Mexi Veggie Tofu Scramble ~ Vegan & Gluten Free

An easy Sunday and it's supposed to look a little like summer today.  Even though it hasn't lately, the farmer's market is starting to look like the sun was shining somewhere.  I picked up some fresh zucchini and Walla Walla onions yesterday and they've already made it into a couple meals.  This morning I put together a really simple, but tasty Mexican veggie tofu scramble.

I diced up a box of firm silken tofu and threw it in a medium frying pan with 1 TB hot coconut oil.  While that was working, I roughly chopped a Walla Walla, including the green tops, diced a red bell pepper, and sliced two small zucchinis.  I added the onions and red bell pepper to the tofu and let that sauté until the onions were translucent, then added the zucchini slices.

I keep a Mexican spice blend around that makes it easy to flavor anything quickly.  I sprinkled about 1 tablespoon of the spice blend in the pan and added about a ¼ cup of filtered water and let the mixture simmer until the liquid was absorbed.

Warmed some corn tortillas and served with some fresh pineapple. Filling, very nutritious, and tasty!

Mexican Spice Blend
    A Vegan Fusion blend

Makes 7 TB

¼ cup chili powder
2 TB cumin powder
2 tsp oregano, dried
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well.  Store in a glass jar.


Now, off to play in the garden.

I can't believe it's Tofu ~ Tofu Quiché

I made some awesome tofu quiché in muffin cups yesterday.  I created a variation of my friend Felicia's recipe.  She brought some to the last potluck and I always have some tofu and fresh veggies around. Thought I'd give it a try this weekend. This is an easy meal and can be made with just about any vegetables.  She did find out while creating her recipe that the vegetables that contain the most moisture, like zucchini, should be dried a little or sauteéd first. I sliced a yellow zucchini very thin and weighted the slices between paper towels for about 30 minutes.  I had some fresh asparagus spears and just chopped them in about 1/2 inch sections. I also chopped some green onions to add to the vegetable mixture.  I didn't use mushrooms this time, but that's OK, my honey doesn't care for them much.  I also didn't have soft tofu, but I did have some vegan cream cheese in the fridge, which is made with tofu.  It worked great.  The little quiches came out firm, but fluffy. For my gluten intolerant friends, it's not only vegan, it's also gluten free.

Tofu Quiché

      by Felicia Divina

2 tsp minced garlic
1 c chopped vegetables, spinach works best for me but anything low moisture, if you use zucchini saute first to get moisture out or dry it with paper towels. (I used asparagus, green onions, & sliced yellow zucchini.)
1 1/2 c chopped mushroom, sauteed (add the rosemary here if you are using dried)
tsp chives
tsp rosemary
1 box firm tofu
1/2 c soft tofu
3 or 4 TB nutritional yeast
2 TB cornstarch  (I omitted the cornstarch)
2 tsp tahini (heaping, I love the stuff)
1 tsp tamari (Tamari is my addition to her recipe)
pinch freshly ground black pepper
pinch turmeric (I used big pinch turmeric, about a teaspoon)

I also added a sprinkle of cayenne to the top of each and a little Daiya cheddar and mozzarella style vegan cheese.

Spray muffin tin, spoon veggies into tins

Blend everything but the veggies in food processor or blender until smooth.

Pour over the veggies. Bake at 350º for about 25 to 30 minutes, they will be firm and golden brown.

A Plant Based Thanksgiving

Grateful to have my son at home, my granddaughter close by, and no travel plans this Thanksgiving holiday, I settled in for a four day weekend at home.  I shopped last weekend for the cooking items I might need this weekend besides our fresh produce so that I could stay at home if I wanted or the weather demanded all weekend.

We haven't had a family Thanksgiving at home in a few years.  We used to travel all day to fetch our granddaughter for the weekend, but her family moved back to our area and I am loving it. Funny, I had to reassure my son that we only tried the Tofurky once about six years ago and won't repeat it again.  I enjoyed the flavor of the Tofurky and all the roasted vegetables, but the texture has much to be desired.  It is a good transition food for new plant based eaters on the holidays and many vegans who went to a friend's or relatives probably found it on the table, but it's really a processed food item and I do feel like I'm eating deli lunch meat.  It's the first thing people mention when I tell them we are having a plant based Thanksgiving dinner.

What did we have? Ooh, I tried a wonderful recipe by Mark Reinfeld, Link to recipe: Mediterranean Pistachio Crusted Tofu with Saffron Quinoa Pilaf  It recently won Vegan Recipe of the Year by Vegan.com.  I had already practiced a version of this in Mark's two day vegan cooking workshop and knew it would be tasty and easy.  The whole meal only takes a little over an hour from start to finish. The quinoa was easy and colorful and the Mediterranean vegetable salad brightened the whole plate. I thought I'd give it a try for our Thanksgiving meal.  I added some fresh cranberry sauce with some frozen strawberries added for extra sweetness. I doubled the recipe for some planned leftovers.  It was great for lunch today.  I was especially pleased when I saw my son, who is still a bit leery about our plant based lifestyle, go to the refrigerator and heat up a plate for a meal today.

Marinating Tofu Cutlets

Pistachio Crusted Tofu Cutlets on Fresh Baby Spinach

Mediterranean Vegetable Salad

Saffron Quinoa Pilaf

Apricot Almond Pie & Four Ingredient Pumpkin Pie

Tofu Piccata

I came across this recipe by way of a Facebook post from a vegetarian page, Vegweb.com.  I had some super firm tofu I needed to use.  I was introduced to the super firm tofu at the Vegan Fusion workshop I attended a couple weeks ago.  It's very nice as it can be made into cutlets and and is very easy to work with. I made some coconut crusted tofu cutlets and took some to work the other day.   One of my co-workers who tried it said it reminded her of chicken.  It's that dense.

The recipe called for linguine pasta, but I used zucchini instead. The first one from our garden this year. I made noodles with my spiralizer and marinated them in a little olive oil, lemon juice, and sea salt.  I warmed them in the dehydrator just before serving.  I just happened to have some capers. My friend, Felicia, purchased a couple jars on sale and gave one to me. Thanks Felicia. I didn't have any parsley, but I did flavor the sauce with fresh thyme.  That prompted me to plant a few more parsley plants in the garden.  I shouldn't be out of any herb. We steamed some of the artichokes we picked Monday.  A very nice, somewhat homegrown, vegan meal. 

Tofu Piccata

4 to 6 ounces linguine pasta (I used raw marinated zucchini noodles)
10 ounces extra firm tofu (super firm tofu worked really well)
Sea salt and ground pepper
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons vegan margarine, divided
1/4 cup white wine
Juice of one lemon (about 2 tablespoons lemon juice)
2 tablespoons capers
4 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley


1.  Press the tofu between paper towels for 10 minutes to remove excess liquid.  Cut into four 1/8" slices.  Salt and pepper each side.  Dredge in the flour.

2.  Cook Linguine according to directions.  Or, use zucchini noodles marinated in olive oil and lemon juice for about 20 minutes.

3.  Heat a pan to medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon vegan margarine.  Add the tofu slices and cook for about 2 minutes on each side or until golden.  Remove from the pan.

4.  De-glaze the pan with the white wine.  Squeeze in the lemon juice and add the capers, stirring to remove any cooked-on bits from the pan.  Remove from the heat.  Add half of the parsley and remaining 1 tablespoon vegan butter, stirring until melted.

5.  Top the linguine with the tofu and drizzle the sauce over.  Sprinkle the remaining parsley over and around the plate.  Enjoy!

Lemon Thyme Pound Cake & Citrus Tofu Tacos

Lemon Thyme Cake

I made  Lemon Thyme Pound Cake, a Martha Stewart recipe. Another find from the jail waiting room. ::) There was an old copy of Martha Stewart Living. I jotted the recipe down really fast on a piece of scrap paper, then was pleased to find it online when we got home. This is a vegetarian recipe as I used eggs.  But, I use fresh local eggs from chickens that really do go outside.  I don't use eggs much, but when I do, I only use eggs from a local source. Martha's sauce is a Muscat lemon thyme syrup. I made a nice syrup with pomegranate juice, a little lemon juice, apple juice, agave, and thyme. My cakes didn't come out as bright yellow as Martha's. That's because I use unbleached whole grain flour and unrefined sugar.

Before the cake we had some  vegan Red rice and citrus tofu tacos. I used a brown rice medley. They came out very nice. My husband likes the grande size.

Mine was a little smaller.

Vive Bene

Vegan Blueberry Cheezcake

This is one of my favorite vegan cheezcake recipes for the Vegan World Fusion Cuisine cookbook.  I've made this for non veggies and didn't mention there was no cheese in it until it was enjoyed by all. I only made a couple changes.  I used 1 12 oz. package of firm tofu and one container of Tofutti, Better than Cream Cheese instead of the 2 lbs of tofu in the recipe. I adjusted the liquids as it blended for the right consistency. I also used coconut milk instead of the soy milk.

Shaka's Vegan Cheezcake 
      Vegan World Fusion Cuisine

Filling:

2 lb Tofu, firm
1 C Sucanat
1/2 cup soy milk
1.2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup lemon juice, fresh squeezed
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 1/2 TB Arrowroot powder
2 TB Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp sea salt

Crust Dry:

2 C spelt flour
1/4 C Sucanat
1 TB Arrowroot powder
1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
1/4 tsp sea salt

Crust Wet:

1/3 C Safflower Oil
2 TB Maple Syrup
2 TB Apple Juice, fresh (I used some of the applesauce I canned last summer.)
1 tsp Vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350º.  For crust, place dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and mix well.  Place wet ingredients in another bowl amd mix well.  Add wet to dry, mixing well with hands, crumbling the ingredients together repeatedly.  Press into the bottom of a 10" spring form pan.  Bake for 5 minutes.  (I used a ten inch pie plate this time.)
    
2. Place all filling ingredients in a large blender and blend until smooth  Pour on top of crust and bake for 1 hour or until top turns  golden brown and center does not jiggle too much.  Allow to cool before running knife around the edge and removing from the spring form pan.

For the topping I just took the blueberries, about 1 lb, a cup of sparkling apple juice, 1/3 cup sucanat, 11/2 TB lemon juice, a dash of cinnamon powder and heated it all in a small saucepan until it started to boil.  I added about 21/2 tablespoons of Agar flakes to the mixture and let it simmer until it was dissolved, stirring constantly.  Since it was so cold outside, I just put it into a bowl and set in on our deck on the table to chill.  After it was completely cooled and thickened, I poured it on the cooled cheezcake.

Enjoy!