lemon-soy tofu baked with mushrooms, capers and green olives 

Thursday, April 07, 2011 - Posted by urban vegan at 2:24 PM
Mediterranean flavors, minimal effort
Ding, dong the book is done. After 2 years of cooking-testing-writing, it felt liberating to finally cut the proverbial umbilical cord and watch the cookbook manuscript fly solo into cyberspace as I hit the "send" button. So, what do you think I did to celebrate? Indulge in happy hour cosmos? Go out to dinner? Buy myself some cool Lush stuff? Nope, I ....yawn!.... created another recipe. It's like a habit, at this point.

Lemon-Soy Tofu with Green Olives, Capers and Mushrooms
Salty olives and soy sauce. Sour lemons and capers.  Earthy mushrooms. This easy, Mediterranean-inspired dish features flavors for every palette and only takes about 20 minutes of hands-on time. I ate mine served on a bed of garlic-infused spinach, but I could also see serving it over a whole grain, like farro or kamut, cooked in veggie broth, or with a nice green mâche salad.

  • 1 T extra-virgin olive oil [I recommend Bertollu Fruttata]
  • Juice of 1 lemon, or about 3 T
  • 1 T soy sauce
  • 4 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 pound extra-firm tofu, drained and cut into 4 steaks
  • 10 ounces of cremini, shitake and/or button mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/2 cup Sicilian green olives, pitted and chopped
  • 2 heaping T capers, rinsed and chopped
  • Lots of fresh, ground black pepper
  • Salt, to taste

Serves 4

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Pour oil, lemon juice,  soy sauce and garlic into a 9 x 13 glass baking pan. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.
  3. Cut the tofu into 4 steaks. Rub them in the marinade, making sure to coat all sides. [If you're not in a hurry, you can let the steaks marinade in the 'fridge a few hours or overnight, turning occasionally, but this is not really necessary.] Remove the steaks then pour in the remaining ingredients and toss well, to ensure they are evenly coated.
  4. Tuck the tofu steaks under the mushrooms, and bake for 30-35 minutes, flipping steaks once halfway through. Mushrooms should be tender and juicy. Adjust seasonings and drizzle with more extra-virgin olive oil before serving, if desired.







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