Tofu Wrap Lunch

Korean seasoned tofu, lettuce, avocado, sriracha, tortilla
saltines
kimchi
carrot
apple
waffle cookies
pineapple

My wrap got a bit squished by my bento box. Nothing can peek over the side of the box.

Falafel and tzatziki sauce

Wednesday, I got home after my zumba class and I needed to eat. I was trying to decide if I should just heat up a can of soup or go with the original plan of making falafel. I decided that I would be much happier with falafel.

This is based on the recipe from Rabbit Food cookbook, which is a fabulous cookbook.

Ingredients
1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained
1/4 red onion, diced,
3 - 4 garlic, diced (I love a lot of garlic flavour)
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 cup flour
lemon juice
cumin
cayenne pepper
black pepper
salt

plain coconut yogurt, this was a tad bit too sweet
1/4 cup diced cucumber
lemon juice

tomato slices
cucumber slices
pickles
lettuce
sriracha sauce

pita bread or tortillas

Method
Using a potato masher or food processor, mash up the chickpeas until there are no whole ones left. Usually I use the food processor, but I didn't want to dirty up the food processor bowl, so I used the potato masher and it works okay. Make sure that all the other ingredients are diced very very small. Add all the other ingredients and mix until evenly distributed. The mixture should be able to stick together when pressed.

Heat up a cast iron skillet over medium heat. You can also deep fry or bake the falafel, but I prefer to shallow fry them in a skillet. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, measure out a 1/4 cup and mash into about a 6 cm diameter patty. Place on the skillet and cook until browned on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Continue making patties until the mixture is gone. I made about 8 patties.

To make the tzatziki sauce, mix together the yogurt, cucumber, and lemon juice. Set aside to let the flavours blend.

To serve, heat the bread or tortillas until warm and pliable. Place 2 patties in the center and add the tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, pickles, sriracha, and tzatziki.

Notes
These were surprising good. The recipe is so simple and came out really well. The patties didn't get hard the way they do when falafel is fried, and even though the fell apart a bit, they were still good. My husband had already had dinner, but he kept stealing bites because he liked it so much. We ate the leftovers for lunch on Thursday and they were still quite tasty.

Almond Veggie Pate

Recently, I have been toying with doing a raw food diet. I have book marked lots of recipes, checked out several books from the library, and I'm slowly starting to make more raw foods. I'm doing it mostly because I enjoy the challenge of making tasty food in nontraditional ways. Also, the arguments I have read for adding more raw foods to your diet seem to make sense to me.

I came across the following recipe and thought it looked good. I made a month or so ago and my husband and I still talk about it. Very tasty!



Ingredients
Adapted from Ani Phyo Website

3/4 cup almonds
1 cup cashews
1 T grated ginger
3 cloves garlic (this was a little high even for me and I love garlic, I would probably do two cloves next time)
1/2 cup grated carrots
1/4 cup chopped onions
1/3 cup dried plums
salt
pepper
juice from 1/2 lemon
sriracha sauce

lettuce leafs
bean sprouts
cilranto
cucumbers
carrot sticks

2 T orange champagne vinegar
1 T sugar
1 T water

Method
Process the almonds and cashews until they are powdery. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until combined and the desired consistency. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Using lettuce as a wrap, place a tablespoon or two of the pate with the other toppings and eat.

For the dipping sauce, over low heat heat up the vinegar, sugar, and water until the sugar is dissolved, whisking continuously. Take off the heat and serve.

Notes

The original recipe called to wrap the pate up in nori, but the nori I had in my cupboard was a bit stale and chewy and after trying a few in the nori, we decided to just use lettuce as a vessel for the pate. My husband really enjoyed this.


He couldn't wait until I was done taking a photo!

Grillin'

Today I was looking through Pinterest (see my boards here) and I saw a recipe for Grilled Mint Julep Peaches. I do love a good grilled peach and we had a few ending the near of their life from our produce delivery as well as bourbon, mint, and sugar, so we put together a grilling fest.



The recipe for the grilled mint julep peaches is located here. We had four small peaches, so I cut the glaze down by half and still had a lot left over. I tried to turn it into a drink with ginger beer, but it was waaayy too sugary. Over the peaches, the glaze was fabulous.

We also grilled apple-sage field roast sausages, a pear, and beet slices. The beet slices were still super hard by the time they came off the grill. Next time I would probably par-cook them by boiling in water or softening in the microwave oven before putting them on the grill. When we cut the beet into spears, it was tender enough to eat with the salad.

Here is our grill set up.




We have a charcoal grill, but instead of going through the hassle of setting it up and waiting for the coals to get hot, we used my husbands burner he usually uses for beer brewing. He put our cast iron grill pan on top of it and it got hot really really quickly.

Notes
We both enjoyed this meal a lot. The sausages are always good, the peaches were excellent, the pear was a pleasant surprise, and the beets were very tasty. A win!

Tofu Lettuce Wraps

We have been getting lettuce every week with our produce delivery and we needed to have something more than salad. I thought of lettuce wraps! Even trying to eat all the lettuce in our fridge was five heads of lettuce, we gave two to our friend Trevor.

This recipe is very much add what ever you have on hand in the quantities you have.



Ingredients
olive oil
tofu, cubed
fresh ginger, minced or minced ginger paste
garlic, minced
soy sauce
red pepper flakes
sesame oil

large lettuce leafs, cleaned
carrots, julienned
red bell peppers, julienned
green onions, chopped


Method
In a cast pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat until hot. Add the tofu cubes and cook on each side until browned. Add the ginger and garlic, cook until slightly browned. Add the soy sauce, red pepper flakes, and a splash of sesame oil. Stir to combined and everything is heated through.

On a lettuce leaf, lay out some tofu cubes and any vegetables. Eat up.

Notes
I made this for a lunch for myself this past weekend, but gave my husband a few bites and he liked it. I liked it. I would make it again. I used the amazing tofu that comes from our local hippy store. Seriously, it is the best tofu I have ever tasted.