Menu Mondays: Stockpiled Tofu

You asked us how we cooked tofu (well, one of you did, anyway) and we're going to deliver because it gives us a chance to talk about the most important tool in a veggie friendly kitchen's arsenal: stockpiling the building blocks of easy veggie-based meals. 

We alluded to this last week in the Harvest Quinoa recipe when we talked about having diced onions in your fridge ready to be grabbed and tossed into the skillet. It's not that we're that organized--we're just that lazy. Mrs. Married With Veggies has a funky work schedule that regularly plants the dinner hour between 9 and 10 p.m., and nothing's a bigger drag than coming home and getting your choppy choppy on. Except maybe coming home and finding dog puke. 

Hungry? 

Us, too! So the tofu: We make a big batch of the stuff, put it in the fridge, and use it throughout the week (same for the onions and beans for that matter). And it couldn't be easier...

Team Stockpiled Tofu is a simple (yet dynamic!) duo.

 

 

 

 

 

Slice the packages and drain. Remove the tofu and put them on a paper towel on a cutting board. Yes, paper towels, Lay off me. I don't have any towels that haven't been used for cleaning yet.

Press the tofu with six simple (but powerful!) layers: 1) cutting board 2) paper towels 3) tofu 4) paper towels 5) cutting board part II 6) weight (yeah, yeah, yeah, a big pot would do, but where's the fun in that?)

Let gravity do its thing for 30 minutes, then remove the icky, sopping towels.

Cut each block-o-tofu into 8 even(ish) slices

Mr. Married With Veggies insists on 0.5 tBsp of olive oil per block-o-tofu, but I think you could get away with less. He rubbed each slice in the heated oil as he placed them in the pan.

Cooky cooky for 7 minutes

Flippy flippy and 7 more minutes.

Enjoy your tub-o-ready-to-go tofu all week long!

Mr. Married with Veggies says it's a waste of time to cut each slice into 8 triangles, but they make me ridiculously happy.

They also make modern art. I call this one sunburst with seagull over the sea.

And this one, I call lightning fast lunch (wheat pita with hummus, tofu, tomato, and spinach).

So here's the straight "recipe."

Ingredients:

• 1 package extra firm tofu
• 0.05 tBsp olive oil

Step 1. Drain tofu and put on a cutting board lined with paper towels. Cover with paper towels, a second cutting board, and a weight. Leave for 30 minutes. (Do NOT try to speed things up by pressing down on the top--this is a passive process!)

Step 2. Cut the tofu into 8 slices.

Step 3. Heat olive oil in a skillet and place tofu slices in two rows. Cook for 7 minutes each side.

Step 4. Use for sandwiches, stir frys, and just plain munching all week long!

Step 5. OK, you caught us. The recipe is for one batch, but the pictures show us making two. When we finished one batch we immediately started a second, but you should try it with one block of tofu. This week we just know we have a few recipes that will call for tofu so we did a double batch.