Meatless Monday.

Yesterday's Meatless Monday dish was full of excitement and experimentation. Why was I so excited? Because I won a special, special jar of peanut butter from my favorite folks at Peanut Butter & Co.!



Why was it so special? Because The Heat Is On is the only PB&Co. flavor that I can't seem to find in local stores. The spicy nuttiness demanded a kitchen experiment:



(crappy camera phone shot)

Tofu & Veggie Stir-Fry with Quinoa and Spicy Peanut Sauce.

For the Stir-Fry:

• 1 block firm tofu
• Broccoli
• carrots
• oyster mushrooms
• minced garlic

For the tofu: Marinated in soy sauce, a bit of teriyaki and garlic powder. Drizzled with canola oil and then baked at 400˚F for about 40 minutes, flipping about halfway through.

I sauteéd the veggies together with the garlic, canola oil, some salt & pepper and a bit of soy sauce.

For the sauce:

• About 2 or 3 green onions, chopped
• 3 tbsp. The Heat Is On peanut butter
• about 2 tsp. rice wine vinegar
• about 2 tbsp. water
• 1 tsp. minced ginger
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• about 2 tbsp. pineapple tidbits w/ juice (I would have definitely used more pineapple, but I was finishing off what we had left in the fridge.)
• 2 tsp. honey

I whisked all of the sauce ingredients together. Added it to the veggies, threw in the baked tofu and stirred until evenly coated. Serve over quinoa (or rice) and you're all set!

This meal yielded 4 servings and was super-filling. I sampled the sauce before adding it to the stir-fry and had mixed feelings, but after tasting it with the the quinoa, tofu & veggies, it really came together quite well. And even though it took longer to bake, I was really pleased with how the tofu turned out; I liked the drier texture and it seemed to hold the flavors from the marinade a lot better.

I LOVE this flavor of PB. It's plenty spicy on its own, so I didn't need to add any other heat to the sauce. It's also pretty good with carrots, celery and even bananas! There's no sweetness in this particular variety, so it lends itself to both savory and sweet/spicy applications.