Week 17 - Soy

Other than tofu tacos, almost every preparation of tofu I've ever had has been in an Asian style. When looking through recipes for Week 17, the week which would focus on soy, I found this recipe for baked tofu with white wine, mustard and dill. I was intrigued. A Mediterranean/French take on tofu? There was no reason why tofu couldn't be done with this flavor profile. But it occurred to me at the time that I just never had tofu in this way. What better time to try it than soy week?

This recipe was really simple and required very few ingredients.

- 1/2 red onion ($0.44)

- 3 tbsp olive oil ($0.45)

- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar ($0.24)

- 2 tbsp white wine ($0.25)

- 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill ($0.50)

- 1 tbsp whole grain mustard ($0.07)

- 2 tsp honey ($0.10)

- 1 tsp salt ($0.05)

- 15 oz package of firm tofu, drained ($0.99)

As I said above, the recipe was really simple. It was also a pretty inexpensive meal, coming in at $3.09 for the tofu and maybe $2 for the brown rice we ate it with. Very affordable for dinner for 2.

We didn't really make many adaptations to the process either. 

1. Cut the tofu into slices about 1/2 inch thick. Mix together all the other ingredients in a bowl.

2. Put tofu in a baking dish and cover with the marinade.

3. Bake 45-50 minutes (until marinade is no longer liquid and onions are crisp) at 350 degrees.

Doesn't get easier or more hands-off than that. I love baking things in the oven.

As soon as we popped the baking dish into the oven, the whole apartment started to smell really good. This was a great combination of flavors and it was so easy. This would be a healthy, convenient, simple weekday meal. I could definitely see this becoming a go-to dish. Even the prep was relatively quick.

One of our favorite parts of the dish were the crisp onions that soaked up all of the flavors of the marinade. They were delicious. The only things that we might do to improve it are to add a touch more salt (although it should be mentioned that I didn't actually measure out a teaspoon of salt for the marinade and just guessed at it) and maybe more dill. We ate it over brown rice and it was a wonderful dinner! Highly recommended.