Blackberries and carrots (not together)

This morning came with a Sunday favorite, blackberry pancakes and soy bacon. Nothing creative there, just blackberries added to the Heart Healthy Bisquick.

 

This evening we were more creative with a Marinated Tofu and Carrot salad. We got adorable little baby carrots in the CSA basket this week, so I found a recipe for a salad that looked yummy. It originally called for crispy noodles, but I substituted buckwheat soba, which is healthier and yummier, and for peanuts, which we omitted for baby reasons.

The recipe was from The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook. It was:

1 package hard tofu (it calls for firm tofu, but honestly hard is a lot more solid and better holds it shape when cooking)

2 tbsp fresh grated ginger

2 spring onions (we used some green garlic from the CSA here)

1 tbsp mirin (this is a Japanese Rice seasoning liquid, which in my HEB was located at the Sushi stand)

1/4 cup soy sauce (low sodium)

1 tsp sesame oil (did you know sesame oil should be kept in the fridge?)

oil for cooking

2 Lebanese cucumbers (these are the burpless kind that come in plastic, which I know as English, also, we only used one)

2 carrots (we had wee CSA carrots, so we used a lot more)

Soba noodles

some chopped roasted peanuts (omitted for Smudge)

1/4 cup Chinese Cabbage (omitted cause I don't like cabbage)

Dressing:

1 tbsp grated lime rind

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp lime juice

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbsp shredded mint leaves (fresh from our garden)

Directions:

Cut the tofu into 1/2 inch thick triangles. Put in shallow dish with ginger, onion, mirin, soy sauce, and sesame oil, cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Cut the cucumbers and carrots into paper-thin ribbons with a vegetable peeler.

Boil the soba noodles.

Whisk together dressing.

Heat 2 tbsp oil and fry the tofu in batches, drain on paper towels.

Put soba on plate, then veggies, then tofu, then dress it all.

This recipe was really good and yummy. A perfect dish for a summer night.