Healthy and delicious Fried Rice

We tried this recipe a while ago and it is so good that I have made it a few times ever since. I am not a fan of this type of dish when bought at restaurants and such as I usually find it very salty and heavy in the soy sauce department. But this recipe was a great surprise and I enjoyed a whole lot!
Matheus and I liked it just as it is, full of vegetable and tofu (more veggies than rice: great!), and even the husband ate his share but had his with sauteed shrimp!
Besides being very tasty, this dish is also very versatile as you can easily vary the vegetables accordingly to what you have at home, or swap the tofu for your favorite protein (chicken, shrimp), and still have a nice balanced meal!
I really liked the tofu and the edamame with all the veggies, oh and the egg bits throughout the rice were delicious too. The seasonings were simple and the flavors of the garlic, green onions and ginger were nicely balanced.
All in all a winner that will be made again when the cravings for fried rice strike - or when pressed for time, as it was also quick to make!
Enjoy!
Ana

Fried Rice with Scallions, Edamame and Tofu
(Recipe from Ellie Krieger)

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon canola oil, divided
2 large cloves garlic, minced
4 scallions, greens included, rinsed, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
4 cups leftover cooked brown rice
3/4 cup finely diced red pepper
3/4 cup cooked, shelled edamame
1/2 cup fresh or frozen, thawed, corn
6 ounces firm tofu, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
2 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok or large skillet until very hot. Add the garlic, scallions and ginger and cook, stirring, until softened and aromatic, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the rice, red pepper, edamame, corn and tofu and cook, stirring, until heated through, about 5 minutes. Make a 3-inch well in the center of the rice mixture. Add 1 teaspoon of canola oil, then add the eggs and cook until nearly fully scrambled. Stir the eggs into the rice mixture, then add soy sauce and incorporate thoroughly. Serve hot.
Yield: 4 servings

Two baked recipes

It is summer here, however, yesterday was one of those boring rainy days and we ended up staying home for most of the time (did a quick trip to the grocery store in between showers though!).
And you know, when you stay at home for too long you start to look for something to eat, right? Or, at least I am like that… and in my case I look for something to cook.
With lots of time to get our meal ready, I decided to get a couple recipes I wanted to make and give them a try. And since it wasn’t ultra hot I turned the oven on.
Zucchini Oven Chips were a delicious side dish, which both Matheus and I liked it a lot! In fact, Matheus liked it so much that he started to pile them in his plate, even before finishing eating his fare, when he saw they were almost gone. The “chips” were super tasty with the crumb coating, but didn’t actually turn out very crisp. Well, crisp or not they were really good and there were none to tell history. A nice change to the vegetable side dish, tasty and yummy, will be made again pretty soon with the abundance of cheap zucchini we can buy during the summer!
Baked Tofu Sticks were another of my recently experimentation with tofu. These were super simple and easy to make and quite tasty too! I liked the fact they were baked, since my previous success involved pan-frying them, which was not bad healthy wise, but did a lot of splattering around the stove.
My tip for these is to not cut them too thin, unless you want them to be really crispy/crunchy. Some of mine were thin and got over browned, ending up almost like french fries. Sounds good, I know, but I was actually aiming for a more “meatier” texture, like a slightly crispy crust with a chewier inside. Plus, I ended up over doing the seasoning and our sticks were a little salty, but all of this won’t happen next time, after all, as I said this was the first experimentation, so there is going to be a next time for sure!
We had the chips and the sticks with macaroni & cheese, and Matheus was in heaven! A fun meal and two more tested recipes, at the end it was not bad having a little rain after all!
Ana

Zucchini Oven Chips
1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fat-free milk
2 1/2 cups (1/4-inch-thick) slices zucchini (about 2 small)
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425°.
Combine first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Place milk in a shallow bowl. Dip zucchini slices in milk, and dredge in breadcrumb mixture. Place coated slices on an ovenproof wire rack coated with cooking spray; place rack on a baking sheet. Bake at 425° for 30 minutes or until browned and crisp. Serve immediately. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: about 3/4 cup)
Cooking Light, August 2005.

Baked Tofu Sticks (adapted from Martha Stewart’s website)
Firm tofu
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut tofu into sticks, put sticks on a double layer of paper towels, cover with more paper towels (you can out something on top to make some weight at this point) and let stand until tofu has released extra liquids, 20 to one hour.
Preheat oven to 375F. Cover baking sheet with foil and brush it well with olive oil (don’t want the tofu to stick to it!). Arrange tofu sticks on baking pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Bake until both sides are crisp and golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes per side.

Super yummy salad!

This was one of the best “complete-meal-salad” dishes I have ever had! Deliciously nutty quinoa is paired with tomatoes, chickpeas, carrots, edamame, and a delicious basil-lemon dressing to complete the goodness! Even tofu was added to the mix, and I was so happy, because this was my most successful attempt to prepare tofu for savory dishes! Yessss! Now we are definitely going to have tofu more often, because Matheus and me really liked it! (The husband tried, said it was good, and when I said it was tofu he did not eat it anymore… men, hopeless, I know… sigh)
The basil-lemon dressing is one of the best salad dressings I have had in a while, I usually make a variety of vinaigrettes to go with our salads, using different kinds of vinegar and all, but this one is super simple and the flavor is just unbeatable, the best in my opinion and for sure is going to be made many and many more times at our home!
It is an amazing salad, complete with vegetables, carbs, and protein; a perfect one-dish meal for the hot summer days, I truly enjoyed it today and could not wait to come post it here!
The original recipe called for black beans, which are not my favorite, and since I loooove chickpeas I used it instead. I also subbed edamame for lima beans, not only because I didn’t have them, but also because I love edamame, and I guessed thee flavor would go well here - and it did!
I am posting bellow my adapted recipe, it was so successful as is that I don’t want to change a thing! And in case you would like to see the original recipe, take a peek at the Cooking Light website and it will be there for the black beans lovers too! Hehe!
By the way, if you are not a tofu fan I am pretty sure this would be just as tasty with some cooked chicken in its place - gotta try it that way too!
Ana

Quinoa and Chickpea Salad with Basil Lemon Dressing
3/4 cups uncooked quinoa
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
½ package (7-ounce) firm tofu, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 small garlic cloves, minced
½ cup cooked edamame
2 cups chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped carrot (I blanched mine)
1/2 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring quinoa and broth to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until broth is absorbed and quinoa is cooked. Remove from heat.
Place tofu on several layers of paper towels; cover with additional paper towels. Let stand 5 minutes. Heat 1-tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add tofu; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté tofu until lightly browned (about 8 minutes or so). Remove from heat and let cool.
In a small bowl mix 1/2-tablespoon olive oil, basil, lemon juice, mustard, and garlic. Stir in quinoa. Add the edamame, tofu, tomatoes, carrots, and chickpeas to quinoa mixture; stir to combine. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve.
Yield: 5 servings (serving size about 1cup)