STIR-FRIED ICEBERG LETTUCE W/ TOFU + EDAMAMDE

that's right... you can cook lettuce - and it tastes great!! this asian inspiration is a great dinner idea or perfect weekend lunch

how?

1 teaspoon of soy sauce

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

1 cup of edamame beans, shelled (i used frozen ones that i defrosted in the microwave)

2/3 of a block of tofu (i used 2 pieces of my frozen tofu), diced into large 'chunks' and pre-fried until golden brown

2 cups of iceberg lettuce torn into pieces 

heat a frying pan, add the sesame oil and pre-fry the tofu pieces. add the edamame beans and stir-fry for 1 minute (until slightly charred). add the lettuce and stir-fry for 1 minute until it has softened slightly. add the soy sauce and cook until coated (30 seconds) and you are ready to serve.

serves 1-2

FROZEN TOFU - CHAPTER 2

wow! so excited... i am going to use some of the tofu that i froze last week (check it out at 'freezin' ma tofu') before i can add my flash fried tofu to a fab vegan dish i need to do a tiny bit of prep!

how?

to thaw out the tofu i cheated a little and used the microwave... but if you'd prefer you can be more organised that i am and take it out of the freezer the night before and leave it in the fridge to defrost.

i popped 1 portion (1/3 of a block of tofu) into a microwave safe bowl and whacked it on for 5 minutes on defrost/low... this wasn't quite long enough (it all depends on your mircowave's wattage - so adjust accordingly) i zapped mine for a further 5 minutes and it was perfectly defrosted and ready to drain.

i then placed the defrosted block between some paper towel and gave it a good squeeze into the sink. once it was nice and 'dry' i sliced it up and gave it a quick fry-off in a hot pan with a tiny little bit of vegetable oil.

done! and ready to enjoy... (p.s. it tastes so good right out of the pan that you will need to exercise some will power not to eat it all if you are using it in another recipe!)

i added these fried tofu pieces to a wikid vegan vegetable pilaf, but it would also be great in a vegan vegetable curry, stirfry, eaten as a snack (yum!) or crumbled over a saucy vegan pasta dish!

FREEZIN' MA TOFU

firm tofu

i have never frozen tofu before... i am a complete tofu freezing newbie... but after reading flyingvegan's blog post on how easy it is to do i gathered up some courage and gave it a go! and... so far so good! 

all you need is a block of tofu, cut into serving size pieces and a few sandwich bags, or a plastic contact as i used, and a freezer

i sliced my tofu block into 3 pieces and whacked them in my suitably sized container, which i then placed it in the freezer drawer - done!

tofu ready for freezing

now when i want to use it i will grab it out and thaw it in the fridge or microwave (as per flyingvegan's instruction) and (most definitely) use it an amazingly delicious tofu dish!