Tonight’s dinner was leftover Mexican style tabbouleh salad from the other night topped with grilled tofu “steaks” and grilled veggies.  I’ve made the grilled tofu and veggies before, but this time I changed it up by using a different marinade, which was so awesome!

Lemon Garlic Marinade

2 cloves garlic, chopped

juice and zest of 3 lemons

1/4 cup olive oil

1 TB Worcestershire sauce

1 TB grill seasoning

1/4 tsp salt

A few twists of freshly group black pepper

First, a note about the Worcestershire sauce:  I am still using up a bottle that I have had in my fridge for years.  I know that vegan varieties exist, but I feel like I should use this up before buying a new one.  Now, back to the marinade.  Mix everything together in a baking dish and throw in your favorite veggies.  Tonight, we had zucchini, onions and a summer squash, which were all chopped pretty thick.  I grill mine on an indoor grill and have to do everything in several batches, so I move the done ones into a 250 degree oven to keep warm while I grill another batch.  Cutting the veggies thick (squash especially) keeps them from getting overdone when they are keeping warm in the oven.

I also don’t marinate my tofu because I don’t want it to stick to the grill or the marinade to burn before the tofu is cooked.  I find that it works best if I grill it plain and drizzle the marinade over it after it is done cooking.  Because of this, it’s a good idea to grill the tofu (and anything else left un-marinated) first, and all marinated items second.

Dessert was the last of our white peaches from Amy, which I grilled and drizzled with a vanilla lemon creme.  Oh… my… GOD!  These were insane.  I can’t even express with words how good they were.  Scrub up your peaches (or any other stone fruit) but leave the skin on.  Cut them in half and remove the pit.  Grill on a hot grill for several minutes.  Remove and let cool.  I wanted to drizzle them with something sort of like a whipped cream and came up with the idea for this vanilla lemon creme which was SOOOOOOO delicious:

Vanilla Lemon Creme

2 TB Tofutti BTSC

1/4 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 TB powdered sugar

1-2 TB non-dairy milk, either plain or vanilla

Whisk together all the ingredients except for the non-dairy milk.  Add in enough non-dairy milk until you reach the desired consistency.

The other night, I ended up making the teriyaki quinoa recipe from ED&BV.  We had some leftover, so I decided to grill up some veggies and tofu to go with it.

Veggie Marinade

1 TB dijon mustard

1 TB toasted sesame oil

2 TB rice wine vinegar

1 TB grill seasoning

1/4 cup olive oil

3 cloves garlic, smashed

1 inch piece of ginger, cut into chunks

Combine all ingredients in a large baking dish and throw in your favorite veggies.  Marinate for as long as you can.  I was only able to marinate for about an hour, but they were still really good.  If using an indoor grill, be sure to remove the battery from your smoke detector before firing it up! 

Amy was so thoughtful to bring us a bunch of fruit from her travels and I decided to grill up the pineapple she brought us for a little sweetness.  I did not marinate the pineapple, nor did I marinate the tofu (didn’t want it to stick to the grill), but I did brush some of the marinate onto the tofu once it was done grilling.  We didn’t have a huge selection of vegetables in the fridge, so I ended up using some red and green bell peppers, a yellow onion, green onions, and a summer squash that Amy brought us.

This will definitely be added to our list of regulars.  I’ll have to remember next time to open up all the windows and turn on the fan before beginning to grill everything.  It gave the tofu a really yummy smoky taste and almost meaty texture that even non-tofu eaters may enjoy.  I was less excited about the quinoa.  It was just OK– nothing special.