Sesame Tofu Quinoa Salad

This month I'm doing a favour for a friend and playing guest host to the Holiday Recipe Club. This great club is run by Erin at Big Fat Baker, and if you'd like some information on joining the club then check out the HRC website. So if any members have any questions on this hop, just drop me a line and I'd be happy to help!

This month we are featuring Buddha's Birthday, a holiday celebrated by Mahayana Buddhists. It is actually the birthday of Prince Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual teacher whose teachings formed the basis of Buddhist  theology. Celebrations vary from country to country, but you can be sure of one thing - they all involve food! This month our theme ingredients are Tofu, Sesame and Garam Masala - all vegetarian of course because traditionally Buddhists don't eat any meat.

I like to try and use at least two of the ingredients in my recipe for the HRC so I'm using tofu and sesame in this salad. I did for a moment think of throwing some garam masala into my marinade but I thought that might be overkill a bit!

On another note - I've been nominated for the Best Australian Blogs 2012 People's Choice Award - you can vote for me by hitting up this link: http://www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/bloggingcomp/peopleschoice.html

Ingredients

300g hard tofu 

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 tbsp toasted sesame oil

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/4 cup white sesame seeds

1/4 cup black sesame seeds

1 cup white quinoa

1 cup red quinoa

5 roma tomatoes, diced

2 cucumbers, diced

2 shallots (or spring onions if you are in the US), sliced

1/4 cup pepitas, toasted

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Lettuce

To Make

1. Drain the tofu and squeeze as much liquid out of it as you can. Cut into cubes and place in a bowl or plastic container with the soy sauce, garlic and sesame oil. Marinate for about an hour, shaking to mix every 10 minutes or so. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

2. Add the quinoa to 2 cups of water and bring to a simmer. Simmer, covered, on a low heat for 15 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed. Remove from the saucepan and allow to cool completely.

3. Mix the white and black sesame seeds together in a small bowl. Roll each cube of marinated tofu in the sesame seeds and place on a tray lined with baking paper (keep the marinade though!). Bake for 15 minutes, turning after 10 minutes.

4. In a big bowl mix together the quinoa, tomato, cucumber and shallots.

5. Mix the lemon juice into the marinade and add as much as you like to the salad as dressing. 

6. Serve on a bed of lettuce topped with the baked tofu cubes and sprinkled with toasted pepitas.

Serves 4.

Multigrain Minestrone Soup with Chestnuts

Adding chestnuts to just about everything in is a habit I picked up when living in China when roasted chestnuts were sold cheap on the side of the road all winter. They add a lovely nutty sweetness to this soup which is a perfect one for using up all the little bits of vegies in your fridge, I just used whatever bits of vegies I had in my fridge so you can substitute any vegies that you have.

Ingredients:

5-6 raw chestnuts

1 litre vegetable stock

1/2 cup green lentils

3 tbsp brown rice
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2 tbsp bulghur
3 tbsp quinoa
2 carrots, diced
1 celery stick, diced
1 cup of finely chopped cauliflower
3-4 button mushrooms, diced
5 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1/3 cup fresh or frozen peas
1 zucchini, diced
1/3 cup soup pasta
1-2 handfuls of baby spinach
Salt and pepper to taste

To Make:
1. Preheat the oven or grill to high (as in over 200 degrees Celsius) and roast the chestnuts until they are slightly blackened on the outside and the shells are cracking. Remove from the oven and let cool before removing the shells, incuding as much of the dark brown skin underneath the shell as possible. Chop the chestnuts roughly and set aside to use later.
2. Bring the vegetable stock to the boil and add the lentils, brown rice and garlic. Simmer covered for 10 minutes while you prep all your other vegies.
3. Add the quinoa, bulghur, carrot, celery, cauliflower, mushroom, tomato paste, paprika and peas and simmer for a further 10 minutes or until the grains are well cooked.
4. Once all the vegies and grains are cooked add the pasta, zucchini and chestnuts and simmer, stirring frequently, until the pasta is cooked (you may need to add a bit more water to stop all the pasta and grains sticking to the bottom).
5. Once the pasta is cooked through turn off the heat and stir the baby spinach leaves through and then serve immediately.

Serves 3-4.