Made this tonight for the big game in addition to some other dips. We saw this recipe on the same site as the Seitan Piccata from the Vegetarian Times. We made a few changes, but it tasted really good! I’ve never had pâté but that’s probably because it’s usually spreadable liver of some animal or something. I never thought it could be made vegetarian! I’m not even sure this is really a pâté, but it tasted good which is what mattered.

One change we did was instead of baking the cashews, we just dry roasted them in a pan on the stove. I MIGHT have kept my eye off them too long – whoops – but it didn’t make the pâté taste bad or anything. The other change was that we didn’t use vegan margarine. We used normal unsalted butter. The recipe also called for curry powder but I don’t have any of that in the house. I just had garam masala so I figured that would be OK and it worked great actually!

Lastly, the original recipe called for 4 cups of sliced mushrooms since it served 12. We didn’t need nearly that much, so we just cut down on certain ingredients so it didn’t make quite as much.

The end result was really good! I’m glad we tried it. We paired ours with cracked pepper crckers, carrots, celery and pretzel thins.

While REB and I are back on our health track, I have to admit I’ve had some cravings for bad, salty treats that I shouldn’t eat. You know, things like chips, chex mix…those kinds of bad things. So instead, I decided to make a snack that’s so easy to make and not terribly bad for you, and full of protein!

I’ve made roasted chickpeas before and last time I made them, I made them spicy with garam masala. This time around I wanted to try a more savory combination. So I thought rosemary and sea salt would be a nice!

Rosemary is a great herb, but it’s extremely bold in my opinion. I never use a lot because it’s so strong. But it has a woodsy smell, looks kind of like the woods – a pine tree or something – and is full of this flavor that I can only define as “savory”. When I think savory, I think of this herb paired with cheese, salt, or on potatoes or fish or something.

It did take some time to cook, but it was totally worth it. They were crunchy on the outside and a touch soft on the inside and it was bursting with delicious flavor.

It would be a perfect snack for Superbowl Sunday, or just pack it up, take it to work and munch on during the mid-afternoon cravings. I know that’s what I’ll be doing! I hope you all enjoy!

Here’s what you need:
•2 15-ounce cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
•2 tablespoons olive oil
•1 teaspoon rosemary leaves, minced
•1 teaspoon salt (plus a pinch sprinkled at the end)

Preheat your oven to 400°F
Start by draining and rinsing the beans under cold water. Place a couple sheets of paper towel on a rimmed baking sheet and pour the beans on it. Then take each end of the paper towel and put them over the beans and roll back and forth to help dry them off. This will also take the skin off some of the beans.
Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the beans. Then I took a teaspoon of the dried rosemary leaves and used my mortal and pestle to help smush it up. Sprinkle that over the beans along with a teaspoon of sea salt.
Use your hands or a spatula and toss the ingredients with the beans so it’s well coated. Arrange them in a single layer on the pan.
Bake for 45 minutes, checking them every 15 minutes to make sure they aren’t burning and to also stir/toss them.
When they come out, sprinkle a pinch of salt on top and enjoy!

Is there a healthy go-to snack you love and can get enough of?

I think we nailed it this time. The minute I tasted it, it was like I was back in the 7th district, as cheesy as that might sound (no pun intended).

So we changed up the recipe and here’s what you will need:
•2 whole rounds of goal cheese, cut in half length wise (you’ll end up with 4 pieces)
•4 pieces of French loaf, cut into squares
•Spring salad mix
•5 tablespoons honey (total)
•Light drizzle olive oil
For the salad dressing:
•1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
•1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
•1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
•2 tablespoons freshly squeeze lemon juice
•S&P to taste
•3 tablespoons olive oil
– this will make a lot of dressing. You won’t use all of it, but it’s better to have more than not enough ;) –

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

Slice a French loaf and cut the long pieces into squares. You’ll need to use the goat cheese to know how big the bread should be. We used a French loaf, but you could probably use sourdough or something similar. I think sourdough might be too…well…sour with the goat cheese and dressing.

So I bought these two big rounds of goat cheese. You could use a smaller round, what ever works. These were big, so we cut them each in half, length-wise. Be careful and try not to crack it. We didn’t succeed as you can see, but it still worked out.

Toast the bread. Ours was able to fit into the toaster, which definitely helped. Don’t let it get too dark though since it will continue to brown and toast in the oven when it bakes with the goat cheese.

Next make your dressing!

In a Pyrex measuring cup, combine the mustard, apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Then whisk in the olive oil and mix until it’s smooth. Dress your salad mix lightly, toss and set aside.

Drizzle each piece of toast with a little olive oil and use 1 tablespoon of honey total to drizzle between all the pieces of bread. Then place one piece of goat cheese on each slice of bread. Once you’ve done that, top each piece of goat cheese with 1 tablespoon of honey and spread it out.

Bake in the oven, on the bottom rack. This is important because on the top rack, it’ll get to hot and just fall apart. This way, the heat is still there, but it’s not direct. Place on the bottom rack, close the oven and bake for 5 minutes. After that, turn the broiler on, and leave the oven door slightly open (most oven doors can do this) and let it broil for 2-3 minutes. Keep an eye on it so it won’t burn and/or melt too much! What you’ll see is pure magic: the honey starts to harden and turn golden and the goat cheese firms up but still melts. The toast gets a bit darker too.

The whole thing is done when the goat cheese is golden on top. Place the piece of toast and cheese on your salad and serve! We had ours with a dry, chilled Sauvignon Blanc with hints of citrus. It tasted really good with the salad! I’m a bit “wine-pairing” person, but I could tell the wine made the dish a little sweet which was delicious.

Oh and for fun, this shows what we made versus what we had in Paris:

Not bad, huh? You can tell the French clearly used a cook’s blowtorch, but I think we did what we were trying to achieve. I keep telling REB we need to buy a place on the Rue Cler and just move there. I’m sure he thinks I’m being silly, but I’m being totally serious :)

So what about you?
Have you ever re-visited a recipe you’ve made in the past?
Did it turn out better or worse than the first time you made it?
What things did you learn?

Back in the olden days when I ate meat, chicken piccata was a dish I ordered if it was on a menu at a restaurant. I have an absolutely love of capers. Any recipe that is vegetarian with capers will always get my vote. Why didn’t I think we should try making this with tofu? This recipe is ridiculously easy to make, too!

Here’s what you need:
•1/2 block of firm tofu (see below for preparation)
•All-purpose flour, for dredging
•Olive oil (4 tablespoons total, more or less)
•3 medium shallots, minced
•2 tablespoons capers, drained
•1/2 cup white wine (we used a dry Pinot Grigio)
•1/2 cup vegetable broth (I was hoping for low sodium, but they were out)
•2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
•2 tablespoons butter
•1/2 teaspoon garlic, minced
•1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
•Salt to taste (I doubt you’ll need any – see below)
•1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

We had a lot of leftover sauce since we only made half the tofu, but that’s OK. You can reduce any portion of the recipe if you want. I didn’t want to skimp on flavors though ;)

Start by standing up the tofu block and then cutting in half, length-wise. Store the other half for a future recipe. Then cut that half into half.
Take two pieces of paper towel, put a piece of tofu between them, and press. You want to drain as much liquid out of the tofu as possible. Plus, this will help thin the tofu so it will crisp up better. Once you’ve done that, cut each tofu in half, diagonally so you’ll end up with four tofu triangles total.

Put a few tablespoons of all-purpose flour on a plate, dredge the tofu and shake off the excess.
Heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan over high heat. Let the tofu cook for 3-4 minutes on each side. Once you’ve done this for all the pieces, transfer to a plate lined with paper towel. We actually put them on some aluminum foil and put them into the oven to keep warm at 300°F.

This image shows one half that we cut into two more pieces

In the same pan, add more oil (about another 1 to 2 tablespoons) and heat up the shallots, garlic and capers and sauté for 1 or 2 minutes stirring frequently. Then whisk in the lemon juice and wine and let it cook for 3 to 5 minutes.

Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 1 or 2 minutes. Whisk in the parsley, butter (you could use nonhydrogenated vegan margarine to make this vegan) and pepper. If we had low-sodium broth, I would say you might need to add 1/2 teaspoon or so of salt. However, since the capers and the broth are so salty, taste the sauce first and then use your judgment if you need more salt or not.

We served it up with some wild rice, poured the sauce over the tofu and nommed it up!

This was so delicious! Patting the tofu completely dry gave it a meatier texture. The capers were crisp and salty, and the wine and lemon together made for a wonderful fresh taste.

Now, I will say that I was a little conflicted about the amount of parsley. Ina Garten loves her parsley, but I think it’s kind of a garbage herb. For me, it’s used for garnish and sprinkling on a plate and not a main flavor of a dish. But even I can admit that when it warmed up, it did smell fresh. I probably would use less next time though.

Happy eating :)

We found a recipe online for Tofu Marsala and it actually turned out really well! This was the recipe we followed the basic concept from. We didn’t use a whole block of tofu since we were using leftovers, but we made the sauce the same amount. I could have had that sauce entirely on its own, it was so good!

Here’s what you need!
•1 block of firm tofu (we used half a block) – cut into long rectangles about 1/2 inch thick. We actually made our 1 inch thick and it seemed to work fine
•1/4 cup all purpose flour
•1/4 cup corn starch
•1/4 teaspoon S&P each
•1/2 cup dry marsala wine
•1 cup vegetable broth (we used low sodium)
•8 oz. Cremini or Baby ‘Bella mushrooms, sliced (just a small container at the store)
•2 medium shallots, minced
•2-4 tablespoon of olive oil (more or less depending)
•1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves (not ground)
•1 tablespoon tomato paste
•2 additional teaspoons corn starch (this will be used as a thickener to the sauce, separate from the 1/4 cup earlier)

First preheat your oven to 300F

Then we prepared our ingredients. We minced up the shallots and put them in a bowl. Then with a damp paper towel, we wiped off the mushrooms, took the stalks off, then sliced them up and put them in a bowl. Then we took the leftover tofu we had (half a block) and just it in half so we had two 1-inch pieces. It was kind of thick, but it was all good.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, corn starch and salt and pepper. Rinse the tofu and pat it dry. Then dredge it in the dry mixture and shake off the excess.

Heat up some oil (about 2-3 tablespoons) in a large skillet over medium high (our stupid stove required it to be high :P) heat. Once it’s hot, put the tofu into the pan and let it cook on all sides until golden brown (about 3-5 minutes. Ours took about 5-7 minutes since we wanted it extra crispy). Transfer it to a baking dish and put it in the oven to keep warm. This was good we did this because I think it helped cook the tofu a bit more since ours was thicker than suggested.

In the same skillet, reduce the heat (if you need to) add more oil if needed (another tablespoon) and add the shallots and dried thyme leaves. Stir them constantly until they’re soft (about 2-4 minutes). Add in the mushrooms and stirring frequently, cook them until they’re tender and lightly brown (ours took about 5-8 minutes).

Then add in the marsala wine. The smell is unbelievable when it hits the pan. It’s a kind of a sour, pungent smell, but it smells so wonderful with the shallots and mushrooms! Stir and let the pan come to a simmer so the wine can reduce.

In a 2-cup measuring cup (one of those Pyrex thingies) measure out the two teaspoons of corn starch, the tomato paste and the vegetable broth and whisk. This creates a sort of slurry or thickening agent. Once you’ve whisked it, add it to the pan, stirring the mushrooms as you do. Let this sauce reduce and thicken.

We served it up with some store bought vegetable risotto, took the tofu out the oven and spooned the sauce over it.

There are definitely things we would change. While this was ridiculously delicious, I think next time we’re going to try it with tempeh or seitan. Both have more flavor from the get-go than tofu does. I mean, the great thing about tofu is that it will taste like what ever your flavor with it, but we wanted some kind of flavor from the beginning. We also think we’re going to mix in some herbs with the dredging mixture. And also use eggs and breadcrumbs for a more substantial crust. I think this recipe is technically vegan, but I think if we could create a better crust, it would be even more yummy.

But like I said, it was delicious!! Definitely give it a try and if you find some other way to serve it up, come back and share it! I’m just glad we have another recipe we can make to get some good protein!

What are some of your favorite recipes where you substitute the meat with tofu, seitan or tempeh?