It's like dessert!

“Shut the front door! This tastes like a milkshake. It’s basically a dessert!”

That’s what I said in my best Stacey London impersonation when I tried this shake for the first time. Betsy and I had something similar to it in an airport and it was so good that we tried to re-create it when we got home.

Our version tasted even better. It tastes so delicious that you would think it has tons of bad stuff in it, but it’s completely healthy.

It’s a fantastic way to start the day.

If you’re not a fan of the fruit smoothie (or just want a change), this is an awesome weekday breakfast.

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

Yield: 2 large Smoothies

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas
1/2 cup peanut butter, creamy
1/3 Cup yogurt
1/3 Cup tofu
1/2 Cup milk
1 1/2 Cups ice
1/4 Cup chia seeds (optional)
1/4 Cup ground flax seeds (optional)
1/4 Cup agave syrup or honey (optional)

Helpful Equipment:
Blender!

Directions:

1) Add banana and peanut butter to a blender. Add ice on top.

2) Spoon in other ingredients.

3) Blend until smooth!

Smoothie Ingredients

The base of this smoothie is a good amount of ripe banana and creamy peanut butter. These blend together perfectly and make for a really delicious flavor base. Both ingredients have a lot of good stuff going on.

I also added some agave syrup for a bit of sweetness. You could use honey or just leave it out.

Nice ripe bananas are good.

This smoothie works best with creamy ingredients. To round out the smoothie, I added some yogurt, milk, and tofu.

Yes. Tofu. It might sound strange but you literally can’t taste it and it gives the smoothie some body and a ton of protein.

Other good stuff.

Two other add-ins that Betsy and I have been putting in our smoothie lately is flax seeds and chia seeds. The nutritional benefits of these seeds are pretty numerous and kind of unbelievable.

A quarter cup of each seed in this recipe (so 2 Tablespoons per smoothie), will provide you with almost half of your daily fiber needs and about 9 grams of protein.

That’s pretty amazing work for a handful of seeds. If you can, get the flax seed meal which is already ground. Humans can’t digest whole flax seeds so you’ll need to grind them if you get the whole ones. Chia seeds you can leave whole though.

Nutrition in a bowl!

Making the Smoothie

You can basically just toss everything in your blender if you want, but I find that it blends a lot better if you layer it in a specific way.

Start with the bananas and peanut butter which will blend really easily. Then add the ice on top.

Banana on bottom!

If you add the ice first, the blender might have a hard time getting started.

Once the ice is in you can scoop in all your other ingredients. The measurements in this recipe are pretty approximate. I usually just eyeball it.

Everybody in the party.

Put a lid on it and blend it until it’s nice and smooth!

The seeds will never blend smooth so you’ll have some texture to the smoothie which I like actually.

This is a spoonful of my finished version.

So good!

This recipe makes two really big smoothies, probably about 2 1/2 – 3 cups each. Betsy and I have this for breakfast and it keeps me plenty full until lunch!

Plus, did I mention that it tastes like a milkshake?

Great way to start the day.

Whether you’re a smoothie expert or a beginner, I have a hard time picturing how someone wouldn’t like this thing.

The only reason you shouldn’t try this is if you happen to be allergic to peanuts!

This has a kick to it!

After what is normally considered one of the greatest meat weekends of the year, I figured it would be a good time to post an awesome vegetarian recipe that I’ve been sitting on for a while.

It involves that ingredient that makes a lot of people make an icky face: tofu.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Most people who don’t like tofu have probably never had it prepared correctly. When prepared and seasoned right, it’s actually really tasty. Not to mention that it’s also very healthy.

So eat your tofu people.

If you refuse though, you could put the sauce in this post on the spare tire for your car and eat that without too much worry. You could also put it on chicken I guess.

Spicy Maple Tofu

Yield: Serves 3-4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound extra firm tofu, pressed and cubed
2 Tablespoons oil
1/4 Cup soy sauce
1/3 Cup real maple syrup
1-2 Tablespoons chili garlic sauce
2 inches fresh ginger, grated
2 scallions, minced

Rice or wheat berries for serving

Directions:

1) Cut tofu in half so you have two thinner sheets. Press the tofu between paper towels with a weight on top for 15-20 minutes to press out as much water as possible. Cube tofu and set aside.

2) Grate ginger and chop scallions. Combine with other sauce ingredients in a bowl.

3) Add a few tablespoons of oil to a large nonstick pan or wok. Heat over medium-high heat and add tofu.

4) Cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until tofu is nicely browned.

5) Remove tofu and pour in sauce. Turn heat down to medium low.

6) Stir for 5 minutes until sauce starts to thicken. Then add tofu back in and continue to simmer.

7) When sauce is thick and sticking to tofu, remove from heat.

8) Serve over wheat berries or rice!

The Tofu

The thing that most people don’t realize about tofu is how much water is in it. Even the extra-firm kind is basically a big fat soy sponge. There’s tons of water in it and if you just chop it up and throw it in a hot pan, you’re going to end up with pretty bad results.

The tofu will steam rather than get nice and crispy.

So it’s important to get out as much of that liquid as possible before cooking the tofu. I do this by setting out a few paper towels, cutting the tofu in half so I have two thin sheets, adding a few more paper towels on top and then set something flat and heavy on top.

Very important.

Let it sit for about 20 minutes with something heavy on it and when you come back you’re paper towels will be completely soaked with liquid.

Now you can cube up your tofu and set it aside until you need it!

The Sweet Heat

One of my favorite flavor profiles in the world is sweet heat. More specifically in this case, sweet/salty/heat. The ingredients are pretty simple for the sauce, but they really get the job done.

Use good syrup people.

The key thing to remember about this recipe is to use real maple syrup. Yes. It’s expensive. I know. But if you’re going to use the sugar stuff you might as well just use brown sugar (which you can do).

But the subtle maple flavor and sweetness that the real syrup gives is pretty hard to beat in my opinion. Just mix up all your ingredients in a large bowl and stir it together.

Added some ginger...

Set this aside until needed.

Cooking the tofu

When you’re ready to cook up that soy stuff, add a few tablespoons of oil to a large nonstick pan or a wok. Get it nice and hot over medium-high heat and then add all your tofu.

I usually let my tofu cook for about 8-10 minutes, tossing it occasionally to try to get each side slightly crispy.

This was my tofu this time around. Not every side is browned, but that’s okay. The texture will be there.

Lightly fried.

To finish the dish, take your tofu out of the pan and immediately pour in all your maple sauce. Turn the heat down to medium-low and stir this until it starts to thicken, about 5 minutes.

Then toss your tofu back in and continue to let it simmer down until the sauce is sticking really nicely to the tofu.

This is almost ready.

Sticky and spicy!

I served this stuff with some leftover wheat berries I had, but rice would be the standard thing I think.

Rice is standard, but wheat berries work also.

Betsy and I loved this dish. The flavors are intense, but not over-powering at all.

And spicy maple is my new baby. You’ll be seeing more spicy maple stuff in the future.

Puttin' my grill to use.

If you’ve been a long time Macheesmo reader (thanks!) then you probably know that one thing I disliked about my cooking setup in DC was that no-grill situation. I had no space for a grill and it drove me crazy. It was one of my top priorities to snag a snazzy grill when I moved to Colorado.

These rants did not fall on deaf ears and my loving mother and mother-in-law pitched in to get us a really nice gas grill. And if you think for a second that I’m just not going to grill because it’s December well then you have a new thing comin’!

Now. Some people might be a bit disappointed that the first grilled thing I’m choosing to post on Macheesmo is tofu, and so let me just address that right away.

1) The first thing I grilled was actually steak. I couldn’t think of a better way to break-in a grill.
2) Tofu is delicious so just get over it.

Grilled Tofu with Spicy Soba

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound extra firm tofu, pressed and cut into 6-8 triangles.
1 10 ounce package of soba noodles
1 Cup fresh basil, loosely packed
1/2 Cup parsley, loosely packed
2 cloves garlic
1 red jalapeno pepper (doesn't have to be red). You could use any number of chilis for this.
2 inches fresh ginger
2 Tablespoons peanut oil
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
Pinch of salt
Sesame oil for tofu

Directions:

1) Press tofu under a flat surface with a bit of weight to press out some of the water. Then slice tofu into triangle pieces that work well for grilling.

2) Brush tofu with sesame oil and set aside until ready to grill.

3) Combine pesto ingredients into a food processor and pulse until a paste. If you don't have a food processor, you can mince all the ingredients well and stir together.

4) Cook soba noodles according to package and then drain and toss with pesto.

5) Grill tofu over medium-high heat for 6 minutes a side, turning 90 degrees halfway through to make criss-cross marks.

6) Serve tofu over soba noodles.

Making the Pesto

This is kind of a modern, Asian slant on pesto. I’m not even sure if it’s cool to call it pesto, but that’s what I’m calling it because it’s just a few things mixed into a paste basically and served over noodles.

Awesome flavors.

If you have a food processor, you can just minimally chop the herbs and stuff and then toss them all in the processor for a few quick pulses.

If you don’t, then make sure you mince all your ingredients really well. The last thing you want is a big chuck of pepper or garlic in with your soba. It should be a pretty even texture.

Add in the oils and vinegar near the end. The little bit of liquid helps bring the pesto together.

Pesto 2.0.

Soba

If you’ve never cooked with soba, I’d really encourage you to give it a shot. If you can make spaghetti, then you can make soba. The only difference is the flavor. While spaghetti can be a bit bland, soba has a fantastic flavor on its own. It’s a bit nutty and is fantastic with the other flavors in this dish.

Soba soba.

Just cook the soba according to the package. Be sure not to overcook it or it’ll get really mushy. When it’s done, drain it and then immediately toss it with all the pesto.

This is a pasta that’s great hot or cold and makes awesome leftovers the next day.

Yum.

The Tofu

This might shock you, but tofu is actually really easy to grill. There’s no need to worry about cooking it all the way through or anything like that. Basically, all you’re looking for is to heat it up, get some nice grill marks on it, and infuse some nice flavor.

Anytime you are grilling or pan frying (which you can do for this recipe if you don’t have a grill), it helps to press the tofu block between a few paper towels with some weight on top to get out a lot of the liquid in the tofu. Then you can chop it up.

The only issue with tofu is that it does have a tendency to stick to things. So, I brushed all of my triangles with sesame oil which made them easy to move around on the grill.

Sesame oil is key.

I turned my grill on medium-high heat and grilled these guys for about 6 minutes a side, turning them 90 degrees at 3 minutes to get some criss-cross marks.

The criss-cross gives the tofu a nice even grilled texture over the whole piece. It also looks good!

BAM.

While your noodles are cooking and your tofu is grilling, you can chop up some scallions and peanuts for topping the dish.

Optional stuff. Sort of.

Then just toss a tofu triangle or two on a big mound of soba and add some garnish if you want.

It’s a really healthy dish that’s definitely not lacking in the flavor department.

Healthy stuff.

I don’t know if you guys picked up on this from this post but…

I’M REALLY EXCITED TO HAVE A GRILL.

Anybody a grilled tofu fan? Leave a comment!

Salty, sweet, spicy, savory.

You know how sometimes when people don’t get along you just need to shove them in a room together, lock the door, and not let them out until they are Besties?

What? You’ve never done that?

Well, you should try it. It works.

So I figured I’d try a similar approach with two of the most feared and disliked ingredients out there: Tofu and Brussel Sprouts. I thought that maybe, just maybe, if I smashed them together they would get along and make friends and taste delicious.

Seared Tofu with Sprouts

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound extra firm tofu
1/2 Cup brown rice
2/3-1 pound brussel sprouts, trimmed and roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic
2 Tablespoons cilantro
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
Optional toppings: More soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, chopped scallions, peanuts.

Directions:

1) Press tofu block between a few paper towels. Put a cutting board on top with something heavy to press out liquid. Let sit for 10 minutes.

2) Chop tofu into strips and marinate in a few tablespoons of soy sauce.

3) Prep all other ingredients. Cook rice, roughly chop brussel sprouts, and chop cilantro, garlic, etc.

4) Add a few Tablespoons of vegetable oil to a hot pan (a wok or nonstick pan works best). Add tofu in a single layer and let cook for a few minutes on high heat until the tofu starts to brown.

5) Turn tofu and brown on the second side.

6) After cooking for a few minutes on each side, add brown sugar and toss to coat tofu in sugar. Cook for a few minutes until tofu caramelizes.

7) Remove tofu and sprinkle with cilantro.

8) Add sprouts to hot pan (don't wash it) and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

9) Add garlic and rice and if pan is really try, a bit more oil. Season with salt and pepper and cook until sprouts are tender and some will be browned.

10) Serve tofu over sprouts with toppings of choice.

Adapted from a 101 Cookbooks recipe.

Prepping the Tofu

Anytime I’m searing tofu, I always press it first to get out extra water. It may not look like it, but even extra firm tofu has a lot of water in it. To press out some of the water, just set the tofu block on some paper towels, add a few paper towels on top, and set a cutting board on top with a bit of weight.

After 10 minutes a lot of water will be pressed out and the paper towels will be soaking wet.

Next, to prep the tofu for cooking, cut it into strips and toss it with a few Tablespoons of soy sauce.

A light soy sauce bath.

The Feared Sprouts

I’m not sure why people don’t like brussel sprouts. I think they are one of the most delicious veggies out there. They have great colors and flavors and can work in a number of different dishes.

What’s not to love?

The most feared of vegetables.

To “shred” these guys, I washed them and chopped off the stem end. Then I just roughly chopped them.

Because the sprouts kind of fall apart it, results in different textures which is nice I think.

Roughly chopped = shredded.

At your convenience for this dish, you’ll also want to boil some brown rice. I literally just boiled mine in some salted water and drained it when it was cooked, which was after about 30 minutes.

You could use any kind of rice you have on hand (leftover rice would work great) or just leave it out. I think it added a great texture to the dish though.

Great texture.

Before starting to cook, make sure all your other ingredients are ready. I have these cool little bowls which work great for prep ingredients. Chopped cilantro, garlic, brown sugar, oil. Check.

Fixins'

Searing the Tofu

In a large wok or non-stick pan, add a few tablespoon of oil and crank up the heat. Add the tofu in a single layer and cook for a few minutes until the tofu is nicely browned on one side.

Then flip all the pieces and cook for another few minutes.

Next, sprinkle in the browned sugar and toss the tofu. The brown sugar will lightly caramelize and create a bit of a crust on the tofu. Just keep an eye on this or the brown sugar might burn.

Caramelized.

After a few minutes the brown sugar should be coating all the pieces and the tofu should be a nice golden brown color. At that time, remove it from the pan and sprinkle it with some cilantro.

Some great tofu.

Cooking the sprouts

There’s no need to wash the pan for this. Just add another Tablespoon of oil and add all the sprouts. It should sizzle and pop which is a good thing. The brussel sprouts will pick up a bit of the brown sugar in the pan that’s left.

Toss the sprouts after a few minutes. Some pieces might be cooked more than others, but that’s fine.

Next, add in your rice and the chopped garlic. Mix to combine and season with salt and pepper.

A great mix!

Serve the tofu over the sprout mixture and top with any toppings you wish. I like a big dollop of chili garlic sauce because that’s how I roll.

This really hit the spot for me.

I knew I would like this dish, but Betsy also really liked it which is my evidence that it was a success. She even called leftovers for lunch the next day to my disappointment.

So, if you don’t like sprouts and you don’t like tofu, maybe you’ll like them smashed together?

Ok. Probably not. But I did my best!

Not bad if I do say so myself!

Since I’m doing mostly one (or maybe two) pot meals for the next few weeks, Sloppy Joes was one of the first things that came to mind. Real Sloppy Joes (not the canned stuff) are really filling and flavorful and not actually all that bad for you!

They are the perfect meal for a chilly fall day and you can make a good Sloppy Joe mix from scratch in under 30 minutes.

I decided to try my hand at a vegetarian version so I substituted tofu for what would normally be ground beef. I’m not sure that I could’ve passed off my sandwich to a true meat-loving carnivore, but I think I might have been able to pass it off to a drunk meat-loving carnivore.

Which is to say that the sandwich ended up with great flavor, but the texture is more tofu-like than beef-like. I found them to be very delicious but Betsy wasn’t such a fan.

Vegetarian Sloppy Joes

Yield: 4 sandwiches

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound extra-firm tofu, drained, pressed, and crumbled (or 1 pound ground beef if you insist)
2 Tablespoons neutral oil, like grape seed oil or canola oil
1/2 white onion, diced
1 cup carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 Cup tomato sauce
1/2 Cup ketchup
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (remember to use vegetarian Worcestershire sauce if you want this to be truly vegetarian)
2 Teaspoons whole cumin seeds, toasted lightly or 1 Teaspoon ground cumin
1 Teaspoon chili powder
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) If using tofu, place the block of extra-firm tofu between a few layers of paper towels and place a large cutting board or plate on top. Add something heavy to press out water in tofu. Let sit for 5 minutes. Then crumble the tofu.

2) Add a small drizzle of oil (1 Teaspoon) to a nonstick stillet and add the crumbled tofu. Cook until browned, about 10 minutes.

If you're using ground beef you can brown it in the same pan you make the sauce in!

3) In a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat, add a few Tablespoons of neutral oil and then add all your chopped veggies. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

4) Add tomato sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, and spices to veggies. Stir and reduce heat to medium. Bring mixture to a simmer.

5) Add tofu and stir to combine. Simmer until thick, about 10 minutes. Taste frequently and adjust for wanted spiciness or sweetness.

6) Serve on toasted buns and bring a fork!

Prepping the Tofu

My goal with the tofu was to get it as browned as possible which I was hoping would mimic the texture of browned ground beef. Turns out that it doesn’t really do that very well, but that’s not to say that it’s bad. It’s just not a perfect sub.

Anyway, the best thing to do is to set your block of tofu between a few paper towels and then set a cutting board on top of it along with something heavy. Let this sit for a few minutes to press out some of the extra water from the tofu.

Then just crumble it into bits on a plate!

Pressing it first would be ideal.

Next I added a few drizzles of oil into a non-stick pan and added all my tofu crumbles. Tofu has a tendency to stick to pans so I didn’t want to brown it in the same pot as the sauce, which is why this meal is a two pot meal.

Anyway, after a few minutes in the nonstick pan, the tofu should brown up pretty nicely.

The darker the better in my opinion.

As an aside, this also goes for if you’re using ground beef. Get that beef really nice and caramelized to give the Sloppy Joes good texture. If you were using beef you should definitely do this all in one pot though too keep all the flavors.

Texture is a good thing!

Meanwhile, chop up some veggies! I somehow managed to pack all my cutting boards so I had to borrow one from a neighbor…

Can't go wrong with these.

Making the Sauce

To start the sauce just add a small amount (1-2 Tablespoons) of oil to your pan over medium-high heat and, once hot, add your veggies all at once! Cook until they are soft, about 5 minutes, and hit them with a small pinch of salt and pepper while they cook.

Then add the tomato sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, and spices and give it a good stir.

Really simple people.

Let this simmer for a minute or two. If it’s cooking too fast, turn your heat down. You want just a light simmer. Then add in your tofu (or beef) and continue to cook until the mixture is thick.

Taste it regularly and adjust for any spices you want to add. If you want it spicier, maybe add some extra chili powder or maybe even a small pinch of cayenne. If it needs to be sweeter, hit it with another pinch of brown sugar or maybe some honey.

Just taste it and adjust it until it tastes realllly good.

This was my final slop.

Nice and thick!

The important part

Besides making sure your sloppy joe mix is really flavorful, thick, and sloppy, the most important part of the sandwich is to make sure you toast the bun!

Then pile it high and enjoy!

No beef necessary!

One of these was actually a pretty good meal for me along with a salad. You’ll need a fork to pick up the dropped bits though as it really is a sloppy situation.

Anyone else have any thoughts on a vegetarian sloppy joe? What changes would you make?!

A great way to start the day!

This may come as a complete surprise to you, but I do most of the cooking in our house. I know. Shocking right?! But one area where Betsy has me crushed is in the daily breakfast department.

Before we started living together I used to not really eat breakfast at all. My breakfast started with a big cup of coffee. Of course, I was starving by lunchtime and would gorge myself on all kinds of snacks and stuff throughout the day.

Betsy on the other hand liked breakfast but she wasn’t much into heavy breakfasts. She used to eat cereal everyday.

These days, however, we are both all about the breakfast smoothie. This is her department entirely. I rarely make one. She’s been trying lots of different mixes over the last few months and she finally landed on one that I think is really solid.

We’ve been having this every morning for at least a month and I’m not sick of it at all. It gives me lots of energy. In fact, I get grumpy now if I don’t start my day with one.

Betsy's Breakfast Smoothie

Yield: 2 big smoothies

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

1 Cup orange juice
1/2 Cup yogurt
1 banana
2 Cups assorted frozen fruit (we usually use a mix of mangos, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries)
1/2 Cup tofu (silken works best, but anything will work)
1/4 Cup milled flax seed

Necessary Equipment:
A good blender (From Amazon. This is the one I've used for over a year now every day. Still runs like a charm.)

Directions:

1) Add all ingredients to a blender.

2) Blend.

3) Drink.

Making the Smoothie

Honestly, I don’t even think Betsy measures this recipe when she makes it every morning. I tried to get close to what it looks like she uses.

I know it always starts with these things though.

Frozen fruit is key.

Frozen fruit is definitely key for a good smoothie. It means you don’t have to add any ice at all. We just buy the mixed berry frozen fruit packages and use those so the smoothies have a little bit of everything. We went through a phase were we would buy the individual frozen varieties and try to perfect the mix, but it wasn’t really worth it.

On the order

I’m honestly not really sure if the order matters when adding your ingredients to the blender. I mean, after all, it is a blender. It’s gonna blend whatever you put it in unless you have a really crappy one.

We usually do liquids, then soft stuff, then frozen stuff, but I’m not sure that it really makes a difference.

Order probably doesn't matter too much.

The two ingredients that we’ve most recently added to this mix is the tofu and the flax seed. Some might say that this makes us hippies, but I say that it makes us healthy!

The tofu is packed with protein which keeps you full longer throughout the day (and trust me you can’t even taste it). Meanwhile the flax seed is one of the best sources of fiber out there.

One note on the flax seed. If you want to try it out, make sure you get the ground (or milled) variety and not the whole seeds. You can’t really digest the whole seeds.

If you’re bored, here’s the full nutritional breakdown on ground flax.

That's tofu. Not feta.

If you’ve never tried adding flax to things like smoothies, I really recommend it. And it’s not one of those hippie foods that’s crazy expensive either. You just use a few tablespoons at a time and you can get almost a pound of it for a few bucks on Amazon.

Whole flax would be pointless I guess.

Ok. So that’s the end of my flax rant. And no I wasn’t paid by the Association for the Future of Flax to say those things.

Back to the smoothie

Once you have all your stuff in the blender, just start it up! If it’s too thick add a bit more OJ and if it’s too thin, add some more frozen fruit. That’s all there is to it.

I really like my blender because it’s simple and it works. It only has two speeds: Pulse and ON. I’ve never really understood those blenders with like 12 different speeds.

Old faithful!

Pour it into a glass and serve it immediately! Actually, you can keep it in the fridge for 30 minutes or so without a problem, but it’s best right away in my mind.

Sometimes Betsy has one waiting for me when I get back from a morning run and that’s when I know I’m a lucky fella.

Great flavor and texture.

I’m not sure that I would attribute it entirely to these smoothies, but I’ve lost ten pounds this year which conveniently matches the amount of time we’ve been making smoothies for breakfast every day.

Get on the smoothie train people. Seriously.

Salad dressings might top my list of items that confuse me that people purchase. Most salad dressings that you can buy in the store have all kinds of odd ingredients, are actually pretty expensive, and don’t even taste that great to boot. I even did a Guess the Food on salad dressing a month or so ago.

I think the bottle of dressing I bought for that post was the only bottle of salad dressing (except maybe a bottle of blue cheese dressing) that I’ve bought all year. Mainly just because a really good salad dressing is really easy to make and the possibilities are endless!

For starters, Betsy and I always have a bottle of house dressing in the fridge, but sometimes I like to change it up. So here’s three quick salad dressings that I’ve used recently. All of them have just a few ingredients and you can make them in seconds.

Creamy Avocado Dressing

This is almost like a guacamole dressing, but it’s a lot lighter than guacamole and isn’t chunky at all.

Creamy Avocado Dressing
Makes enough dressing for 4 small salads.

- 1 avocado
- 1/2 lemon, juice only
- 1/4 Cup olive oil
- Pinch of salt

Simple stuff.

Slice your avocado in half, take out the pit and add the meat of the avocado to a bowl. Add the lemon juice and drizzle in the olive oil as you whisk. The mixture should turn slightly creamy and bright green.

NOTE: It’s almost essential to have a really good whisk to make salad dressing. I have a few but a nice sturdy stainless steel whisk like this one makes salad dressing (and a million other things) possible.

Green!

To Dress or Not to Dress

I’m a big fan of adding the greens to a bowl and tossing with the salad dressing before serving so that all the greens are really well coated. You can kind of run into trouble with this though because A) the greens can get soggy if they sit too long in the dressing and B) People like varying amounts of dressing.

Even with those obstacles though, I like mixing the greens in especially when it’s a thicker dressing like this just to make sure everything is coated well.

This was actually a bit more dressing than I needed for just two salads. It would easily be enough for four I think.

Green on greens!

Then add your greens with other salad fixings to a bowl and the salad is served! I used some red onions, tomatoes, and chopped red peppers for this salad along with a pinch of salt and pepper.

I really liked the flavor, but it was a bit heavy on the dressing.

Taste like guacamole!

Lime Vinaigrette

This dressing is even easier than the avocado one.

Lime Vinaigrette
Makes enough for 4 small salads.

- 1 lime, juice only
- 1/4 Cup olive oil
- Pinch of sugar
- Pinch of salt

Lime juice is a really strong flavor when it’s not mixed with a lot of other stuff. Just one lime can give tons of citrus flavor to something like salad dressing.

Surprisingly flavorful.

Juice the lime in a bowl and then drizzle in the olive oil as you whisk. Add a pinch of sugar to counteract the bitterness of the citrus and a pinch of salt to make the flavors pop.

This is a really potent dressing even though it looks simple.

Smells awesome. If you like limes.

I’d recommend serving this one on the side so people can add as much dressing as they want. I made the mistake of pre-dressing our salads and while I liked mine, Betsy thought hers was too citrus flavored.

This dressing goes really well with any standard salad ingredients. I used some carrots, peppers, radishes, and greens for my version.

Citrus salad.

Spicy Asian Dressing

This was kind of an experimental dressing but it worked really great. As with most acidic dressings (like the lime dressing but not the avocado dressing), it also works really great as a marinade for meat or tofu.

Spicy Asian Dressing
Makes enough for 4 salads. Might want to double it if you’re marinating something.

- 1/4 Cup canola oil
- 1 Teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 Teaspoon chili garlic paste

The most complicated dressing so far.

There’s a few more ingredients in this dressing but it’s not any harder to make really. Just mince up the garlic and whisk everything together. This is a very flexible dressing so if you want it spicier, add more chili sauce. If you want it more savory, add a bit more sesame oil or soy sauce.

This has some kick to it.

In addition to dressing for a salad, I marinated some tofu in this dressing for about 30 minutes and then seared it off in a very hot skillet for 3-4 minutes per side.

Marinated in the dressing...

For this salad, I kept with the Asian theme and chopped up some bok choy and red peppers. I used the stems and greens from the bok choy. I served this dressing on the side because it’s really flavorful and it’s nice to be able to add your own.

I served it also with the seared tofu. This was a really good and healthy meal.

Dressing on the side this time.

Salad dressings are really a “Sky is the limit” type of thing. Whatever you do, don’t be afraid to venture outside of the bottle and whisk up some new flavor combinations.

This is the last post in my 3×3 series. Did you guys like this series of a few smaller/quick recipes for each post?

These days I’ve been experimenting a lot more with Asian flavors which, trust me, pack plenty of heat. A few weeks ago I made a soba noodle dish with a fairly standard spicy peanut sauce. I mixed the soba noodles with lots of fresh veggies and some seared tofu and tossed everything in the peanut sauce.

It doesn’t look spicy, but it’s got some kick to it.

Deceptively spicy!

I think one of my favorite things about this dish is that it was pretty good at every temperature. On day one I had it at room temperature. On day two I had it cold for lunch as kind of a noodle salad dish. On day three, I brought it back to life in a super-hot pan with a touch of oil and stir-fried it. It was great all three ways!

Soba Noodles with Peanut Sauce

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

Peanut Sauce: (I spiced up this version a bit from the original)
1/2 Cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 Cup soy sauce
1/3 Cup warm water
2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and grated/chopped
1 medium garlic clove, grated/chopped
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon chili oil (or sub sesame oil)
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
1 Teaspoon Sriracha (optional)

Helpful Equipment:
Microplane grater

Noodles: (just some ideas on the veggies. You don't have to use all of them.)
3/4 pound soba noodles or you could use spaghetti in a pinch
1 red pepper, diced
1 orange/yellow pepper, diced
1/2 seedless cucumber, diced
1 Cup Napa cabbage, diced (6-8 leaves)
1 package (16 ounces) extra firm tofu, seared and cubed
4 scallions, diced
Peanuts, chopped (for topping)

Directions:

1) Slice the tofu in half horizontally to make two sheets of tofu. Lay those two pieces on a few paper towels, add a few more paper towels to the top, and put something heavy on top to press out some of the liquid. Let sit for 15 minutes.

2) Prep all your veggies that you are using. Slice them thinly.

3) For the sauce, grate the ginger and garlic on a microplane zester. Then just whisk in all your other sauce ingredients.

4) To sear tofu, add a drizzle of chili oil to a pan over high heat. Then add the blocks of tofu and sear for about 3-4 minutes per side. Then cube them up after searing.

5) Cook soba according to package instructions. Drain the pasta in a colander.

6) Toss all the ingredients together with sauce and serve.

Adapted from a Gourmet 2002 recipe (RIP)

If When I make this again, I think I wouldn’t use all those veggies. It was almost too much going on with the tofu and the cabbage and the peppers. I think it may have been better to just pick a few of them and go with it.

Preparing the Tofu

I really loved the seared tofu in this, but you could definitely leave it out if you aren’t a fan or sub it for chicken or shrimp.

Assuming you are using tofu though, you need to first press it to get out some of the moisture. Just slice your block in half horizontally.

Press out the moisture...

Then lay those two pieces on a few paper towels. Add a few paper towels to the top and then stick a cutting board on top of the tofu. Add some weight to the cutting board (like a bowl of water or something). Let it sit for about 15 minutes. The weight will slowly press out a lot of extra water in your tofu.

Meanwhile, you can…

Prepare your veggies

Like I said, I think I overused some veggies in my version. It was a lot. Assuming you wanted to use napa cabbage though, you’d want to wash a few leaves and dice them up like so:

Sliced thin is good.

Regardless of what other veggies you decide to use though, I definitely recommend the peppers. They go great with the sauce. I kept my peppers in pretty big chunks for this recipe.

I pretty large dice here.

These are all my veggies chopped and tossed together. As you can see, it’s a lot. Especially once I added in the tofu and everything.

Colorful!

Preparing the Sauce

This sauce has a few ingredients in it, but they all add a lot. If you don’t want it so spicy, definitely leave out the sriracha and maybe cut back on the red pepper flakes. Also, if you don’t have rice vinegar, you could use red wine vinegar and nobody would be the wiser.

Not pictured: Sriracha

When it comes to sauces like this that have ginger and/or garlic in them, there’s one piece of equipment that is hands down the most useful thing you can have in your kitchen: A Microplane Zester!

Click the photo to go straight to my OpenSky Store!

You could of course chop it with a knife also, but it’s a lot more work. Trust me. It’s one of the best 12 bucks you’ll spend on a kitchen tool.

To finish the sauce, just whisk together all your ingredients in a large bowl. Easy enough.

Whisk it all together.

Cooking the Tofu

You could keep your tofu raw if you wanted for this recipe, but I decided to pan sear mine quickly. I just added 1 Tablespoon of chili oil (you could also use a neutral oil like canola) to a pan over high heat and add my sliced blocks of tofu. After about 3 or 4 minutes on each side, they were browned and delicious.

I sliced them into cubes after searing them.

Sear it then slice it.

Cooking the Soba

I’ve only cooked with soba once before, but I really like it. It’s got a great nutty flavor that’s very different from other pastas.

This is a lot of noodles.

Basically just cook the noodles according to the package. Drain them in a colander and you’re all set!

Drained.

The next part got a bit messy for me. I wanted to mix everything together in a big bowl and let me tell you where I went horribly wrong: I didn’t exactly follow the recipe!

You see, the recipe called for 3/4 lb of pasta and I just threw in two boxes of soba which was 1 pound. So the noodle to sauce ratio was a bit off in my case.

I ended up with too much pasta, an abundance of veggies, and not enough sauce to make it all happy.

Everybody in the pool!

Anyway, after I tossed everything together, I added my tofu, along with some chopped peanuts and scallions for texture. My version turned out good, but not great. I think I maybe tried to experiment a bit too much instead of just following the recipe.

The peanuts are key.

The good news is that the sauce is actually amazing. I think it would easily hold up to meats (chicken satay anyone?), but it works well in a noodle dish like this also… assuming of course that you use the right amount of noodles.

I’m being pretty picky with my criticisms. My version turned out more than edible. I think it could just be improved is all.

Do you have a go-to peanut sauce recipe? Leave a comment!

Oh well. All I know is that I read in a magazine (Body + Soul – Betsy subscribes) that you could make a Buddha bowl meal. The magazine presented it as more of a concept than a recipe though. If I had to, this is how I’d define it:

Buddha Bowl (n.) — Various flavorful veggies (and occasionally meats) packed into a bowl over grains or rice and normally accompanied with a sauce of some sort.

So that’s the idea and this is my take on it:

The name is a mystery to me.

You can probably spot most of the ingredients, but instead of rice, which is on the bottom of the bowl, I used a turmeric-spiced quinoa. Quinoa is the new hip grain that all the cool kids are cooking and with reason. The stuff is pretty tasty!

The Buddha Bowl

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups quinoa, soaked
1 16 ounce block of extra-firm tofu
2 portabella mushrooms, sliced thick
1 red pepper, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
2-3 inches turmeric root
Pinch of salt
3 Tablespoon canola oil

Sauce:
1/3 Cup soy sauce (I like Tamari.)
1-2 Tablespoons chili garlic sauce (optional)
1 Tablespoon sesame oil

Directions:

1) Cook quinoa according to package. Add a pinch of turmeric to simmering quinoa.

2) Prep the tofu by pressing with a paper towel to remove moisture and slice into 1/2 inch slices then lay slices out on a paper towel for more moisture removal.

3) Place tofu in a dish and add sauce. Turn pieces to make sure they are evenly covered.

4) Wash and chop veggies into thick slices.

5) Add a few tablespoons of neutral oil to a hot pan. Let the tofu cook for about 4 minutes a side.

6) Remove the tofu and cook the veggies in the same pan with a tablespoon of fresh oil for a few minutes.

7) Plate a serving of quinoa or rice in a bowl and add your veggies and tofu around the sides and place the sauce directly in the middle to serve!

Prepping the ingredients

The first thing you need to prep for this yummy and healthy bowl is the tofu. Extra firm is best for this dish because you want a firm final product. Even with extra-firm, I like to press out some of the moisture to make sure it browns nicely.

So slice your tofu into 1/2 inch slices and lay them out on a paper towel.

Preparing tofu is soy easy.

Then throw a few paper towels on top of the tofu and add a flat surface like a cutting board. Then put something heavy on top to slowly press out some of the moisture from the tofu.

Putting the pressure on.

What’s that very heavy thing on top of my tofu? Well, that’s my quinoa soaking. Here’s a close up:

An hour isn't really necessary...

Some instructions call for soaking quinoa for 2-3 hours in cold water. I was in a rush so I only soaked mine for about 20 minutes and I didn’t notice any odd effects.

Marinating the tofu

I think it adds some great flavor to the tofu (which needs it) to marinate it for even a few minutes before cooking. Just put it in a dish after you’ve pressed it and add your sauce to it. Kind of flip all the pieces around a bit to make sure they are evenly covered. This is the same sauce that I serve with the meal. No need to make more… it’s just tofu!

Flavor town.

Also, wash and chop your veggies. You can slice them into pretty thick slices.

Important subjects.

Cooking the quinoa

Quinoa cooks basically like rice (and you could substitute any kind of rice for this dish without a problem). Add your quinoa to a large saucepan with a lid and add 2 cups of water to every cup of quinoa. So for the recipe above, you’d add 4 cups of water. Plus a pinch of salt. Let it come to simmer and then cook it for about 15-18 minutes with the lid on.

I also added some grated turmeric to my quinoa right when I started it. The turmeric kind of cooked into the water and gave the final grain a fantastic color and almost earthy flavor. It was awesome. I was able to find some of the fresh stuff at Whole Foods. I’d never actually used it before. It’s bright orange and stains everything it touches. It like ginger root on the outside and beet on the inside. Weird stuff.

But, if you want, you can grate it up and add it to your rice or quinoa and it’ll kick up the final version a notch.

My first time with this stuff.

Cooking the tofu and veggies

To cook the tofu, add a few tablespoons of neutral oil to a hot pan. Let the tofu cook for about 4 minutes a side. It should brown really nicely. Watch out! The oil will splatter!

The browner the better.

Once the tofu is done, you can cook the veggies in the same pan. You might need to add a tablespoon of fresh oil. Cook the veggies for just a few minutes. You want them still to have a tiny bite.

Then plate up a bit serving of quinoa or rice in a bowl and add your veggies and tofu around the sides. If you want to get all fancy you can stick a tiny bowl of sauce right in the middle like I did in the first photo.

This dish also happens to make for an awesome lunch. Here’s my packed up version in an old Chinese take-out container.

Makes an awesome lunch.

The only thing I think I would change about this meal if I made it again is maybe make the sauce a little spicier. But that’s just my personal tastes. You could get very creative with toppings and other veggies also though. Just remember, it’s all got to fit in a bowl! It’s kind of a zen meal like that.

When I think of artichokes, especially for an appetizer, I got straight to a spinach artichoke dip. It’s really everything I want in a dip: creamy, cheesy, hot, and lots of flavor. You can even make it spicy if that’s your style.

As you might imagine, there are a lot of spinach artichoke dips on the Internet. After checking out various recipes, I decided that it’s really hard to go wrong with this dip as long as you put some creamy stuff in it, use lots of artichokes and spinach, and bake it. (Okay. Some versions don’t even bake the stuff.)

So let’s make my version!

Artichoke Dip Ingredients

Two Thanksgiving Appetizers

Yield: Serves 8.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip

2 14 ounce cans artichoke hearts in water (I like mine really artichokey.)
1 10 ounce bag frozen spinach (thawed and patted dry)
6-8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 Cup mayonnaise
6-8 ounces silken tofu
1 Cup Gruyere cheese, grated
Salt and pepper
Pinch of cayenne (optional)
Parmesan cheese for topping
Chips, crackers, or spoons for dipping

Cranberry Relish

3-4 Cups of fresh cranberries
1/2 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup orange liqueur, also known as Triple Sec. If you don't have this, you can also use orange zest.
1/2 lemon, juice only
Tiny pinch of cinnamon
You'll also need...
1 wheel of brie
Crackers

Directions:

For artichoke dip:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Drain artichokes and roughly chop them. Add artichokes to a bowl with all the creamy ingredients and tofu.

3) Thaw frozen spinach and press it between a few paper towels to press out as much liquid as possible. Chop up the spinach and add it to the dip.

4) Add in grated Gruyere cheese and salt and pepper the dip.

5) Add dip to a square 8x8 baking dish and top with Parmesan cheese.

6) Bake dip at 350 for about 45 minutes until it's golden brown. Serve with pita chips, tortilla chips or bread.

For Cranberry Relish Brie:

1) Rinse off cranberries. Add them to a pot with enough water to just just make the cranberries rise.

2) Add sugar and bring to a simmer. Let simmer for about 20 minutes and use a spoon to mash up cranberries as it cooks.

3) Taste the sauce (let it cool) and adjust the flavors. it might need more lemon or more sugar depending on how you want it.

4) Let this cool for at least 2 hours so it can thicken fully.

5) Slather a wheel of brie with the relish and bake at 300 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Serve it with crackers!

Spinach Artichoke Dip

First thing’s first, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Then drain all your artichokes and roughly chop them. I like mine on the more rustic side so I don’t over chop them.

Chunks are okay here people.

Add your artichoke to a large bowl and then it’s on to the creamy ingredients. You can use a bunch of different things to make this dip creamy including the cream cheese and mayo I list in my recipe, but you could also use sour cream, heavy cream, etc.

In an effort to make this just a very tiny bit healthy, I decided to add about half a block of silken tofu to the dip. When it’s mixed in it produces a creamy texture and literally you can’t taste it at all.

If you’re completely opposed to this stuff, you can substitute any other creamy ingredient without a problem.

Secret Health Ingredient!

Prepping the spinach

I like to use frozen spinach for this recipe. If you use fresh, make sure to blanch it in hot water and then press out the water with paper towels or you’ll have a really watery dip.

For frozen spinach though, just thaw it out and then press all the spinach between a few paper towels. There will be a lot of liquid.

Once the spinach is dry, add everything to the a big bowl.

Also, add your grated Gruyere cheese! This made it even creamier although I’ll say that I had a hard time actually tasting the cheese in the final product which was shocking to me.

Don't forget the spinach!

Salt and pepper the dip to taste (yes I recommend tasting it cold. If it’s good cold, imagine how good it will be hot!) Mix everything up and pour it into a 9X9 baking dish. Top it with a fare amount of Parmesan cheese.

Ready for the oven!

Bake this at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until it is nice and golden brown. Serve it with pita chips, tortilla chips, or just a bunch of spoons! (Joking on the spoons… kind of.)

Creamy and delicious.

Cranberry Relish Brie

During the holidays, I like to make a batch of cranberry relish (or cranberry sauce). It’s great to just eat with turkey obviously, but it can used for all kinds of other things. I also used it for an awesome brunch dish that I’m posting on Saturday.

For a good quick appetizer though, you can just slather the cranberry relish on a good wheel of brie and bake it!

Basic Cranberry Relish.

This really couldn’t be easier to make. Rinse off all your cranberries to remove any dirt or stems and then add them to a large pot. Add all your other ingredients and just enough water to rise up to the cranberries. I found that it was about as many cups of water as cranberries. Don’t worry about it though, if you add too much, you can just reduce it more later or add more water if you need to.

One note: Cranberries float. If you try to keep adding water until it covers the berries, you will fail.

Ready to cook!

Put this over medium heat and stir it slowly until all the sugar is melted. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes. The cranberries will all burst and start to break down and the whole pot will thicken up nicely due to all the pectin in the cranberries.

At this point, make sure to taste your mixture. Get a spoon and scoop out a little. Let it cool for a minute or two and then give it a taste. Too bitter? Add a bit more sugar. Too sweet? Add some more lemon. If it’s really runny, let it cook for a few more minutes.

Please don't burn your mouth.

Ideally, your final product will be the consistency of warm honey. It should be thick, but flow freely. Pour it into a container and let it cool at room temperature for 15 minutes and then at least two hours in the fridge. As it cools it will thicken up a lot.

Lovely.

Slather this stuff on a wheel of brie and bake it (I baked mine in a cake tin) for about 25 or 30 minutes at 300 degrees. You just want everything to be warm and gooey.

Some recipes call for wrapping the brie in puff pastry and that’s good also (although you then need to bake it at 350), but it’s okay to just bake it as is.

Serve it up with crackers!

My brie sprung a leak...

Obviously, the warm brie is delicious, but the cranberry really sends it over the edge.

So, if you’re looking for a quick and tasty appetizer or two in the next week, check these out.

Do you have any quick holiday appetizers? Leave a comment!