with two forks as well as cutting it up with my spatula--I wanted to make those buns!) to break apart the chunks of jackfruit, here is the finished Spicy Korean BBQ Jackfruit! It was delicious!

And, I needed a snack while I was making all this, so I put some of Joni's Sweet Chili Sauce on my tofu from the Asian Market (the homemade tofu, which is always amazing) and had it over some organic "marathon" bread from Wegmans.