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.

Tofu is indeed one of the most versatile foods: it can serve a variety of purposes, from appetizer, to main course, to dessert and definitely more, suiting lots of recipes. The fact that it comes in a range of different textures (from extra firm to silken), makes tofu even more appealing. I normally use firmer textures for stir-frying and grilling or baking and prefer softer tofu for desserts and salad dressings. As I’m a non-meat eater, tofu certainly makes my life easier. I personally never get tired of tofu, because I don’t usually have huge amounts of it at once. For this stir-fried version with zucchini, I used one rectangular block of medium firm tofu. Needless to say, organic tofu is better. If you don’t use the whole package, you can rinse the remaining tofu, put it into a container covered with water, and place it in the fridge. Change the water daily in order to keep the tofu fresh and consume it within 2-3 days.

Ingredients (makes 2 servings):

1 package (300 g) medium firm tofu, cut into approx 2cm x 3cm slices

2 medium zucchini, sliced into rounds

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

whole sea salt (to taste)

For the first marinade

3 tablespoons shoyu

2 cups water

For the second marinade

fresh coriander leaves (to taste)

ground, dried coriander (to taste)

2 garlic cloves, cut into chunks

3 tablespoons sesame oil 

Arrange the sliced tofu in a single layer in a square or rectangular container. Mix together the shoyu and the water and pour the marinade over the tofu, coating it completely. Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or preferably overnight.
Drain the tofu but don’t throw away the shoyu marinade, which can be used (within 2-3 days) as the base of a vegetable soup or to marinate more tofu. Combine the sesame oil, the garlic chunks, the fresh and dried coriander in a bowl. Add the tofu, cover and marinate in the fridge for 2 to 3 hours. Heat the olive oil in a wok, add the sliced zucchini and a pinch of salt. Stir over high heat for a few minutes, adding a little bit of water to avoid sticking to the wok. Remove the garlic chunks from the tofu marinade and add the tofu (with its marinade) to the zucchini. Sprinkle the sesame seeds over the tofu and the zucchini and stir-fry for another 2 minutes over high heat. Serve immediately.

I like to consider the pasta I’m proposing today as a very sophisticated but at the same time extremely simple, quick, cheap and delicious main course. This is definitely the sort of recipe that turns out to be useful when there are pastivore guests to satisfy, or when a last-minute meal has to be thrown together. If you’re going to test this recipe and can’t find sedani rigati, just go for another kind of wholemeal short pasta, like penne or rigatoni. I do hope you’re going to enjoy these sedani as much as I (and everyone else who had them!) did. I think the delicate nuttiness of the almonds and the sharp lemon flavour both pair exquisitely with the sweetness of the leek and shoyu… For my sedani I used organic lemons, an organic leek, organic shoyu and organic pasta. As you’re going to eat the zest of the lemons, these should indeed be organic.

Ingredients (makes 4 servings):

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon shoyu

1 leek, trimmed and finely sliced

½ cup ground almonds

zest of 3 to 4 lemons, finely grated

whole sea salt (to taste)

freshly ground black pepper

300 g wholemeal sedani pasta

Heat the oil and shoyu in a large non-stick pan over medium heat then gently stir fry the leek until golden, stirring in a little bit of water at a time to moisten the consistency. Add a pinch of sea salt if necessary. In the meantime cook the sedani in plenty of boiling and salted water until al dente. Drain the pasta and throw it into the pan, add the lemon zest and almonds and sauté for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and season with black pepper to taste.