Crispy Tahini Tofu

The tahini sauce that gets added during cooking only gives a subtle sesame flavor to the dish, but as the moisture cooks out, it gives the tofu a crisp, buttery crust. This recipe also works well with tempeh.

Cube ¾ of a container of extra firm tofu or an entire package of tempeh. If using the tempeh, marinate the cubes in 1 cup vegetable broth combined with 1 tsp dried ginger and 1-2 tbsp bragg's aminos (using more or less to taste; halve this amount if using higher-sodium tamari) for at least two hours or up to two days. If using the tofu, you can optionally freeze and thaw the cubes in advance to give them a chewier texture.

To prepare the tahini sauce, whisk together the following ingredients and allow to sit at least 10 minutes:

6 tbsp vegetable broth (¼ cup + 2 tbsp)
4 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp bragg's aminos
1 tbsp cane sugar
½ tbsp finely minced ginger
1 clove garlic, finely minced
red pepper flakes to taste

For the tofu, add to a dry pan over medium heat and cook for five minutes to remove some of the excess water, flipping occasionally and adding 1-2 tbsp of bragg's aminos and ½ tsp dried ginger as it cooks. Add 1 tbsp of peanut or canola oil and cook until golden on each side. For the tempeh, steam in a covered pan along with the soaking liquid until absorbed, sprinkling on ¼ tsp cane sugar as it cooks, then remove lid and add oil to pan and brown on each side. Add tahini sauce to the pan to coat tofu or tempeh evenly, constantly flipping the pieces to ensure that they don't stick together. Cook until the sauce has formed a light crust on the tofu or tempeh. Serve immediately with rice or as a sandwich in a nice, crispy gluten-free roll (those things exist, right?).

Gluten-Free Tahinopita

I go through these weird fits a few times a year where I want nothing more than fresh garlic hummus with heaps of basil, so we usually get stuck with large tins of tahini in our fridge just waiting to go bad. Usually I'll just use some of it to make crispy tofu, but we had so much of it this time, I just really wanted something that would use the lot of it (like the tahinopita recipe I somehow remembered seeing on the vegan lunch box blog a few years back).

A few notable alterations - I went with a mix of equal parts sorghum flour, sweet rice flour, tapioca flour, and potato starch, which I like as a basic cake mix. I decreased the amount of flour a tiny bit, just to get a little more moistness in the cake, and to make the flour mix that much simpler to whip up. I used a touch less raisins than the original recipe, threw in the suggested walnuts, and since I ended up just shy of having the requisite 3/4 cup of tahini - I had just about 2/3 cup - I whisked in a little peanut butter to compensate.

½ cup sorghum flour
½ cup sweet brown rice flour
½ cup tapioca flour
½ cup potato starch
1 ½ tsp xanthan gum
3 ¼ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp sea salt
¾ tsp cinnamon
¾ cup tahini
¾ cup orange juice
½ cup sugar
½ cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Sift together the flour mix, baking powder, gum, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Whisk together the tahini and orange juice, adding the juice slowly as you whisk, until incorporated. Add the sugar to the wet mix and beat with an electric mixer for several minutes, until smooth and lighter in color. Add the dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated, then add the raisins and walnuts to the resulting dough. Press the dough into a greased cake pan and 350 for ~35 minutes.

I knew going into this that having a dough rather than a batter would probably give me a somewhat crumbly cake, but it ended up holding together surprisingly well and wasn't dry. Like the original recipe says, this really does give you something that tastes like a huge raisin cookie, and the slightly crumbly texture I ended up with actually adds to that. The flavor is spot on, too.

On my second pass I might add a little almond or hazelnut milk to see what I get from something more batter-like than dough-like, and maybe ramp up the original cooking temp to 375 and adjust the cooking time. If you really wanted to cut the crumble, leaving out the sorghum flour and using equal parts of the other three would also help with that (but I'm a sucker for having at least half my flour mix be something other than a starch).