Baked Tofu in a Peanut Sauce

I have been making an awful lot of scrambled tofu lately, and while that quickly soared to the top of my Vegan Comfort Foods list, I was looking to do something a bit different from the pan-fried or scrambled tofu dishes.

I love a good savory peanut dish, and thought that it would go nicely with slabs of baked tofu. I had this for dinner last night in wraps made from large leaves of green leaf lettuce along with some spaghetti squash. I couldn't resist and spooned some extra peanut sauce on top. Lovely.

Unfortunately, I scarfed this down before taking a picture. Yes. It was that good.

Baked Tofu with Peanut Sauce

Ingredients:

• tofu
• peanut sauce, jarred or homemade*
  

Directions:

1. Take a block of tofu and slice it into uniform 1/2-inch thick slabs.
   


2. Press the excess water out by placing the tofu pieces on a flat surface lined with a double thickness of paper towel. Cover with more paper towels and place something heavy on top, like a cast iron skillet. Let sit for 3 hours.
   


3. Pour some of the peanut sauce in a container. Add the tofu and cover with more of the sauce. Be generous. Cover and put in the fridge and let marinate for a good 6 hours.
   


4. Preheat the oven to 350.
   


5. Prepare a cookie sheet by lining it with aluminum foil and spraying with cooking spray or brushing it with olive oil.
   


6. Lay the slices of marinated tofu on the sheet and spray lightly with cooking spray.
   


7. Bake for 20 minutes. Take out the sheet and flip over the pieces, hitting them again with the cooking spray and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes until golden brown and delicious. The longer you bake it, the denser and chewier it will be.
   


8. Serve over noodles, rice, or in a wrap.
   


9. Optional: Garnish with chopped peanuts, lime and cilantro.
   

Spicy Peanut Marinade

Ingredients:

• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 T soy sauce – I used Bragg’s liquid Aminos
• 1 T apple cider vinegar
• 2 t agave nectar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small hot chili pepper, minced - add more to taste if you like it spicy
  

Directions:

1. Mix the liquid ingredients together.
   


2. Add the minced chili and garlic.
   


3. Add the peanut butter and stir well with a whisk until the mixture is well-combined.

Notes:

• I saw an ad for the Tofu Express, which looks intriguing, though really I can do the same thing with a plate, a bunch of paper towels and a cast iron skillet, and it doesn't cost me $40.
  
  I have to wonder, though, looking at it: Where does the excess water go? Is there a channel for it to run off and away from the tofu?

Spicy Peanut Noodles

I absolutely love peanut butter. I prefer natural varieties. My current favorite is Smucker's Naturals, chunky, of course. I haven't bought the standard sugar and salt-laden pb in so long that when I had some a few months ago at someone else's house, I was shocked at how cloyingly sweet it was. Plus, for some reason, the texture struck me as unnatural and kind of icky.

Food confession: I love peanut butter so much that I will sometimes eat it straight out of the jar with a spoon and call that a snack or a mini-meal. Now, I don't particularly care for peanut butter paired with sweet foods, except when combined with chocolate of course; I generally prefer peanut butter with savory foods. When I crave a peanut butter sandwich, I am more likely to add wheat germ and sunflower seeds instead of jam or jelly.

A nice spicy peanut sauce will really make my taste buds happy. Pair it with chicken, or tofu like I did today, toss in some noodles, and we're in business.

Spicy Peanut Noodles

Ingredients:

• Cooking oil (peanut or canola)
• Red pepper flakes
• 1/2 onion, halved and then sliced into thin strips
• 1/4 cup carrot, cut into matchsticks
  
• the whites of 2 green onions, chopped
  
• Minced fresh ginger
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed and chopped
• 1/4 package of tofu, pressed of water and cut into strips
• Noodles, vermicelli, spaghetti, Chinese noodles, whichever you prefer - today I used a block of ramen noodles
• 1/3 cup peanut sauce, jarred or homemade*
• Sesame oil
  
• Chopped peanuts
• Green onions, chopped (optional)
• Toasted sesame seeds (optional)
  

Directions:

1. Pour some oil into a large skillet, and sprinkle with red pepper flakes and let sit.
   


2. Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the package. Drain the noodles, put them in a bowl and toss them with 1 T of sesame oil. Let sit and cool.
   


3. Over high heat, sauté the onions, ginger until onions are just starting to brown.


4. Add the carrots and cook for 2 minutes. Toss in the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
   


5. Add the strips of tofu and cook until golden brown.
   


6. Add the peanut sauce to the skillet, stirring to coat well. Taste frequently and adjust seasonings to your liking. Add more of the sauce if you like.
   


7. Toss the drained noodles into the skillet, mixing everything well.
   


8. Garnish with chopped peanuts, green onion and sesame seeds.
   

*Homemade peanut sauce

Ingredients:

• 3 cloves of garlic.
• 1/2 c. peanut butter
• 1/4 c. soy sauce
  
• 2 T honey or agave nectar
  
• 2 T rice vinegar
  
• 2 T. chili oil
  
• 1 chopped hot chili

Directions:

1. Put the garlic in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.


2. Add the remaining ingredients and puree until smooth.
   


3. Add water to thin the consistency if you find it necessary.
   


4. Refrigerate any unused sauce in a tightly-lidded container.
   


5. You may use more or less chili pepper to suit your taste for spiciness.
   

Notes:

• I might start a series of recipes titled "Things to Do With Ramen Noodles."
  

Day 14: Doing Great

I'm still chugging along just great. The cheese-lust has subsided a bit.

I have fallen back into the trap of eating a diet heavy in bread though. I need to remember to start with raw fruits and vegetables first. Yesteday I had an open-faced avocado and cashew cheese sandwich with sprouts and tomato. It was so good, but I probably didn't need quite that much fat even though those are the so-called "good fats" in nuts and avocado.

I read through Vegan With a Vengeance yesterday and got inspired by the tempting recipes. She believes in desserts, bless her, and they look really, really good. I'm also looking forward to making my own seitan at some point. I bet if I simmer that in fake chicken broth it'll taste "just like chicken." heh

Another recipe that immediately caught my eye was for the vegan Pad Thai. Oh yeah. THAT looked good. So did the Thai Green Curry. We have a few Thai restaurants here, though I don't know how vegan-friendly they are.

My favorite local restaurant is Tokyo-Seoul, a Korean/Japanese place. Even though one of  my favorite dishes, Tol Sot Bi-Bim-Bap (stone bowl bi-bim-bap) does come in a vegetarian version substituting tofu for the meat, I know that there aren't a lot of vegan dishes there. Very often even the tofu and rice cake dishes use some meat product. Some of the soups use a beef broth as the base, plus there are anchovies lurking everywhere. I think that even many of the kimchees and other vegetable side dishes use anchovies or anchovy paste.

I recall that when I was in Korea, the vegetarians on our teaching staff complained that it was very difficult for them to find anything that was meat-free. Ironically, the best vegan food I've ever had in my life was in Seoul at a place run by Buddhist monks. The Sanchon Temple is in In-sa Dong, a very arty district in Seoul. There you're served traditional vegetarian dishes by the monks and can watch performances.

Oh now I am craving kimchee-fried rice, one of the ultimates in Koren comfort food.  :)