Miso-Sesame Baked Tofu

In this cookbook I have, there's this recipe on baked tofu that uses dark soy sauce, tamari, honey, ginger, garlic and toasted sesame oil as the marinade. Notice the little golden chunks of tofu below? Pretty, right?

Sweet and Sour Bean Sprouts Salad

I had a really good day yesterday – for the first time in a long time, I was completely raw yesterday. Well, the flax seed chikki is technically cooked, in that the jaggery is heated until it melts. But I will slot this under the raw category as there was hardly any jaggery and a ton of raw flax seeds. So, this morning, I thought I’d continue the raw trend. But dumb that I am, I put my endive lettuce in the freezer for lack of space in the veggie compartment below. I thought it would nicely thaw out like my frozen peas. But sadly, it’s all not looking too appetizing right now, so I laid those out in the sun today to dry out. Which meant, I had one less – and important – ingredient to work with for today’s lunch. Let’s face it – Salads with lettuce are so much easier to scarf down. So, a mung bean sprout salad, it had to be!

Mung beans - I've had them tons of times cooked as lentils in daals. But the first time as sprouts. I got a batch from Nature's Basket last week, but looks like they are quite easy to make at home. At least I think they are mung bean sprouts. Aren't they?

The salad's got peppers, ginger, mint and is dressed with (Korean) miso and maple syrup. So, its quite tangy and refreshing at the same time.

Sweet and Sour Mung Bean Sprouts Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 1 red pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 1/2 inch knob of ginger
• 1/2 cup of mint

Dressing:

• 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon of miso paste
• 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil
• Juice of one lime

To make:
Slice your peppers, mint, and ginger finely.

Add to the bean sprouts.

Heat a little water and add to the miso paste till it dissolves. Add that to the maple syrup, lime juice, and oil mixture.

Add the dressing over the salad. Mix well.

My Miso Soup

I had this for dinner last nite as I was eager to taste what Korean miso tastes and looks like - definitely a lot darker in color than the Japanese one - almost a brick or burnt red color. I wanted to stay true to the original recipe and make it just with miso paste and tofu, but I made the mistake of putting my tofu in the freezer and it wouldn't thaw fast enough for my post-work hunger. So I improvised with cabbage, baby corn and asparagus. I boiled the asparagus for 2-3 minutes, which did leave some of the stalks a bit chewy and sinewy - So, I'd recommend boiling them for an additional minute or so.

Ingredients:

• 1 large tablespoon of Korean miso
• Two baby corns, chop into bite size morsels
• A big handful of green cabbage, julienned
• A small handful of asparagus (stalks?)
• A small knob of ginger
• Sesame seeds to garnish

To make:

• Boil the cut asparagus for 3-5 minutes.
• Drain and plunge into ice water.
• Retain the water used to boil the asparagus.
• Pour some of it over the miso paste in a seperate bowl.
• Stir till the miso is dissolved and gives off a lovely brown color.
• Add that back to the asparagus water.
• Add the ginger, finely chopped, to the boiling water.
• Put this back on the gas and bring to a boil, then turn off the gas.
• In your serving bowl, add the cabbage, corn and asparagus at the bottom of the bowl.
• Pour over your miso-ginger water over the vegetables in the bowl.
• Garnish with sesame seeds on top.
• Serve immediately.

Note: I did not forget to mention salt. The miso is salty enough on its own. Plus, I dont use salt or sugar.

Time to make: 5-10 minutes, tops.