Back in the kitchen

Hello friends! It has been a while since I've attended to my blog, and I have missed it greatly. As they say, life got in the way of life, but I'm entering into a new phase now of focusing on things that are truly important to me, and this is one of them. So prepare yourself for much more regular posts, photos, recipes and adventures in the Bay Area!

So, without further ado, I'd like to present my most recently improvised recipe...tofu burgers!

Last week, I decided it was time to do something with the half a block of tofu on the verge of going bad in the fridge. After scrolling through tofu recipes on epicurious, I decided I was in the mood for something hearty and nutty. I found one recipe for toasted almond tofu burgers, which I used as a loose guideline for my creation, which I will hereby name "Toasty Pecan Tofu Burgers." Here is how I went about creating them, which worked well for me. I encourage you to experiment with other ingredients though, I think this is a perfect recipe to make when you have a few random items in the pantry/fridge and you're trying to figure out a way to bring them all together.

Toasty Pecan Tofu Burgers

First, I sliced up the tofu into thin slices, patted it dry and wrapped it in paper towels. The goal here is to squeeze as much moisture out of the tofu as you can (FYI I was using extra firm). I placed the tofu between two plates and stuck a few cans of food on top for pressure and let it sit for 30-60 minutes. If the paper towels seem drenched, either squeeze them out and re-wrap or just use fresh ones.

As the tofu drained, I made prepped the other ingredients. I shredded up a large carrot and finely chopped an small onion and a few cloves of garlic. I sauteed these for about 8 minutes, until soft and set them aside to cool. I then toasted up a few pieces of old bread and about 1/3 cup of pecans until browned. After letting them cool, I pulsed each in the food processor, turning the bread into breadcrumbs and the chopping the nuts up finely.

With all the ingredients now ready, I gave the tofu a final squeeze and then crumbled in into a mixing bowl. I tossed in the breadcrumbs (about 1/2 a cup, for those who like to measure), the pecans and the carrot/onion mixture together with the tofu, and then mixed in a lightly beaten egg white (to hold the mixture together). I also tossed in a splash of soy sauce, some sesame seeds, garlic power, salt, pepper and a little ginger for flavoring. I mashed it all together with my hands and made little patties, about the size of my palm.

I heated up some olive oil in a large skillet, and dropped the patties in, cooking until brown and then flipping over. They stayed in one piece pretty well, but I was gentle with them, having totally botched previous attempts to make tofu burgers due to the crumbly texture of tofu.

When browned nicely on both sides, I removed from the heat and served them with a simple salad of romaine hearts, avocado, heirloom tomatoes and a homemade vinaigrette of balsamic, olive oil and course grain mustard. I have to admit - it was pretty and delicious! I failed to take a photo, but you can take my word for it.

If you try this recipe, let me know how it comes out. I think you put a lot of different ingredients into it to change up the flavor, but the key to the texture success seems to have been the egg white and the bread crumbs, so I recommend continuing to use those.

I am sure I will have more tofu adventures to share soon, as I bookmarked about 10 difference recipes on epicurious in my search for the perfect tofu burger. So stay tuned and get your soy on!:)