Spinach-artichoke pasta bake

Adapted from the amazing thugkitchen.com. This can easily be both vegan and gluten free, and is definitely delicious.

Tofu-artichoke sauce

4 cloves garlic

1/3 cup almonds (slivered will blend best)

1 can (14 oz) water-packed artichoke hearts (not marinated), drained

1 box (12 oz) silken firm tofu, drained

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Spinach

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 yellow or sweet onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

12 cups baby spinach

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Pasta

1 pound penne pasta (gluten free if you wish)

1 jar (3 cups) tomato sauce

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook pasta according to its package directions.

In a food processor or strong blender, blend the tofu-artichoke sauce ingredients until smooth (a few little chunks of almonds might stick around, but that's ok). This will take a while. You can add some water, one tablespoon at a time, if it won't blend.

Cook onion in olive oil until translucent. Add garlic, cook for one minute. Add spinach and salt. Cover with a big lid, and cook (stirring often) until spinach is wilted. Stir in lemon juice and take spinach mix off the heat.

In a large mixing bowl, combine pasta, spinach mix, and tofu-artichoke sauce and stir until totally mixed.

Line the bottom of an 8x8 (or bigger) baking dish with one cup of tomato sauce. Pour pasta mixture over the sauce. Pour remaining two cups of tomato sauce on top of pasta and spread it around with a spoon or spatula until evenly distributed across the top of the pasta. Sprinkle last two tablespoons of nutritional yeast over the top of the dish.

Cover your baking dish and bake for 25 minutes. Uncover the dish and bake for 10 more minutes. Let it cool for a few minutes before serving.

Cashew-Tofu Spread for Lasagna

I have been playing around with variations on the theme of a tofu and cashew based spread, having been inspired by various vegan ricotta and cream cheese recipes that rely on these ingredients. I have quickly come to wonder how I ever lived without a recipe like this. Adding cashews to the tofu makes it wonderfully creamy and rich without being oily, and it has a nice little tang from the garlic and lemon juice. The first version I made worked wonderfully on a pizza, and the leftovers were great on a tomato sandwich. This particular version was used in a transcendental batch of vegetable lasagna. I'll post other variants as I continue to experiment.

4 T olive oil
3 T soy milk
2 T lemon juice
2 T rice vinegar
2 t salt
3/4 c cashews
3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1.5 lbs tofu firm tofu, crumbled
1 T nutritional yeast
1 t dried basil

Blend liquids, salt, and cashews on low speed in a food processor until they form a thick, mostly smooth, paste.
Add tofu to food processor, blend on high speed until tofu is creamy and mostly smooth (it can still be a little grainy, but you don't want any big lumps). It may be best to add the tofu 1/3 at a time if your food processor can't handle all of it at once.
Add nutritional yeast and basil, blend until totally mixed.

Tofu-Vegetable Pot Pie with Miso Gravy

This dish needs no introduction. Pot pie! Miso gravy! Yes!

Veggies:
1.5 c onion, chopped (about 1 med)
1.5 c potatoes, chopped (about 2 small)
1.5 c turnips, chopped (about 2 small)
1.5 c carrots, chopped (about 2 med)
1 c celery, chopped (2 stalks)
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
3 c broth
1 c peas
1 lb tofu, cut into small cubes

Gravy:
2 T red miso
4 T nutritional yeast
2 T Braggs
2 T cornstarch
1 T dried parsley
1/4 t pepper
salt to taste

A single pastry crust

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Fry onions in a little margarine for 5 minutes. Add potatoes, turnips, carrots, celery, and garlic. Cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add broth, simmer until vegetables are just barely soft. Remove 1 c of the broth from the pot and whisk it together with the gravy ingredients in a separate container. Mix gravy mixture back into vegetables. Stir in tofu and peas. Bring mixture back to a boil and cook, stirring frequently, until the gravy thickens. Taste to adjust salt, and add more broth if the gravy is too thick or more cornstarch if it is too thin. Put vegetable mixture in a deep pie plate, top with crust, slice a few vents into the crust and make cute little patterns around the edge of the crust with a fork. Bake until crust is lightly browned, 30-40 minutes.

Kung Pao Tofu (updated!)

Soft tofu in a spicy, sweet sauce with crunchy peanuts. This is so good it's become almost a weekly feature in our kitchen. Don't be scared by the number of chilies, the ones you leave whole add more flavor than spice, just be sure to avoid eating the whole chilies unless you're really tough! This is best served over rice with a simple side of stir fried leafy greens such as bok choy or napa cabbage.

Sauce:
4 T brown sugar
1.5 T cornstarch
5 T soy sauce
1 T rice vinegar
3 T balsamic vinegar
2 T water (or sake)

Marinade:
1.5 T soy sauce
1 T rice vinegar
2 T cornstarch
1/4 t salt

Everything else:
1 lb firm tofu, cut into small cubes
1.5 T canola oil
10 whole dried red chilies (the kind sold as Chinese or Thai chilies)
1-2 crushed dried red chilies (vary the amount to suit your desired spice level)
1 green bell pepper, roughly chopped
2 medium carrots, sliced into thin circles
6 cloves garlic, diced
2 T fresh ginger, grated
1 bunch green onions, roughly chopped
1 generous handful peanuts

Whisk together marinade ingredients and pour over tofu cubes in a small bowl. Allow to marinate while you prepare the vegetables and sauce.

Whisk all sauce ingredients together.

Heat oil, add whole and crushed chilies and cook on med-high heat, stirring frequently, until chilies are a little blackened and very fragrant.

Reduce heat to medium and add tofu. Cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes.

Add carrots, stir fry for 2 minutes.

Add bell pepper, garlic, and ginger, and stir fry until carrots are cooked but still crunchy, about 3 minutes.

Add green onions, cook for 1 minute more.

Add sauce, cook, stirring constantly, until sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in peanuts. Served garnished with a few extra slices of green onion.

A Stab at a Scrambler sans package

Now that Fantastic Foods seems to have abandoned my staple, Tofu Scrambler, I am trying to find an alternative - ie a home made recipe - how daring !! I did use the tumeric AQ suggested, also added in garlic powder, fresh parsley / red onion / sweet peppers and it was tasty .. but still not the same. Want to figure out those mysterious flavors that made the packaged one so delicions. Suggestions?



The pictures to left and above are on the newly tiled back deck, and below is the new front deck that is reached by the kitchen door (and is now how we get in the house for the carved Bali doors too). That is a home grown papaya for the breakfast above, with starfruit, from the trees in the picture below, but the blueberries come from Chile (and are amazingly good somehow). Tomatoes are wild harvested from a bush up in the new upper garden - volunteer tastiness!



Speaking of tastiness, Julies Organics makes a light, low carb fudgecicle that I have discovered becomes even more delicious when fresh bluerries and almonds are pressed into one side of a popcicle and enjoyed with the chocolate base. Try it! They don't seem to freeze up real hard so its easy to press things into them. Or of course, some people have their own ice cream makers ...

Fancy-Pants Almond-Mocha Tofu Cheesecake

In one word: impressive. If this still isn't fancy-pants enough for you, try making an almond-graham crust by substituting almond meal for 1/2 c of the graham cracker crumbs in the original graham cracker crust recipe, then decorate the cheesecake with sliced almonds.

1 block firm tofu (not silken)
2/3 c sugar
1/2 c oil (canola or safflower is good)
1/3 c strongly brewed coffee
1 t vanilla
1/3 t almond extract
pinch salt
1 c dark chocolate chips

Press as much water out of the tofu as you can by squeezing it relentlessly between your hands or pressing under something heavy. Blend everything but the chocolate until creamy and smooth (this may be easier in two smaller batches). Melt chocolate on the stove, being careful not to let it burn. Stir chocolate into tofu mixture, combining thoroughly. Pour into a graham cracker crust. Bake at 300F for 55 minutes.

Lemon Tofu Cheesecake

Super-duper lemony good!

Make Tofu Cheesecake, but add an extra 1/4 c sugar, and increase lemon juice to 1/3 c. This is good with kiwi slices on top.

Tofu Cheesecake!

What can I say? It's cheesecake! It's tofu! Fantastico!

1 block (3 cups) firm tofu (not the silken kind)
1/4 c lemon juice
1/2 c oil (canola or safflower is good)
1 c sugar
1 t vanilla
1/8 t almond extract
pinch salt

Press as much water out of the tofu as you can by squeezing it mercilessly between your hands or pressing under something heavy. Blend everything until creamy, with no lumps left at all. I find that blending it in two batches is much easier in my blender.

Pour into a graham cracker crust (see below) and bake at 325F for 50 minutes. Refrigerate for at least six hours before eating (I know, it's torture, but the cheesecake really needs a chance to set).

Graham Cracker Crust:
1 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs (about 22 graham crackers, chopped in blender or crushed in a plastic bag)
1/4 c margarine, melted

Combine ingredients and press into a 9" glass pie dish. Could it be any more simple? Or delicious? No!

Breakfast Burritos with Pumpkin

I made these for our Sunday brunch this week. I still had cashew gravy, some baked pumpkin, and lots of salsa leftover, so I needed an excuse to use some of them, and this was a great excuse!

Whole wheat tortillas
Breakfast potatoes
Cashew gravy
Salsa
Sprouts
Scrambled tofu cooked with the optional ingredients that I added today:
.5 t garlic powder
2 t vegit (a seasoning blend, like spike)
1 t basil
1 t dill
1 T fresh parsley, chopped fine
1 c cooked pumpkin cubes
2 green onions, sliced

Put potatoes and scrambled tofu in tortillas, drizzle with cashew gravy, garnish with salsa and sprouts.

Scrambled tofu

Scrambled tofu is one of the most important recipes ever. I could eat it everyday. Sometimes I do. You can add herbs, spices, and various vegetables to make exciting new creations. Add a little soymilk for a creamier scramble, or a little instant oatmeal for a drier scramble.

The basic recipe:
1 block tofu
3 T nutritional yeast
.5 t turmeric
salt and pepper

Crumble tofu with your hands or a fork.
Fry in a little margarine.
Add seasonings as you cook, and adjust the balance of seasonings as you like.
Cook until hot, or browned, or dry, depending on how you like it.

Udon Stir-Fry with Tofishies and Thai Peanut Sauce

Last night, this was simple, quick, and yummy.

0.5 lbs shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2T fresh ginger, diced
1 head's worth of broccoli stems, peeled and chopped thin
1 can sliced water chestnuts
2*200g packages of Udon noodles (cooked, or lighter wt dry)
0.5 head garlic, diced
1 head's worth of broccoli florettes
3 green onions, chopped, as garnish

Stir fry in that order, more or less. Serve with one batch of Tofishies and Thai peanut sauce.

Tofishies

This vegan seafood is one of my new favorite foods. I've enjoyed it on pineapple-fried rice, on stir-fries with peanut sauce, and on its own with a little lemon juice. I bet there are about a million more great ways to eat it. It is super simple and easy. Besides, how much healthier can you get than tofu and seaweed?

Baked firm tofu, plain/original flavor
Salt
Kelp powder
Oil

Slice tofu into thin strips.
Fry in a little oil until crisp.
Sprinkle with a little salt and a generous amount of kelp powder.
Cook a minute or two longer, stirring to thoroughly coat tofu with seasonings.

A Better Tofu Scrambler

The simple boxed tofu scrambler becomes something a lot more interesting by adding some tasty ingerdients. Start by sauteeing red onion and garlic, once those are cooked add sliced mushrooms (I tried portobello and think any of the browner ones would be best) - all before adding the tofu scrambler (tofu plus the seasoning - pre mix it in a bowl and add a little water if its a firm tofu to help the seasoning get well distributed - I mash it with a fork so it isn't cubed, but not to make it too slushy either) - and then when the seasoning is well distributed through the tofu and other ingredients in the sautee pan, add in chopped fresh spinach and cook until spinach is wilted down - stirring to get it evenly through out the dish. This combination of flavors makes it wonderful! 1 block of tofu and one seasoning packet serves two. Yum! I usually have brown rice with this too. Even better if served with baked country style potato wedges and organic ketchup on the side.