Tofu Salad

One thing led to another while making dinner last night, and one of the things was TOFU SALAD. One of my sons was making guacamole, and I had gotten a green salad ready — adding radishes, arugula, chives, sorrel, mizuna, baby kale, and cilantro from the garden to a big head of red lettuce. 

I had cooked some potatoes for a potato salad, and the pan of hot water was still sitting there, so I threw some lamb’s quarters on top of the potatoes to steam. They volunteer in the garden and are a good substitute for spinach. They, like spinach and chard, do contain oxalic acid, which binds with calcium, so they are not my favorite green for that reason since I eat greens for their calcium content, but they are fine occasionally and are very mild tasting and not as slimy as spinach. I dressed the greens with lemon, olive oil, and salt.

I made a marinade for the potato salad, including olive oil, apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, tamari, vegan Worcestershire sauce, yellow mustard, Smokey Serrano hot sauce, chopped onion, and celery. I mention this because I used some in the tofu salad, which I turned to making, next. 

Tofu Salad

No cooking at all is involved in making a TOFU SALAD, and it is useful for a dinner protein, a sandwich filling, or a dip for substantial chips.

Simply mash up a block or two of tofu with a potato masher or fork, add chopped green onion (two scallions or onion tops from the garden, or even a handful of chives) or a small red onion, chopped very small pieces of celery, three tablespoons of vinegar, one teaspoon of sweetener, a tablespoon of tamari, pepper or hot sauce to taste, a tablespoon of olive oil, and mix it all together.

You could grate up some carrot into it, add some nayonnaise or creamy miso dressing, add other seasonings if you wanted (chili powder or curry powder or mustard), or just leave it as is. It is akin to an egg salad sandwich, so you might like to add a little turmeric for a pleasing yellow color.

This on some good toasted bread or a bun with lettuce and maybe a pickle and mustard makes an easy light supper or lunch. You could also serve it with a green salad and noodle salad for a pleasant summer meal. Tomatoes could also be stuffed with it. It lasts several days in the refrigerator and travels well. Since it has no dairy or egg product in it, you don't have to worry about it turning on you in the course of a day.