Carne Asada Fries

Oooh, carne asada fries. These are a popular dish down here in San Diego, and after eating some vegan carne asada at a local restaurant, I knew I was going to have to try making it. I picked up this jar of spices at Sprouts to make my carne asada fries endeavor a little easier.

Ingredients:

1/4 c. white vinegar

1/4 c. olive oil

juice from 1 orange (around 1/4 c.)

2 tbsp. lemon juice

2 tbsp. lime juice

2 1/2 tbsp. carne asada spice mixture

Instructions:

- Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

- Pour into a baggie with 1 package of tempeh, cubed. Try to squeeze as much of the air out as you can before sealing.

- Let your mixture marinate overnight.
- When tempeh is done marinating, cook a bag of french fries (we cooked Whole Foods crinkle cut).
- While fries are cooking, sauté tempeh over medium-high heat until browned on all sides.
- Place tempeh on top of almost cooked french fries. Sprinkle with vegan cheese (I recommend Daiya) and sprinkle a tiny bit of carne asada spices on top.
- Let cook until cheese is melted slightly, around 10 minutes.

- Spoon fries into a bowl and top with salsa, guacamole, and vegan sour cream. I only had salsa so that's all I used.

This obviously isn't the healthiest of meals, but it sure is one of the most delicious. It usually works that way though, doesn't it? I made a Boston Cream Pie yesterday (recipe will be posted soon), which is pretty much all sugar and flour, and is one of the most delicious cakes I have made. Ok, back to carne asada fries. Go make these.

Garlic Tofu w/ Roasted Vegetables

If you've been reading my blog you will know that sometimes I guess on measurements. This is one of those times.

Ingredients:

1 block of extra-firm tofu, pressed for 20 minutes

3 - 4 tbsp. soy sauce

1 - 2 tbsp. oil

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. dried parsley

1 tsp. dried basil

pinch of salt

pinch of black pepper

Instructions:

- Mix all ingredients except for the tofu in a medium-sized bowl. Feel free to modify this marinade to your liking.

- Slice tofu however you choose. I decided on tofu "sticks" (even though some of them broke in the process).

- Gently toss tofu into the marinade until well incorporated.

- Place into a sandwich bag, making sure to squeeze out as much air as you can. Marinate the tofu in the refrigerator for however long you want. I typically let it sit for 24 hours but I only let this sit for probably 10.

- Sometime while the tofu is marinating, prepare your mixture to coat them in. I just used a little bit of almond meal, yellow corn meal, garlic powder, and a dash of salt and pepper.

- When tofu is done marinating (or until you can't wait any longer!), shake tofu sticks in your almond meal mixture in a sandwich baggie.

- Heat up a skillet on medium-high with just a tablespoon or two of oil. Brown tofu sticks on each side to give it a little crunch. This should only take a few minutes on each side.

- While tofu is browning, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Pop these into the oven to cook them through, maybe about 10 minutes.

I served these tofu sticks with some roasted onions, garlic, green peppers, and zucchini. It was all so good!! I wish I would've let the tofu cook in the oven for longer or that I would've cut them smaller. I like really crunchy tofu but I am trying not to fry things as much. All in all, I am quite pleased with how this meal turned out! I'm also glad I mainly used almond meal for the coating -- it gave it a very nice taste!

I am about to start on an awesome dinner for tonight. Don't worry, I'll be posting it in a few days :)

Mustard-Marinated Tofu w/Quinoa

Michael and I recently discovered a store nearby that sells their store-made tofu for $0.98. We, of course, stocked up on this cheap and delicious tofu! I decided to use a block of it to marinate, bread, and bake. It was all very easy to make and super yummy.

Marinade Ingredients:

- 1/2 c. white vinegar

- 3 tbsp. lemon juice

- t tbsp. yellow mustard

- 2 tsp. maple syrup

- 2 cloves garlic, chopped

- 3 tsp. dried basil

- 2 tsp. dried thyme

- 2 tsp. garlic powder

- 2 tsp. paprika

- 1 tsp. black pepper

Instructions:

- Mix together all marinade ingredients, tasting every so often to make sure the flavor is to your liking.

- Pat down your block of tofu until you can get as much excess water out as you can. This is crucial so that the tofu will absorb your marinade.

- Slice tofu however you desire. I like thin tofu slices, so I cut them about 1/4" thick.

- Place tofu in a large baggie and pour the marinade into the bag. Make sure to squeeze air out of bag before you seal. Place bag in refrigerator until it's time to bake (I let mine sit for 24 hours, flipping over half way through).

- When your tofu is all done marinating, get your breadcrumbs ready. I made mine from bread that I made myself, so I just threw everything into a food processor. I used a chunk of homemade bread, garlic powder, nutritional yeast, basil, sage, and pepper. Feel free to use whatever you like!

- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

- Dip tofu slices into your breadcrumbs until fully coated. My breadcrumbs had a hard time sticking to the tofu because I used bread that was still fresh. I just had to pretty much pat the breadcrumbs onto the tofu.

- Place tofu onto a greased cookie sheet and bake until breadcrumbs are golden in color. I think I left mine in for 20 minutes or so.

- While tofu is cooking, prepare a delicious side dish! I just whipped up some quinoa and added to it peas, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper. I didn't want my quinoa having too strong of a flavor since the tofu was the stand-out piece here.

- When the tofu and quinoa are done, serve and enjoy!

Wow! The tofu was nice and crispy and full of mustardy flavor. I think next time I might add more maple syrup to calm down the acidity, though. In any case, the tofu was nicely seasoned and the quinoa was a nice and simple addition to this dish. I love playing with different flavors in marinades and mustard was a new one for me. I'm not a big fan of condiments but we've had a small container leftover from a local vegan restaurant for a while. I'm glad I was able to use it and enjoy it! I can't wait to think of something else to make with our abundance of tofu...