Tofu Benedict

Yes, it’s possible. That’s the good news. The even better news is that it’s easy, too. I’ve spent my share of long hours making complicated concotions to replicate Béarnaise, the sumptuous egg sauce that’s the crowning glory of Eggs Benedict. I puréed tofu and made vinegar reductions and hunted down unusual herbs and spices to lift the eggless and butterless sauce from dreary to divine. Needless to say, it fell far short of divinity. It hardly even got off the ground. And the piles of dishes I had to wash for this humble earthling!

It was by a happy accident that I found out about an easier way to make Béarnaise. Browsing epicurious, I stumbled on a recipe for mock Béarnaise. I had no idea there even was such a thing. I’m sure French chefs would shudder at it. But for those of us who can’t eat eggs or can’t expertly handle their delicate and finicky structure, the alternative is a heaven-sent.

Now, don’t get any ideas. The mock sauce, though utterly delicious, isn’t any healthier than the real thing. (Okay, maybe a bit: it has no cholesterol.) A generous amount of vegan mayonnaise is what gives it body and flavor. Trying to make it healthier takes the magic out of it. Believe me, I tried. I experimented with all the combinations of vegenaise and plain soy yogurt I could think of. My conclusion? Just give in. Accept that there’s sometimes a price to pay for feasting, and pay it gladly. This one is really, really worth it.

I have to confess that, marvelous as the sauce is, I’m just as excited about the tofu in this recipe. Yes, I’m one of those people; I get excited about tofu. But you have to understand: I’ve tried for a long time to cook tofu so that it has the right texture for Tofu Benedict. I wanted it to stay soft, to echo the tender firmness of cooked eggwhite. But I also wanted to give it some character and bite.

First discovery: medium tofu is best here because it’s creamy but not too delicate. To preserve its creaminess but also give it a light crust, I broiled it, first under low, then under high heat. That was my second breakthrough. It’s a little labor-intensive—or I should say, attention-intensive—but it pays off. For flavor, I sprinkled nutritional yeast over the hot tofu and drizzled it with lemon juice. Very simple, but very effective.

If you envy my husband for getting to eat Tofu Benedict for two weeks straight, you should. Being a taste-tester isn’t always fun for him. But I’m pretty sure this one makes up for all the weird experimental stuff I’ve served him before. Makes up for it, and then some—if I may say so myself.

Tofu Benedict with Mock Béarnaise
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Yield: 6
Ingredients
  • 2/3 cup vegan mayonnaise*
  • 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
  • 3 TBSP. orange juice
  • 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. dried tarragon (or 1 tsp. fresh tarragon, finely chopped)
  • one 14 oz. package medium tofu**
  • cooking spray
  • 1/4-1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 TBSP. nutritional yeast
  • juice from 2 lemon wedges
  • 3 English muffins, halved
  • 6 slices tomato
  • 1 large avocado
  • 1 green onion, thinly sliced
Instructions
  1. TO MAKE THE MOCK BEARNAISE: In a small bowl, whisk together the mayo, mustard, orange juice, vinegar, salt and tarragon. Set aside. You can make the sauce up to two days ahead and refrigerate it, tightly covered, until you’re ready to use it.
  2. TO MAKE THE TOFU: Remove the block of tofu from the package, rinse it and pat it dry. Cut it in three lengthwise, so that you end up with three thick squares. They will seem too thick, but don’t worry; the tofu will shrink as it cooks. Cut each square in two; you will end up with 6 large triangles of tofu.
  3. Spray the tofu triangles with cooking spray and season with salt on both sides. Place the tofu in a single layer inside a glass or ceramic baking dish.***
  4. Turn the broiler to the low setting, and move an oven shelf to about a hand’s height from the heating element. Put the baking dish with the tofu under the broiler for 7 minutes. Then turn the broiler to high and cook for another 3 minutes.
  5. Carefully remove the tofu from the oven and flip the triangles on the other side. Again, set the broiler to low, cook for 7 minutes, then set the broiler to high and cook for 3 minutes more. Take the tofu out of the oven.
  6. Sprinkle the nutritional yeast on one side only of the tofu triangles, then squeeze the juice from the lemon wedges over the nutritional yeast. Set aside.
  7. TO ASSEMBLE THE TOFU BENEDICT: Toast the English muffins. While they’re toasting, prepare the avocado: remove the seed, scoop it out of its peel, and thinly slice it.
  8. On each toasted muffin half, place a triangle of tofu, a tomato slice on top of the tofu, and finally 2-3 slices of avocado over the tomato. Drizzle about 2 TBSP. of mock béarnaise over the whole thing, then garnish with a few slices of green onion.
Notes

*If you absolutely must, you can substitute plain soy yogurt for some of the mayonnaise, but not more than 2 tablespoons, or the sauce will taste too sour.
**It’s essential that you use medium tofu. Don’t substitute firm or extra-firm for it.
***Don’t spray the tofu with cooking spray inside the glass baking dish, or the spray that lands directly on the glass will burn under the broiler. Also, I don’t recommend cooking the tofu on a baking sheet. If you line it with parchment paper, the paper burns really easily under the broiler. If you line it with aluminum foil, the cooking spray that ends up on the foil burns and smokes.

Nutritional Information: 6 servings. Per serving: 359 calories; 26.9 g fat; 710 mg sodium; 20.3 g carbs; 5 g dietary fiber; 5.3 g sugar; 10.5 g protein.

Posted Wednesday, February 15, 2012.

Posted in Breakfast, Main Dishes, Tofu & Tempeh | Tagged | 1 Comment

Lentils with Millet and Roasted Squash

Though you won’t be able to tell by looking at the ingredient list for this recipe, I’m still sticking pretty closely to my resolution to cook simply this year. There’s really nothing fancy about the recipe: a simply cooked grain, a roasted vegetable and gently simmered lentils. It does take time to prepare everything (two hours, give or take), but no esoteric technique or specially concentrated attention is required.

No esoteric technique, but a new one for me: to flavor the lentils, I toasted whole spices (coriander and peppercorns) in a dry skillet, then ground them coarsely with a mortar and pestle. I hadn’t tried toasting spices before, even though I’d heard, on television and the radio, cooks and chefs singing the praises of this method, until I almost got sick of it. Surely, I thought, it can’t be that amazing. Well, let’s just say that now it’s my turn to watch people roll their eyes while I go into raptures about it.

But seriously, it is amazing. And the extra effort is minimal. (I didn’t even wash the skillet I toasted the spices in, just let it cool and wiped it clean with a damp towel.) But there’s another ingredient in this recipe, besides the toasted spices, that’s absolutely key to creating the bright, intense flavor of the lentils: lemon juice. You’re probably a little surprised. But a small amount of acid works wonders for lentils. I didn’t believe this until I tasted a dish of lentils finished with lemon juice side by side with one without. What can I say, I’m a serious skeptic in the kitchen: I don’t believe it till I see it—well, taste it. And then I go on tasting, and tasting, and tasting…

Lentils with Millet and Roasted Squash
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Yield: 4
Ingredients
  • 3/4 cup millet
  • 2 1/4 cups water or vegetable broth
  • 1/4 tsp. salt (if using water)
  • 3 TBSP. olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 1/2 tsp. whole coriander seeds
  • 1/2 tsp. whole peppercorns
  • 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
  • 2 TBSP. tomato paste
  • 1/2 cup green or black lentils
  • 2 cups water
  • 1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste
  • 2 TBSP. fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1 TBSP. lemon juice
  • half of a butternut squash (about 1 lb.)
  • cooking spray
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. FOR THE MILLET: Rinse the millet in a fine-mesh colander. Drain well. Place the millet in a non-stick pan over medium-heat (don’t worry about the grains being wet; the water will evaporate from the heat) and toast the grains until they begin to smell a little like popped corn. This takes anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes. The grains will turn very slightly golden.
  2. Add in the water and salt, or the vegetable broth, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to its lowest setting, cover the pan tightly, and cook for about 20-25 minutes, until all the water is absorbed and the millet is soft. (The cooking method is the same as for rice.) Separate the grains with a fork (many will stick anyway, but that’s okay). You can add a tablespoon or so of Earth Balance now if you’d like.
  3. FOR THE LENTILS: In a small skillet, toast the whole coriander seeds and peppercorns over low heat until fragrant. (This will take 1-2 minutes once the pan is heated.) Let the spices cool a bit, then using a pestle and mortar crush them together with the red pepper flakes. (If you don’t have a pestle and mortar, put the spices on a cutting board and use the side of a knife or the back of a spoon to smash them.) You don’t need to crush them finely, just in pieces small enough not to startle you if you bite into them in the finished dish. Set aside.
  4. Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add in the onion and cook for about 10 minutes until it’s caramelized around the edges. Add in the garlic, the crushed spices, and the tomato paste, and cook for about 3 minutes, until the garlic is fragrant and the tomato paste has begun to sizzle a bit.
  5. Add in the lentils and the water (DO NOT ADD SALT because salt interferes with how lentils cook), bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes, until the lentils are tender.
  6. Off the heat, season with salt, and add in the lemon juice and chopped parsley.
  7. FOR THE SQUASH: Preheat the oven to 375ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Peel and seed the squash, then cut it into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Lay the squash slices on the baking sheet, spray with cooking spray and season generously with salt and black pepper on both sides. Bake for about 35 minutes, flipping the slices halfway through the cooking time.
Notes

All the components of this dish keep very well in the fridge for several days. Store them separately and make sure to cover them tightly.

 

Nutritional Information: 4 servings. Per serving: 394 calories; 11.7 g fat; 744 mg sodium; 61.3 g carbs; 14.2 g fiber; 5.6 g sugar; 12.5 g protein.

Posted Tuesday, January 31, 2012.

Posted in Gluten-Free, Main Dishes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Balsamic Broccoli & Chickpeas with Crispy Shallots

The challenge I’m giving myself this year is to cook more simply. Fewer ingredients, fewer steps and, not least, fewer dishes to wash at the end. Many of my recipes are at the other end of the spectrum. I love concocting elaborate meals and triumphantly bringing them to the table for family and friends to enjoy.

I must admit, however, that if it wasn’t for friends and family, I probably wouldn’t go to all that trouble. When I have to prepare lunch or dinner just for myself, I sit down to a big bowl of soup  with toasted corn tortillas, or I toss vegetables, rice and beans with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and maybe a sprinkle of fresh herbs if I have them. I’ve been known to eat, for dinner, a heaping bowl of roasted cauliflower fresh out of the oven, and I have to say few things compare to the simple, wholesome pleasure of a meal like that.

So this year my goal is to focus on recipes I’d make just for myself. It’s not easy to let go of the high that comes from serving a vegan lasagna or cream pie. On the other hand, since when I’m on my own I tend to eat a lot of vegetables, I look forward to perfecting my vegetable cooking skills. These skills aren’t what I’d like them to be. Perfect green beans still elude me, for one. And, despite numerous tries, I haven’t been able to cook a fresh artichoke without turning it into a grey mushy blob.

Cooking vegetables well is no easy goal, as I’m sure you know firsthand. I was glad to find that even some great chefs acknowledge this. In one of the cookbooks I’m reading (Ratio, by Michael Ruhlman), a Culinary Institute of America chef is quoted as saying that, for him, the true test of a great cook is a perfectly made cauliflower with cheese sauce.

Perfectly cooked broccoli falls in the same category. The method I return to over and over, and find most foolproof and easy, is roasting it. (I hate messing around with an ice bath, which is necessary when you boil or steam it.) I separate the florets from the stems and cut them into even-sized pieces. I place the florets and the chopped stems on separate baking sheets, drizzle them with olive oil, and stick them in the oven—a quarter of an hour for the florets, a bit longer for the stems.

This is the starting point for many, many combinations. Here, I use balsamic vinegar as seasoning, chickpeas for some heartiness—if you haven’t tried roasting chickpeas yet, you’re in for a treat!—and crispy shallots for a touch of indulgence. Other times I dress the roasted broccoli very simply with lemon juice, or with a creamy dressing made of vegenaise and soy yogurt (one part vegenaise to three parts yogurt). I throw in whatever legumes and grains I have in the fridge or freezer—beans of every color, rice, couscous, millet. Be generous with the salt and pepper and whatever acid you’re using (lemon juice or vinegar), and the flavors are going to pop.

I’m curious to know what dishes you rely on when yours is the only mouth you have to feed. So go ahead and share!

Balsamic Broccoli & Chickpeas with Crispy Shallots
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Yield: 4
Ingredients
  • 1.5 lbs. broccoli
  • 1 cup cooked chickpeas
  • 2 1/2 TBSP. olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp. sea salt
  • 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
  • 2 TBSP. balsamic vinegar
  • 2 TBSP. vegetable oil
  • 1 shallot
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Wash the broccoli and pat it dry. Cut the florets from the stems (halve the florets that are very large) and place them in a bowl. Add in the chopped garlic.
  3. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the stems, then cut them into 1/2-inch pieces. Place them in a separate bowl. Add the cooked chickpeas to the chopped broccoli stems.
  4. Toss the broccoli stems and chickpeas with 1 1/2 TBSP. of olive oil, 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/8 tsp. black pepper. Arrange them on one of the cookie sheets.
  5. Toss the broccoli florets with the remaining 1 TBSP. olive oil, 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/8 tsp. black pepper. Arrange them on the other cookie sheet.
  6. Place both cookie sheets in the oven. Cook for 15 minutes, until the broccoli florets develop some charred spots. Remove the broccoli florets from the oven.
  7. Continue cooking the chopped broccoli stems and chickpeas for another 10 minutes, then remove them from the oven as well.
  8. Combine the florets, stems and chickpeas together in a large bowl. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust the seasoning accordingly. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar over the vegetables and toss.
  9. To make the crispy shallots, heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet until the oil shimmers. Line a plate with paper towels and keep close at hand. Thinly slice the shallot and separate the rings from each other.
  10. Drop the rings into the hot oil and cook until they turn golden brown, using tongs to stir them around and make sure they cook evenly. It’s important to use a large skillet here so that you fry the shallots rather than sauté them. Also, keep a close eye on them. They can burn easily.
  11. Remove the caramelized shallots to the plate lined with paper towels to drain the excess oil. Sprinkle them with a bit of salt while they’re hot.
  12. To serve, plate the broccoli and chickpeas and sprinkle the crispy shallots over the top.

 

Nutritional Information: 4 servings. Per serving: 274 calories; 15.4 g fat; 526 mg sodium; 27.2 g carbs; 7.1 g dietary fiber; 4.1 g sugar; 8 g protein.

Posted Wednesday, January 11, 2012.

Posted in Light Meals, Salads, Side Dishes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Peppermint Pinwheels

The little gods that rule over my kitchen were up to no good these past few weeks. They messed around with recipe after recipe. Painstakingly assembled squash gnocchi boiled into slimy, dense morsels; a raisin and caramelized onion sauce for roasted cauliflower turned out harsh, almost metallic-tasting; and batch after batch of thumbprint cookies (a new version based on rice krispies) came out a weird combination of soft and gritty.

The little spirits must have gotten their fill of fun at my expense at long last, because I finally managed to get one recipe right. I’ve had my eye on these Peppermint Pinwheels since last winter, when they were featured in Cook’s Country magazine as the winner of their holiday cookie contest. I was intimidated by the spiral pattern, but I was so taken with how pretty it looked that I decided to brave what promised to be a tricky assembly.

I was right to be nervous. Veganizing the recipe turned out to be the easiest thing about the whole undertaking. After that, challenges cropped up at every turn: how to grind the peppermint candies to the right fineness; how to dribble just the right amount of food coloring into the dough to get a pretty pink hue; and, hardest of all, how to shape the dough into a log. I made no small number of mistakes along the way. But all that I’ve learned from them I’ve incorporated into the text of the recipe, so you can get it right the first time.

The best thing about these cookies is their texture—the perfect combination of chewy and crispy—and the second best is their understated sweetness. They’re the perfect companion for a cup of hot chocolate. My husband said that, winter or no winter, he’d pair them with vanilla ice cream. If this sounds like a great idea but the thought of eating ice cream in winter gives you the shivers (I understand!), just remember that, come summer, you can make the most refreshing and delicious peppermint-vanilla ice cream sandwiches this side of the North Pole.

Peppermint Pinwheels
Print
Yield: 30 cookies
Ingredients
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp. sea salt
  • 16 TBSP. ( 8 oz.) Earth Balance margarine, softened
  • 1 TBSP. soy cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 TBSP. non-dairy milk
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
  • 1/2 cup peppermint candies (about 20; see Notes)*
  • 6 drops red food coloring, optional (see Notes)**
Instructions
  1. In a food processor, process the peppermint candies until finely ground. This takes a while (about 3 minutes with my food processor, which to be fair isn’t very good) and requires you to alternate between the pulse and continuous speeds. (It also produces clouds of peppermint dust. I mention this so that you know you aren’t doing anything wrong if this happens to you.)
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  3. Using a mixer (standing or hand-held), beat together the margarine and soy cream cheese with the sugar until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in the non-dairy milk and vanilla extract and beat until incorporated.
  4. Add in the flour and mix until the dough comes together, a little under 1 minute.
  5. Remove half of the dough from the bowl. To the remaining dough, add the peppermint extract, the ground peppermint candies and the food coloring. (Add the food coloring very carefully, as little as possible at a time, to make sure you don’t make the dough too red.) My dough became kind of crumbly after these additions; I moistened it with 1 TBSP. soy milk, and it came together nicely.
  6. Place each piece of dough between sheets of parchment paper and, using a rolling pin, roll them into rectangles 14×18″ in size.
  7. Place the peppermint dough rectangle on top of the plain dough. This is not as easy as it sounds. When I did it, the peppermint dough fell apart into chunks. Fortunately, it’s an easily solved problem. Arrange the peppermint dough chunks on top of the plain dough, as close to each other as you can, and press their seams together until you have a uniform rectangle. Press gently down onto the peppermint dough to make it adhere to the plain dough.
  8. Roll the rectangle into a log. Again, this is not as easy as it sounds. Do this slowly and carefully and you’ll be okay. The plain dough layer will develop cracks, but you can easily seal them with your fingers.
  9. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.
  10. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375ºF and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  11. Cut the log into rounds about 1/4 inch thick. (Don’t use a serrated knife; it makes the edges of the cookie dough rounds crumble.) Place the rounds on the baking sheet about 1 inch apart (these cookies don’t spread during baking).
  12. Bake 12-14 minutes, until the cookies are lightly golden around the edges.
  13. Remove from the oven and let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer them onto a cooling rack.
Notes

*The peppermint candies required by this recipe are the traditional ones (called starlights): white rounds with red stripes around the edges.
** I’ve made this recipe without the food coloring. The cookies turn out just as delicious but rather homely. To embelish them, I suggest piping icing on them in the shape of a spiral or, if you’re handy with an icing bag, even snowflakes.

Nutritional Information: 30 cookies. Per cookie: 128 calories; 6.2 g fat; 75 mg sodium; 16.4 g carbs; 0.3 g dietary fiber; 6.8 g sugars; 1.3 g protein.

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Lace Cookies

Okay, I’ve jumped the gun. I’ve already started baking Christmas cookies, even though I’ve barely made plans for what I’m going to bake for Thanksgiving dessert. (The plans that I did make are grand, I must say, and for the first time in many years they don’t involve pie.) Well, so be it. Fools rush in, they say, but I just couldn’t help myself.

At least I’m a happy fool. I spent a couple of blissful weeks testing this recipe for lace cookies, the delight unshattered by sporadic batches of deformed, burned or limp cookies. (I ate them all.) Things got a lot better after I had a brainwave about using chickpea flour to stabilize the texture of the cookies, instead of the egg usually required in non-vegan recipes.

Trickiest by far was figuring out the exact time and temperature required to bake them. I got the best results when I used my convection oven, set to 350ºF, and baked the cookies for precisely 8 minutes. When I used a regular oven, the same temperature and time didn’t give 100% consistent results. I had to watch the cookies like a hawk to make sure they didn’t burn or underbake.

Oh, but was it worth it. Their texture is heavenly, and they’re so delicately pretty. Sandwiching chocolate between them is just gilding the lily, I admit. Sometimes you’re in the right mood for that, sometimes you’re not. I went back and forth on this in my two weeks of testing. But in a recipe that yields more than three dozen cookies, there’s surely room for both.

Lace Cookies

70 cookies/35 cookie sandwiches

  • 7 TBSP. (3.5 oz.) Earth Balance margarine, softened
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup light or dark brown sugar
  • 5 TBSP. chickpea flour
  • 9 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped, for the filling

In a medium bowl, combine the softened margarine with the brown sugar and,  using a wooden spoon, cream together for a couple of minutes.

Add in the rolled oats and chickpea flour and mix until a soft dough forms. (It will be very soft.) Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Measure out teaspoonfuls of the dough onto the baking sheets, placing them 2 inches apart. It’s extremely important to measure 1 tsp. of dough precisely, or else the cookies will spread out too much.

I have also found that the cookies bake more evenly if you let the measured dough sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes on the baking sheets before you put it in the oven. If the dough is very cold, the cookies spread out at the edges but not in the middle, and you can end up with hat-shaped cookies rather than completely flat ones.

Bake for 8 minutes, until the cookies have spread to about 2 inches in diameter and the edges are caramelized. Halfway through the baking time, shift the baking sheets around in the oven, from bottom shelf to top, and rotate them 180º.

Watch the cookies closely while they bake. Make sure you don’t underbake them, or else they won’t get crispy when cool. Also, the last minutes of baking are critical; the edges of the cookies can burn really fast.

After removing the cookie sheets from the oven, carefully slide the parchment lining (with the cookies on it) off the baking sheets onto a cooling rack. (I found that it was too tricky to move the hot cookies individually, and if I let them sit on the baking sheet too long they burned.)

Let the cookies cool completely. Store them in a zip-top bag in the fridge for up to a week, or until you’re ready to make the sandwiches.

When you’re ready to make the sandwiches, melt the bittersweet chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave or over gently boiling water. Let the chocolate cool for 5-7 minutes, then stir it well.

Spread one scant teaspoonful of melted chocolate between two lace cookies. Press gently to seal, then place the cookie on wax paper or a cooling rack. Continue with the rest of the cookies. Let them sit at room temperature until the chocolate has hardened.

Store the cookie sandwiches in an airtight container in the fridge.

Nutritional Information: 35 cookie sandwiches. Per sandwich: 97 calories; 4.9 g fat; 21 mg sodium; 12.1 g carbs; 0.9 g fiber; 9 g sugar; 1 g protein.

Posted Tuesday, November 22, 2011.

Posted in Chocolate, Cookies | Tagged , , | Leave a comment