Tofu lasagna
I'm sharing the lasagna recipe because it turned out brilliantly.
I bastardized two recipes, one from a generic pasta cookbook, one from a vegetarian slow-cooker cookbook. It's lasagna, not a Potions exam.
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, yellow or white, finely diced or minced
5 or 6 stalks of bok choy, thinly-sliced (a large shredded zucchini, kale, spinach, whatever. Pretty much any favorite veggie would probably work.)
8 oz of baby bella mushrooms, sliced (or, a double-handful)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1 roasted red bell pepper, or even a regular unroasted green pepper, I don't think it really matters
1 pound firm tofu, drained
1 pound soft tofu, drained
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
3 cups seasoned tomato sauce (or, a large can of tomato sauce and a small bottle of veggie spagetti sauce)
9 lasagna noodles (You can use no-boil noodles, but it'll take longer. If you just boil the noodles al dente, you can eat sooner.)
1 & 1/2 cups shredded soy mozarella (about a bagful)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat the oil in a medium-sized skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, cover, and cook until softened. Add the bok choy, mushrooms, bell pepper, garlic, basil, and oregano, season with salt and pepper, cook until the veggies are softened. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl with a wooden spoon (I used a potato masher), combine both tofus, the Parmesan, and the parsley until well-mixed and kinda crumbley. The original recipe now says to combine the sauteed veggie mix with the tofu mix, but I didn't because I wasn't paying attention to this part.
4. (I used a glass casserole dish, 9x13.) Coat the bottom and sides of the dish with olive oil because otherwise the noodles will stick. Spread a bit of tomato sauce over bottom of pan, and put in three overlapping lasagna noodles. Spread some more tomato sauce. Top the noodles with half the tofu mix, sprinkle in about half the mozarella, and then top that with half the veggie mix. More tomato sauce. Repeat with another layer and the rest of the mixtures. Top it all off with the last three noodles. Spread most of the rest of the tomato sauce on top of the upper layer, leaving just a little bit left for later, cover lasagna with foil, and pop it into the oven.
Note: Cut the noodles to fit, and tuck the ends down into the dish. If you leave the ends curling up all over the place, you're just going to end up with baked-dry noodle that you'll have to cut off anyway before one of your guests or loved ones cracks a tooth on it.
5. Bugger off for an hour or two. I used Jordan Castillo Price's Amongst The Living as a distraction, but an action-packed movie with smokin'-hot actors, like G.I. Joe, would probably work just as well.
6. Suddenly recall that you're cooking something, saunter into the kitchen to find out if it's burned yet, and pull the foil off. The layers are probably boiling a bit with the tomato sauce and the oil. Everything was already cooked before you put it in there, so just use a meat thermometer (a clean one, preferably) to make sure it's hot all the way through. Top it with the rest of the tomato sauce, and put it back in, uncovered, to heat up some more. If you happen to have a nosy sister/wife/significant other, smack her/his hands with the ladle until s/he leaves your shit alone. Go back and finish your book.
7. Pull the dish out of the oven. Have fun trying to get it sliced up and dished out without it ending up all over the counter, the table, and the floor. Employ pets for clean-up duty, if possible (Toby and Shizuka weren't terribly interested in tomato-flavored tofu, go figure). If pets are unwilling, use children.
8. This is the really cool part: You get to eat it now!
Ha! The brilliant-cooking-gene didn't skip me! I just hadn't found my niche yet!
I bastardized two recipes, one from a generic pasta cookbook, one from a vegetarian slow-cooker cookbook. It's lasagna, not a Potions exam.
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, yellow or white, finely diced or minced
5 or 6 stalks of bok choy, thinly-sliced (a large shredded zucchini, kale, spinach, whatever. Pretty much any favorite veggie would probably work.)
8 oz of baby bella mushrooms, sliced (or, a double-handful)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1 roasted red bell pepper, or even a regular unroasted green pepper, I don't think it really matters
1 pound firm tofu, drained
1 pound soft tofu, drained
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
3 cups seasoned tomato sauce (or, a large can of tomato sauce and a small bottle of veggie spagetti sauce)
9 lasagna noodles (You can use no-boil noodles, but it'll take longer. If you just boil the noodles al dente, you can eat sooner.)
1 & 1/2 cups shredded soy mozarella (about a bagful)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat the oil in a medium-sized skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, cover, and cook until softened. Add the bok choy, mushrooms, bell pepper, garlic, basil, and oregano, season with salt and pepper, cook until the veggies are softened. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl with a wooden spoon (I used a potato masher), combine both tofus, the Parmesan, and the parsley until well-mixed and kinda crumbley. The original recipe now says to combine the sauteed veggie mix with the tofu mix, but I didn't because I wasn't paying attention to this part.
4. (I used a glass casserole dish, 9x13.) Coat the bottom and sides of the dish with olive oil because otherwise the noodles will stick. Spread a bit of tomato sauce over bottom of pan, and put in three overlapping lasagna noodles. Spread some more tomato sauce. Top the noodles with half the tofu mix, sprinkle in about half the mozarella, and then top that with half the veggie mix. More tomato sauce. Repeat with another layer and the rest of the mixtures. Top it all off with the last three noodles. Spread most of the rest of the tomato sauce on top of the upper layer, leaving just a little bit left for later, cover lasagna with foil, and pop it into the oven.
Note: Cut the noodles to fit, and tuck the ends down into the dish. If you leave the ends curling up all over the place, you're just going to end up with baked-dry noodle that you'll have to cut off anyway before one of your guests or loved ones cracks a tooth on it.
5. Bugger off for an hour or two. I used Jordan Castillo Price's Amongst The Living as a distraction, but an action-packed movie with smokin'-hot actors, like G.I. Joe, would probably work just as well.
6. Suddenly recall that you're cooking something, saunter into the kitchen to find out if it's burned yet, and pull the foil off. The layers are probably boiling a bit with the tomato sauce and the oil. Everything was already cooked before you put it in there, so just use a meat thermometer (a clean one, preferably) to make sure it's hot all the way through. Top it with the rest of the tomato sauce, and put it back in, uncovered, to heat up some more. If you happen to have a nosy sister/wife/significant other, smack her/his hands with the ladle until s/he leaves your shit alone. Go back and finish your book.
7. Pull the dish out of the oven. Have fun trying to get it sliced up and dished out without it ending up all over the counter, the table, and the floor. Employ pets for clean-up duty, if possible (Toby and Shizuka weren't terribly interested in tomato-flavored tofu, go figure). If pets are unwilling, use children.
8. This is the really cool part: You get to eat it now!
Ha! The brilliant-cooking-gene didn't skip me! I just hadn't found my niche yet!