Salt and Pepper Tofu

For the last month, I've been addicted to salt and pepper tofu, have been making it about every 10 days and even eating it out (more on that later). I generally serve mine with white rice and whatever veggies I have on hand. I shallow fry it but it still not super healthy but it's oh so delicious. The pepper really helps warm you up on these cold days too. Here is my rough recipe, feel free to play around with the salt and pepper ratio.

Salt and Pepper Tofu adapted by indolent cook:

450g firm tofu
4 tablespoons of corn starch (i've also used a combo of potato flour, will try rice flour next)
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of ground sichuan pepper (I think this really makes the dish)
oil, for frying
3 spring onions, chopped
soy sauce (optional-for extra flavour on your rice)
rice vinegar (optional-for extra flavour on your rice)

Drain tofu and cut tofu into cubes of 2 - 2.5 centimetres. Mix the salt and peppers together. Add half of the salt and pepper to the corn starch.  Put remaining aside.

Toss tofu cubes through the flour blend, making sure they are coated on all sides. Divide into a few batches depending on the size of your frypan.

Pour oil into a small frying pan so that there is no space. Let the oil warm rapidly over high heat for about 30 seconds, then fry the coated tofu cubes a batch at a time, turning, until golden and crispy on all sides. Add remaining salt and pepper to it and fry for another minute.

Retrieve the tofu and drain off excess oil on paper towels.

Put a tiny bit of soy sauce and rice vinegar on your bowl of plain rice, add tofu (and veggies) and top with spring onions.

Lentil Quinoa Stew

I'm bacckkkkkkkkk. Or rather my camera is back.

This dish is a regular winter dish in our household. I can't believe I haven't blogged about it before. It ticks all of the boxes: healthy, cheap, delicious, easy and it's a one pot meal. I really wanted to caculate how much this soup was but was too tricky because a few things were out of the food co-op box, and the quinoa was bought in bulk from costco.

We served ours this week with some gf toast with margarine and nooch.

Lentil Quinoa Stew from La Dolce Vegan

1 small onion, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 celery stalk, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 ½ cups vegetable stock
½ cup dry red lentils
¼ cup quinoa
½ tsp dried basil
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground black pepper
1 medium tomato, diced
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup coriander, chopped (we often skip it or replace it with whatever we have on hand, we used parsley this week)

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, sauté the onion in oil until translucent. Add the celery, carrots and garlic and sauté for five minutes. Add the stock, lentils, quinoa, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Cover with lid and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until lentils are tender.

In a food processor or with a hand blender, blend half of the soup until smooth (I always skip this step since I like it with a bit of texture). Return to pot, stir in tomatoes, vinegar and coriander reheat and serve.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Bites

Heya.

I've been away for over a month. It's been long enough to make me miss blogging but unfortunately my camera battery went dead and we can't find the charger, so have all of these great recipes and eating out pics and can't access it. We spent about two weeks turning our house upside down but can't find it. I suspect we left it in a hotel in Sydney, anyway have finally ordered one so will be back with proper pics soon.

Anyway here is a recipe and crappy photo from my phone. I've gone back on a healthy dessert kick and have been making a few of these little snacks lately, if you have similar suggestions would love to hear about them.

Now let me start by saying that I hate the taste of protein powder, whereas Toby as you know is protein obsessed. I loved these though and they served as great filling snacks in between meals, particuarly when I work nights and don't get dinner til about 9pm.

Toby dislikes peanut butter, so I was a bit sneaky in giving him a couple but the flavour is kind of lost so he didn't notice and loved them too.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Bites adapted from from Wayfaring Chocolate
Makes 15-20.

• 2.5 tb (50g) peanut butter
• 4 scoops (84g) Sunwarrior Vanilla protein powder
• 1/2 cup soy milk (I added a little more til it was slightly moist since slight adaption of original recipe)
• 2 tb maple syrup
• 1/4 cup (40g) dark chocolate chips

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the peanut butter, protein powder, coconut flour and soy milk until well combined and the batter has reached a cohesive cookie-dough-like consistency. Add maple syrup and adjust liquid.
2. Stir in the chocolate chips, then roll the cookie dough into balls.
3. You can either serve them cold or do as I and Hannah did and microwave them for for  approx 30 seconds, until the chocolate is melted and the cookie dough has become more cooked-cookie-like.They are so much better microwaved!!!