the cooked and the raw

If you have to convince someone that tofu is a tasty alternative to meat and animal proteins, try with scrambled tofu. Scrambled tofu allows you to be very creative: it can be paired with almost any kind of vegetable, from zucchini to carrots, from seaweeds to peppers (just to list a few…). It’s also great with nuts. I think that firm or extra firm tofu work best for this kind of recipe but this is just my personal suggestion as I know that some people prefer the softer version. I’m very ashamed to confess that for this scrambled tofu I used frozen spinach…which is not good at all …but it happened! The tofu and the lemon, of course, were organic ;)

Ingredients (makes 2 abundant servings):  

250 g firm, organic tofu

1 ½ cups cooked spinach

½ red onion, chopped

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon rice malt syrup

1 tablespoon shoyu

2 tablespoons raisins

2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted 

zest of 1 organic lemon, grated

whole sea salt (to taste)

chili powder (to taste)

Blanch the tofu by placing it in a pan of boiling water. Simmer for 2 minutes, remove the tofu from the boiling water and rinse it under cold water. Set aside. 

It’s always a good idea to blanch tofu before sautéing it or baking it or using it for dips. The blanching procedure, which is very easy and takes only a few minutes, makes tofu more absorbent of flavours and its soy protein a lot more digestible.

In a wok, heat the olive oil and sauté the onion until it’s tender, then add the shoyu and the rice malt syrup. Keep cooking over medium heat for 1 more minute. If you are using frozen spinach you can throw it into the wok once you have cooked it separately in a pan of boiling water (and drained them well) and sautè for a couple of minutes. If you choose fresh spinach you’ll have to figure out the amounts (as you’re going to need more than 1 ½ cups) and stir fry the spinach in the wok until wilted. Crumble the tofu using your hands and add it to the vegetables. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, then add the pine nuts, raisins, chili, lemon zest and a pinch of salt. Taste and adjust seasoning with additional salt and chili if necessary, stir and serve.

This is a lovely moist cake for any time of the day. It’s definitely one of those breakfast components that gets me out of bed but I think it’s ideal to conclude a light meal, too. What I like most about this cake is the intense, unique ‘cinnamony apple’ smell that wafts through the house while the cake bakes… As usual I suggest using organic ingredients for a healthier, tastier, and more natural result… ;) 

Ingredients:

4 Golden Delicious apples, cut into chunks

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 cup ground Brazil nuts

1 tablespoon organic baking powder (I used cream of tartar)

1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder

¼ teaspoon whole sea salt

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

6 tablespoons rice malt syrup

½ cup rice milk

Preheat oven to 180° C, lightly oil a 20 cm round cake pan and sprinkle with flour. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking powder. Place the olive oil, rice malt syrup and the milk in a blender and blend until combined. Add to the flour mixture and stir well. Fold in the apple chunks and the Brazil nuts and stir gently until they are incorporated into the batter (which should be rather thick). Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for approximately 1 hour (use the wooden stick test for donness). Let cool before removing the cake from the pan. Enjoy!