I’ve been looking for a nice quick vegan fruit-salad dressing for the past little while, and today I made this one, which I adapted from an old-school tofu cookbook called The Book of Tofu. Actually, it’s not that old school because it was apparently written in 1987, but I’m pretty sure I still have my first vegetarian cookbook–The Vegetarian Epicure–which was from 1972!
Anyway, here’s the recipe:
Lemon-Peanut Fruit Salad Dressing:
3 ounces of soft tofu
1.5 TBS smooth peanut butter
1 TBS lemon juice
1 TBS agave syrup
Blend it all in the bullet until it’s smooth and creamy.
And here’s the result: a banana, mango, blueberry, apple fruit salad topped with pumpkin and sunflower seeds. I could probably use PB2 powder in the dressing to cut down on the calories, but I’ll try that next time.
Well, that was lunch.
For dinner, I have a batch of Hot and Sour Soup simmering away in the slower cooker. It’s adapted from this recipe.
Here’s the recipe with my adaptations:
Hot and Sour Soup
- 1 package firm tofu, cubed
- 6 cups water
- 3 TBS Better Than Bouillon, No Chicken Base, Vegetarian
- 16 cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 8 shitake mushrooms, sliced
- 1 can bamboo shoots, cut into thin strips
- 4 garlic cloves. minced or crushed
- 2 Tb fresh ginger, minced or grated (do not use ginger powder!)
- 3 TBS soy sauce
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 TBS sambal oelek
- 6 TBS rice wine vinegar
Place all in slow cooker on high for four hours.
Add before serving:
- 1½ cups frozen (or fresh) peas
- fresh bean sprouts
Top with:
- cilantro, chopped
- green onions, chopped
Serve with a bit of sambal oelek on the side.
Now…the reason I adapted the original recipe is that it didn’t seem broth-y enough, so I added half again as much of the liquids. I also added more vinegar and sambal oelek because it didn’t seem hot or sour enough.
Now, this soup doesn’t taste exactly like restaurant hot-and-sour soup, but it is SERIOUSLY the bomb.
10/10: would do again.
And since I was chopping ginger anyway, I decided to make some fresh ginger tea. I just sliced up an inch or two of ginger, poured boiling water over it, waited about seven minutes and strained it into another cup. It’s quite pleasant…but frankly, not all that flavourful. It just tastes like hot water with a slight scent of ginger.
ADDENDUM: I woke up craving the Hot and Sour Soup again, and, after a nice long dog walk, am enjoying an even-better-the-next-day bowl of it!!
Oh, and I tried the fruit-salad dressing with 1/4 soft tofu, 2 TBS PB2, 2 TBSP lime juice, and 1 TBSP agave, and it was also delish!
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