Tag Archives: tofu

Aug 10 2012
2 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Daal Biryani

Bryani is a dish that’s a regional specialty in one of my co-workers’ home town, Hyderabad, India. She gave me her recipe which calls for lamb and asked me to know how the vegan version pans out. I told her I planned to use lentils and she corrected me, “daal” so that’s what I’m calling it. We used the following:

1 cup of lentils or black-eyed peas, soaked and drained
1 cup split lentils, washed and drained
2-3 chili peppers (we’re using 2 jalapeños)
1 big toe sized piece of ginger, sliced
1 thumb sized piece of turmeric, sliced

some curry leaves if you’ve got them
2-3 teaspoons garam masala
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 carton of silken tofu
juice from 1 lemon

2 medium onions, sliced into strips
4 smallish tomatoes, chopped into bite sized pieces
4 medium white mushrooms, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 pinch of cumin seeds
3 bay leaves

corn oil

1 cup of basmati rice

Put a tablespoon or so of corn oil into a large pan and add the cumin seeds. Heat it until they start to sputter, then add the onion, peppers, ginger, turmeric, garam masala, coriander, cumin, tofu and lemon juice into a large pot, add a little corn oil and stir fry. Add about 1.5 liters of water and use a hand blender to mix everything into a smooth creamy broth.

Chop your veggies while that heats to a simmer.

Now mix in the veggies, legumes and rice.

We added eggplant in addition to mushrooms. They’ll float to the top, this isn’t a problem; it means you won’t need a lid.. Cook until all the water is absorbed and the rice and legumes are tender. This will take about 1 hour give or take 15 minutes on low heat. You can also bake it at 350F/180C in your favorite baking dish for about an hour.

This is a great meal for hungry people who like curry. I don’t know how it measures up to the carnist version, but we managed to eat all of it within 2 days and considering it was almost too big for the pot I was using, this is really saying something. Brent wanted to add some chopped green peppers to the mix immediately before serving next time for a sweet crisp crunch and I agree that would add something. If you try it, let me know. Enjoy!

This is Christie, signing off!

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Aug 09 2012
6 Comments
Main Dishes

Creamy Mushroom Soup!

This was comfort food. It’s raining sideways again here in Miami and you just gotta have something decadent. We used the following:

1.5 cups mushrooms, chopped roughly

1 carton of silken tofu

1 onion, diced

1/2 cup of white wine (we used a chardonnay)

1 tsp herbes de provence

1 pinch nutmeg

1 cube bouillon

1 generous pinch sage

2 tbsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tbsp olive oil

water to texture

salt and black pepper to taste

I combined the white wine and tofu in my blender and blended it until smooth. Then I put the onion and mushrooms in a pan and sauteed until the onion was translucent. I added the rest of the ingredients, adjusted the seasonings and then added water until I liked the texture.

I garnished with some shredded basil and served it. It was creamy and earthy and savory and soothing and with lots of protein and not a lot of fat. This would be awesome hot with a big tomato salad or as a cold appetizer. It’s also quick and easy enough to make for a quick lunch.

This is Christie, signing off!

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Aug 02 2012
12 Comments
Lazy Vegan, Reviews

Hipster Chic Volume II : Marinated Tofu

A vegan friend was discussing vegan cooking gadgets with us on her visit from elsewhere and suggested we try out the TofuXpress. We decided to give it a spin, and I will sing its praises for years to come. The TofuXpress is freaking sicknasty bodacious.

As the resident tofu presser in our household, I have struggled with the perfect way to make the texture of tofu meatier. I tried conventional pressing methods (tofu on paper towels, pressed down and weighted by a plate on top), and not so conventional methods (freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw). The former was certainly the most effective, but it necessitated a lot of waste. The TofuXpress makes it easy for me to make a nicely textured tofu that I can marinate.

So, for this simple recipe, you can use the paper towel method, or in my case, use a TofuXpress.

Take your block of tofu, drop it into the Xpress, use the heavy spring for pressing. Before putting it in the fridge, dump some of the already pressed liquid down your sink drain for optimal drainage. Stick it in the fridge, and go do something fun for an hour. I chose to dance to some Earth, Wind, and Fire records.

Pull the tofu out of the fridge, drain the liquid, remove the press. Now, to marinate, there’s a handy lid that attaches to the base of the Xpress that also acts as a seal for marinating.

Go ahead and prepare your marinade. For this experiment, I used a combination of soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, Sriracha and Bragg’s Liquid Aminos. The soy sauce and liquid aminos are there to help thin out the mix as tofu is not quite porous enough to soak in the teriyaki and Sriracha, which is where the awesome flavor is at. Dump your marinade into the Xpress with the tofu, let it soak for a half hour. After that time is up, flip the tofu, put the lid back on and let it soak another half hour.

The final step is to press out excess marinade for a last half hour period. I know that this has taken up 2.5 hours already, but I promise it’s worth it. Drop the excess marinade into a dish, save it for later, or use it to dip. You can slice up the tofu and eat it as is, or pan sear it for science.

If you want to save time, do the following :

  1. Prepare marinade.
  2. Press tofu overnight.
  3. In the morning, drain, switch to marinade.
  4. After daily activities, enjoy your tasty marinated tofu.

This will save a lot of waiting time, and your tofu will be freaking amazing after that nice long marinade session.

In short, the TofuXpress made it super easy for us to make firmer tofu, and enabled us to experiment with marinades. It saves us from wasting paper towels, and doesn’t take up a counter top. It’s dishwasher safe, and all of its parts store inside of itself. The TofuXpress has been a boon to us. Let us know if you have one, your marinade recipes, or feel free to ask us about it.

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Aug 01 2012
3 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes

Mushroom and Tofu Tacos, Jr.

I got this eerie sense of deja vu as I was cooking this dish and then realized that it was because I had made something like it before. I panicked at first, thinking to myself that I was mentally challenged for not being able to come up with something new. But then I realized how much had changed since I last made mushroom and tofu tacos, and I suddenly felt this sense of pride.

Allow me to explain. I went from barely cooking to suddenly learning how to cook vegan meals for myself. Every time I would prepare something, I had to do “research,” figuring out how to prepare and cook things, what ingredients to use, even simply making sure that what I was making was actually vegan. When making this dish, I didn’t think much about it. I just got my ingredients and dove right in. I am not the same Melissa that I was a year ago!

This is a good variation on my original recipe since it’s “ground” tofu and mushrooms. You will need the following:

1 block extra firm tofu, liquid squeezed out, and then mashed with a fork for a ground meat-like texture
1/3 cup of mushrooms, minced – I used some dried mushrooms that friends from Thailand brought for us
2 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 tsp chipotle chili powder (or ancho chili powder)
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cumin
salt, to taste
olive oil for frying
ground annatto (optional)

Mix all but the olive oil and annatto together in a bowl. Fire up a frying pan and heat up the olive oil. Then, toss in the tofu/mushroom mix. Cook until heated through. I add some annatto halfway through to give the tofu some color.

Stick that stuff on a warm tortilla, put your favorite taco toppings on it, and stuff your face! –Melissa

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Jul 28 2012
7 Comments
Dining Out

Being Vegan is Easy at Over Easy Cafe

Dining out when you’re vegan is generally a challenge, but it seems to be even more of a challenge when going out for breakfast. Pre-vegan, I would get overwhelmed at the vast breakfast/brunch selection at some restaurants. Now I go to those same places and get frustrated because the only vegan thing on the menu is a bowl of fresh fruit.

This morning, I perused several prospects in the hopes of finding a place that would please both myself and my non-vegan dining companions. I was really glad to come across Over Easy Cafe. Why? Because they have a tofu scramble on the menu! My Mom and niece didn’t have to be weirded out by menus that vegan/vegetarian places tend to have (let’s admit it… sometimes supremely vegan spots can be kind of weird for those who aren’t vegan) and I was able to enjoy a hearty vegan breakfast.

The Spicy Tofu Scramble consists of tofu scrambled with “chorizo” spiced veggie crumbles, red peppers, & jalapenos, topped with salsa verde & guacamole. It came with a red potato hash and a choice of whole wheat, multi-grain, sourdough, or rye toast. Let me pause here and mention that I’m not certain that the veggie crumbles were vegan and I didn’t think to ask when I was there.  Um, it was delicious. Here’s a close-up:

I hope that more places will follow the lead of Over Easy Cafe and come up with at least one vegan/vegetarian-friendly dish on their menu. It makes a huge difference.

If you’re in Chicago, try out Over Easy Cafe! –Melissa

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Jul 22 2012
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Cooking, Main Dishes

Panang Curry!

Curry is kind of awesome. This is a rich veggie curry rich with veggies. Is that redundant? Anyways, we like curry and will eat it whenever we get the chance so this is an easier version you can make if you’ve got a fridge full of veggies like we often do. You’ll need the following:

1.5 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped shallots/green onions
2 tablespoons minced ginger OR 1/2 tbsp powdered
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 generous tablespoons of peanut butter
1 finger sized piece of turmeric OR 2 tsp powdered
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon Thai red curry paste or to taste
1 cup water
1 can of coconut milk (2 cups of almond milk for a lighter version, just add 2 tablespoons of shredded coconut for flavor)
juice and zest from 1 lime

1 tomato, diced
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar or molasses or to taste
1 14-ounce package firm tofu, drained, cut into cubes (optional)
1 sweet potato or white potato, cubed
1 bunch green veg, ripped or cut into bite size pieces (I used broccoli and a green bell pepper because I had them but kale works well too)

salt to taste

You can also add mushrooms, sliced carrots, or other veggies
1/2 cup roasted and salted cashews or peanuts (or cilantro for a lighter version) for a garnish


Heat oil in large pan over medium-high heat. Cook shallots, ginger, turmeric and garlic until tender. Stir in the cumin and curry paste until fragrant. We like ours spicy so I added some red peppers.

Whisk in water, coconut milk, lime juice and zest, and brown sugar and let simmer. Season to taste with salt and adjust the seasonings.

Add tofu, potato and mushrooms if you’re using them and let cook on low heat covered for 20 minutes, or until the potato begins to soften. Then add the green veggies and cook until you like the texture.

Garnish with cashews/peanuts/cilantro and serve as is or with rice or quinoa. Using almond milk instead of coconut milk makes  a huge dent in the number of calories added from fat (even compared with light coconut milk) and makes the flavors more intense. We hope you get to try it!

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Jul 11 2012
6 Comments
Main Dishes, Thoughts

Vegan cheesy toast, scramble and bacon!

This is just a different assembly of some of our favorites which we casually call “the Heart Attack-Free, All-American Breakfast”. Side note: we’re really lucky to have located a bakery that will make custom gluten-free vegan bread for us. I find that most store bought varieties of gluten-free bread aren’t always vegan and even when they are, they taste like cardboard and sawdust. Below is Karin’s awesome multi-grain and -seed bread with Follow Your Heart mozzarella melted on top.

I sincerely hope that you don’t have to work too hard to find someone who can make awesome bread for you too! We toasted some vegan bread in our oven while scrambling some tofu and smoky maple bacon tempeh.

Above is our finished breakfast. It’s pretty kid friendly and I imagine that even a few non-vegans might be interested. The cheese, bread and tempeh were pre-made so we’ll just talk about the tofu.

Our standard tofu scramble is as follows:

1 carton of silken tofu

1 pinch of turmeric

1 pinch of paprika

1 tsp garlic salt

2 tsp onion powder

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

garlic salt and flake red pepper to taste.

a touch of black (sulfurous) salt is a great addition but isn’t necessary

Sometimes I add chopped tomato, as I did in this case. We just throw everything into a pan and mix until it’s hot and awesome (Brent is in the background working on the tempeh). 

Sauteed mushrooms or chopped basil also make a great addition to any tofu scramble. I see a lot of variations on this theme, so I encourage you to experiment: adding scallions, chopped tomato, sun dried tomato, minced onions or garlic, chopped bell peppers, or whatever blows your hair back. I also know a lot of people use Chinese style tofu. I prefer silken tofu… it reminds me of runny eggs. If you’re a tofu scramble pro, I’d love to hear what you do.

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Jul 10 2012
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Main Dishes, Recipes

Lentil Mushroom Loaf

This particular experiment will have to have another go. I wanted to make a lentil loaf in the spirit of meat loaf. Meat loaf always concerned me as a kid because I couldn’t tell what it was made of except that I always saw cousin Mary dumping crackers and meat that had been into the refrigerator long enough that not really be called meat anymore into a bowl and later, meatloaf would appear. Hmmm… I wonder if I should talk to a therapist about that. Anyways, my experiment involved the following:

1 carton of silken tofu

2 cups of mushrooms

1 1/2 cups of lentils

3 cups water

2 cubes of ‘beef’ bouillon

1 tsp sage

1 tsp thyme

1 pinch nutmeg

6 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup of flax meal

salt and pepper to taste

I cooked the lentils with the water in my microwave with the bouillon. I heated them at 2 minute intervals until the water was all absorbed.

When they were ready I put them into my food processor with the rest of the ingredients.

I mixed it until relatively smooth and then put it into my loaf pan. I baked it at 350F/175C until a toothpick came out clean – about 45 minutes. We sliced it up and made it into sandwiches that were hearty, savory and aromatic. The sage and thyme definitely made a great combo with the mushrooms and lentils.

I think that the flavors were good but I might add some cumin and coriander along with soy sauce instead of salt. It developed a nice firm crust but I think that more flax meal would make it stick together better. I might also not blend up the mushrooms I think the presence of whole mushrooms will make this more visually attractive. A diced onion might help that too. This was delightfully moist but the texture was more like paté than loaf. There will definitely be a next time.

This is Brent and Christie, signing off!

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Jul 06 2012
3 Comments
Cooking

Tofu Rogan Josh

So… Indian food… awesome… yeah. I’ve got a few Indian colleagues and one of them gave me her recipe for lamb rogan josh and I did my best to veganize it.You’ll need the following:

1 package water packed tofu, pressed and chopped into bite-sized chunks.
1 package of baby bella mushrooms, quartered
1 green bell pepper, cut into bite sized pieces
1-2 tbsp corn oil or other oil suitable for frying
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 big toe sized piece of ginger, minced
1 pinkie sized piece of turmeric, minced
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
15-20 curry leaves
2 tbsp of vegan cream cheese
1 teaspoon of red chilli powder
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 14oz tin of peeled plum tomatoes
1 lime, juice and zest, cut in half
curry leaves, to taste
salt and pepper to taste (garam masala works instead of pepper)

Getting the ingredients together was the hardest part. Finding fresh curry leaves was a mission but we did… did you know they grow on trees? I didn’t know that before our quest for curry leaves. They’re pretty important for this dish so I recommend seeking them out.
To start, add the onion to a large pot with the corn oil and fry it on high temperature until the onion starts to become translucent. Add the garlic, turmeric, curry leaves and ginger and keep frying. Add the dry spices and zest and keep frying.This should look and be very dry. When the spices become fragrant and everything in the kitchen smells awesome

Add the tomato, 1/2 lime juice and cream cheese and mix. If you’ve got a hand blender, now is the time to use it. Otherwise, before the tomato gets too hot, put it all in your blender and mix until smooth.

Add the tofu and mushrooms and allow to simmer for at least 45 minutes so the tofu takes on the flavors of the dish. Stir in the green bell pepper and coriander 10 minutes before serving.

So we served this with quinoa and red wine and it was not too far off from what I’ve had in restaurants: tart, creamy, herbal and rich. Did I mention I love Indian food?

It was loaded with veggies, protein and exciting herbs. Even if it wasn’t authentic, it’s still delicious and good for you. We hope you get to try it.

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Jun 28 2012
1 Comment
Cooking, Recipes

Ginger Squash Soup FTW!

Sometimes when it’s raining sideways and the sky is grey (which happens often in South Florida during the summer) you just want comfort food. We decided that squash soup with ginger and grilled cheese would fit the bill for a pair of hungry martial artists so this is what we gathered:

1 piece of ginger, (this will make it spicy and fragrant, add as little or as much as you like. Our piece was a little smaller than my palm)

1 carton of silken tofu

20 ounces of squash puree

1 tbsp Thai chili paste

1 tbsp syrup or sugar

1 cube of bouillon

1 pinch of cinnamon

1 pinch of nutmeg

salt to taste

I blended up the tofu (I used a box of Mori-Nu soft silken tofu) and ginger until it was creamy and combined it with the squash in a large pan. I used 2 boxes of Cascadian farms frozen winter squash puree.

I added all of the seasonings, adjusted them as needed and stirred until it was thoroughly mixed and heated through. I also happened to pick up some vegan gluten-free olive bread at a local market and melted some Follow Your Heart mozzarella in the oven. It took about 7 minutes at 350F/180C to get bubbly and melty.

The earthy buttery savory flavors in the grilled cheese perfectly complimented the spicy floral sweet squash soup. Brent isn’t a big fan of squash but when I mentioned making a similar soup with carrots, he got excited. This particular dish is remarkably low in calories for how rich and creamy it is. The whole pot has about 320 calories and easily feeds 2 hungry people. It’s loaded with fiber, vitamin A and protein in addition to antioxidants and trace nutrients from squash, soy, chili, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger that are of particular interest to scientists.

This is Christie, signing off!

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