Deviled Tofu with Dill Sour Cream and Seaweed Caviar

This is much less of an entry and more of an excited sharing moment.  For Earth Day, Era and I drove down to San Diego.  While there we went to Ikea and got the coolest vegan caviar around!  Thanks to Fanny for the info!  It's really good and only 2 dollars.  Not sure how much it tastes like caviar, though.  I never had the real thing before.  It's got a pop and tastes pickled with a slight sea taste.  Good stuff.

Anyway, since Easter always reminds me of deviled eggs I just threw some fancypants stuff together.  So this is really just a variation of my original deviled tofu.

Deviled Tofu w/ Dill Sour Cream and Seaweed Caviar
Tip: This also tastes great piped onto fresh veggies for the tofu-phobic.  Just skip straight to making the bean spread, and don't forget your garnishes.

15 oz can white beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup vegan mayo
1 Tbsp yellow mustard
pinch or turmeric
1 1/2 Tbsp minced shallot
black salt (kala namak) to taste

14-16 oz extra firm tofu, divided into four cubes (cut across the length and width)
4 cups water
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt*

Garnishes:

3 Tbsp vegan sour cream

healthy pinch dried dill (more if using fresh)

vegan caviar

Puree the beans, mayo, mustard, and turmeric in a food processor (or with an immersion blender) until smooth. Stir in the shallot and black salt to taste. Pour into a piping or sandwich bag and refrigerate for at least 40 minutes.

In a 3 quart pot bring the water, vinegar, and salt to a boil. Add the tofu and simmer for ten minutes, turning halfway through. Remove from water, drain completely, and let cool before slicing into squares. I usually get 20 squares, but slice as thick as you like. When cool enough to handle, pat them dry and refrigerate until ready to serve. It is extremely important to make sure the tofu is dry before refrigerating.

Meanwhile, stir the dried dill into the sour cream and chill until read to serve.

Remove the tofu, bean spread, dill sour cream, and seaweed caviar from the refrigerator right before serving.  Feel free to sprinkle a tiny bit of fine salt onto the tofu at this point.  Pipe the bean spread onto the tofu.  Top with tiny dollops of sour cream.  Sprinkle everything with a small bit of dried dill.  Garnish everything with a small spoonful of caviar.

*For the deviled tofu, the actual tofu part should taste just slightly salty like the whites of a deviled egg. I use regular coarse sea salt for this because the black salt flavor just disappears in the water. Feel free to use fine sea salt. Just add to taste. The water should be salty enough to flavor the tofu.

Vida Vegan Con Excitement and Palm Greens Cafe

I don't know about y'all, but I am getting so freakin' excited about Vida Vegan Con.  Almost two weeks ago, speakers got some more information about our designated topics.  So, I'm going to be doing a budgeting/meal planning class with the loverly Melody and Lidiana.  I also get to do a writer's block workshop with Kittee, Amey, and somebody named Isa.  Awesome sauce!  You can read all about the classes, panels, and workshops  here.  I can't wait!

Anyway, this spring has been really beautiful so far.  I think we have a few more weeks of gorgeous weather before it just becomes miserable.  The weekend before last, we were feeling lazy and adventurous so we decided to go to a local place called the Palm Greens Cafe.  I was really excited to try something outside of Native Foods.

When we walked in, I immediately fell in love with the atmosphere.  Big booths, colorful art, and dim lighting.  I like to feel like I'm eating in my own little zone and so many restaurants out here just don't feel like that to me.  I ended up getting the Salad Sampler and Era got the Falafel Wrap.  It's weird that I ordered a salad at a restaurant because I don't like to order stuff I can make myself.  But this salad is the most genius idea ever: take a bed of greens and cover them with every salad you make!  AWESOME!

salad sampler

The salad had cucumber, carrots, shredded beets, tomato, cous cous salad, seaweed salad, sweet potato salad, regular potato salad, tahini noodle salad, sunflower tuna salad, hummus, tofu egg salad, and tofu curry chikn salad.  I had mine with ranch, and it was good.  Best: hummus, tofu egg salad, and tofu curry chikn salad.  Worst: cous cous salad and seaweed salad were incredibly bland.  Overall, I loved it!  My only regret is being so involved with my salad that I forgot to try a bite and take a pic of Era's wrap.

Oh, and I also ordered a gluten free brownie.  I really wish I would have tried one that was freshly made (we got there right before closing) because the brownie was good, but I bet it would've been great!  It was this perfect combo between cakey and fudgy.  I can't even really explain it.  So super good!

gf brownie with choc chips and walnuts

I think I'd definitely go to Palm Greens Cafe again.  I'm trying to go to more places around the desert.  I feel like we stay way too much in our comfort zone.  We even found a really cool thrift store next door to the cafe!

Well, that's all for now.  Next entry I'll finally upload pics for the final week of the cookbook challenge and show some tester photos for the books I'm testing for right now.

Cookbook Challenge 2: The Great Valley Adventure

Dudes.  A weird thing happened on my way to the store.  Not really, but my laptop broke (and is still broken) so it's been hell trying to blog.  I have about 5 weeks of cooking to show you.  I hope you're ready for this one.

First up, week 3 was Urban Vegan.  I tried a few new things from this book and loved most of them.  I really like the layout of the book.  Every recipe seems to be on a single page, which is something I like in a cookbook.  I also love that the steps aren't incredibly difficult to follow.

fettucine alfredo

THOUGHTS
1. Fettucine Alfredo: Absolutely amazing.  I loved this.  It was one of the simplest alfredos I've ever made.  Plus, I love that it wasn't super thick or heavy.  I threw in some sundried tomatoes and fresh basil before topping with homemade parm.  Damn good food.
2. Chickpea Paprikash: This really doesn't photograph well, but it was so creamy and delicious that none of that matters.  I have never had or even heard of paprikash until fairly recently.  I was super freaked about using so much paprika, but it really went well with the dish.  Plus, I love how smooth the yogurt made everything.
3. Lemon Poppyseed Tempeh: I really felt like a dish like this could have used exact measurements.  I used 4 lemons fresh from our tree, but I guess they were super juicy because all I tasted was lemon.  There wasn't enough of a rounded flavor for me.  However, I would try this again to make sure it wasn't user error on my part.

Havana beans and rice and pan-fried plantains

4. Confetti Quinoa: This was another dish I didn't really like.  It was too moist for me even after cooking for an extra 10 minutes or so.
5. Havana Beans and Rice: Absolutely lovely.  It makes a ridiculous amount of food, too!  Plus it is really simple.
6. Pan-Fried Plantains: I had never seen sweet plantains fried this way.  The sugar gave them a nice crunch.  Went super well paired with the rice and beans.

potato and tempeh sausage pizza

Week 4 was a cookbook near and dear to my heart, Vegan with a Vengeance.  This was the first vegan cookbook that got me excited about food.  It taught me how to cook, and really sparked a passion for food that I never had growing up.

sweet potato crepes w/ cilantro-tamarind sauce

THOUGHTS
1. Fresh Mango Summer Rolls: My first time ever rolling out fresh spring rolls.  Truth be told, Era is the one that reaches for fresh spring rolls.  I always get that deep fried ish, but these were SO GOOD.  Really fantastic.  I can't wait until mango season because I'm stuffing those biznootches with some Ataulfos, yo.
2. Potato and Tempeh Sausage Pizza: This was a recipe I've been checking out for years, but I never have fresh fennel in the house.  So glad I finally made it.  Love the way potatoes taste on pizza!

fresh mango summer rolls

3. Horseradish-and-Coriander-Crusted Tofu: This was a little spicy and a lot awesome!  It was really reminiscent of fish when dipped in the tartar sauce.  I hate fresh mint so I just substituted green onions.
4. Wasabi Mashed Potatoes: These were so damn good.  Super creamy and the wasabi really gave it a great kick.  Era was visibly surprised when he took a bite because I forgot to tell him about the wasabi.  Haha.

horseradish-and-coriander-crusted tofu

wasabi mashed potatoes

5. Sweet Potato Crepes w/ Cilantro-Tamarind Sauce: I always stared longingly at this recipe in the past.  There are so many ingredients that I never felt I had the time to make it.  However, everything comes together super fast and I was left with a wonderfully spiced filling, chewy crepe, and the bomb ass sauce.  The sauce is creamy, tangy and a little bit bright.  I loved this dish so hard.

butternut squash lasagna

I skipped a lot of weeks because I didn't have some books, but I jumped back in with week 9, Yellow Rose Recipes.  I had heard so many great things about this book over the years and finally purchased it back in December.  Gotta show that Texas love!

lemon tahini dressing

THOUGHTS
1. Tofu Scramble: This was super quick and easy.  Plus, I'm totally in love with the seasoning mix.  Anything that tastes of cumin has a place in my heart.
2. Lemon Tahini Dressing: So simple SO GOOD.  I made this and ate bowls for at least three days using this sauce.  Every bowl I had was absolutely amazing.  If I kept a supply of this and the goddess dressing from AFR, I'd never leave my house again.
3. Butternut Squash Lasagna: Super good and really filling.  I could easily see playing around with this and doing some add ons.  I was thinking how wonderful it would be with sausage and crushed red pepper flakes.

portobello feijoada, savory orange rice, and braised Brazilian shredded kale

Week 10 was Viva Vegan, my favorite cookbook ever!  I just love how every time I go back, I find something new and delicious that I've never had before.  I made a lot of stuff prior to and during this week, so I'll only leave my thoughts on the newly tried recipes.

THOUGHTS
1. Portobello Feijoada: This dish was amazing!  Meaty, mushroomy, filling.  Words cannot express how good this stew is.  And it made a ridiculous amount of food.  We were eating leftovers for days.
2. Braised Brazilian Shredded Kale: Really easy.  Super delicious.  And a great option to make because Era hates raisins so I don't make the chard w/ capers and raisins often.

vanilla-coconut flan

3. Vanilla-Coconut Flan: Perfect!  Just like I remember during Spanish class in high school.  I am definitely going to try the cafe con leche one next.
4. Peruvian Seitan:  I didn't make the skewers, but I took Terry's burrito advice and made a burrito that rocked my pants off.  I made the refried black beans and yellow rice.  Then I added the seitan to the burrito along with lettuce, tomato, and guacamole.  Greatness.

creamy corn-filled empanadas

5. Creamy Corn-Filled Empanadas: I have never made empanadas before because I hate working with dough and they seem pretty time consuming.  These were so good, I just have to make some other ones from the book.  Served these with the Green Onion Salsa.

mom's morning casserole

Finally, this past week was Vegan Brunch.  I mean, this book totally sparked my love of brinner.  I was obsessed with Isa's pancakes since VWAV, but when you are throwing omelets and muffins and motherforking coffee cake my way...it's a miracle that I actually eat anything other than breakfast all day.  I didn't make nearly as much as I wanted to, but what I did make was gooood.

THOUGHTS
1. Mom's Morning Casserole: I have always skipped over this one because we never kept tempeh in the house until recently.  So I halved the recipe and got to it.  So much awesomeness.  I really wanted to eat this with a side of biscuits and gravy, but I forced myself to eat some steamed broccoli instead.  Delicious!
2. Basic Scrambled Tempeh: I made this with tofu because I didn't feel like going to Trader Joe's for tempeh. This was unbelievably simple (maybe 5 ingredients) and so good!  I love any time I get to use chard.
3. Fried Plantains: Easy and delicious.  I don't think you can ever go wrong with fried plantains.

basic scrambled tempeh tofu w/ fried plantains

Whew.  That's all for now.  I have so many blogs to read.  I'll do at least one more blog this week...maybe two.  Anybody else stoked that Spring has arrived?!