Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Pistachio Crusted Tofu

Remember Shake n' Bake? That glorious mix of bread crumbs and parmesean and god-knows-what-else-but-it-was-tasty? Yeah, I miss it sometimes. Who knows, maybe there's a by-accident vegan Shake n' Bake out there, but it wouldn't be right without the chicken. Do I miss chicken? No. I just miss the baked crusty deliciousness of what's put on chicken sometimes.

Thank God there's Susan and her blog. If I hadn't stupidly deleted all my original posts on here, you'd realize that I got into blogging (in part) because of her and her recipes. She definitely helped me go vegan. The Pistachio Crusted Tofu is her recipe and it's damn tasty. It's Shake n' Bake meets tofu. It's everything I crave of the good ol' midwestern meat and potatoes that I grew up on. I can't stop raving about it. Plus it was so so so easy. I tweaked the sweet and sour dipping sauce a bit, but other than that, all the praise goes out to Susan.

Pistachio Crusted Tofu (a la SusanV)

14 ounces tofu
2 tablespoons soy sauce, low sodium


1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs

1/2 cup pistachio nuts
ground pepper -- to taste
2 tablespoons spicy mustard
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce, low sodium
1 tablespoon tofu mayonnaise

Preheat oven to 400F; prepare a baking sheet by either oiling it lightly.

Cut the tofu into 8 1/2-inch slices and dry them lightly with paper towels. Brush both sides of the tofu with the 2 tablespoons soy sauce and set aside to marinate for at least 10 minutes.

While the tofu is marinating, measure out 1 cup of crumbs into a wide, shallow bowl. Pulse the pistachios in a food processor until they are reduced to fine crumbs. Add them to the bread crumbs along with a generous grating of black pepper, and mix well.

In another shallow bowl, combine the mustard, syrup, soy sauce, and mayo.

Dip a slice of tofu into the mustard mixture, lightly coating all sides; then place it into the bread crumbs, sprinkle crumbs over the top and sides, and lightly press them into the tofu. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with all slices of tofu.

Put the tofu into the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until bread crumbs are golden brown.

Serve with the sauce of your choice, such as the Easy Sweet and Sour Sauce below.

Sweet and Sour Sauce (riffed from SusanV)

3 tablespoons apple butter
1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce, low sodium
1/2 teaspoon chili paste


Mix all ingredients together well. Serve over tofu.

5 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Haha, oh Shake n' Bake - one of those infamous products ;0)

The pistachio crust is so innovative; and the sweet & sour sauce is definitely delicious!

Anonymous said...

I grew up in a Shake n' Bake household! "It's Shake n' Bake and I helped!"

I can't believe I haven't made this recipe yet. I love pistachio's and the sweet and sour sauce sounds lovely.

I'm glad you posted the recipe; I'm going to be making this very, very soon! (Susan really has such amazing recipes that truly turn out beautiful for everyone, which I enjoy).

Shellyfish said...

I also am a huge fan of SusanV's blog! She has such great recipes & ideas! I'd been thinking about making this but now I am sure I'll be making it soon!

tanita✿davis said...

Oh, WOW. Y'know, I do weird things with tofu regularly, but I can't say that I had even ***THOUGHT*** of this.

Oooh. Thank you so.

David T. Macknet said...

TadMack lies - she would have thought of this - and she'd have done it out of her Vegan Lunch Box book, or from Schmooed Food. Not exactly the same, no ... but pretty close, no?