Spicy Tofu with Peaches over Rice

Liv & I began planting the garden (occasionally taking breaks to take photos) while Art prepared the following meal. He enjoys cooking, and with equal enthusiasm, we eat it up! This meal was specifically prepared with Gaia's 'Sweetie's Recipes' idea in mind.

For the record, we planted 2 broccoli, 1 cauliflower, 1 habanero pepper, 2 tomato, and a grove of onion -- and we still have plenty of room.

Now for the food... Take it away, Art!


This is my favorite tofu dish. It's sauteed in chipolte chili pepper and Mr. Yoshida's sauce was selected this time as the marinate. The dish is a combination of three things: tofu, over rice, with peaches. Unfortunately, peaches are out of season, so in sticking to the recipe, canned peaches are substituted for what will soon be fresh peaches when they are in season. As sides I always prefer collard greens with this tofu recipe, and I also prepared vegan peanut butter cookies.

Get the grilling kind, I prefer Nasoya "firm" which says it's for grilling.

Cut the entire tofu package into 1/2 inch pieces that are each about the size of a deck of cards. You want them big so that they are easier to keep intact in the pan. Put the pieces into a dish and sprinkle the chilli pepper on first, then dump about 1/2 cup of sauce and swish it around. Then carefully add the tofu steaks to the pan with some soy butter (1 tablespoon will be enough), or olive oil if you prefer, and just add the tofu and cook over medium heat, try to only turn them once or twice. I let them cook for like 10 minutes per side, 0n low heat (high heat seares the tofu quickly, locking out the sauce, and making it burned and dry). You can keep adding the leftover sauce into the pan as needed, or just dump it all in at once. Separately, cook up your favorite rice; I prefer jasmine or basmati, this time I used jasmine rice, 1 cup for 2 1/2 cups of boiling water, which took about 20 minutes to prepare.

I would use the rice cooker for the rice, but, collard greens do so well in the rice cooker that the rice had to be done on the stove. The collard greens are easy. You wash them, then cut out the center stem, and then toss them into the rice cooker (with the steamer attachment at the bottom) and add like 1/2 cup of water, sprinkle in a few dashes of salt, and toss in some soy butter or Earth Balance (1 tablespoon or so). Then, cut a couple of peaches up, and have them ready. You serve the dish with a bed of rice, then tofu pieces, then peaches, and you kinda cut it all together and mix it up and it's delicious. The collard greens are a good strong compliment to the tangy/sweet flavors.

The peanut butter cookies were also easy. 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 cup granulated sugar, 1 1/2 cups peanut butter -- mix the dry stuff first, then toss in a couple pinches of baking powder, then add in the peanut butter (use creamy because it mixes better). Ball up the dough, put 1 inchers onto the cookie sheet (use cooking spray) and mash down with two fork presses, making a criss-cross. Cook them at 350 for 13 minutes, then let sit on the sheet out of the oven for 5 minutes, then put onto a drying rack for 15 minutes and they will be ready after dinner is over. I put everything "on" at the same time, so plan to toss in the first cookie sheet, turn on the collards in the cooker, put on the saucepan with water for rice, and put the tofu saucepan on the stove all at the same time, and then everything will be done at the right time.