I’d be more of an advocate for beans if they didn’t make me fart up a storm (and bean-o, the only real cure, is expensive). They ARE really really good for you, and cheap to boot. But sometimes my poor butt just isn’t up to it. However, you can minimize the gas pangs by soaking them overnight and then discarding the beany water (along with most of the flavor :(, unfortunately) Also, make sure to chew every single bite a LOT. This definately does help.
When you make spaghetti, I DEMAND that you try this at least once: right after you drain the water (please don’t add oil to the water or the spaghetti just yet either: most oils keep the sauce from sticking to the pasta), get a plastic bowl ready. Smear a pad of butter (or, just use the stick to paint it on) around the inner surface. Dump in the pasta, and then toss the pasta in one or two cloves of very finely minced garlic (uncooked) and perhaps more butter. You can skip the butter entirely if you aren’t looking for it. The smell of the hot pasta hitting that garlic is… nice. And a little fresh (uncooked) garlic is fantastic in pasta: gives it a tiny tiny kick.
Also, it can’t hurt to, after cooking the onions and garlic and so on, add a little wine and “deglaze” (scrape the pan bottom while the wine cooks away) just before adding the red sauce ingredients. Really adds some sophisticated depth. But then, it has to be a drinkable wine, and that’s not exactly inexpensive.
Tofu (Firm or extra firm tofu, mind you) is really great as a red meat replacement in a pasta, and it’s definately the cheapest protein source, pound for pound around, but there are some modifications you should definately try making to give it a good taste and texture.
Draining: the fastest, easiet way to drain tofu is obviously to squeeze it out over the sink, usually in its package. But I like doing it this way: wrap the tofu in lots of paper towels, then place a baking pan on top (and below if you’re worried about the liquid going everywhere). Gradually balance a few heavy cans on the top pan, squishing the tofu slowly over the course of ten minutes or so. You get nicely dried out tofu without too much nasty breakage.
Technique one: drain it, dry it, wrap it up tightly in saran wrap, and freeze it at least overnight (a week is great). This expands the “bubbles” inside making it much more pourous and structured. It will not only have more texture oomph this way, but it will suck up flavors even faster than normal. The only downside is that you have to spend time defrosting and draining it before use (though a microwave and some paper towels can speed that process considerably), unless you’re okay with all the extra tofu water (which is sort of bland and… tofuy)
Technique two (these can all be combined, by the way, or not): marinate. A little mix of equal parts soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and crushed garlic is the easiest way to go (but very little, especially with the frozen stuff: it gets salty really fast!), but tofu really deserves some flavor. You can find tofu marinades out there everywhere you look, though for a red sauce pasta you want to pick something that matches (the sauce itself isn’t so bad, though often a little bland). Tofu, especially the frozen kind, can soak up a marinade pretty fast: you can even go with as few as ten minutes soaking in the fridge. If you miss meaty flavors, you can definately find marinades that add this to the tofu (those that include liquid smoke can get you that “darkngrilled” taste back). You shouldn’t try to replicate the exact meat flavors you want: you should just try to add meat-like notes and deep “mouth feel” to the tofu.
Technique three (goes really well with the marinade: bake the tofu cubes in a cooking sprayed pan at a preheated 400. Ten minutes, flip them over with a spatula, and then six minutes. You may need to play with the times some for your particular oven, because I find ovens range wildly, especially with something like tofu, and you may want to use higher temps to get it over with faster. The outcome of this baking treatment is much chewier and meatier, and if you marinaded, it keeps it from being too watery and intensifies the flavor.
All three techniques sound like a lot of time and work, but if you prepare, it really isn’t much extra time at all. You can freeze lots and lots of tofu at once, and as long as you’ve wrapped well, you can go for a month without yucky freezerburn. You can defrost and marinade while you’re chopping veggies (yellow and green squash, are, as was noted before, fantastic in pasta (though they shine best in non-red sauces), especially if you brown them in the saute pan with a little black pepper and salt) and bake while you’re sauteing the garlic and onions and building your sauce. If you’ve pre-cooked the tofu, you don’t need to add it until after you’ve made the sauce (just be sure to let is soak up some of that sauce by simmering and stirring). If not, add it as soon as the onions go soft.
The end result of all this are satisfyingly chewy chunks with a much better flavor (I LIKE plain tofu flavor, but most people don’t, and it is much better when most of that flavor is washed out, and others modify it) that really enhance the pasta as a dish, and can definately replace meats.
Various methods of deep-frying tofu is great too, but really goes better with stir fry dishes.
Finally, here’s my little tofu gem. This stuff is an amazing vegan replacement for cheese, especially in roasted veggie crepes. It doesn’t melt and isn’t supposed to: it’s juicy and squishy.
Ingredients:
1 pound Firm Tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes
3 TBsps Olive oil
2 TBsps Lemon Juice, Fresh
1 Garlic clove, minced
2 tsps Mellow barley miso
~ 1 pinch of Black Pepper
1 TBsp Tarragon, fresh chopped is best
1 tsp Fresh Chives, chopped
Equipment: simmering pot, paper towels, small bowl, fork, baking dish
Preparation
- Preheat oven 350.
- Gently cook tofu in pot of simmering lightly salted water for 5 min.
- Remove and drain on paper towels and pat dry.
- In small bowl add oil, lemon juice, miso, garlic 1/2 tsp salt, pepper to taste and wisk to combine.
- Pour over tofu in bowl.
- Use fork to mash flavorings into tofu until liquid absorbed and curds formed.
- Stir in fresh herbs.
- Place tofu in baking dish and bake 20 min. until tofu starts to brown.
Oh that’s good stuff! (and cheap! and high protien!)