This salad was filling and very delicious! The dressing also has no oil which is an added plus. This makes a perfect lunch and I’ve made this twice already. It was a little labor intensive with all the chopping and baking the tofu, but I expected that going in. The dressing is so tasty the kids had 3 helping of salad when I made this for dinner too!
RECIPES:
Noodles are always a welcome dish over here. Soba noodle are a nice break from the traditional pasta every now and then too. This was a nice simple dish. The miso-glaze wasn’t as intense as I thought, but it still had good flavor. I would let the tofu soak up more of the flavor next time.
RECIPES:
I was expecting this to be just ok. I like tofu and cauliflower, but together in lasagna? I wasn’t sure. I had all the ingredients on hand so I thought I’d give it a try anyway. And to my surprise, I loved it, and the kids loved it. I even served it for friends and they liked it too! This was a surprising big winner.
The first time I made it I used a vodka pasta sauce, and the second time I splurged and bought the butternut squash pasta sauce and liked it even better! It was $8 a jar, but totally worth it!
I double the recipe. I used a full large head of cauliflower, two packs of tofu, and a jar and half of the butternut squash pasta sauce. Pair it with a vegetable or a salad and it’s good for two days. It required a little effort with roasting the cauliflower, but if you did that beforehand the prep actually goes pretty quickly.
This is a vegetarian recipe. If you want it vegan, just don’t put the cheese on top.
RECIPES:
Cauliflower and Tofu Lasagna with Butternut Squash Sauce
Aya’s mom sends seasoning packets to make these tofu patties. It’s really easy because you just mash up some tofu, add the seasoning mix, and fry in a pan. But after discovering the Japanese cookbook I have that’s in English, I decided to try these homemade with real ingredients.
They were fairly easy and Ellie loves them. I decided to serve them with some roasted enoki mushrooms in butter. I love enoki mushrooms! They have such a unique texture. I remember my first trip to Japan to meet Aya’s parents we ate a lot of them. They direct translation they told me when I asked what they were was “mountain sprouts.” That might be another reason I like them. But they are in my top three favorite Japanese vegetables.
I don’t repeat recipes a lot, but this has worked it’s way to be repeated recipe.
RECIPES:
Gammodoki
Ingredients:
1 standard firm tofu package
2 x 1 inch piece of konbu or 1/4oz. dried hijiki (I used shredded nori seaweed)
1/2 carrot, peeled
2 dried shiitake mushrooms (I used more like 4 or 5)
8 green beans, trimmed (I used a small handful)
1 egg
salt, soy sauce, and mirin
Sesame oil (I used regular vegetable oil)
1) Drain tofu, wrap in paper towel and let sit for 30-60 minutes to drain all excess water out.
2) Meanwhile, soak konbu or hijiki in water for 30 minutes. chop roughly into 1/2in. long shreds.
3) Cut the carrot, green beans, and shiitake into 1/2in. shreds. (I put everything in a food processor and pulsed it a few times.
4) Put the tofu in large mixing bowl with egg, pinch of salt, and a dash of soy sauce and mirin. Mix thoroughly to even consistency.
5) Add vegetable shreds to tofu bowl and mix well.
6) They tell you to deep fry them in oil, which I did not. I just put a little oil in the pan and fried them that way. You can served this with some shredded daicon on top, which I have done in the past.
I was a little iffy on these sandwiches. I like tofu, but I don’t love it. Luckily, everything worked really well together and I actually loved this sandwich. The peanut sauce was great, and the crunch of the peppers and carrots balanced the tofu. Ellie loves tofu and gobbled it up. “Daddy made this!? Oh my goodness!”
This soup complimented the sandwich really well. I made a double batch because I plan on using the soup again tomorrow. I used 3 lbs of carrots. That was a lot of peeling and chopping, but it was totally worth it! Ellie loved this too!
RECIPES:
Crispy Tofu Sandwiches with Ginger Peanut Sauce
