Come Together…Fruits and Veggies

Still a little bogged down by moving, and haven’t had time to focus too much on the kitchen (in relativity to my usual kitchen obsession).  I did, however, decide the other day that making bread would reduce any stress I had.  I used the bread recipe from an awesome book I found at the library, the Zen Monastery Cookbook.  It’s not necessarily a vegan cookbook (it’s ovo-lacto vegetarian), but almost all the recipes are listed with vegan alternatives, with the intention of helping people transition to a more compassionate diet.  Besides being a great transition cookbook, it’s also just a great book for general food knowledge.  For example, the bread-making process is explained in a manner that you not only know which actions to go through to arrive at the final product, but you understand how you created the final product, and therefore you are left with the type of cooking knowledge that allows you to grow away from the recipes and create your own delicious inventions.  My favourite cookbooks are the ones that leave you room to grow.

Interestingly, this book discussed a topic that was already on my mind- Waldorf Salads.  (To be honest, I didn’t know that this was the term used to describe a fruit and vegetable salad until I read this cookbook).  I had originally intended to share a recipe for a Waldorf salad that I made up, but it seemed rather redundant.  So, instead, I’ll share another recipe combining the greatness of fruits and veggies.

So, why do we feel an instinctive need to separate fruits and veg?  They are soooooo delicious together!  I’ve been thinking about how to combine the two a lot lately, and haven’t had time for any great, controversial experiments, but I did make this:

Peaches and Glazed Tofu Wrap

Ingredients:

– glazed/marinated tofu, cut into cubes, a handful- (I used leftovers from another meal, cooked in the Orange Stir Fry sauce found in the Zen Monastery Cookbook)

– large handful of Lettuce

– 1/2 peach (don’t you dare ask me what to do with the rest of the peach!  Tell me I’m not the only one that eats half the ingredients as I’m cooking…)

– handful grated carrot

– a few dates, chopped up

– a tortilla

Compile everything together on the tortilla, wrap it up, and either eat it, or put it in your lunchbox for work the next day.  The marinade on the tofu, and the juice from the peaches should eliminate the need for any other sauces.  Sorry for the lack of exact measurements.  Make sure the flavouring used on the tofu is one that will be complimentary- mine was a sweeter sauce with garlic and ginger, but I imagine a balsamic flavour would go great in this too.  Enjoy the combination of fruits and veggies.

PS- people are still finding my blog by searching for “batman” and “ice cream” together.  Is that just my friends now, doing so because they know I’m watching my stats, or is this seriously something that people commonly search for?  Oh, and from my last blog entry, Keikaisu mentioned a Mediocre Spiderman…I’ll put up a link in time that makes that make more sense.

PPS- this should be the vegan theme song…