Tofu Benny
After seeing two awesome bloggers post scrumptious photos of the Tofu Benny from Vegan Brunch
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.
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?
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.
Bagels!
I am obsessed with bagels. I mean generally speaking I’m obsessed with any bread related food item. But this year I’m in love with bagels.
The thing with bagels though is they aren’t as easy to come by as one might think. I mean you can’t just walk into a bagel shop and get a bagel topped with vegan cream cheese. Well, unless you’re in New York. Store bought bagels just won’t do.
This is my second attempt at bagel making. These bagels were made from the recipe in Vegan Brunch. My first round, from another recipe, while tasty, were over-baked and extra crunchy.
This recipe yields a light bagel with a fluffy inside and a crunchy exterior. The vital wheat gluten helps give them a nice touch of elasticity which seemed to help when handling the dough. Overall they were easy to make and easier to eat. I gobbled up at least three.
For breakfast I topped them with some tofutti cream cheese, a sprinkle of nutritional yeast, a fat juicy tomato from a friend’s garden, a touch of paprika and a few leaves of basil. Delicious! They also went extra well with hummus.
I’m going to keep experimenting till I make some super fat round bagels; dense and chewy all at once. And perhaps some homemade cream cheese to go along with them. Oh the obsession continues.
