Tangerine Baked Tofu

This was probably one of the most interesting dishes I've made so far. And best of all, Bryan went from thinking he really wasn't going to like it to an almost incessant "ummm" fest. He immediately demanded that I make it again soon.

The tangerine tofu was chewy, moist, sweet and tangy. As far as tofu goes, it was simply amazing. I was worried that the citrus flavors would be too much, but it was just the right amount of zest and tang. And because I didn't even have any dark rum to use, I suspect it will be even better next time.

By the way, I should have mentioned this long ago, but one of the ingredients I *always* substitute in the book is any type of oil that isn't either canola or olive. I'm sure there are a couple of dishes where the oil type makes somewhat of a difference, but in my experience, oil is oil, and the cheaper the better. These meals in the book aren't exactly economical, so anywhere you can save money without sacrificing taste is a good thing.

They didn't have any tangerines at the store, so another substitute I used for this dish was using one orange and one tangelo instead. I didn't know what a tangelo was until I just now Googled it.

For the side, I made the Quinoa Salad with Black Bean and Mango (page 127). It was very colorful and a perfect complement to the tofu, as it was mild, lightly sweet and crunchy with a background of earthiness from the onion.

While I'm talking about the salad, let me also mention one ingredient I will NEVER use: cilantro! Hate it hate it hate it. It's vile, disgusting and vomit worthy. There. Glad to have that out in the open. Anyway, I digress, back to the salad.

This was my first time using Quinoa, which apparently is becoming the grain (or pseudocereal, more precisely) of the moment. Or, at least that's how it seems. I hear about it a lot more now, compared to not even knowing what it was a year ago. The great thing is that it's a complete protein. Make sure to click on the picture above to see the detail in the quinoa. Ain't it cute?

This was also my first time buying and using a mango. I've always been a little ambivalent about mangoes, if not a bit intimidated by them, but they were the best fruit for this salad. Just the right amount of sweetness and of course, very tender.

The difficulty factor on this meal was low and the time factor was not too bad, either. Price-wise, this one was pricey. That damn mango alone was $4. Overall, the cost was probably around $14-$15.

This recipe is one page 126 of Veganomicon.