Snow day roast vegetables

I’m not sure how many inches of snow we’ve gotten so far; snow tends to melt away quickly in Colorado.  At least a foot of it.  This is Bella, showing you.  (Yes, she wanted to be out there…although briefly.)

I decided it was a weekend to roast vegetables.  So I, along with the other 152,000 people that knew it was going to snow big this weekend stocked up on food Friday night.

vegan, gluten –

• 6 beets
• a lot of carrots, peeled
• 3 sweet potatoes
• more handfuls than you think of brussel sprouts
• a head of cauliflower
• oregano
• cumin
• salt & pepper
• several glugs of olive oil

Chop carrots, cauliflower and brussel sprouts into bite-size pieces.  Toss with oil, oregano, salt & pepper.  Roast those veggies on trays lined with aluminum foil (because I am lazy and have a hard time with blackened pans; I reuse the foil, though).  Roast beets and sweet potatoes in their own pockets of foil.  Don’t bother washing.  When tender, take out of oven, let cool, and remove skins under water.  Chop beets and toss in with other veg.

Crush cumin, toss in with potatoes and mash.

Serve roast veggies on potato mash.

Holy cow, it’s awesome.  I couldn’t wait to eat them to cool, I kept popping them into my mouth.  Not a fan of any of those above veggies?  Roast them; you will be.

Baked Tofu with Garlic Chili marinade

We swung by Island Naturals, which is sort of the Whole Foods of Hawai’i. They have their own cookbook, and I found this.

Source: Island Naturals Cookbook by Gina Franchini

vegan, gluten free

• 1 cup sweet chili sauce
• 2 tbsp garlic, chopped
• 1/4 c peanuts, chopped (or put in a bag, and banged on the counter)
• 1 tbsp ginger, chopped
• 1/4 c soy sauce (shoyu)
• 1/4 c cilantro, chopped
• salt & pepper
• at least one block of extra firm tofu, drained well

This makes a lot of marinade, enough for two or three blocks of tofu. Throw the marinade together when the tofu is drained. Cut the tofu block into edible-sized triangles, and soak in the marinade. For anywhere from 10 minutes to overnight. Place tofu gently on rimmed baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly puffed, which is about 20 minutes.

The sugar in the chili sauce carmelizes, so don’t bake this on a naked pan, by the way.  Good stuff.  Serve over rice, and to make it a dinner meal, it needs a steamed green thing of some kind….just not sure which.  Peppers would be great, but then, I think peppers are great with everything.