Baked Tofu with Sauteed Kale and Spinch

Seems like I've been eating a lot of meat lately, and I've missed my tofu. Last night I tried a new tofu dish (inspired by a recipe from the September 2010 issue of Cooking Light) and made some spinach and kale to eat with it. I'm very happy to report that the tofu was delicious, some of the best tofu I've ever made! The consistency seemed like it was fried, but it was baked!

You will need:

Tofu Ingredients:

• 1 package extra firm light tofu
• 1 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tsp grated peeled fresh ginger (I didn't have fresh, so I used 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger)
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 garlic clove, grated

Spinach and Kale Ingredients:

• Few handfuls each spinach and kale, washed (kale torn into pieces)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/3 red onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Cooking Spray

Note: the total time of the tofu is a couple hours, but most of it is draining/marinating/cooking time, so you can do other things. Just don't try to start this at 6:15 and expect to eat at 6:30. Its certainly worth the wait though!

Directions:

1. Drain tofu and cut into 5 (1 inch thick) slices. Put tofu on layers of paper towels and cover with more paper towels. Top with a cutting board and heavy skillet. Let stand for 45 minutes, pressing down occasionally.

2. Cut each tofu slice into 10 cubes and arrange in a single layer in a shallow dish (a pie dish works great for this!)

3. Combine all other ingredients and pour over tofu in dish, turn to coat. Let stand for 25 minutes. I ended up letting this marinate for about 1 1/2 hours while I went to the gym (40 minutes on the elliptical and shoulders and legs strength training - just when my legs recovered from the squats I had to do them again!).

4. Arrange tofu in a single layer on a baking sheet coated in cooking spray. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes, turning after 15 minutes.

Before going in:

Halfway point:

Finished baking:

When there was about 15 minutes left on the cook time for the tofu I began preparing and sauteing the vegetables. First I heated a large skillet on medium and added about 1 teaspoon of olive oil. I sauteed the garlic clove for a couple minutes until browned, then added the onions and cooked for an additional couple minutes. Instead of adding more oil, I used some cooking spray when I added the onions.

I added the kale in before the spinach (since it takes a couple minutes longer to cook) and sauteed for 2 or 3 minutes. Kale should have a little bit of water left on it from rinsing it, this will help it cook.

Then add the spinach and saute until wilted (just about 2 or 3 minutes).

And in less than 10 minutes, your vegetables are ready!

Serve dinner with a frosty glass of skim milk, and I'm in heaven! Everything was so delicious, I am definitely going to bake tofu a lot more now that I know how to do it. Next time I'll buy fresh ginger instead of using ground because I think that would enhance the flavor.

For dessert I had a fig. These are my new obsession. I don't know if I ever had them before, but I bought some last week and love them. I've been harassing Chrissy about them (Have you ever had figs? They're so beautiful! Go get some today. Seriously, buy some today, you won't regret it) so she might be sick of hearing about them. But if you haven't had one before, you're seriously missing out. So far I've just had them plain, but I do want to try incorporating them into some of my cooking!