The recipe makes enough for three huge carrots cut into sticks – it might seem like there’s not enough dip, but there is. Since the flavor is pretty intense, I wouldn’t consider this a party food. I think this is best enjoyed as a snack, or maybe a light meal for the rare warm summer days when we don’t feel like staying in the kitchen for more than five minutes. I’ve also made this dip with natural peanut butter and that’s all good, but the cashew magic makes it super delicious.

The Dip:

• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons natural roasted cashew butter
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon brown rice vinegar

I just stir everything together with a fork until smooth and serve with a pile of carrot sticks.

I just used whatever veggies there were to be found in our fridge, and luckily the red bell pepper and edamame beans went really well together both in texture and flavor. Ginger juice can be easily extracted by first grating some fresh ginger and then squeezing it so that the juices ooze out. The amount in this recipe is an estimate since I didn’t measure, but I used what I got from a small piece of ginger.

This is what I had (for 1 large lunch portion):

• 1 bundle or 50 g soba (Japanese buckwheat) noodles
• 2 dl frozen edamame (fresh soy beans)
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 10 Roman lettuce leaves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon shiro miso
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 clove garlic, pressed
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger juice

First I cooked some water and poured it over the frozen edamame to defreeze them. Then I heated a large pot of water until boiling, added the noodles and the drained edamame, and cooked for 6 minutes. Meanwhile, I chopped the veggies and placed them in a bowl, and mixed together the sauce ingredients (miso through ginger). When the noodles and beans were cooked, I drained them and rinsed under cold water, drained again, and added to the bowl. I dressed with the sauce and tossed everything together, and my 15-minute-lunch was ready to be served.

A bundle of soba noodles.

This stir-fry is based on the Kung Pao Tofu recipe in The Asian Vegan Kitchen. I tweaked it quite a bit, but the essence of the dish remains: a stir-fry sauce with chili paste, soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, sweet miso, and sherry. As my version doesn’t have peanuts or cashew nuts in it, I couldn’t call it Kung Pao any more. As a side we had a Sweet and Sour Cucumber salad from the same book and some jasmine rice.

This amount of ingredients made about three portions.

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
• 2 teaspoons chili paste
• 1 and ½ tablespoons sweet (light) miso paste
• 1 and ½ tablespoons dry sherry
• 1-2 teaspoons lemon juice

Stir-Fry Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons canola oil for frying
• 1 cm slice of ginger, crushed
• 2 bell peppers, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 300 g tofu, pressed and diced
• 1 fresh red chili, chopped
• ½ dl sunflower seeds, roasted
• ½-1 dl chopped chives and chive flowers
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• fresh coriander and chive flowers for garnish

I began by preparing all the ingredients – mixed the sauce, removed the seeds from the fresh chili, and chopped and diced all the ingredients. Then I put a wok over medium heat, heated the oil, and threw in the chili and the tofu, and fried them for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. Then I picked up all the chili slices and the tofu cubes with two spatulas, and put them aside in a separate bowl.

I heated the oil remaining in the wok to high heat, and first put in the carrot and the ginger. After stir-frying them for half a minute, I added the bell peppers, and after another half a minute, the chives and the chive flowers. I stir-fried the veggies for about a minute more, and then poured in the sauce followed with the tofu and the chili. I stirred to combine everything, lowered the heat, and cooked it for a couple of minutes more. Before serving, I added in the sunflower seeds, stirred them in, removed the wok from heat, garnished with coriander leaves, and drizzled with sesame oil.

We decorated our portions with pretty chive flower petals. By the way, stir-fried chive flowers taste amazing!

This batch makes 22 small meatballs, and the recipe was inspired by the one on Cake Maker to the Stars.

Here’s what we used:

• 2 dl granulated TSP (in Finnish: tumma soijarouhe)
• 2 dl vegetable stock
• 1 dl diced leek
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste, depending on the stock
• 1 teaspoon dried chili
• ½ teaspoon dried marjoram
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ½ teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon fried onion
• ½ dl gluten flour
• ½ dl water

I started by setting the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

To start with the dough, I combined the stock and the soy granules in a bowl, and set aside. I chopped the leek into small bits, sautéed it in olive oil for a couple of minutes, added the chili, marjoram, and thyme, and stirred to mix. By now the soy granules had absorbed all the vegetable stock, so I added them into the frying pan, and sautéed the mixture for a few more minutes. Then I added the sesame seed oil and the soy sauce to the pan. I removed the frying pan from heat, and added the crushed garlic and the store-bought fried onion, stirred them in, and let the mixture cool down a bit.

When the soy granule mixture wasn’t too hot to touch anymore, I added the water and the gluten flour, and kneaded the dough for a couple of minutes. At this point, I tried rolling a meatball in my palm, testing the consistency of the dough. It was still quite soft, but firm enough to roll into balls – just what I was aiming at.

I rolled the dough into 22 small meatballs, which I put on a baking sheet covered with baking parchment. I sprayed them with olive oil on all sides, and put them in the oven for 10 minutes. Then I flipped them over one by one, and baked for another 10 minutes. By then they were nicely browned, and a little crunchy on the surface.

Usually on May Day the weather is still quite cold, so the picnic is more of a symbolic start of the summer, but this year the weather was really nice and warm, in Finnish terms at least. We enjoyed the soy meatballs together with potato salad and smokey tofu spread seasoned with sage, of which we’ll blog about later!

My marinade for 200 grams of tempeh:

• 5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 dl water
• 1 cm slice of a ginger root, finely grated
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon agave syrup (or other sweetener)

I cut the tempeh in small triangles, and marinated it for an hour in the refrigerator. Then I fried it in 2 tablespoons of canola oil until it was brown and crispy, which took about 6 minutes on each side.

In Finland, I have only found tempeh in the refrigerated section of Asian groceries – we buy ours at Aseanic Trading on Kolmas linja.

We cooked the brown rice in our pressure cooker, and it was ready in 20 minutes – the exact time it took to fry the tofu and make the stir-fry. The vegetables were slightly sweet and a little sour with a hint of sesame, and were a perfect accompaniment to the very five-spicy tofu. The tofu recipe makes enough for four, so the two of us had tofu leftovers for lunch yesterday, but the veggies were gone in no time. Reheating stir-fries isn’t very recommended anyway, since the whole point of stir-frying is to maintain the crispy freshness of the vegetables.

Tofu:

• 500 g firm tofu
• 2 teaspoons five spice powder
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 tablespoon finely minced fresh ginger
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sherry wine
• 1/2 tablespoon agave syrup (or other sweetener)
• 5 tablespoons soy sauce
• some oil for frying
• (cilantro for garnish)

I cut the tofu block in slices about 1 cm thick, wrapped them in cheese cloth, and pressed them for about half an hour. Then I cut them in small triangles (I really like triangular food), tossed together all the marinade ingredients, and let the tofu marinate in an air tight container in the fridge for about 3 hours.

When the rice was cooking, Heikki heated the oil in our wok pan on high heat until it was very hot, and fried the tofu triangles until they had browned a little. We covered them to wait until everything else was ready, and sprinkled them with a little cilantro before serving.

Veggies:

• 2 carrots
• 1 onion
• 1 bell pepper
• 2 and 1/2 dl broccoli florets
• some oil for frying

I cut the onion in wedges, broke the broccoli in small florets, and cut the carrots and the bell pepper in small triangles.

Heikki wiped the wok with a piece of paper towel after he had fried the tofu, and then he heated a little more oil in the pan until it was really hot. First, he fried the onions for a few minutes, then added the carrots and fried them for a minute or so, and last he added the bell peppers and the broccoli, and kept on frying for a minute, not more, all the time tossing everything around in the wok with two wooden spatulas.

Slightly Sweet and Sour Stir-Fry Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 teaspoon potato starch

While Heikki was stir-frying, I mixed the sauce ingredients together, and when the veggies were done, I stirred the sauce to mix in the starch that always sinks to the bottom, and poured the sauce in the wok. Heikki tossed the veggies to coat them in the sauce, and heated it for 15 seconds or so to thicken.

Now, we ladled the rice and the veggies in warmed serving bowls, and immediately enjoyed our New Year’s dinner.

Another reason I prefer hard-cover cookbooks: perfect for tofu pressing!

This is what we used (makes enough for two):

• 100 g rice noodles
• 200 g carrots, scrubbed and cut into thin strips
• 300 g cabbage, cut into thin strips
• 1 dl cashew nuts
• 250 g firm tofu, pressed and cubed
• 1 slice of ginger, about 1 cm thick, crushed
• about 3 tablespoons canola oil for frying

For the sauce:

• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dried, crushed chili in oil (We used Lao gan ma brand)
• 2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon agave syrup
• 2 teaspoons brown rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

First, I put the noodles in a boiling pot of water. While they were cooking, Anni was slicing the vegetables. I pressed the tofu with cheese cloth for a couple of minutes, and cut it into cubes. I tasted the noodles now, and yes, they were already beyond al dente, so I poured them into a colander, and rinsed them in plenty of cold water, so that they wouldn’t get stuck into each other.

Then I heated about 2 tablespoons oil in a wok over high heat, and fried the tofu cubes until they were slightly browned, about 3 to 4 minutes. I poured the tofu out of the wok to a plate, and put rest of the oil in the wok, and waited a while for the oil to heat up. Now it was time to fry the veggies.

I put the ginger in the wok first, and stirred it around for maybe 20 seconds, and then added the carrots. Stirring continuously, I fried the carrots for about half a minute, and then added the cabbage, and fried them for about 2 minutes more. Whatever vegetables you are using, put the hardest vegetables in first, so they have more time to cook, but don’t fry them for too long! It’s nice if they still have some crunch, I think.

Next, I added the noodles. I put them in a bit at a time, mixing them with the vegetables. If you add all the noodles at once, it’s easy to end up with one big lump of noodles, all the veggies around it, which is, well, unsatisfactory.

While I was frying, Anni prepared the sauce. It’s easy to make, just combine all the ingredients in a cup, and stir. This time we used garlic, lemon juice, chili oil, soy sauce, agave syrup, brown rice vinegar and sesame oil. Yummy!

Once I had fried the noodle-veggie-mix for a couple of minutes, stirring continuously, I added the tofu back in, stirred for a few seconds more, and then poured in the sauce. Once it was mixed in, the noodles were ready to eat!

Variations

One thing to take into consideration with this dish is that the tofu tastes a bit mild when prepared this way. We don’t mind, I think it creates a nice contrast to the otherwise strong flavours of this dish, but there are a couple of easy ways to season the tofu.

One variation of the dish would be to marinate the tofu beforehand and otherwise prepare it exactly the same way, or alternatively, use unmarinated tofu, but once you have fried the tofu, pour in part of the sauce on top of them, stir until the tofu cubes have absorbed the sauce, and then remove them from the wok, and prepare the rest of the dish as explained above.

The photo was taken after we’d coated the already-once-baked roast with mustard, crushed melon seeds, breadcrumbs, and pink peppercorns. It went in the oven after coating, but we forgot to take a picture when it was all done – it looked pretty much like this, except the breadcrumbs had browned a little. There’s no inside shot either, but the roast had a delicate and pleasant texture: tender and juicy, and not chewy like regular seitan.

We chose the seasonings to fit our own tastes, but the proportions for this recipe are from a seitan ham recipe at the Finnish animal rights discussion forum.

Dry ingredients:

• 3 dl gluten flour
• ½ dl chick pea flour (gram)
• ½ dl nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• black pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ½ teaspoon dried rosemary

Wet ingredients:

• 150 g marinated tofu
• 1 and ½ dl tofu marinade
• 1 dl water
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed

First, we mixed the dry and the wet ingredients in separate bowls, then poured them together, and kneaded the dough for about 10 minutes. Now, I formed the dough in a cylindrical shape, and then wrapped it tightly in multiple layers of aluminum foil. Then we baked the roast in 150 degrees Celsius for one and a half hours, and refrigerated it overnight without removing the foil.

Pictured here; the roast dough wrapped in foil, and the next day before coating.

On Christmas eve, before dinner, we spread Dijon mustard seasoned with garlic and red bell pepper over the roast, sprinkled it with crushed melon seeds and breadcrumbs, and decorated with pink peppercorns. Then we baked it in about 175 degrees for half an hour or so, until it had gotten some color.

Here’s what we used:

• 500 g firm tofu
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 3 and ½ dl vegetable stock
• 1 and ½ dl red wine
• ½ dl soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon green peppercorns, ground
• 1 teaspoon black pepper, ground
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• ½ teaspoon rosemary

First, Heikki sliced the tofu in thin slices, about 1/2 cm thick, wrapped the slices in paper towels, and pressed them lightly. We mixed all the marinade ingredients, and poured them in the glass jar. Then we plunged the tofu in the jar, and let it marinate overnight in the fridge. This could, however, be marinated up to five days at least, since all the tofu slices are completely covered with the marinade.

We served these cutlets with pan fried potatos and sherry onion sauce – an extremely yummy combination. This recipe makes 16 thin cutlets, which isn’t much at all, but the recipe could easily be halved to avoid leftovers. The list of ingredients is pretty long, but the cutlets only take about half an hour to prepare if everything’s on hand.

Here’s what I did to make the cutlets:

Phase 1:

• 200 g firm tofu
• 3 dl cooked black-eyed peas
• 1 dl water

I mixed these up with a hand held immersion blender until all the peas were mashed.

Phase 2:

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/3 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 dl nutritional yeast
• 1 dl chick pea flour (gram)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Now, I added all of the above to the tofu-bean mixture, and mixed well until combined.

Phase 3:

• 2 dl gluten flour

I added the gluten flour in the mix, and kneaded for 7 minutes, until the dough was pretty stiff and could easily be formed into a big ball. It didn’t get very stringy like gluten does, and was still pretty easy to mold in shapes – unlike doughs that are only made of gluten flour.

Phase 4:

• canola oil for frying

I formed the dough into thin cutlets, about ½ cm thick. Our cutlets were about the size of the palm of Heikki’s hand, and we got 16 of them. Now, we fried them on medium-low heat on both sides until golden brown, which took about 5-7 minutes per side. The pan really shouldn’t get too hot, because then the cutlets will burn before they’re done inside.