Edible Chicago

It's a super tofu day!

Well, the foodies favorite holiday is over, and dan's just sad the party ended. We hit the Chatty's Nut Brown pretty hard, and the champagne, and the spiced cider with rum, and the wine....yikes, my head was hurtin' this AM. Here's Lenyr, Dan and Alex hittin' the buffet to kick off the day of gluttony, followed shortly by a day of sloth.


Me, i'm sorry there weren't more leftovers...'cause this year, we decided not to support the tofu-turkey hegemony by diggin into a mediocre, nay, some would say disgusting Tofurky loaf. This year, we made our own tofu roast! We made some key modifications of a VegWeb.com recipe, whipped up some Alton Brown Cranberry Sauce, and slathered on some Grit Sage and Onion Gravy...delicious! Here's the full recipe:


Dan and Christa's Thanksgiving Tofu Roast

5 (14 oz.) Packages of Tofu
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2 Tbs. sage
1 Tbs. marjoram
1 Tbs. garlic powder
1 Tbs. salt
1/4 tsp Gravy Master or Kitchen Bouquet

Blend together well, working out chunks of tofu and forming a uniform paste (ok to add a few splashes of water to make it easier to mix, we used stand mixer)

Pour into large colander, cover with cheesecloth or parchment paper, cover with a flat object (book, plate, etc.) and a few pounds of weight. Place colander on a pan to collect water, press from 4 hours to overnight (refrigerate overnight,)

When done pressing, prep stuffing:
1 large diced onion
4-5 stalks diced celery
1 Tbs. toasted sesame oil (optional)

sauté in oil until onion is translucent, add:

4-5 diced cloves garlic
1/4 cup sage
2 tsp marjoram
2 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary
1/4 cup soy sauce

sauté spices for a minute or so, add:

3 cups stuffing mix
water until bread is spongy (probably 1/4 cup at the most!)

uncover pressed tofu and carve out the middle of the roast so that 1 inch of tofu remains on each of the 5 sides (save what you take out!)
fill with as much stuffing as you can, but only up to the sides of the roast, try not to overflow the cavity you cut out and fill over the stuffing with the roast you removed.
place roasting pan that is very close in size to colander on top and flip over quickly!

Baste with half of the following mixture:

1/2 cup canola/vegetable oil
2 Tbs. toasted sesame oil (optional)
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbs. Miso paste
2 Tbs. orange juice
1 tsp honey mustard

cover with foil and bake at 350 for 1.5 hours
set aside a few Tbs. of basting liquid for basting when served. After 1.5 hrs remove foil and baste with 2nd half of liquid
Bake another 1.5 hours uncovered to brown top of roast
Remove, baste with reserve, slice and serve!

Good luck, and hope your holiday was delicious!

posted by Christa @ 10:26 PM