Tag: tofu florentine

Tofu Benny

Posted by miss alix – 15 Nov ’10

After seeing two awesome bloggers post scrumptious photos of the Tofu Benny from Vegan Brunch I knew I had to make it. Not to mention I’m slightly obsessed with making tofu benedict.

I was super impressed with every detail of this recipe. It was all timed out so that you could serve it up without having to wait for one of the elements to be finished. It was particularly good for me at the moment as I am working on my mise en place in the kitchen

Mostly I was surprised at how much this sauce was like hollandaise made with real eggs. It had that stretchy elasticity of raw egg that is rare in a vegan dish. Honestly it was kind of freaky, but definitely cool.

tofu benny

I just happened to wake up particularly early this past Sunday and used the opportunity to marinate the tofu needed for the recipe so that it could all be prepared by the time everyone was awake.

I opted to use some thick toast instead of the home style potato option, mainly because I love toast. I also added in a bit of steamed spinach, just for fun. Spinach is fun, right?

tofu benny

The tofu was awesome, I was able to grill it up with breaking it or getting it stuck to the bottom of the pan (for once!). I had a nice light flavor that was complimented well by the hollandaise sauce and the hint of liquid smoke on the tomato.

I would say that this is probably the most authentic vegan tofu benedicts that I’ve had. I’d be interested to try it with some sort of vegan ham. I enjoyed the tomato, but perhaps would like to grill it up a bit. In fact, I think I’d just like to try a million different versions of vegan benedict and have it for brunch every weekend.

Vegan Road Trip: Part 4

Posted by miss alix – 25 Jan ’10

Austin, Texas

Possibly my favorite stop of our road trip was Austin, Texas. I had wanted to visit for the longest time, and insisted that we go there at some point on the journey. Amazingly we were able to celebrate New Years Eve dancing in the streets of this awesome city. The next day were were able to explore and visit some of the great vegan restaurants. We started 2010 with breakfast at Snackbar. The restaurant is located in the hip SoCo district and has a really great modern yet comfortable vibe. All the waiters and waitresses were wearing handmade aprons. I love it. They have a number of vegan dishes as well as gluten free options all marked on the menu.

As soon as I heard that this restaurant had vegan biscuits and gravy, it became the only place on my list that we absolutely had to go to. It turned out to have some even more impressive items on the menu, including vegan mini waffles and vegan tofu benedict on top of these tasty waffles. The biscuits were pretty decent, with a great tempeh gravy, but they looked ridiculous so it’s best you use your imagination. The waffles were great; fluffy and perfectly moist. The tofu florentine was quite good, lightly flavored and fresh. The place was pretty hectic as people crowded in to eat off their hangovers. I wish we had been able to come at another time because they were obviously under-staffed on the holiday, but I still enjoyed going there very much. Because of the craziness, we were offered a $10 gift card which could be yours! Just head on down to the end of this post.

We spent the day walking around town and exploring. The weather was gorgeous and I pretty much totally fell in love with the place. Everything was just awesome and had a bit more of creativity. Where in Los Angeles we have food trucks, Austin has airstreams. We stopped in The Ginger Man just to peek inside, and ended up staying for some drinks, pretzels and a mean game of balderdash, aka the best game ever. They had a huge selection of beers on tap and a super comfortable sitting area that makes you feel like you’re at home or in your father’s library. We ended up spending a better part of the afternoon hanging here.

When we finally sought out dinner, it was no contest. We headed to The Parlour to devour some vegan pizza. This bar has pizza available with follow your heart cheese and a handful of vegan meats as well as veggie toppings. They even have a vegan french bread pizza which was SO GOOD. Now, I might get myself in some hot water here, I know a lot of you are big fans of Daiya, but I am not. I am saddened every time I find that a restaurant that used to carry something I liked, has switched to daiya. Having this pizza was like a breath of fresh air. I honestly almost cried after eating it, I was that happy. Luckily, I just found a new place to fill this gaping hole in my vegan pizza heart that is quite a bit closer. Possibly my new favorite pizza spot is actually in town.

Ok ok I bet you were wondering when I was going to get to that gift card…right? Well there it is! Since I don’t live in Austin, and who knows when I’ll be back, I’m going to offer this lovely $10 gift card that I received to one of you lucky readers. All you have to do is comment! Oh, and you should actually be in Austin, or nearby. I’ll choose a winner on February 1st. So you have until then…Get to it!

And the winner is….Miranda! Congratulations!

Winner selected using random.org