I became vegetarian when I came to the US.  A couple of months ago I was talking with my husband about possible foods I could cook and suddenly we both said “OMG, we could make TOFU RENDANG!”.  He had tried Rendang before be both turned vegetarian and it was his favorite dish.  When I realized I could totally make the Beef Rendang dish into a completely vegan/vegetarian dish, I got really excited!  On another note, you can add small sliced potatoes to the mix to vary it a little… but here is the recipe:

You’ll need:

1 block of tofu (the more natural kind, the more porous kind… NOT the smooth kind you get in the unrefrigerated sections of the supermarket).  The more bumpy and porous it is, the better.

1 can of coconut milk (if you are watching calories, then get “lite” coconut milk, but if you’re not, go to an asian store and ask the clerk for the creamiest and best kind).

1 sachet of rendang spice mix.

1 serving of rice to eat with the tofu rendang.

Now, the most important part is the tofu and preparing it.  Like I said, it has to be the uneven, porous kind.  You can usually find that kind of tofu in the refrigerated section of a supermarket.  I personally get the “Extra Firm Tofu” at Trader Joe’s in the refrigerated section.  I wouldn’t go with “long life” “unrefrigerated” tofu.  It’s too smooth and it will definitely just come apart into little pieces during cooking.  Not good.

So, most tofu comes in blocks.  The block I buy is big enough to slice it in half, length-wise (along the thin side), so there are two thinner, wide blocks.  Once I cut it, I “press” it.  I press it by getting two baking sheets, each with wax paper, and place the slices on the bottom sheet, and top it with wax paper and another baking sheet.  I use heavy books to put weight on it.

Here are the books I use; my husband’s university textbooks!  Who knew they would be so useful!

Weighty Weighty!

As I said above, I put the slice tofu on a baking sheet with wax paper:

So, you put the tofu on that baking sheet and wax paper, then put wax paper on top with a baking sheet, and then put the weight books or your big bum on top of that.  It’s best to let it press for 30 minutes to one hour.   After that time you’ll see a pool of water that has been pressed out of the tofu.  Just pick the tofu up and shake it a little to get as much water out as possible.

Once you’ve removed the water from the wax paper, baking sheet and tofu, you can put the tofu back on the baking sheet.  In this case (the one I photographed), I didn’t do that.  I thought that it would be easier to wrap the tofu in wax paper and put it in a tupperware container and freeze it.  Don’t do that!  I recommend just putting it back on the baking sheet and sliding it into the freezer.  WHY?  It’s best for it not to be covered so it dries out as much as possible.  The more it dries out, the more porous it becomes which later translates into the tofu sucking up more of the spices.  If you leave it exposes in the freezer for 3 days, it’ll become so dry that you may even wonder if it’s even good anymore… but in reality, it’s probably at it’s best point.  The drier it becomes in the freezer, the better… so don’t cover it.  Leave it exposed.  It’ll become moist with the spices later, which is that much yummier.

This is my attempt at freezing the tofu with wax paper in a closed container.  It may look good, but trust me, follow my instructions above!

A No-No!

You see, the wax paper stuck to the tofu, so I had to wait for it to defrost.  You can also see the water frozen on it, and you really don’t want any moisture on it at all!

I separated the blocks, and this is what they looked like.  I included my little friend, the egg timer, so you can get an idea of proportion/size.  He’s my friend.  Be nice.

In the photo before the one before the one above, you see three slices, but for the recipe you only need one block (two half pieces).  I took each half piece and sliced it long-ways in three slices, then in the other direction, I sliced it in 5 pieces… making 15 blocks:

OK.  Next part.  Do you have your Rendang spice mix?

I know it says “Indonesian Beef Stew” but if you don’t put in any beef, then it won’t have beef… so it’ll be vegan!

Open it, and you’ll see the spice mix:

Exciting, isn’t it?

Now, you have to put the spice mix in a hot pot.  Let it heat up just a little so it’s not a “stiff”, then throw in all the tofu.  Mix it to make sure that all tofu is more or less covered by the spices.

Then open the can of coconut milk (light or normal) and pour it in.  It’ll look like this:

Put the heat on high until it starts boiling or bubbling.  You might want to half cover the pot so it doesn’t make a mess, but don’t fully cover it because it’ll keep the moisture in, and the whole point of the next few steps is that it dries out.  Mix it a little during this process.

The mixture will start “reducing”.  The whole process might take between 30 to 50 minutes.

It’ll look like this first.

And then it’ll come to a point when you start to see oil.  That’s the oil/fat in the coconut milk.  If you are using light coconut milk, you’ll probably see less.  I personally haven’t used light coconut milk, so I am just imagining.

I am a bit picky about oils and fat, so at this stage, if I have the time, I just scoop out as much oil as I can.  If you are not too fussy about calories, don’t bother.  When you start to see the oil, it’s best to turn the heat down on the stove to medium.  DO NOT mix to vigorously.   At this point you have to be gentle with the mixing so that the spices don’t unstick from the tofu.  I tend to just pick up the pot and shake it a little.  Make sure you’re using a stick-free pot.

It have to just wait until there is practically no moisture left, without it burning.  The whole point is to allow the spices to fully cook and stick to the tofu so that there is not sauce left in the pan… just pieces of tofu with spices completely stuck to them.

Now, if I had frozen the tofu properly (by drying it a whole lot), the spices would be more attached to the tofu than you see in the photo.

In all honesty, I was having a major sugar crash while cooking and photographing this and felt so depressed when I finished.  On the good side, my husband was sooooo happy with the results.  It’s his absolute favorite dish.  He is completely vegetarian and goes over the moon when I cook this.

I know it looks like diarrhea, but it is the most delicious thing ever.  The spice mix is what makes it wonderful.  Maybe someday I’ll learn how to make it from scratch… but I might just leave that up to Bu Sriatun and others.  When you cook this, your house will smell so delicious.

The great thing about this is that you can serve it cold.  Cook it, eat a little, refrigerate what is left and just eat the rest without heating it up and it’s fine.  As I said above, it’s GREAT hangover food too!  Serve it with plain rice.

I took this photo, but before I took it I just had to eat some of it so excuse the dirty spoon.

And OMG, it’s vegan!

Let me know how it went if you cook it…. and this means you! (@veganrunnningmom & @disneyrunner on Twitter)

Easy vegan pizza that's even easier to customize with your favorite toppings.

(Serves four, one pizza each)

I saw a recipe (which wasn’t vegan or vegetarian) and decided to make some changes of my own and just go along with my intuition.  I’ve never posted a recipe before, or shared one for that matter, because I tend to just cook on what I feel might work.  If I want to get ideas I look at random recipes and make them my own.

This Vegan Pizza can be customized (in regards to the topping) to your own taste/preference.  I honestly didn’t think I could enjoy a pizza without cheese, but this pizza proved me wrong.  My stomach didn’t feel heavy after eating it and I felt really satisfied without feeling too full.  I think what make it really good (for me) was that last touch of squeezing fresh lemon juice on top, with some flax seed oil (rich in Omega-3 fatty acids… the good fat!) and some paprika and it makes it very juicy.

Vegan Pizza (full list of ingredients at the bottom):

First start on the dough because it takes a while for it to raise, but not to actually make.  I made mine and then went of for a jog to get thinner while it was happily getting bigger.

Dough

1) Put one teaspoon (or one of those individual packs) of active yeast with 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar in a small bowl with just over 1/4 of a cup of lukewarm water.  Let it sit for approximately 15 minutes until it becomes frothy.

2) Sift 3 cups of whole wheat flour in a large bowl and make a hole in the middle… like a volcano! Add the frothy yeast mixture and another 1/2 cup of lukewarm water. (I also added a tablespoon of oregano and a tablespoon of basil to the flour, but I wish I had added more… I’m going to see how that works next time.)  Use your hands to draw in the flour  and work the mixture into a dough.  You can add more water if necessary.  You’ll probably find you’ll have to, but just little by little and make sure the dough isn’t too wet and sticky.

3) Once you’ve made the mixture in the bowl into one big ball of dough, transfer it to a lightly floured flat surface (your kitchen counter, for example).  It’s good to have some space.  Knead the dough until it is soft, smooth and elastic.  Add a few drops of olive oil into the bowl where you made the dough, place the dough back and roll it in the oil.  Get a damp towel, cover the bowl and leave it in a warm place for approximately 1 hour.  The dough will double its size during that time.

You can start making the sauce for the topping meanwhile and just before finishing the work on the dough, heat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit (220 Celsius).  Place two baking sheets in the oven while it’s heating.

4) Once the dough has risen, knead it on a lightly floured surface.  Cut/separate it into four equal pieces.  I just rolled it into a long cylindrical shape and cut it in the middle and then cut the two piece in the middle, to get four pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball then flatten it with the weight of your body.  Roll the piece until it is flat.  I rolled each one until it was as thin as it could possibly get without breaking it.  If you like a thicker crust, then you don’t have to roll it out so thin.  I was able to roll it out until it was the size of dinner plate.

5) Light oil the baking sheet (once it’s hot) and place the finished/flat dough on the sheet.  Spread the tomato sauce mix on the dough and add the toppings as indicated below.  Bake for 10-15 minutes.   The ones I made were done in 13 minutes, without getting too dry or burnt.  They bake fast!

Topping

The topping is easy and should only take 5-10 minutes to make.

1) Chop up one onion into fine pieces.  If you want chunky onion pieces in the topping sauce, then cut them into large pieces.  It’s up to you.  Cut up three large cloves of garlic into fine pieces and put them both (the onion and garlic) in a large, heavy skillet on high heat with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.  Add 1 tablespoon of oregano, 1 tablespoon of basil, 1/2 a teaspoon of pepper, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce (or just some salt if you don’t have soy sauce), and one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Frequently mix the ingredients together until the onions look transparent and golden.

2) Turn down the skillet to medium and add 1/2 can (approx. 7oz) of tomato sauce and 1/2 a can of tomato paste.  Mix for less than a minute and turn the skillet to low.  You can leave it cooking so all the ingredients can blend slowly together.  If it gets too dry, add a little more tomato sauce.

So, that above is the sauce you’ll be putting on the dough… now you have to think of what you want to use as a topping.  I used (in the order I put them on):

- Canned sweet corn (a whole can for the four pizzas that come out of this recipe)

- Broccoli (fresh/raw) cut into bite-size pieces

- Spinach (fresh/raw) sliced finely and sprinkled over the broccoli

- 2 Tomatoes, slice and placed on top.

I then sprinkled some basil, pepper, oregano and some garlic (can be fresh or powdered).  Put in oven to bake.

Once the pizzas are baked, do the following:

- Sprinkle some flax seed oil over the pizza, approximately 1 tablespoon.

- Squeeze the juice out of a slice of lemon (1/4 of a lemon… 1 lemon for the 4 pizzas) over the pizza.

- Sprinkle some paprika over the pizza.

- You can add some salt and pepper to taste, and sprinkle some parsley if you want.

Ideas for other toppings:

Want more protein and some extra carbs for energy?  You can get a can of black beans, wash them, put them in a bowl and sprinkle them with a little red wine vinegar, some flaxseed oil and salt and pepper to taste (or whatever other spices you might want to add… cayenne works!)  The flaxseed oil helps keep the beans moist during baking.  You can sprinkle the beans on the pizza.  I actually use this mix on salads.  One of my favorite easy/instant meals.

Sun-dried tomatoes would make it really tasty too, although it’d probably double the cost of the pizza.

Artichokes!

I can’t think of anything else now… but if you have any ideas for toppings or variations of this recipe, I’d love to hear them.

If you do try this recipe, let me know how it went!

—Ingredients—

Dough:

3 cups of whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon of active dried yeast

1/2 tablespoon of sugar

A few drops of olive oil

Topping sauce:

7 oz of tomato sauce

7 oz of tomato paste

1 onion

3 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon of dried basil flakes

1 tablespoon of dried oregano flakes

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon of pepper

Toppings:

One head of brocolli

A handful of spinach

1 can of sweet corn

2 tomatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

A sprinkle of paprika on each pizza

1 Lemon cut in four slices, one slice to be squeezed on each pizza

A few tablespoons of flaxseed oil

A sprinkle of parsley

Lots of love!