Recipe Round-Up: Tofu 1-2-3

Tofu 1-2-3 is one of my older cookbooks, I've had it for ages. I bought it because it highlights one of my favourite ingredients, tofu. I just love tofu in all the ways, which is funny considering one of the excuses I gave for not going vegan a lifetime ago was because I hated tofu. Ha! Doing a tag search on my blog, it has been 10 years since I posted anything from this book! My goodness! I've actually made a lot more than I have shared, but some of it when back when I wasn't taking photos of foods. And then it languished on my shelf for years as I got more and more new cookbookes. But no more! You can see a few things I have posted from it here, but this is the first proper recipe round-up I have given it.

Vegetable Fried Rice: This was a quick and easy recipe, especially because I used some microwave white rice (instead of cooking brown rice from scratch). The recipe doesn't say to chill the rice, but I know how fried rice works so I chilled mine. I only had 1 1/2 cups of cooked rice, a bit less than the recipe would make, but I prefer a high vegetable to rice ratio. I still used the full amount of veggies and tofu, but I subbed carrot for capsicum and shallot for scallion. This made 2-3 serves.
Rating: :)



Thai Rice Noodles with Tofu and Mixed Vegetables: This recipe seems to simple, all one pot, just coconut milk and water with curry paste for the sauce... surely there should be more flavour? But no, it works great! I did pan fry my tofu in a bit of peanut oil first for texture and flavour (and I only had a 375g block rather than a 500g block). I subbed carrot for capsicum, and I sauteed my vegetables first for a couple of minutes before adding the red curry paste (one teaspoon for sensitive little me), the coconut milk (I used a 270mL tin of light with 130mL water), and stock. The noodles cook right in the pot as well. I used 200g of pad thai style dry rice noodles. Definitely break up the noodles before adding them to the pot, so you can submerge them properly. They cooked up fine! I did serve mine with some lime wedges as well, just for fun and because our neighbour gave us five million limes from their tree.
Rating: :)



Pasta with Butternut Creme: The recipe calls for creste di galli pasta, I used elbow macaroni. This is a lovely sauce, with a sweetness from the butternut, cheesiness from nooch (I may have added a smidge extra), and a strong miso flavour. I used a 500g bag of diced butternut, rather than a whole butternut cut up, so there might be some variations in amount of butternut depending on what you use. The tofu in this is silken tofu added to the sauce. The recipe called for one pound of pasta, I used 250g and it was the perfect amount. The sauce thickened quite a bit when you heated it with the pasta. I served with BBQ sauce glazed sausages and some kale.
Rating: :)



Cannellini Beans and Roasted Potatoes in Cashew Cream Sauce: Again, silken tofu plays a component of the sauce. In this case, a noochy cashew and tofu based sauce that is really delicious. Served over some roasted potatoes and white beans, this is cheesy, potato perfection. I took the variation of adding some spinach to the mix, but also served it over some spinach for lots of greens. I did bake my potatoes at a higher temperature for a bit longer to get them perfectly roasted. Then I heated the beans and spinach together, added the sauce, added the potatoes, and bam! This says it serves 6, but I am not sure in what universe. I got three serves.
Rating: :D



Barbecue Tofy with Oven-Roasted Potatoes: Much like the previous recipe, I roasted the potatoes hotter and longer to get them to my preference. The tofu in this case if extra-firm tofu that has been frozen, defrosted, pressed, and crumbled. It is then simmered with vegetables (I left out the capsicum) and BBQ sauce for about half an hour. There is no BBQ sauce recipe, it just calls for a jar. I used some leftover sauce from another cookbook I had made, so use whatever you like. This gave a very juicy and flavourful tofu. I served mine over some steamed broccoli, as well as the roasted potatoes.
Rating: :)



Chickenless Salad: A super simple salad, again involving tofu that has been frozen, defrosted, pressed and crumbles. I made a half recipe of this, using 250g of tofu, and got enough for four sandwiches. Simply mixed with mayo, celery, poultry seasoning (I made my own blend, salt, and pepper. I left out the scallion because I didn't have any. I did need to add a bit of mayo, it was a little dry as written. But then easy sandwiches were mine.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Great news! The day after my last post, Mozart and Mariah were adopted together. So happy for them! Here is a photo of them back when they were smaller kitties.