Vegan MoFo No.1: Balsamic marinated tofu, garlic cauliflower mash and carrot chips

So after the GRAND REVEALING of my blog on Facebook last week I haven't done much since. Or so you may have thought.

I tried several new recipes last week however my phone (which I use to take photos) has been massively playing up and I've struggled to document most of them! And we all know no-one wants to read a blog post unless there's pictures, right?

Anyway, even though I haven't posted anything I've been plotting away, making lists, researching recipes, brainstorming ideas and constantly reblogging food porn on tumblr.

One thing I came accross when browsing through blogs was the Vegan Month Of Food (found via. Jenny Teacups). Basicly the idea is for bloggers to write loads about veganism and vegan cooking. Now, I'm not vegan, and I don't think I'm ready to make the change any time soon, but I do love vegan cooking and agree with a lot of the politics behind it. So for the month of October I'm going to take inspiration from the Vegan MoFo and try out some new vegan/'vegan-friendly'* recipes, aiming to blog one a week. Non-vegan recipes will continue to feature, and I have no desire to do 20 posts about this/blog every week day (which are the loose guidelines for the project) so I'm not going to put myself on the blogroll or be officially affiliated. Even so, I hope you enjoy this feature and maybe try some vegan cooking of your own!

This meal I cooked last week was more of a mix of three different recipes rather than one coherent one, and with two of the items I barely changed anything from the recipe, so I'm only going to write out the tofu one and provide links to the others along with some general tips. 
 

Balsamic marinated tofu, garlic cauliflower mash and carrot chips

Makes 2 portions

Balsamic marinated tofu (recipe adapted from The Vegan Foodie)

Ingredients:

½ block of tofu
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp honey or agave syrup (vegan alternative)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
a pinch of your favourite herbs, The Vegan Foodie recommends thyme, oregano, rosemary, and marjoram – I used rosemary, sage, oregano and tarragon

Method:

1. Press the tofu (see this post for more details). While this is pressing, mix up all the other ingredients in an oven-proof bowl/dish.
2. NEW METHOD ALERT (for me anyway, it’s hardly revolutionary :P) – Dry fry the tofu. I found this method here. Basically, once the tofu has been pressed for a sufficient amount of time (I recommend 30 mins), cut it into triangles and gently dry fry it in a non-stick frying pan to release excess moisture, turning until it becomes a light golden colour. I’ve found that this helps soak up the marinade better, reduces baking time, and gives it a firmer more ‘meaty’ texture.
3. Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees C. Place the tofu in the bowl of marinade and leave to soak for at least 30 mins, turning half way through.
4. Remove the tofu from the marinade and spread out on a lined or non-stick baking tray, bake in the oven for 15 mins.
5. Just before it’s ready, boil up remaining marinade for 5 minutes to make a sauce – The Vegan Foodie uses this as a glaze to spread on the tofu and then return to the oven (see their recipe) but I grew impatient and just drizzled it over the tofu and mash!

Garlic cauliflower mash

Completely took the recipe from Healthy Food, Healthy Life (click link for ingredients and method). The only difference was that I used dairy milk and Flora spread whereas they recommend coconut milk and Earth Balance. Other non-dairy milks (soy, oat, almond, hemp, rice, etc) and butters (soy, sunflower, etc) should work just as well. This was probably my favourite part of the overall meal and I'll definitely be making it again!

Carrot chips

Basically I just followed this the method on this image that's going round tumblr (sorry I don't know who created it, if you do please let me know so I can link to them and give credit):

Firstly, I found it near impossible to 'peel' slices as thick as the ones in this picture, the ones I did peel were so thin they shrivelled up after 5 minutes, so if you do roast thin strips keep an eye on them, they burn very easily!! For the ones in the final picture above, I used a knife to slice slightly thicker strips and roasted them for about 15-20 minutes at 150 degrees C.

Secondly, I made much more than 2x what is seen in my photo - I cooked 3 carrot's worth in batches and as well as the first few failing and burning, I kept eating them while cooking! I'd use 1-2 carrots for 2 people.




So there you have it, happy Vegan Mofo! 




*I don't always have vegan milk/butter in so I may often just have to use what I've got to be more economical - in these cases I will advise what vegan alternatives you could use instead.