Monday, July 6, 2009

Basil Oven Roasted Tomatoes on a Tofu Wrap

Roma tomatoes before roasting

This is my "I'm sorry, let me bust out the most awesome meal ever" lunch wrap. I got short with Andrew on Friday and I felt bad, so while he was napping I tried to think of the most deliciously decadent wrap ever. This wrap is loaded with great stuff - a basil cream, roasted roma tomatoes, sauteed baby bellas, red onions, and cornmeal fried tofu. The result is a sweet and savory combination of flavors with a hint of garlic and basil.

If you've never roasted tomatoes at home, you should definitely try it. Your house will smell like garlic-y, basil-y goodness. They're also one of the simplest ways to make something instantly beautiful and fancy looking.

[[Basil Roasted Roma Tomatoes]]
This is enough for 2 wraps. You can also serve these as an appetizer. If you wanted to get crazy, when they're done roasting, grate some Follow Your Heart Mozzarella and leave under a low broiler for about 2 minutes.

one roma tomato
, in 5 slices
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs dried basil
2-3 gloves of garlic, minced or pressed
a dash of salt

-- Preheat the oven to 300 F
-- Slice roma into 4-5 thin slices and place on a baking sheet
-- Coat each slice with olive oil, front and back
-- Season with garlic, basil, and salt
-- Roast in oven for about 15-20 minutes. They should look slightly withered and be sizzling.

Roma tomatoes after roasting on top of cornmeal tofu. See, doesn't it look fancy?

[[Crispy Cornmeal Tofu]]
This also serves 2 people. I've been using chickpea flour a lot lately when I batter and fry things. I have to say, it works amazingly well. Before, I would just dip it in the bread crumbs or whatever I was breading with and it would fall apart in the pan and burn. Even white flour and water mixtures didn't seem to work well. This is by far my best experience I've had with battering.

1/2 block of tofu
chickpea/water slurry
  • 2-3 tbs chickpea flour
  • 4-5 tbs water
cornmeal mixture
  • 1/3 cup cornmeal
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
  • 1 1/2 tbs cholula seasoning, or any Mexican spice medley
  • a dash or two of chili powder, garlic powder, and onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
vegetable oil for frying

-- Wrap tofu in a cheese cloth or in paper towels and place something heavy on top. Press for about an hour to remove excess moisture and to ensure a nice, firm texture. It will fry a lot better if you do this, but it's not necessary.
-- If you're making the whole wrap, start this while your tomatoes are roasting. Cut tofu into 2 inch rectangular cubes.
-- Create a batter station, with the chickpea flour slurry and cornmeal mixture. Heat the vegetable oil on medium high heat.
-- Dip tofu is slurry then cornmeal mixture, then fry on eat side about 1-2 minutes.


For the wrap, I just chopped some raw red onions and sauteed a handful of chopped mushrooms in olive oil. Then I mixed some tofutti sour cream with lemon juice, basil, and parsley to make an Italian-y cream sauce. I wrapped it all in a whole wheat tortilla. Add a little romaine lettuce for some texture contrast and it's perfect.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi! These recipes look really good!! Thanks for sharing.....I hope to do this for the next grill.
Peace, Stephanie

Unknown said...

Thanks! I appreciate that. :)