Very Excellent Habits

3 Vegetarian Dishes That Carnivores Will Give Up Steak For

Carly Jacobs
This post is sponsored by Woolworths

I don’t want to blow my own horn but I’m pretty bloody good at cooking for people with allergies and dietary requirements. Mr Smaggle is a coeliac and I’ve been cooking for him for 8 years and I’ve only poisoned him once. Bloody pearl barley. It should come with a warning on the box. Poor Mr Smags. That was a baaaaad night. Anyway, lets focus on my cooking triumphs shall we? I’ve succesfully made Paleo cakes, vegan cookies and sugar free brownies. They’ve all been pretty enjoyable but nothing to write home about.

This got me thinking about vegetarians and how I honestly don’t ever mind splitting meals with my veggie headed friends. Tofu is awesome. I never feel like I’m missing out when I’m eating tofu. It’s not a meat substitute for me, it’s just a completely different and often preferable form of protein. I wrote a little while ago about being a conscious meat eater because I think it’s important, enironmentally and health wise, for us all to have a few meat-free meals per week.

Here are my most favourite tofu recipes, specifically designed for hard core carnivores so they don’t feel like they’re missing out on meat. Except for the cheesecake, that one’s just delicious. Be careful with the cheesecake though… it’s amazing but there’s a lot of protein in there. You get really full, really quickly so stick with small slices… *quitely slides into a tofu coma*

Salt and Pepper Pan Fried Tofu with Rice
 
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There's an amazing Chinese takeaway place just down the road from me that does the most divine salt pepper fried tofu but it's pretty expensive so I don't get it that often. It's just as easy to make it at home though and ever better than takeaway because it's best eaten straight after you cook it so that it stays crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside.

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Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: Vegetarian
Serves: 2
What You Need
  • 300gms pack of macro momen (medium) tofu
  • ½ cup plain flour
  • ¼ cup corn flour
  • 1 teaspoon of Chinese five spice
  • 1 teaspoon of coarsley ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon of coarsley ground sea salt
  • Vegetable oil for frying
  • Brown rice to serve
What You Do
  1. Combine flours, pepper, salt and five spice in a bowl.
  2. Slice tofu into 1cm thick slices and heat about 1cm of vegetable oil in a fry pan to about 15o degrees.
  3. Coat tofu slices in flour mixture and shallow fry in the oil for 2 minutes on each side. When the tofu is cooked place it on a paper towel lined plate.
  4. Serve with brown rice and a sprinkle of your favourite herbs.
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Chocolate Tofu Cheesecake
 
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I’ll admit, I first made this as a lactose free dessert for a friend and I was convinced it was going to taste disgusting. It’s actually one of the most delicious desserts I’ve ever made and it’s not as gluggy and fattening as regular cheesecake. It’s also made from high protein tofu so you’ll feel fuller faster and stop yourself from having cheesecake regret. Bonza. Another thing about this cheesecake is that if you don’t tell people it’s a tofu cheesecake, they’d never know. Promise.

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Recipe type: Cake
Cuisine: Dessert
Serves: 8
What You Need
  • 500gms macro silken tofu (a bit less than 2 packets)
  • 6 tablespoons of strawberry jam
  • 50 mls of Cointreau (the littlest bottle you can buy is 50ml so it’s the perfect size)
  • 300gms of crushed biscuits (I used macro Free From Gluten chocolate chip biscuits to make it gluten free and I’ve made another version with lactose free cookies too but use whatever works for you)
  • 375 gms of dark chocolate (I just used a packet of Dark Choc melts)
What You Do
  1. Whizz the biscuits in a food processor until they make fine crumbs. Mix in about 2 tablespoons of jam and press together to form a thick dough. You might need to play with your qauntities depending on what jam and biscuits you ues. Press the dough into the bottom of a spring form tin and pop it in the fridge.
  2. Whizz tofu, remaining jam and Cointreau in a food processor. Melt chocolate carefull in the mircowave (30 seconds at a time so you don’t burn it) and whisk chocolate into tofu mixture. Pour on top of biscuit base and leave to chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
  3. To remove cake from pan simply run the egdes under warm water, being careful not to get water on the cake. The outer ring of the cake tin should slip right off.
  4. You can serve it with ice cream, cream or soy ice cream if you’re making it for people that are lactose intolerant.
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Marinated Sweet Soy Tofu with Asian Slaw
 
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My cousin made this amazing sweet marinated chicken a few weekends ago and I thought I’d try a variant of the recipe with tofu. You can use the left over marinade as a dressing because there’s no nasties in it like there would be if you marinated chicken in it.

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Recipe type: Stir Fry
Cuisine: Vegetarian
Serves: 4
What You Need
Tofu Marinade
  • 300gms macro hard tofu
  • 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon of fish sauce
  • 1 tablespoon of sweet chilli sauce
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 3 cloves of crushed garlic
  • 2cm piece of finely chopped ginger
Slaw
  • ¼ cabbage thinly sliced
  • 1 bunch of finely chopped coriander
  • 1 bunch of finely chopped mint
  • 1 finely chopped large chilli
  • 4 finely chopped shallots
  • 50 gms snow peas with the ends cut off
What You Do
  1. Slice tofu into 1cm squares. Combine soy, fish sauce, sweet chilli sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, garlic and ginger in a plastic container. Add the tofu and allow to marinate for at least an hour.
  2. Combine cabbage, coriander, mint, chilli, shallots and snow peas.
  3. Heat some oil in a fry pan and shallow fry tofu for about 3 mintues. Serve on top of Asian Slaw and dress and with left over marinade.
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What are your feelings towards tofu? Love? Hate? Tolerate? Would you ever try the tofu cheesecake?

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