Grilled Hawaiian Tofu with Baked Macadamia Nut & Coconut Brown Rice

Well, I figured it was about time I took a break from the cookies and finally posted a savoury dish - and a whole meal this time! I've been absolutely loving this lately, in fact it's been my lunch most of the past week :-) The tofu is marinated in a gorgeous mixture of tamari, pineapple juice, coconut milk and seasoning then grilled until nicely singed. The rice is short grain brown rice baked in a mixture of water and coconut milk with spring onions and toasted macadamia nuts stirred in at the end....and for the record I'm always going to make my rice this way from now on....it just turns out effortlessly perfect. Lastly I also threw some pineapple on the grill as a side dish and served it all with some of the leftover marinade as a sauce. I also served mine with a virgin pina colada (as it was lunch and I'm not that bad!) A real one would be perfect with this for dinner :-)

First, the tofu: I was inspired here by the "Hawaiian Grilled Chicken" recipe by The Girl Who Ate Everything. Most of the time when I am looking for a new tofu marinade I search meat marinades as they work wonderfully and this one is gorgeous! I did make a few changes however, I swapped the water with pineapple juice for more Hawaiian flavour, reduced the brown sugar to make up for that, added some smoked paprika, increased the sesame oil a tad (as I love it) and left the spring onions for the rice. 

This is seriously amazing tofu!! I left it to marinade about an hour, grilled with some coconut oil and brushed more marinade on while grilling and served with more marinade to drizzle (or spoon) over while eating because it is that good. (I even drizzled it over my rice and yes....dipped the pineapple into it. No shame!

Second, the rice: here I also took advice from Christy at The Girl Who Ate Everything as she recommended serving the chicken with coconut rice and she suggested just swapping half the water you cook the rice in with coconut milk. However, I got to thinking this would be nice baked as it would accentuate the creaminess of the coconut milk in there AND it means while you are busy grilling the tofu the rice can just get on with baking in the oven - so much easier! So, I've based this recipe on Alton Brown's recipe for Baked Brown Rice but swapped the butter with coconut oil, replaced some of the water with coconut milk and used short grain brown rice.

It turns out perfect every time and tastes absolutely amazing! I further added some sliced spring onions and chopped toasted macadamia nuts to keep the Hawaiian theme going. The crunch and flavour of the nuts in there is wonderful :-) 

Grilled Hawaiian Tofu:

Yields 2 servings

200g tofu, medium firm 

¼ cup / 60ml tamari for gluten-free or soy sauce

¼ cup / 60ml pineapple juice

2 Tbsp light brown sugar

¼ tsp smoked paprika

1 clove garlic, minced

½ tsp toasted sesame oil 

100ml full fat coconut milk (6 Tbsp + 2 tsp)

2 tsp coconut oil to fry

Slice the tofu into 4 thin rectangles, about 1cm then press between paper towels to remove as much water as possible. Repeat with more paper towels if necessary. When they are fairly dry, pierce all over with a fork to help them absorb the marinade and place them in a dish and pour over the marinade. 

Please note that all the following photos are from me making just 1 serving of the tofu and rice...

Leave this to marinade for at least 1 hour, flipping them once or twice. I didn't refrigerate mine as the coconut milk thickens up too much in the fridge.

Preheat a grill pan until very hot and add the coconut oil, brush it all over as it melts then remove the tofu from the marinade and place on the grill pan. While the tofu is cooking also slice a pineapple into wedges (leave the skin on) and pop them on the grill as well. Don't try to flip the tofu until it is well grilled as they will stick if they are not ready to flip. 

Once flipped, brush with a little more marinade and if you want criss cross marks like I did flip again the other way on both sides. Turn over the pineapple when ready as well. Transfer any remaining marinade into 2 little serving bowls to serve with the dish. 

Baked Macadamia Nut Coconut Rice:

¾ cup / 150g short grain brown rice, rinsed

1¼ cup / 300ml water

½ cup / 125ml full fat coconut milk

2 tsp coconut oil or macadamia nut oil, I used coconut

½ tsp salt

•

2 spring onions, finely chopped

30g macadamia nuts, chopped and toasted (about 3 Tbsp)

Chive flowers, optional but recommended

Preparing the macadamia nuts: (you can do this while the rice is baking)....

Chop some unsalted macadamia nuts, not too fine - it's nice to have the crunch in there!

Place in a dry frying pan and toast until lightly golden brown. Inevitably the smaller bits will get golden before the big pieces. That's fine - just don't let them burn. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

For the rice: preheat oven to 190C/375ºF. Rinse the rice well and place in a suitably sized baking dish. Bring the water, coconut milk, oil and salt to the boil in a small saucepan. Pour this over the rice, give it a stir and cover tightly with foil.

Pop this into the preheated oven and bake for 1 hour. Now, mine is always spot on 1 hour but for your first time making this, as all ovens are a bit different, I suggest giving it a look at 50 minutes just to make sure it hasn't baked dry. If it has simply add a splash more hot water and give it a stir, recover with foil and bake until the rice is tender and the liquid absorbed.

Add the sliced spring onions and toasted macadamia nuts and give it a stir. I also highly recommend adding some chive flowers if you have them here - they are just so pretty and taste great in the rice :-)

To plate up: divide the rice, tofu and pineapple among 2 plates with the serving bowl of sauce and scatter over some more chive flowers. Enjoy!

♥

Nutritional Information: for 1 serving of rice, tofu and grilled pineapple. 

Calories: 442

Protein: 13.4g

Fat: 16.4g

Sat Fat: 5.5g

Carbs: 46.6g

Sugar: 12.2g

Fibre: 5.2g

Calcium: 362mg

Sodium: 1221mg

Note: these figures include all of the marinade which you are unlikely to use (no, even I didn't!). 920mg of the sodium figures there are coming from the tamari/soy sauce so don't worry about the high number as you will actually be using much less :-)

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Mexican Rice

Miso-Ginger Glazed Roasted Carrot and Toasted Sesame Sushi

I really love sushi, it's one of those foods I don't eat often but find I just get a massive craving for at times. Like intense craving, worse than chocolate! Usually I just make my standard sushi - the Avocado, Carrot and Lime Maki Rolls - as I love them and when that craving hits I certainly do not want to risk experimenting with a new recipe! But then I saw this Rick Stein recipe on BBC Good Food for Grilled Miso Salmon and was very intrigued by the glaze he put on the salmon. Brown rice miso, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and smoked paprika - I never would have thought of putting balsamic vinegar and paprika in a Japanese inspired dish and had to try this right away. Initially I was going to just swap the salmon with tofu - the obvious vegan substitution, but it eventual ended up as this....Miso-ginger glazed roasted carrot and toasted sesame sushi. Ah, the complexities of recipe development!

It turned out incredible! I really love these, that glaze is amazing, the balsamic and smoked paprika just work so well (and for the record it would make an awesome glaze for grilled tofu!) I made a couple little changes however. I added some ginger as it goes great with carrot and sushi and a teaspoon of Sweet Freedom syrup (vegan honey) but you can use agave or any other type of sweetener, I felt it helped balance the tartness of the vinegar. The carrot is roasted so they are nice and tender and then I added some toasted sesame seeds because they're awesome. Since the filling here has so much flavour you almost don't even need a dip with these but I just can't have sushi rolls without one. I kept it traditional with just some wasabi and soy sauce, I prepare the wasabi then whisk it into the soy sauce. Probably not traditional but I like an even flavour of wasabi. Some toasted sesame oil would work well in the dip as well.

Please note: I have tagged this recipe as gluten-free as all the products I used were gluten-free but please check your product ingredient lists to be sure :-)

Miso-Ginger Glazed Roasted Carrot & Toasted Sesame Sushi

Yields about 12 sushi rolls

For the Miso-Ginger Glazed Roasted Carrots:

1 large carrot sliced into matchstick sizes (not too thin though)

½ tsp peanut oil

½ tsp finely grated ginger

2 tsp brown rice miso paste

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp soy sauce (use tamari for gluten-free)

1 tsp Sweet Freedom syrup or other vegan syrup sweetener

¼ tsp smoked paprika

For the Sushi Rice:

125g sushi rice

250ml water

1 Tbsp rice vinegar

1/2 Tbsp mirin

1 tsp caster sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 sheets toasted nori 

4 tsp sesame seeds

• Wasabi and Soy Sauce to serve

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Toss the carrots with the peanut oil and place in a roasting tin. 

Roast for 10 minutes, tossing once. They should be slightly softer now. I pre-roast them a bit before adding the glaze so that the glaze doesn't burn.

Whisk together the miso, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, syrup, smoked paprika and ginger. 

Add the glaze to the carrots, mixing well. 

Pop it back in the oven and roast for another 10 minutes or until glazed and the carrots are tender. Transfer the carrots to a plate to let cool.

Toast the seeds:

Place the seeds in a dry frying pan and gently toast until lightly golden.

Transfer to a plate and allow to cool.

Make the rice:

Note: this may sound like a cop out but I suggest you follow the instructions on cooking the rice on your package of sushi rice. Reason being every pack I have bought has had different instructions and I have found that even different hobs yield different results. I used to add much less water than this on my old hob but my new one is a lot stronger, even on the lowest setting and found I needed to add more water. So I'm afraid it's a case of finding which rice works with your hob and pan to get perfect sushi rice. This is what I do however....

Place the rice and water in a saucepan and put lid on. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for 15 minutes, do not lift lid. Whisk together the rice vinegar, mirin, sugar and salt until all dissolved. Tip rice into a large bowl and pour the dressing over then use a rubber spatula and fold the dressing in until rice is room temperature and texture changes to thick and sticky, be gentle as you don't want to crush the grains.

Place the nori onto a bamboo sushi rolling mat, shiny side down. Keep a bowl of cold water mixed with some rice vinegar nearby. Wet your hands in this. Place half the rice onto the mat leaving about an inch bare at the other end. 

Gently pat down with damp hands until evenly spread out then sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds and lay the carrots out in the bottom 3rd closest to you.

♥

Lightly dampen the edge of the nori that has no rice on it then roll up using the bamboo mat. Repeat with the other sheet of nori then slice and serve with soy sauce and wasabi.

♥

Nutritional Information: per roll (1 out of 12) dip excluded.

Calories: 51

Protein: 1.2g

Fat: 0.3g

Sat Fat: 0

Carbs: 11g

Sugar: 1.6g

Fibre: 0.7g

Sodium: 199mg

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Zucchini Bhaji and Tarka Dal

vegan•gluten-free•soy-free•nut-free

Anyone else have a glut of zucchini in their garden right now? Yeah, thought so :-) I actually came up with this bhaji recipe last summer when we were in a similar situation and we just absolutely love these. They have great flavour and texture and best of all - they use up a LOT of zucchini! I made loads of these last summer and I suspect the same thing will happen this year. It's taken me so long to post them as I kept thinking I should blog them with something even though I usually just make these on their own to snack on, preferably with some mango chutney and a chilled beer! 

I decided they would be nice dipped into my tarka dal which is just a very basic version using common cupboard ingredients, probably not very traditional but certainly has far less fat than the versions you get in restaurants ;-) I keep my dal mild for my son but feel free to throw in some chillies, with seeds or not - up to you!

The bhaji's are good hot or cold so would be great to pack on a picnic and they are perfect with some mango chutney. They would also be good used like falafel in a wrap or a pitta with some salad and chilli sauce, lots of options! They also freeze and reheat beautifully, just defrost and lightly pan fry till warm :-)

Zucchini Bhaji

makes about 10 fritters.

500g grated zucchini (you'll need about 600g prior to grating)
1/2 Tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp mild curry powder
1 fresh red chili, finely chopped, I de-seed mine, if you want them hotter leave them in.
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped 
1 large onion, diced
1 “egg”:
     1 Tbsp cornstarch
     1/8 tsp xanthan gum
     1/8 tsp gluten free baking powder
     1/8 tsp turmeric
     1 tsp peanut oil (or melted coconut oil)
     50 ml water
80ml (1/3 cup) unsweetened soy, coconut or almond milk
140g (1 cup + 1 Tbsp) Gram flour*
1½ tsp gluten free baking powder 
½ tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper

*Gram flour is also known as chickpea flour, garbanzo bean flour or besan.

Top and tail the zucchini then grate, preferably in a food processor with the grating attachment. Tip the zucchini into a colander, sprinkle generously with salt and toss well, massaging the salt into the zucchini. Don't worry about the amount of salt as it will be rinsed off, this is to draw out the water from the zucchini so you don't end up with soggy bhaji! 

Leave for 20 mins then rinse under cold water. Now take handfuls of the grated zucchini and squeeze as much water out as you can then spread out on a clean dish towel. Cover with another clean dish towel and press down getting the zucchini as dry as you can. Tip into a bowl and separate it all with a fork.

Gently fry the chilli, garlic and onion in the coconut oil with some black pepper until soft. Add the curry powder and fry gently for 1 minute more. Set aside. 

Make the "egg": In a small bowl add the cornstarch, xanthan gum, baking powder and turmeric and whisk. Mix together the water and oil in a small glass. Slowly add the liquid to the dry whisking all the while until it is all added then whisk really well until the mixture is really thick and gloopy. This takes a little while - if your arms don't hurt, you haven't whisked enough! Now start whisking in the milk a little bit at a time again whisking really well after each addition so it stays on the thick side.

In a medium bowl add the gram flour, salt and baking powder. Add the zucchini, “egg”/milk mixture and fried mixture and stir with a fork until really well blended. There should be no more flour showing and you should have a thick mixture.

Preheat the oven to 120C and line a baking sheet with baking paper. Pour enough peanut oil in a medium size fry pan to cover the bottom and drop heaping tablespoons of the mixture onto the pan. Flatten slightly with a fork and fry until golden then flip and fry the other side. Repeat until all the batter is used up adding more oil if need be.

When the fritters are cooked transfer to the prepared sheet to keep them warm in the oven. I also do this to ensure the fritters get fully cooked in the middle. They will keep happily in a low temperature oven for even up to half an hour. I usually make the fritters first and keep them warming in the oven while I make the dal.

EDIT: I've since discovered that these can also be BAKED! Just line a baking sheet with baking paper and lightly grease. Preheat the oven to 200C and drop heaping tablespoons of the mixture onto the sheet. Shape and press down lightly with the spoon. Bake for 15 minutes or until fully cooked and lightly golden brown on top. They come baked really light and fluffy, like little bhaji clouds :-)

Tarka Dal:

serves 2 generously, 3 as a small side

240g (1¼ cup) dry red split lentils
250ml (1 cup) water
1 tsp turmeric
1 Tbsp mild curry powder
1 Tbsp coconut oil
½ tsp cumin seeds
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, cored and finely chopped 
¾ tsp salt
¾ tsp garam masala
1 Tbsp vegan butter

Rinse lentils well, place in saucepan and cover with cold water (not the 1 cup listed in the recipe, just cover them with water). Bring to boil and boil rapidly for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse with hot water and place back in the pot with the measured water, turmeric and curry powder. Simmer with the lid on for 15 minutes adding more water a bit at a time if need be until the lentils are fully cooked and there is very little water left.

Meanwhile heat 1 Tbsp of coconut oil and fry the cumin seeds a few seconds. Add the onion and fry until slightly golden brown, about 10 minutes. With a few minutes left add the garlic (you can add a finely chopped chilli now if you want more heat, keep in mind this is a mild dal). Add the tomatoes and cook until they start to break down.


Stir this into the lentils along with the garam masala, salt and 1 Tbsp vegan butter. Stir until the butter melts and everything is well blended. 

♥

Nutritional Information:

For 1 Bhaji out of 10:

Calories: 103

Protein: 4.1g

Fat: 4.7g

Sat Fat: 1.2g

Fibre: 2.3g

Carbs: 11.7g

Sugar: 3.1g

Sodium: 138mg

For 1/2 of the tarka dal:

Calories: 300

Protein: 11.4g

Fat: 13.3g

Sat Fat: 7.3g

Fibre: 7.4g

Carbs: 36.6g

Sugar: 6.8g

Sodium: 904mg

Still have too much zucchini?? A couple of my favourites...

Zucchini, Lemon and Dill
Soup with Orzo

Beer Battered Zucchini Sticks
with Ranch Dip

Lightly Charred Zesty Lime Margarita Marinated Tofu

Served with Mexican Rice, Potato Salad and Sweet Iced Tea - hello summer!

Ok, so I am loving this tofu lately! Those of you who like my facebook page will recognize it from a couple weeks ago as part of my blog testing lunches :-) It's pretty much as described, tofu marinated in a zesty lime and tequila marinade then pan fried until lightly charred. It's seriously good, very zesty and downrite more-ish. The marinade is slightly adapted from Iowa Girl Eat's recipe for margarita chicken (good tip - don't limit yourself to searching for tofu recipes, meat marinades usually work awesome as tofu marinades!)

Served as a lighter meal on top of some nice lettuce with slices of avocado and a drizzle of the marinade as a dressing.

What I am really excited about here is the tofu preparation method I have used. I'm very limited here in the types of tofu I can buy. I can get firm and soft silken tofu then I'm pretty much left with Cauldron's Original Tofu:

For those of you not in Ireland and the UK it is a VERY soft tofu, bordering on silken in many ways. I do love it but it's softness can be a let down in some cases, particularly in marinating. Obviously when marinating you want to extract as much of the liquid as you can from the tofu, usually by pressing so that the tofu will absorb all your yummy marinade. This tofu is so soft it gets a little smashed when you press it. Not good. So I was looking for a way to draw out the liquid without pressing (or freezing as it takes too long) - enter, the microwave.

I simply cut the tofu as I wanted, in this case thin-ish triangles and placed them on a plate. Microwaved for 1 minute then placed them on paper towels to drain. Wiped the plate clean of all the water that came out and repeated the process so that it was microwaved a total of 4 minutes. In the end you end up with a much firmer and bouncier tofu with almost all the liquid extracted - perfect for marinating. This does 'cook' the tofu slightly but I find that only enhances the texture again. Plus, you are then marinating the tofu while warm which I find makes it absorb even more marinade.

I am really happy to find a way to make soft tofu firm, and in only 4 minutes! If your tofu is too soft, give this method a try (step by step photos below!)

~Recipe Notes~

♥ If using soft or very soft tofu then follow my microwaving procedure below.
♥ If you are using a firm tofu, simply press the cut tofu between layers of paper towel or a clean kitchen towel for about 15 minutes, change the paper at least once, then marinade as per recipe instructions.
♥ Depending on your microwave you may not need the full 4 minutes, or you may need more. Stop when there is very little water being released by the tofu and it feels firm, bouncy and dry-ish.
♥ The 1 tsp of salt is not a typo! As this is a marinade all of that won't be used and you do want a little salty kick here, just like in a margarita :-) Besides, even when I use it as a dressing it's not too much.
♥ Marinade makes enough for 2 lots of tofu (250g) but I've written this up to serve one. Leftover marinade will keep in the fridge for a couple of days or you can double the amount of tofu here to serve 2.

Zesty Lime Margarita Tofu:

40ml lime juice (about 2 limes) +zest of ½ lime
zest of ¼ orange + juice of ½ orange
1 Tbsp tequila, I used gold
1 Tbsp peanut oil
1 tsp sweet freedom syrup, light agave or maple syrup
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp salt and 16 grinds of black pepper
125g tofu (¼ of a pack of Cauldron) - see notes above

For the marinade simply whisk everything but the tofu together and tip into a container that will fit all the tofu in a single layer.

Marinade Source: Iowa Girl Eats

~Prepare the Tofu~

1. Take ¼ of a pack of Cauldron’s Soft Tofu and slice into 6 thin triangles.
2. Place on a plate and microwave on high 1 minute.
3. Transfer the tofu onto 2 sheets of paper towel and place 1 more on top, pat down gently to absorb water.
4. Dry the plate and return the tofu to it. Microwave again for 1 minute.
5. Transfer to 2 sheets of paper towel and place 1 more on top, pat down to absorb water.
6. Dry the plate and return the tofu to it, poke the tofu with a fork, both sides. Microwave again for 1 minute. (You want to fork the tofu now as it's starting to cook it can 'seal' the out side of the tofu which could result in the tofu not absorbing as much marinade. It also helps the water to release.)
7. Transfer to 1 sheet1 of paper towel and place 1 more on top, pat down to absorb water.
8. Dry the plate and return the tofu to it, poke the tofu with a fork, both sides. Microwave again for 1 minute.
9. Transfer to 1 sheet1 of paper towel and place 1 more on top, pat down to absorb water (there should be very little water at this point). Poke again with a fork on both sides.
10. Place the prepared tofu into the marinade, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour to marinade.

~Fry the Tofu~

Brush a little peanut oil onto a frying pan and get it nice and hot. Remove the tofu from the marinade and place in the pan:

 Let it cook until lightly golden brown underneath with some darker spots, then flip them over:

 Spoon over a little of the marinade over each piece of tofu (please take care if you have a gas hob - remember there is tequila in there!!)

 ...and let it sizzle away!

 Flip the tofu over and spoon a little more marinade over, again let it sizzle away.

I now just let it cook, flipping them over until I'm happy with the amount of charred bits I've got on both sides.

Then, just serve as you like! I liked this both ways - as a larger, heartier meal with Mexican Rice and Potato Salad (basic version) and as a lighter salad simply with a nice leaf, avocado and the marinade as dressing. 
(Note that the photos you see here are not with my Mexican Rice recipe but rather an easier 'cheater' version, same idea though.)

♥

Nutritional Information: tofu only, 1 serving

Calories: 193

Protein: 10.9g

Fat: 11.2g

Sat Fat: 2.1g

Fibre: 0.9g

Carbs: 8.8g

Sugar: 5.1g

Sodium: 1163 * - will be less as you don't use ALL the marinade :-)

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