You almost never see tofu paired with pasta outside of vegan cookbooks, which is a pity because the textures actually go quite well together. This is a pasta that I whipped up for myself this afternoon; it's easy, tasty, and full of protein.
1/2 lb pasta (I use linguine)
1 bunch asparagus
1 box sliced button or baby bella mushrooms
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 package Nasoya superfirm cubed tofu (or cut any extra firm tofu into 1/4 inch cubes)
Olive oil
Cook the pasta with at least a tablespoon of salt in the water. Meanwhile, cut the asparagus into 1 1/2 inch pieces and microwave on high for 2-3 minutes. (If you don't have a microwave, poach in 1/4 inch of water in a frying pan for the same amount of time, until just barely undercooked.) Saute the mushrooms in olive oil until they start to brown. Add asparagus, tofu, and crushed garlic. Saute until the asparagus is cooked. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour over pasta with a tablespoon of extra olive oil to coat the pasta. Serve warm.
"You almost never see tofu paired with pasta outside of vegan cookbooks"
The big exception that comes to mind is Pad Thai.
You ought to try Barilla Plus pasta for additional protein, particularly when you're having pasta without tofu.
Geeze, what a tease, to serve up a recipe on a blog but not to invite us to partake in person!
That is like a virtual dinner party.
Interesting recipe... Tofu can be hard work to integrate into a recipe but I think this really works.
It doesn't work with everything, but there are a variety of things you can do with it and pasta; it's also actually quite good in marinara sauce, or with fresh basil and tomato. I think Italian flavors generally work pretty well for it; it seems to be underutilized in other cuisines because people tend to think of it only as an asian food.
Gaah! Don't just say "one box" of mushrooms; for Heaven's sake tell us the weight of the box.
Eight ounces. Though you could have doubled it as far as I was concerned.
Tofu wants sesame oil.
Sesame oil wants chewier noodles than Italian pasta.
Give it a try. You might be surprised . . .
Excellent. thanks.
Let me get this straight. According to your post, you whipped up a lunch for yourself this afternoon that consisted of: a) half a pound of pasta, b) eight ounces of mushrooms, c) "half a package of tofu," along with d) an unknown quantity of olive oil.
And you ate all that for lunch?
I'll bet there's about 4,000 calories in that lunch. I'd hate to ask what you had for dinner.
D,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/the-next-big-autism-bomb_b_93627.html
ya think you may recieve Any apologies?
Blake wrote: I'll bet there's about 4,000 calories in that lunch. I'd hate to ask what you had for dinner.
Oh, you know...twigs, bark, switchgrass, fresh squeezed blood of the proletariat...libertarian vegan stuff.
More seriously, I'm not sure where your calorie estimates came from, but my best estimate from searching out typical calorie counts for those items says that even if she didn't save any leftovers, she probably got 1700-2300 calories, maybe all the way up to 3000 if she really poured on the oil, and very few of them were from saturated fat. She's female, but since she's tall and commutes via bicycle, that would be about right.
This is a recipe by 12 year-old could think up.
i am a vegan for seventeen years. i love eating pasta with tofu sauce and mushrrom. that's what i live on. my doctors told me to get more protein so now i eat 3 lbs. of pasta per day and 3 containers of tofu per day. i do not like it because it tastes bad. but ever since i have been eating it, my maladies have begun to subside. i still have vertigo attacks, but the numbness to my toes and fingers is getting better, i think. i only get ringing in my ears twice a day now, too. Hooray! if i keep getting better maybe i can get a job soon.
Meaghan,
I love tofu and pasta together, but it doesn't agree with me--if you know what I mean. Rooty-toot-toot. As a fellow vegan, libertarian and agnotheist, I luv ya. Have fun in PR! I hear they have great vegan food down their.
Megan, I tried the recipe but cut the asparagus into 1 1/4-inch pieces, just to be a little wild. Sadly the resulting dish was flavorless and nearly inedible.
Next time, I'll stick to the master chef's instructions!
D. Aristophanes,
I also had a problem with the recipe--except I only put one (1) half-inch piece of asparagus in the dish, that's how I read what Megan wrote. Maybe next time I will cut my asparagus spears into 1 1/2-inch pieces.
Meghan,
This recipe looks okay, but I'd improve it a bit by adding some diced and lightly cooked bacon. Then I'd add some beef stock or--better--veal stock to the cooked dish. Even better would be three or four pounds of ground round formed into meatballs and added later. I'd also omit the tofu--yuck! Then instead of pasta, I'd use chitterlings. Sounds good, huh?
I don't eat asparagus (it makes my urine smell bad), but I do like green beans.
Can I make this dish with green beans? If so, how many should I use? Should I cut them into the same lengths as the asparagus, or should that be different.
Please respond soon, because I'm beginning to feel faint.
Thanks.
It would also help considerably if Megan could post a less 'ethnic' version of this recipe, for those with more delicate palates.
I might begin by halving the amount of garlic, or perhaps eliminating it all together.
Hey Megan, I think you've found your niche. Stick to white-bread no-brainer recipes and leave the thinking to those who can. Thanks!
I'm with Aristophanes: To me the pepper--an Eastern spice--renders this dish far too hot and inedible.
Semen also has a lot of protein.
MEH,
Apologies?
This is a Meganic Republic!
Now let us all turn to face Puerto Rico to bow and pray, for it is the hour of prayer.
Megan is great.
Megan the most gracious, most merciful.
Megan is great.
It's a taste cessation!
No other seasoning?
And why are the asparagus cut so short? There's something emasculating about that...
"No other seasoning?"
Megan though of Lawrence Welk in a bullfighter's costume while making it.
most pasta is made with eggs... not very vegan
Try this one:
cooked pasketti-2 handfulls
frozen sweet peas-8oz bag
julienned ham
diced bacon
mayonnaise
white pepper
black pepper
Great for covered dish and no pernicious flavors that might upset people who only eat white colored food.