Effortless, eggless salad – kind comfort food

Egg salad far (2)For me, sandwiches are the ultimate easy, comfort food. They remind me of school day lunches, picnics and road trips. Egg salad was one of my favourites and I missed it terribly as a vegan. But no more. This egg salad sandwich tastes just as good as one made using chicken eggs and is actually faster and easier to make since there’s no egg boiling-cooling-peeling activity required.

Ingredients

7 oz tofu, sliced in half and pressed dry in a lint-free towel

2 – 3 Tbsp vegan mayo (I’m a Vegenaise fan) depending on how creamy you like your salad

1 green onion chopped

1 stalk of celery chopped

1 tsp prepared yellow mustard

1 tsp green pickle relish (optional – I like it but leave it out if it’s not your thing)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

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Directions

Put everything EXCEPT the tofu in a bowl and mix well. Crumble in the dried tofu and combine. Eat and enjoy!

Some notes about storage:  You can eat the eggless salad right away, but it’s even more delicious if it has an hour or two to sit in the fridge so the flavours can blend. This egg salad will last covered for up to 3 days in your fridge. You may find that some water escapes from the tofu if it sits – you can either stir that liquid back into the salad or drain it off.

Makes 2 very generous servings.

Viking Mounds – the beeting heart of deliciousness

vikingmound3I call these open-faced sandwiches Viking Mounds because they remind me of those mysterious burial mounds found all over Britain, which once sliced into reveal hordes of buried treasure. The ingredients also make me think of what I imagine compassionate Scandinavians eat – sauerkraut, pickles, cucumbers, beets, crisp and mustardy tofu and grainy bread.

This recipe makes 3 mounds hearty enough for any Viking!

Ingredients

The tofu and sauce

12 oz package tofu – dried and cut into slices of even thickness

2 Tbsp agave

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard (I use seedy mustard)

2 Tbsp olive oil

The sauce

2 dill pickles minced

1 Tbsp brine from the dill pickles

2-3 green onions sliced (or ¼ of an onion diced)

1 Tbsp chopped fresh dill (or ½ tsp dried dill)

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

3 Tbsp vegan mayonnaise

¼ tsp ground pepper

The rest of the sandwich

3 medium beets, boiled and skins removed, sliced into coins.

¾ cup sauerkraut (try to find unpasteurized sauerkraut; it’s higher in probiotics and better for your gut health

About 8” of cucumber sliced into coins (I use an English cucumber so it doesn’t need to be peeled)

3 slices of whole grain or bread or pitas or similar sturdy bread

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Directions

Heat the olive oil, agave and Dijon mustard in a large frying pan, and stir together to blend. Fry the tofu in this mixture on medium heat until just golden and then flip. Turn the heat off and allow the tofu to remain warm.

Make the sauce by mixing all the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl or cup.

Assemble the sandwiches.

Place ¼ cup sauerkraut on top of a slice of bread. Add one third of the cucumber slices on top then one third of the beet slices. Add one third of the fried tofu and cover with one third of the sauce.

Dig in!!

 

Chickpea and avocado spread – simply delicious!

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Various friends on Facebook have been sharing this recipe video over and over, so I decided to give it a go for myself. It just seemed too easy and too plain. Boy was I wrong. It’s simple and simply delicious!

My only change was to add Frank’s hot sauce to the mix and to put the salt and pepper right in the food processor. Otherwise, I made this dish just as shown. Here’s the recipe again:

Ingredients

15 oz can chickpeas drained and rinsed

1 avocado

The juice of ½ a lemon

Salt and pepper to taste (I used about ¼ tsp each)

1 Tbsp Frank’s hot sauce (optional).

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Directions

Place everything in a food processor and mix until everything is smoothly combined. Serve on bread or in a wrap or on crackers. Here’s mine wrapped in an Afghani flat bread with spinach, tomato and cucumbers. SO GOOD.

And that’s a wrap!