I started with the idea of chard and sweet potato fries (I can’t get enough of them lately!), and I was looking around the fridge for something to tie the meal together when I came across a half block of tofu and a hunk of unused eggplant. I knew I wanted to marinate and fry them, but I was torn about what flavor profile to use. I love to marinate tofu in tamari sauce, sesame oil and garlic or garlic powder, but that’s what I had done with the other half block of tofu, so I decided that wasn’t good enough this time around. I wanted to try something new! So I opened up a can of plain tomato sauce and added some crushed garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, basil, thyme, paprika, cayenne, salt, pepper and sugar. The marinade was quite good on its own, and had a nice kick. I sliced some onions very thin, poured some marinade over them and laid slices of pressed tofu and eggplant on top.
I let those marinate for ten or fifteen minutes, and then flipped them over.
While marinating, I washed and chopped my beautiful chard:
And set it aside in a bowl.
I also sliced, and spiced my sweet potato fries:
I tried something a little different with the sweet potato fries too. I usually just slice them and toss them in a bowl with some salt, pepper, spices and coconut oil, and lay them out on my baking sheet in a 450-degree oven. They come out tasting great, but the texture is very soft, like a baked potato (surprise surprise). I’ve heard: a) that moisture makes them floppy and soft, and b) that using egg whites instead of oil will make them crispy. So before I threw them into the bowl I squeezed all the excess moisture out with a paper towel, and tossed them with spices and egg whites. I also covered the sheet pan with foil, since that seemed to help with the coconut oil fries. It worked almost too well… in some ways. I didn’t get a picture of the baking sheet when they came out, but they were glued on there! Nick had to hold and roll the foil while I scraped them off with a spatula. They were a little crispier, but it really didn’t seem worth it. Does anyone have any tips for crispy oven fries?
Back to the rest of the meal: I fried the tofu and eggplant in a skillet, with the intention of popping them in the oven while I sautéed the chard, thinking that they would be crisp on the outside and also achieve the more dense texture of baked tofu. Instead, the tofu stuck to the pan (the eggplant actually turned out pretty well, if a bit flavorless) and was generally unimpressive to say the least. More on that later.
I then sautéed some thinly sliced onions and the chard in the same skillet, and added the marinade, which actually turned out pretty well.
I spooned the greens onto a plate, topped them with tofu and eggplant and served it alongside the sweet potato fries.
The meal wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t particularly good. The tofu just didn’t work in the dish, and the fries tasted dry rather than crispy. Today I was trying to think about why the tofu didn’t work, and originally I came to the conclusion that I haven’t really liked any tofu I have made that wasn’t somehow Asian in flavor. Until I remembered barbeque tofu! Which is when it dawned on me that I obviously should have used bbq sauce to flavor tofu served alongside sautéed greens! Well, better luck to me next time.
Last night’s dinner made me a little bummed that I’ve had what feels like quite a few mediocre results in the past couple weeks. A few ok meals in the midst of many meals that I have enjoyed really shouldn’t get to me, but it makes me realize that even though I have been preparing food, I haven’t been thoughtfully cooking for a few months. I guess I just need more practice!
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