top of page
Writer's pictureAngela Hart

Veganuary - Easy Meat-free recipe for snacking, packed lunch or a meal

****January is Veganuary month****


If you're not already plant-based, can I tempt you into trying just one meat-free meal? You never know, you might like it! Perhaps it could become a once a week (or more) habit? If you don’t like the word vegan consider it plant-based, and unless you can afford grass-fed animal meat, consider it healthy.


Most of us like to think we love animals, unfortunately most of us are culpable in what, in hundreds of years’ time will be looked upon as the abomination that was factory farming. I don’t want to give you nightmares as to the utter cruelty of factory or intensive farming, but just consider the basics, mothers are separated from their young, these animals are traumatised and mourn as much as you or I would.


For those that are now huffing and puffing about being top of the food chain, consider this, unless you raise, kill and eat your own meat, you are dependent upon the shops opening tomorrow, that’s the extent to which you are top of the food chain!


Tofu, pronounced tow-foo, made from fermented soya beans, is a versatile food, especially the firm variety. If you can afford organic, for your health, that is the best to buy, as it is for any food stuff. Aldi sell a good range of plant-based foods, including some organics, as do most of the larger supermarkets. It stores in its sealed packet, in the fridge for several weeks.


One of the things I’ve found hard to give up is dairy. Having been a milk lover, after about a month on soya ‘milk’, I could no longer bear the taste of cow’s milk. Soya milk takes a bit of getting used to, stick with it for a week or two and you too may find you don’t want to go back. One thing that is hard to give up is cheese. Cheese is such a wonderful food, and hard to replace, and one of the last things that I am giving up. Nutritional Yeast is a savoury alternative, I sprinkle this on my salads and meals to replace cheese, and it’s doing a great job thus afar.


Here’s a quick recipe that I rely on to stop me snacking on sugary foods and it doubles up as a filler for my packed lunch of salad leaves, lentils, chick peas, tofu and a minute sprinkling of yeast and sea salt.



What you need to buy

For 4 Servings

  • A 450 (ish) gram pack of Firm tofu

  • A bunch of Spring Onions

  • A dash of olive oil

  • A blob of dairy-free ‘butter’ (I use Nuttelex pulse buttery)

  • A few dashes of Soy Sauce (I use Kikkoman’s less salt)

  • Add Sea Salt to taste, if it isn’t salty enough for you!

Utensils required

  • A knife

  • A wooden spoon or spatula

  • A 50cm deep frying pan

How to Prepare

  • Trim the Spring Onions and cut into 3cm lengths

  • Slice the tofu

    • First down the narrow edge, to create two slabs

    • Then along the long side to create 1.5cm wide strips

    • Then cut the strips into 1.5cm cubes

    • Easy Peasy!!!

How to cook

  • Heat the butter and olive oil in the frying pan

  • Add the Spring Onions to the frying pan,

    • Stir occasionally on a medium heat

    • Cook until caramelisation (turns a bit brown) starts

  • You may need to add some more ‘butter’ and/or olive oil, probably not though

  • Add the tofu to the frying pan with the spring onions

    • Stir occasionally on a medium to low heat

    • Cook until the tofu is evenly caramelised

  • With the onions and tofu still in the frying pan

    • Drizzle a good quantity of soy sauce over the food

    • Cook for 10 minutes on a low heat








How to eat

  • My preference is to eat it cold, it’s much tastier, but you can re-heat in other foods

    • Add to a salad

    • Snack on it

    • Re-heat in stir-fried vegetables and/or noodles

    • Re-heat with Chick Peas and Lentils

Or just use in the place of chicken


Once cooked, I store mine in the fridge for up to 3 days in a plastic container, without dying!



Cost

  • Pack of Tofu from Aldi (not organic) around $3.80 aussie dollars

  • Bunch of Spring Onions (not organic) around $2.50 aussie dollars

Tofu can be used in so many places, such as in curries and sliced up thinly and use in a fry-up instead of bacon, make sure you caramelise it for best taste, or buy some Tempeh (pronounced Tem-pay), which is similar, usually flavoured.


Enjoy your cruelty free meal, I pray you will love it or can at least tolerate it, to make it a regular thing, thank you from the animals ❤





59 views3 comments

Recent Posts

See All

3 Comments


Dave North
Dave North
Dec 19, 2021

I’ve found that it takes ages to brown tofu, unless you squeeze It like crazy (even the firm sort) on a tea-towel to dry it, and then fry it at about 100000 degrees centigrade.

Like
Dave North
Dave North
Dec 22, 2021
Replying to

I use olive oil. Takes about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to get brown all over.

Like
bottom of page