This makes enough tofu for 4, so we have plenty of leftovers – they are very munchable and a nice addition to many meals.

The Herbed Tofu (serves 4):

• 500 g tofu
• 2 and 1/2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon each: smoked paprika, thyme, sage, tarragon
• 1 teaspoon brown rice vinegar
• freshly ground black pepper
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

I first pressed the tofu – sliced it, wrapped in cheesecloth, placed a cutting board and a pile of cookbooks over it, and let sit for 15 minutes. Then I cut it into small-ish cubes (about the size of the tip of my thumb), heated the oil in a frying pan on medium high heat, and fried the tofu cubes until slightly browned on most sides. This takes about 10 minutes, and while the tofu was frying, I had plenty of time to mix together the seasonings (tamari through garlic).

When the tofu was nice and golden brown, I poured the seasoning mixture in the pan, and stirred it to coat all the tofu cubes. I kept on stirring until the liquid was absorbed and started to get brown, and removed the pan from heat. I let the tofu come to room temperature before adding it to the salad base.

The Salad Base (serves 2):

• 1 small head of new cabbage, thinly sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• a bunch of arugula, chopped
• 6 sundried tomatoes, chopped
• a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1-2 tablespoons gomasio (Japanese sesame salt), or salt to taste
• 1 teaspoon agave syrup
• plenty of black pepper
• fresh basil

I just tossed everything together in a large bowl, added about half of the tofu, and sprinkled with some fresh basil.

This amount of dough makes just one bread.

Bread dough:

• 6 g dry yeast
• 2,5 dl water
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 dl bread flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

For the Yellow dough:

• 1 carrot (about 80 g), finely grated
• pinch of turmeric
• 1 dl spelt flour
• 1/2 dl wheat flour

For the green dough:

• 2 dl arugula, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons leftover pesto sauce (or chopped basil leaves)
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 dl spelt flour
• 1/2 dl wheat flour

Topping:

• 2 teaspoons soy yogurt
• 2 teaspoons dark syrup
• sesame seeds

First, I mixed the dry yeast in some of the flour, and dissolved it in a big mixing bowl in 2,5 dl water a little warmer than my hand, and stirred this for a minute with a wooden spoon. I added salt, and then flour, 1 dl at a time, blending well to form a runny dough. In the end, I added olive oil, and blended it in.

Then I divided the dough in two equal parts, placed these in two bowls, and added the rest of the ingredients to each dough, the yellow and the green one. First, I added spices and veggies, second, spelt flour, and third, the rest of the flour. I added as much flour as was needed to form a relatively stiff dough, and then kneaded the doughs for a few minutes each.

Now the doughs needed to rise. I placed the two bowls in the washbasin of the kitchen sink, filled halfway with warm water. Then I covered the bowls with plastic wrap to make sure that any draft kept away. I let the doughs rise for about half an hour, because I was impatient – for them to actually double their size, I should have let them be for an hour or so.

Then, I preheated the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, and greased a rectangular bread tin. I patted the green dough on the bottom of the tin. I then braided the orange dough on top of it: I divided the dough in four parts, and then formed a long strip of each part, and then twirled each set of two around each other. (Another option would be to just flatten the yellow dough on top of the green one.)

Now, I let the bread rise again for half an hour. Then I mixed the soy yogurt and syrup for the topping, brushed the bread with this, and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Now, I baked the bread for about 35 minutes in the middle section of the oven, until it was brown on top, and the crust was crunchy.

Ingredients:

• 1,5 dl plain (Alpro) soy yogurt
• 1 dl coarsely chopped arugula
• 1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1-2 teaspoons raw cane sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons dried basil

We always cut fresh herbs with scissors in a cup, a technique learnt from my step mom, and that’s what Heikki did with arugula in this recipe. First, he stuffed the leaves in a cup, and then just cut them with scissors until they were fine enough. Then he just mixed all the ingredients and checked the taste balance.

Even with dried basil, this is a very fresh tasting dip, but obviously fresh basil would be even better. It’s just pretty expensive in Finland, so I replace it with the dried kind if it doesn’t affect the taste of the dish too much.

There’s some fresh arugula and fried tofu and yogurt sauce on the plate with the mash. The tofu was marinated for an hour or so in Dijon mustard, some lime juice, pinch of sugar, freshly ground black pepper, and garlic, and then fried in canola oil. There was about 250 grams of regular firm tofu and two tablespoons of mustard.

For such a short marinating time, it is wise to blot the tofu as well as possible. Heikki sliced the tofu cake in about 2 cm thick slices, then wrapped paper towels around them, and pressed the pile with his hands against the table so that as much moisture came out as possible, making it easier for the spices to absorb.

Yogurt sauce is something we have often, this time it was plain soy yogurt with garlic, dried dill, a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar, and some black pepper.

I think there were about 8 medium-sized potatoes and 4 smallish beets in the mash. The trick is to cook potatoes and beets separately, since beets are denser in texture and do not mash very easily. We sliced the beets quite finely, cooked until tender in just enough water to cover, and then pureed them and the cooking liquid with a hand held mixer. We combined the cooked, cubed potatoes and the beet puree with a few tablespoons of vegetable margarine and some salt, and mashed this with a potato masher. The taste is sweet and salty at the same time, and surprisingly the taste of beets didn’t overpower the potatoes.