Green Options

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Image Courtesy of the National Honey Board

Just in time for the holiday, the Honey Board has a few recipes to recommend — for the grill. Honey is a pretty common ingredient for marinades and sauces. These recipes capture that sweet-spicy combination of flavors I personally love.

Before you go for the tongs, the Honey Board has a few pointers on why this food is sustainable AND an eco-friendly choice:

• Honey is an all-natural food that leaves a small eco-footprint.
• Purchasing local honey encourages growth of the local economy and reduces production waste.
• Many farmers have hives on their land, in part because bees are responsible for one out of every three bites we consume.
• If it weren’t for honey bees, we would suffer from a limited supply of oranges, apples, blueberries, cucumbers and strawberries.

Recipes for your holiday cook out include Grilled Tofu Kabobs with a Honey-Chipotle Glaze.

Well, after my last post on eco-friendly junk food, I feel like I need to redeem myself a bit with another healthy salad. (See, my Kale, Quinoa and Avocado Salad recipe for the first installment of this series.) This recipe came about when I had a craving for home made spring rolls, but couldn’t find any sheets of rice paper in the five block vicinity of my apartment that I was willing to walk.

I changed up the ingredients a little bit, and Spring Roll Salad was born. Depending on what you’re in the mood for, you can make this more of a green salad and go heavy on the lettuce and cabbage, or more of a pasta salad, heavy on the vermicelli.

I’ll simply list my ingredients and let your taste guide the quantity.

Despite a mild insecurity with shopping in grocery stores where the latin alphabet graces few labels, I was overcome with a desire to shop in Chinatown today upon seeing the perfect, sunny weather. More than picking up a few veggies, I was hoping to gather some inspiration. I have gotten into a bit of a cooking rut lately, which seems to be a consequence of farmer’s market shopping: always the same vendors, little variation from week to week. But much like a farmer’s market excursion, the Chinese groceries along Spadina Avenue offer a pleasurably ambling shopping experience without the neon lights, air conditioning and tasteless, overpackaged food that can be found at my local supermarket.

After fortifying myself on BBQ Pork steam buns, I walked into the first grocer

In my family, tofu pot pie is comfort food. This recipe is a great way to pack a bunch of veggies into your child, and it is perfect in all seasons. In the winter, we enjoy its warming qualities, and in the summer we pack it full of garden veggies. If you make a crust with oil, this recipe is vegan, but I prefer a flaky buttery crust. Be creative with your own pot pies and mix together the veggies you have in the refrigerator. Every pot pie comes out differently, but they are always delicious, especially when using organic ingredients.

Tofu Vegetarian Pot Pie

Prepare the crust

Combine:

• 1 cup unbleached white flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• dash of salt

Cut into flour mixture:

• 2/3 cup chilled butter

Add:

• 5 to 6 Tablespoons cold water

Knead until the dough holds together (you may need to add a little extra water), but do not overwork it. The warmth from your hands will soften the butter, and you will lose the flakiness of your crust.  Divide the dough into two balls and chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator or 10 minutes in the freezer. Roll out a top and bottom crust.

I love finding new recipes and trying out new things. But one of the problems with following a recipe to the letter is that you can end up with a lot of leftover veggies, grains, etc. After my recent Mac and Cheese taste test, for example, I found myself with half a potato, half a carrot, and a big chunk of of onion leftover. I also had a whole lot of fresh spinach burning a hole in my vegetable crisper.

My favorite way to use up just about any leftover veggies is to scramble them. You could use eggs of course, but tofu scrambles are a cholesterol-free approach that even soy-substitute-skeptics can enjoy. I find that half a block of tofu makes about one serving.

One thing I miss when leading a vegetarian lifestyle is hot wings. They are a true carnivore’s food, focusing on the messy deal of gleaning meat from bone. However, it’s not the meat I miss, but the buffalo-style sauce. Why not add a little Frank’s Red Hot to a more vegetarian-friendly dish to get my hot pepper fix? That’s how I came up with these wraps, featuring pan-seared tofu with hot sauce along with the classic additions of ranch or blue cheese and celery. The celery provides a nice crunch, and the dressing mellows the heat of the hot sauce. You can tone it down for picky eaters by using less hot sauce and more dressing.

Buffalo Tofu Wraps–Serves Four

four whole-wheat tortillas

one 16-oz package extra-firm tofu, pressed

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp butter or Earth Balance

two stalks celery, chopped

ranch or blue cheese, to taste

1/2 cup hot pepper sauce (I recommend Frank’s Buffalo Sauce)

In Parts I and II, we talked about the making of tofu, the freezing of tofu, and everything in between, Now, let’s talk about a few things you can do with extra firm tofu – a few quick dishes you can make for lunch or dinner. I’ve already mentioned the fact that the silken is pretty much just for pudding or pie filling, so I’m talking about using extra firm

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In Part I, we took a pretty close look at the process of turning healthful soy beans into delicious tofu. Now let’s talk about the different texture varieties: silken/soft, firm/extra firm, etc.

Soft/Silken

Soft/silken tofu is undrained tofu, and it contains the highest moisture content of all fresh tofus. Its texture can be described as similar to that of very fine custard. In Korea and Japan, traditional soft tofu is made with [...]

This recipe is perfect for anytime, but it makes a perfect accompaniment to a traditional English tea. Makes 5 whole sandwiches, 10 halves, or 20 quarters

Ingredients
1-1/2 pounds tofu, extra firm or super firm*
1/2 cup eggless mayonnaise (Nayonnaise and Vegenaise are great, but Wildwood’s Garlic Aioli is my fave)
2 red bell peppers, finely chopped
4 scallions (white and green parts), finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
3 stalks celery,

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The versatile little soy bean is used to make such delicious foods as tofu, tempeh, miso, and soy milk, and yet it’s misunderstood, especially here in the West. Tofu is derided, scoffed at, and even feared by some, and I’m here to set things right. Our little lesson may seem technical at first, but once you read it, I think you’ll come away with a much better understanding of our high-protein friend and

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Some of the most wonderful aspects of eating a plant-based diet is choosing from the huge variety of foods at your disposal and experiencing a change in your palate. My favorite foods today were definitely not my favorite foods 25 years ago (my father owned ice cream stores), or 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago. It’s so exciting to continually eat better, learn more, and feel healthier all the time. It just

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