Tofu

Here’s a meatless variation of a classic northern Chinese noodle dish. We love the contrast between the hot, saucy noodles and the cold, crunchy raw vegetable toppings. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 days, so you can make the sauce and prepare the toppings ahead of time and then cook the noodles when you’re ready to eat.

For a delicious Italian dinner, serve this flavorful combination of portobello mushrooms, bell peppers, and plum tomatoes with brown rice or on your favorite whole-grain pasta.

This recipe will eliminate all doubt that good-for-you tofu can be tasty, too!

We call this Cheddar tofu because of the texture. Imagine soft tofu, silky against your tongue, infused with a rich Cheddar flavor. It’s pretty awesome stuff. You can use it in exactly the same way that you would real tofu. It happily sits center stage as the main component in a salad or soup, or it can be diced and incorporated into a dish much like gnocchi or small dumplings. We use both the high- and low-acyl gellans at a ratio of 0.2 percent of the weight of the other ingredients. The gellan makes it relatively heat stable, and it holds its shape beautifully when cut or molded.

Whenever I make this for lunch I always think, “I should make this more often.” It’s a pleasant change-of-pace spread that can be served on fresh bread or, better yet, stuffed into pita.

Silken tofu makes a perfect base for a good, dairy-free dip.

Here’s a deceptively rich-tasting version of scalloped potatoes. It gives you the benefits of soy, minus the bother of making a flour-thickened white sauce.

Bok choy combines crunch and leafiness in one neat package and cooks up quickly in stir-fries.

Spicy Thai peanut sauce is another of my favored shortcuts to great flavor. There are a number of good, natural brands available, some much lower in fat than you might expect. Serve over hot cooked brown rice or Asian noodles such as soba.

So good and very easy, this recipe might just be the ticket to onverting tofu skeptics.

As you can see, I really like what barbecue sauce does for tofu. This is excellent over rice.

These crispy tofu cutlets are another favorite in our home. Enlist your kids to help with the breading and shaking—they’ll have fun with it, and they’re more likely to eat anything they’ve helped make. If you’re serving more than four, the recipe doubles easily, but be sure to use two baking sheets as well.

This is a family favorite that I make regularly. It can be sautéed or baked and is a great accompaniment to Asian-style noodle or rice dishes.

This is as luscious-tasting as it is nourishing.

This recipe doubles easily for a bigger batch. Accompany with Asian noodles or rice and a simple stir-fry, as suggested in the menu.

Soft tofu is a good choice for dishes in which it is crumbled, as in this and the preceding scramble recipe. Both are good for lunch, a light dinner, or even as part of a casual brunch.

These tasty patties can be sandwiched into rolls with lettuce and sliced tomatoes or served on their own as a side dish for grain, potato, or pasta dishes.

I used to think of lasagna as quite labor-intensive until no-boil noodles came to the rescue. It’s always a great company or potluck favorite. Now that lasagna is so easy to assemble, you might consider it everyday fare (remember, though, it does take time to bake). This is hearty enough to complete with fresh bread and a big salad.

What luscious flavor from such basic ingredients! Pureed soft tofu or white beans make a deceptively rich base for a soup sure to please mushroom enthusiasts. Serve this soup as an introduction to light pasta or potato dishes.

With a generous portion of tofu, this soup is perfect to team with a light noodle dish.

This nicely flavored miso soup is made more substantial with the addition of tofu. Fresh shiitake mushrooms impart the best flavor to the broth. Follow with an Asian-style noodle dish, such as Asian Sesame-Soy Noodles (page 85).

This visually stunning dish also packs a real flavor punch. Even people who don’t normally like tofu feast on this dish, though you can substitute beef, if you must. If you can get your hands on an Asian pear, use it here. Green beans are also good in this instead of the spinach. Serve this with Perfect Steamed Jasmine Rice (page 240).