Feta Style Tofu Cheese (you might even be surprised!)

[solconnection]

I know tofu isn't a very popular option around these parts (as evident by a forum search for the ingredient) and there seems to be a bit of snobbery from purists in using it as an alternative  . May this come in useful if you ever want to try something new, or need to cater for vegans, dieters, or people with a cheese allergy. It is delicious wether you normally eat cheese or not (i actually prefer it to any of the firm feta's for use on pizza..but it is no substitute for the soft smooth danish feta)

My wife is vegan and hasn't been getting enough out of the pizzas i have been making without cheese (i am vegetarian but that doesn't get in the way of enjoying neopolitan style pizza as I can still have the mozz/parma). I had a search on the net but couldn't find any good info for what I wanted to do so i just made up a recipe. It's so easy you could do it with your eyes closed.

ingredients:
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firm tofu, cut in to small cubes, maybe 1/2 cm squared
garlic powder (while i would normally suggest fresh garlic, powder was the winner here)
onion powder (same as the garlic)
cracked black pepper
sea salt flakes (crushed)
extra virgin olive oil
dried thyme

method:
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chop up the tofu and put it in a bowl, add the dry ingredients to the tofu to your desired taste (careful on the garlic/onion powder...just start lightly sprinkling it on until it tastes ok, make sure you get the saltiness to your taste), add a splash of extra vigin olive oil to coat it all and then fry in a pan for 5 mins on med/high. 'cheese' is ready when you can pick a piece out of the pan and it tastes really good (not like tofu), you dont need to wait until it turns golden brown as the oven should take care of that later.

this is really good stuff, i found myself jealous of my wife's pizza even though i had one covered in quality fresh mozz, it just had a great taste and was something different and interesting to put on the pizza. It didn't taste like tofu at all. I have tried some other vegan cheese reipes in the past (some involving cashews or nutritional yeast) and they have sucked badly

hope someone finds this useful, if anyone wants exact measurements let me know, but it's easily done by feel and pretty hard to stuff up.

one more thought, you could try marinating tofu cubes in a herbed feta style extra virgin ready to use when you need it...that would probably work too.

cheers
-Dan
ps. will post a pic soon.

[Pizza_Not_War]

I was a fairly strict vegan/veggie guy for about 6 years and ate a lot of Tofu. Fried crispy, baked, curried, etc. Still use it in Udon soups or similar dishes. You might also want to try frying it up with curry powder and making an Indian style pizza that is made at several San Francisco based restaurants.


Someday I might try your method but I won't call it cheese !  LOL and don't call me a anti-tofu bashing snob!

PNW

[solconnection]

Someday I might try your method but I won't call it cheese !  LOL and don't call me a anti-tofu bashing snob!

hehe, point taken you can call them moon cubes if you like

i get called a snob all the time for bashing vegan alternatives but it's usually because i am one they are usually quite good in their own right, even if not an exact imitation of whatever they are trying to replicate.

have a nice day
-Dan