Green Bean-Tofu Stir Fry w/ Rice Noodles

I was inspired to cook tofu again! I had a few ingredients I needed to use up in my kitchen and I wanted something simple and tasty that I could make from them all. I found half of a chopped onion, half a bag of frozen green beans, a block of extra-firm tofu and a large bag of rice noodles. A little chopping, sauteing and mixing along with a few spices and sauces and voila! I created this wonderful meal:

Green Bean-Tofu Stir fry with Rice Noodles

It was mighty tasty if I do say so myself! I gobbled it all up.

I must say that I'm really enjoying cooking with tofu. It used to intimidate and scare me but the more I attempt to incorporate it, the more I find it super simple and so versatile! I love that it can complement just about anything you mix it with because it absorbs the flavors of the foods around it. Yum!

What are some of your favorite ways to cook tofu?

Tofu Spring Rolls

Tofu Spring Rolls

I love spring rolls! They are such a light but filling treat. The idea for spring rolls had manifested in my mind weeks ago. And the other night, I was sitting at home doing homework when I was suddenly overcome by the sudden urge to cook. (SHOCKER!) Knowing that I had ample supplies with which to work from (I had just gone shopping), I immediately set up my workspace in the kitchen to whip up a few of these babies.

My workspace included: A large, shallow bowl for dipping the rice paper rolls into, a pot of water for the rice noodles, and a pan for sauteing the tofu block that I had already pressed. The rice noodles take only minutes to prepare. They only cook for about 6 minutes in the boiling water and then you can just drain the water out and set them aside until you're ready to use them. Next up: the tofu: Into the pan went a marinade mixture of soy sauce, toasted sesame seed oil, a pinch of ground ginger and a splash of EVOO. The tofu, which I had already sliced into long, thin strips, was next in the pot. A few minutes on each side and then into a dish with a paper towel to drain off the excess liquid.

As for the rice paper rolls, all you need to do is make sure you have a dish that is large enough to hold whatever size your wrappers are. I happened to use a glass pie dish with about a 1/4 inch of water. The sheets of rice paper only need to sit in the water for about 45 seconds to a minute. Careful though: If they sit too long they will become mush! After you soak the wrapper, you should remove it from the water and lay it onto a flat surface. Now you're ready to add the stuffing and roll it up.

The insides of a spring roll are entirely up to the chef making them and also whatever happens to be at his or her disposal. In my case, I happened to have a bag of shredded broccoli, red cabbage and carrots, as well as a small head of lettuce. Into the spring roll it went with a few strips of the marinated tofu, a small handful of the rice noodles and a few pieces of lettuce. I rolled it all up and that was it! SUPER simple!

As for a dipping sauce, I simply seasoned some Hoisin sauce with some chili oil until it was just spicy enough and I was good to go. Seriously it was THAT easy.

Alright folks, that's all I have for you for now. Stay tuned...more vegan goodies to come!

In which I learn to cook tofu

So I had fun in the kitchen again...Yay! Summer is nearly over and I'm about to embark on an intense 5 semester-long graduate/internship program along with working part time in a 1st grade classroom. I worry that this program will completely consume my life so I'm scrambling around trying to cook as many of the "Big Deal things that I've dog-eared in my cookbooks" as I can while I still have a bit of free time to work with. When I say Big Deal, I'm referring to recipes that might take a bit longer in time to make but I know that I want to try my hand at. Since I have the time to tackle some of these now, I figured I should have a go because I may not have as much free time in the coming months.

This week I decided I wanted to find a recipe for cooking tofu. Having been a vegan for just about 3 years and a vegetarian for almost 8 before that, it is almost unbelievable that I have never cooked my own tofu! Don't get me wrong, I do like tofu, but I just never took it upon myself to actually cook it for myself. I would order tofu from restaurants or settle for putting them in baking recipes and ricotta recipes. I figured it was high time to attempt a recipe where the tofu truly shines. I found just that when I consulted Lauren Ulm's Sweet & Sour Almond Broccoli Tofu with Wild Rice in her Vegan Yum Yum cookbook.

Broccoli Almond Sweet-&-Sour Tofu with Wild Rice

Boy! She wasn't kidding about the Yum Yum part. This dish was amazing! Since I had never fried my own tofu, I was careful and went about the whole cooking process very slowly. I was in the kitchen for well over an hour and a half before I could sit down and enjoy this. No regrets though because it was well worth the wait.

For the rice I used Lundberg's Wild Rice Blend. This stuff is great because it has such a nutty and rich flavor. Not to mention that it makes the house smell wonderful as it cooks! Seriously, if you haven't tried this stuff, leave your house right now and go buy some. You won't regret it.

I must say that cooking tofu was really easy and I can't believe I haven't done more of it over the years. I simply can't wait to try other tofu recipes of my own!