Mango Butter, Mustard, & Champagne Glazed Tofu

Inspiration. It waxes & wanes. Sometimes I’m full of it, other times I struggle, searching high & low for it. Then sometimes it arrives when it’s least expected, & can lead to an exciting new discovery, or a scrumptious new recipe.

While my cooking skills have grown tremendously over the last few years, I am, not by any means a chef. I very rarely create a recipe from scratch, & while there are times that I can throw things together intuitively, I am still at a “follow the recipe” stage & rely on fellow bloggers & cookbooks for guidance. However, I am getting better at modifying recipes & giving them own my personal spin, & I’ve also been enjoying “veganizing” recipes - either favorites from the past or new discoveries. It can be as simple as omitting cheese or using a vegetable broth, or it can encourage a bit more culinary creativity. That, essentially, is how this was born. It all started with an email from Trader Joe’s advertising the new “fig butter” & a link to a recipe for Fig, Mustard, & Pear Champagne Glazed Chicken. The fig butter caught my eye immediately & just as I was about to disregard their suggested chicken recipe, I had a thought….what about swapping the chicken for tofu? Yes! A few days later I made the trek to TJ’s on a mission for fig butter, only to discover, sadly, that they were out of it, the warehouse was out of it, & I was out of luck. Plans foiled? Almost. There were two other butters lining the shelves, obviously overlooked by those pining for the fig butter. The mango butter called to me & I grabbed it.

MANGO, MUSTARD, & CHAMPAGNE GLAZED TOFU

Author: Melissa, Honey Bee Vegan

Recipe Type: Main Dish

Cuisine: Vegan

Serves: 4

INGREDIENTS

• 1 block of extra firm tofu

• ½ cup mango butter

• ½ cup whole grain Dijon mustard

• 1 cup champagne vinaigrette

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Press & drain tofu for at least 30 minutes, longer if you can. Once drained, cut tofu into ¼-inch thick slices.

2. Preheat the oven to 375°F. In a small mixing bowl, combine the mango butter, mustard, & vinaigrette. Place the tofu in a baking dish & spread 2/3 of the glaze mixture generously over the top side of the tofu. Roast for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, turn the tofu slices over & spread on the remaining glaze mixture. Continue roasting for another 20 minutes, until the tofu glaze is bubbly & golden brown on the outside, but still tender on the inside. Remove from oven.

While the tofu baked & an alluring aroma wafted through my kitchen, I thought about what to pair with it. I typically enjoy baked tofu over rice & steamed greens & decided to play it safe & go my usual route. I had a beautiful bunch of chard from my CSA, which I lightly steamed, then I thawed some frozen mango pieces (however, I’d use fresh in the future), & tossed those in with the greens.

Finally, it was time to retrieve the tofu from the oven, with a gorgeous bubbling glaze & sweet mustard aroma I had a feeling I’d stumbled upon something quite wonderful with this little culinary adventure. I plated the sliced tofu & mango-chard mixture over a rice medley, & topped it off with some micro greens for a bit of color & extra nutrients.

Wow, what a dish! The tofu was the perfect texture. The marinade, while more of a glaze than a liquid, didn’t penetrate the tofu, but there was so much flavor surrounding it that it didn’t matter. The bed of greens & rice made for a light, but filling, meal.