Stuffed Grilled Tofu

 I'll admit that this recipe is going to be more of a guideline than a strict recipe. Basically, I remember what I put into this, but I don't think I measured a single thing. I just kept tasting as I went and stopped adding things when in tasted good. Easy enough, right?

Marinade Ingredients:

• sesame oil
• olive oil
• hot chile oil
• salt & pepper
• 1-2 cloves chopped garlic
• lemon juice

Basic Guidelines: Use the olive oil as a base and add sesame oil and hot chile oil just to give it a little kick. Mix in the chopped garlic and a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice and sprinkle in some salt and pepper to taste.

Stuffing Ingredients:

• pineapple
• marinated sweet cherry peppers
• white onion

Directions: Use approximately 1:1 ratios for all ingredients. Dice together as finely as possible.

Put it all together: Use a 1lb block of pressed extra firm tofu and cut it into quarters. Slice a rectangular pocket into the side of each quarter and keep a piece of the removed tofu to act as a lid. Fill each pocket with the stuffing, push the tofu "lid" on top, and then place in the marinade. Marinate the tofu for at least one hour and rotate regularly to make sure all sides have absorbed some flavor. If you have a grill I would highly recommend grilling this, but you could also cook this in a cast iron pan on the stove as well. The main thing is to make sure it's heated through (because it tastes better, of course) and that there's some nice browning on all sides.

Serve this with some nice grilled corn and salad with pineapple vinaigrette.

Teriyaki Tofu & Mango Salad

This salad is quick and easy, and hearty enough to be a meal on its own. The tofu could even be made in advance and eaten cold.

Ingredients:

• butter lettuce
• white onion
• mango
• button mushrooms
• teriyaki sauce
• peanut oil
• vegenaise (or preferred vegan mayo)
• extra firm tofu, pressed and sliced into triangles 
• sesame seeds

 Once the tofu has been pressed, let it marinate in the teriyaki sauce for at least 30 minutes. In the mean time, the rest of the salad can be prepped. Chop the butter lettuce, thinly slice the mushrooms and white onion and cut the mango into 1-inch chunks. The dressing is very simple: mix 1 part teriyaki sauce with 1 part Vegenaise and add a bit of peanut oil or olive oil if desired. 

Heat a little peanut oil in a cast iron skillet and add the marinated tofu. Brown the tofu on all sides, remove from the pan, and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Assemble the veggies and mango on the plate and drizzle with some of the creamy teriyaki dressing. Arrange slices of tofu on top, and you're ready to eat.

The firm, meaty texture of the tofu mixed with the saltiness of the teriyaki sauce and the sweetness of the mango is really satisfying. I loved the butter lettuce with this, but romaine would work well also. If you have an aversion to raw white onions, sliced green onions would be a great substitute.

Memorial Day Weekend = Grilling

You may not believe it, but grilling isn't just for steaks. I don't normally have access to a grill, but when I do, I can't get enough grilled veggies. Drew was the grill master and made the perfect vegetables that inspired this easy and delicious sandwich.

Thanks to my Full Circle delivery (http://www.fullcircle.com/), I had some amazing organic zucchini and yellow onions to work with, but I added several other tasty things as well.

Ingredients (for 1 sandwich):

•  Two slices toasted bread
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1/2 yellow onion (you won't need this much, but it's easier to grill this way)
• 1 small zucchini
• red leaf lettuce
• 1 radish, sliced thin
• vegan cream cheese 
• artichoke hummus

Directions:

First, prep your veggies for grilling. The bell pepper should be seeded and cut in half from top to bottom. Slice the zucchini lengthwise so you have long, flat strips and slice the onion in half. Then brush all the veggies with olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.

The onion will take the longest to grill, so I suggest starting it first. Drew placed it directly over the hot coals and got all sides nice and dark. When the onion has had a few minutes on the grill, add the bell pepper. Last, add the zucchini and rotate the vegetables so they get some nice dark spots and feel soft.

All that's left is to assemble the sandwich! Spread a generous amount of artichoke hummus on one slice of toast and vegan cream cheese on the other. Layer all the grilled veggies, red leaf lettuce, and radish slices on your toast, and dig in!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Is it supposed to be summer? Yes. Does it feel like summer right now in Seattle? No. So, I decided that if summer wasn't going to come to me, then I would conjure it with a tasty summer treat. I know making a pie seems like a really daunting task, which is why I avoid it most of the time and stick with things like cupcakes. But, the truth is that making a pie isn't as hard as it seems and once I get started I realize this and wonder why I don't do it more often (other than the fact that I would gain at least 50 pounds if we had pie in the house at all times).

I wish I could claim this recipe as my own, but I need to give credit where credit is due. The pie crust recipe is honestly the best vegan pie crust I've ever had and I found it on veganbaking.net. I'll put the recipe links at the end of my post so they're easy to find. I tend to like my pie crust very thin because I think it saves me a few calories and my favorite part of a pie is the filling anyway so that's what I really want to taste. This recipe is meant for a double crust, but I rolled it thin enough that I really could have made one covered pie with it and made the bottom crust for a second pie. It's all just personal preference.

Raw, but I still think it looks good!

As you can see, I also got lazy and didn't feel like making a lattice top so I just cut out little leaf-like shapes. If you don't already know how to do this, it's super easy. Roll out the dough inside the parchment paper according to the recipe instructions. Peel the top layer off and cut some shapes into it while it's laying flat. You may be able to do it once it's on the pie, but I feel like it would be really difficult. Once everything was in place I brushed the crust with a little olive oil and gave it a generous sprinkle of raw sugar for a little sweetness and crunch. Also, I didn't have plain vodka, which is what the recipe calls for, so I used passion fruit vodka. I was hoping that I'd stumbled across something completely revolutionary, but it really made absolutely no difference. So, use whatever you have and I don't think you'll ever taste it.


Yum!



The filling was incredibly easy, just a bit of chopping and mixing. Please follow the advice in the recipe and use a baking sheet under the pie plate. This gets really bubbly and juicy when it's cooking and I would have had a huge mess in the oven if nothing was there to catch it. If you can wait a few hours to cut into this, I would suggest it...but I couldn't. So do as I say and not as I do. Unless of couse you're following my lead and making this pie. Then, seriously, do it.

Happy baking, everyone!



The filling was bubbling out everywhere, but settled in after a while.



Pie filling: 

http://www.veganbaking.net/vegan-recipes/pies/strawberry-rhubarb-pie.html

Crust:

http://www.veganbaking.net/vegan-recipes/pies/flaky-pie-crust.html

A little about me and Vegan Foodie & the Feast

I love food. There, I said it. I won't go into all the various reasons I became vegan and I won't get on my soapbox and tell you all the moral reasons that veganism is awesome. What I will tell you is that vegan food is delicious. In a perfect world vegan food would just be called food, but I think that's hoping for a bit much.

Often times people become wary when I tell them something they're about to eat is vegan. They don't know what to expect when meat and dairy products aren't involved and the idea of biting into tofu makes many people cringe. That might be why I like to play the "see if they notice" game and just not tell people until after the praise has been sung. The best part for me is when I hear "wow, I had no idea that was vegan! It's delicious!" I think one of the best ways to show people how great vegan food can be is to keep them from missing what they're not eating; and that's exactly what I had to do for myself when I first made the decision to stop eating animal products.

Warning: vegan food should be tastier than this!

Thankfully, when I made the choice to become vegan I already knew that I liked to cook and that this was going to be a long journey of relearning everything I thought I knew about cooking. It's been several years now and it's been a fun and tumultuous journey. I've made some meals that my omni friends beg me to make again and I've made others that the boyfriend and I couldn't choke down. I still experiment with food and, honestly, I think becoming vegan has made me a more creative and conscious cook. If you're reading this blog you're probably already interested in vegan cooking, but I hope there will be something that anyone who reads this can ponder; even if that something is just "wow, when I start my own food blog I'll be sure to learn something about what a blog is supposed to be and how to photograph food".

Please join me in my culinary adventures and follow along while I make my tiny Seattle kitchen look like my fridge exploded. The food isn't the only experiment here; the blog is as well!