Sunday, August 12, 2007

Tofu Spinach Salad with Jalapenos, Cucucmbers, and Green Peppers



Here is a picture from sometime last week, a salad I made to take to work. It's made of a couple cups of baby spinach, sliced cucumbers, green peppers, jalapenos, and cubed tofu.

For the tofu, I used up more of the frozen then thawed tofu from the other day. I was keeping it in the cold water container, so I squeezed out the excess and cubed the tofu, 100g total, to put into a marinade. A note for the future: this tofu is extremely chewy, and I say the smaller the cubes the better. My cubes were a little too large.

Marinade
1T Olive Oil
2T Balsamic
splash of lemon juice
Splash of Bragg's
cracked black pepper
shake of red pepper flakes

Stir up the marinade, then add cubed tofu. It's crazy! The tofu is a sponge and all of the marinade should be able to soak into the tofu. I must say that there was something missing from the marinade. Maybe too much Bragg's and lemon? I'm not sure. It was tasty in the end, just a little tangy.

Once tofu has soaked up the marinade, sautée for ten or more minutes. It takes a while, and you may essentially burn some parts of the tofu. My aim was to get some crispiness, but it didn't really work.

Once tofu is done, cool down, then place in a container (I used a zip-top bag) in the fridge for the salad tomorrow. Note: This tofu would be fine warm, too, I just liked it cold on my salad. It's easier to keep things cold than warm.)

The salad amounts are as follows:

100g tofu, cubed and cooked after marinating
90g Green Pepper
100g cucumbers
10g jalapeno

I often don't like dressing, and for this salad I used only salt and pepper. It would probably benefit from a creamy dressing like Ranch. I lost my powdered vegan ranch which was the most amazing dressing and dip. However, they make quite a few creamy vegan dressings.

Also, this salad would be nice with some tomatoes or something to balance the other ingredients.



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