Bulgur!!!

Last night, I began preparing a marinated tofu recipe I got from VegWeb and cooked it tonight. The author of the recipe recommended serving with rice, but that sounded blah. So I went to my cookbooks and found a recipe in Robin Robertson's The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook for a Bulgur Pilaf. Grains and fruit and veggies--mmm. Well, it does depend on the grain. I wouldn't serve barley with fruit, but with rich, hearty vegetables, especially mushrooms. Although I didn't have all the ingredients--and might I add that recipes that only list salt and pepper as seasonings drive me crazy, and I will absolutely improvise there--I did my usual improvisation, and not only was it pretty, it was yummy! Instead of salt and pepper, I dashed in some powdered ginger and coriander. I also steamed some carrots and drizzled them with a mixture of flax oil and lemon juice and sprinkled on some dried rosemary. I'm trying to create a recipe, and I've almost got it.

Now, it's rare for me to follow a recipe exactly as it was written. Even when I bake, I'm either changing the nuts from, say, pecans to walnuts, or not bothering to measure the chocolate chips all that carefully. If I don't have orange juice, I'll use Naked Food Juice Power-C, an orange juice mix. Last night, I didn't have the apple juice the recipe called for, so I used pomegranate juice. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't; you live, you learn.

The food was quite tasty, but the tofu was not all that photogenic. Plus, I've gotten a new computer, and I have to transfer stuff from my old computer to my new one (can't find the CD-ROM with the software, dammit) before I can post photos. Once I get my everything set up better, I'll try to dazzle with pictures of yummy food.

I am always on the hunt for fabulous tofu and tempeh main dish recipes, so if you have any ideas, send 'em along.