Tofu

This recipe will eliminate all doubt that good-for-you tofu can be tasty, too!

We call this Cheddar tofu because of the texture. Imagine soft tofu, silky against your tongue, infused with a rich Cheddar flavor. It’s pretty awesome stuff. You can use it in exactly the same way that you would real tofu. It happily sits center stage as the main component in a salad or soup, or it can be diced and incorporated into a dish much like gnocchi or small dumplings. We use both the high- and low-acyl gellans at a ratio of 0.2 percent of the weight of the other ingredients. The gellan makes it relatively heat stable, and it holds its shape beautifully when cut or molded.

Whenever I make this for lunch I always think, “I should make this more often.” It’s a pleasant change-of-pace spread that can be served on fresh bread or, better yet, stuffed into pita.

When I serve this to lunchtime company, even tofu skeptics love it! For me, it’s a throwback to tuna salad, something I gave up many years ago, though I still liked its taste. This is especially good served in warm pita bread. I also like to mix leftovers with macaroni for a “tofuna”-noodle salad. For more information on baked marinated tofu, see page 136. For this recipe, it’s best to use a baked tofu product that comes in large chunks like Soy Boy’s Tofu Lin, rather than the type that comes in small cutlets.

Silken tofu makes a perfect base for a good, dairy-free dip.

In this updated version of creamed spinach, you get the goodness of soy, but not the bother of cooking a flour-thickened sauce. It’s a feast for spinach fans!

Here’s a deceptively rich-tasting version of scalloped potatoes. It gives you the benefits of soy, minus the bother of making a flour-thickened white sauce.

Here’s a superb use for leftovers of Instant Tofu and Mixed Vegetable Stir-Fry. Or do it the other way around: Make the stir-fry especially for these wraps and serve the remainder over rice or noodles the next day.

In another super-easy, nearly instant tortilla recipe, chewy baked tofu stands in for chicken. You may not find this wonderful product in the supermarket; look for it in natural foods stores.

Bok choy combines crunch and leafiness in one neat package and cooks up quickly in stir-fries.

Good Southern corn on the cob (available nearly all year around) served with these tasty kebabs results in a meal recalling outdoor summer barbecues. A sure cure for winter doldrums!

So good and very easy, this recipe might just be the ticket to onverting tofu skeptics.

Look for some of the interesting Asian-style vegetable mélanges in the frozen vegetables section. They’re great to have on hand when you crave a quick stir-fry but don’t feel like chopping. Serve with hot cooked rice or noodles and raw carrot and celery sticks, or try the accompanying menu.

Spicy Thai peanut sauce is another of my favored shortcuts to great flavor. There are a number of good, natural brands available, some much lower in fat than you might expect. Serve over hot cooked brown rice or Asian noodles such as soba.

As you can see, I really like what barbecue sauce does for tofu. This is excellent over rice.

This is as luscious-tasting as it is nourishing.

This is a family favorite that I make regularly. It can be sautéed or baked and is a great accompaniment to Asian-style noodle or rice dishes.

These crispy tofu cutlets are another favorite in our home. Enlist your kids to help with the breading and shaking—they’ll have fun with it, and they’re more likely to eat anything they’ve helped make. If you’re serving more than four, the recipe doubles easily, but be sure to use two baking sheets as well.