Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Day 4: Weeknight Wednesday Tofu Parmesan

This recipe is pretty easy. Boil noodles. Heat pasta sauce. Fry tofu. 

I know there are a lot of people who have deep-seated issues with tofu. I think that is partially because they don't really understand what it is. Tofu is essentially cheese made from soy milk in a similar process to how cow's milk mozzarella is made. Sooo... it's actually not that weird of a thing to eat with pasta. This is actually almost like putting a breaded, fried cheese on top of your spaghetti. Except it's good for you. 

I am 99% certain that tofu-haters are haters because tofu has some weird stigma attached to it, and not because of the way it actually tastes. I think that if you convince yourself that you're not eating tofu, but that you're actually eating some kind of unstringy cheese, you'll actually like it. :)


Serves 4
Time: 20 minutes

1 pound extra firm tofu
3 tablespoons olive oil 
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
4 tablespoons vegan parmesan (Galaxy Nutritional Foods makes a really good one)
5 cloves garlic, minced finely
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (more or less to taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt

Tomato sauce, either store-bought or homemade
1 pound spaghetti noodles

Slice the tofu widthwise into eight pieces, then slice each piece on the diagonal, so that you have sixteen little tofu wedges. 

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and boil water in a pot for the pasta. 

Combine the flour, panko, parmesan, garlic, herbs, and salt in a bowl. Dredge the tofu in the mixture, pressing the tofu firmly into the mixture to get as much of it to stick as possible. 

Fry the tofu in the pan until until browned, about 5 minutes. Flip, and allow to brown on the other side. While the tofu is frying, heat the the sauce and cook the pasta. 

To serve place a portion of noodles on each plate, ladle with tomato sauce, and top with four tofu wedges. 
Cheers!

1 comment:

  1. I normally don't bother reviewing recipes, but this one deserves it. This was so good! I've never been able to find vegan parmesan, so I used nutritional yeast instead. I used 1 tsp garlic powder instead of fresh garlic, and omitted the crushed red pepper and salt. To help the breading stick, I combined 1 TBSP cornstarch and 3 TBSP water, and then dipped each piece of tofu in that before dipping in the breading. I only needed about half the olive oil since I used a nonstick pan. Served this with bowtie pasta, Newman's Own Sockarooni sauce (with added garlic, onion, and basil), and garlic bread. Thank you for the recipe!

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