Thai Peppers & Tofu

If you like Thai food and you shop at Trader Joe's, you should definitely try this super simple recipe I made up yesterday. Even my picky non-vegetarian boyfriend loved it.

Ingredients:
Trader Joe's Brand Organic Baked Thai Tofu - cut into cubes
Trader Joe's Brand Thai Yellow Curry Sauce
1/4 sliced Yellow Onion
3 sliced Green Peppers (for variation use 1 yellow, 1 red, and 1 green pepper)
2 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tsp Sea Salt (or regular salt)
1 Tbsp Canola Oil

Optional:
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper if you like it a little spicy
1 cup cooked basmati rice to serve with

First, prepare your pan with 1 Tbsp canola oil, 2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp of cayenne, and 2 tsp of garlic powder over high heat. Throw in sliced onion. Cook while stirring occasionally. When onion softens throw in the sliced green peppers. Keep stirring. Cook until the peppers start to soften. Throw in thai tofu. Stir. Cook for about 5 more minutes. Take the thai curry sauce and pour about 3-4 Tbsp in. Depending on how you want your dish to taste, I would recommend putting the initial amount in and then tasting it. Pour additional amount in to your liking. Cook for a final few minutes until peppers are softer. Be careful not to overcook them. Peppers should be softer, but not mushy.

Serve over bed of rice!

Bowties

If you like pesto, try this...

Required: Bowtie pasta, Crimini Mushrooms, Firm tofu, Pesto (For vegans, you can find vegan pesto at Whole Foods), Olive Oil, Black pepper, Salt

Optional: Garlic powder

First, prepare the pasta by boiling just enough in a pot. Put a little olive oil and salt in the pot while boiling the water. In the meantime, slice the mushrooms as desired. Cut firm pieces of tofu into cubes. Saute the tofu and mushrooms in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Add a few pinches of salt and black pepper. Add a few dashes of garlic powder if you have it. If you like garlic, you can also add a minced clove into this saute.

When the pasta is ready to drain, let saute stand while you are draining the pasta. Put a dash of olive oil in the drained pasta and stir. This will prevent the pasta from sticking to each other. When you refrigerate the leftover pasta, it will also prevent the pasta from clumping.

Add desired pasta topped with mushroom and tofu saute to a large bowl. Stir in desired amount of pesto. Mix well.

15 minutes and you're done!

Baked Tofu Sandwich

You need bread, baked tofu, some kind of spread, mushrooms, and some kind of leafy green. In this picture I used buttermilk bread. First I prepared the mushrooms by slicing them thinly. Then I sliced the baked tofu into thinner slices. (It usually comes as a block.) I had a difficult time slicing the tofu as you can see from the picture. The bread had a thin layer of mayo before I added the raw spinach. Finally, I topped it off with the tofu and mushrooms! For those of you who are vegan, you can easily substitute mayo with mustard or hummus. You can also make variations using sprouts rather than spinach.

15 minutes to make, 15 minutes to eat. Mmm!