Vegetable Love

Lime and Coriander Rice with Tofu Hearts
Susan at FatFreeVegan.com has set a challenge to come up with a Valentine’s Day meal using vegetables as opposed to lots of chocolate and fatty things. My meal is something that I make fairly frequently and I love it because the flavours are so fresh and vibrant. The only added fat is 2 teaspoons of olive oil in the salad dressing and spray cooking oil for frying. Usually I just cut the tofu into cubes and stir them through the rice, but nothing says I love you more than a heart shaped piece of tofu! And I heart tofu, so I knew I would heart tofu hearts..!!
I served it alongside a salad of tomatoes and peppers with a little cayenne pepper kick!
This is a great meal for Valentine’s Day because most of it can be prepared in advance, giving you more time to spend with your loved one.

To make this you will need a cutesy little heart shaped cookie cutter like the one pictured. I got mine in Target. Tofu is really easy to cut with the cookie cutter; peppers and other crunchy things are a little harder.

After “heartifying” the tofu and peppers I was eager to “heartify” all food in the house! How can anything taste bad if it’s cut into a heart shape? So I cast my eye around the kitchen for other things I could transform in to little hearts, and well... it worked pretty good with mangoes, not so well with papayas (too squidgy) and not too bad with apples...

...until I heard a crack! And that was the end of my little cookie cutter. The fun was over...
My heart was broken... boohoo :(

The fruit hearts can be served with ice cream or other dessert, but we just ate them on their own. I was so keen to eat them, I didn’t take a good photo before we served them! And I know they don’t really qualify for the challenge, but I had to post about them anyway!

Here’s the recipes:

Lime and Coriander Rice (2 servings)

Ingredients
½ cup brown rice
1 cup vegetable stock
8 oz tofu
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce/tamari
½ onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 cup frozen peas, defrosted
1 cup chopped, cooked, broccoli
2 limes, 1 cut into wedges, the other 1 juiced and zested
2 tbsp fresh coriander (cilantro), finely chopped
spray vegetable oil

Directions

1 Cut the tofu into four even slices. Then cut out 8 hearts (two from each slice) using the heart cookie cutter.
2 Mix together soy sauce/tamari and apple cider vinegar in bowl. Pour mixture over tofu hearts in a shallow dish and let marinade for at least one hour.
3 Put rice and vegetable stock in to a pot. Bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer for about 35 minutes, until cooked.
4 Heat a frying pan over a medium high heat and cover with spray oil. Cook tofu hearts until golden brown, about 2 minutes on each side.
5 Heat a large pan over medium heat and cover with spray oil. Add onion and cook for about 5 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook a further minute.
6 Add cooked rice, broccoli and peas to onions and stir until heated through. You may want to add a little water to the pan to stop rice sticking.
7 Add coriander, lime juice and zest to pan and stir through.
8 Serve immediately decorated with tofu hearts, lime wedges and a sprinkling of coriander.

Note – I used to just use soy sauce/tamari on the tofu before cooking, but after making a stir fry from Vive Le Vegan! that used tamari and apple cider vinegar I always use them both as it tastes so good!


Tomato and Pepper Salad (2 servings)

Ingredients

2 peppers
12 cherry tomatoes
2 tsps lime juice
2 tsps olive oil
½ tsp lime zest
2 tbsps chopped coriander
Pinch cumin
Pinch cayenne pepper
1 tbsp red onion, diced
Pinch salt

Directions

1 Remove stalk and seeds from peppers. Cut a small strip from the top and bottom to allow you to flatten the pepper out against the chopping board a little easier. Cut out hearts using cookie cutter. You need to press down pretty hard to cut through the skin. I got 6 or 7 hearts from each pepper.
2 Cut cherry tomatoes in half.
3 Place all ingredients except peppers and tomatoes in medium bowl and mix well. Add peppers and tomatoes to bowl and mix through. Cover and refrigerate for an hour. Bring back to room temperature before serving.

Fruit Hearts (2 servings)

Ingredients

1 mango
1 papaya
1 apple
2 tsps lime juice
1 tsp sugar
2 tsps water

Directions

1 Slice mangos, papayas and apples and cut in to heart shapes using cookie cutter.
2 Combine everything in a medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate for an hour. Bring back to room temperature before serving.