Using up This and That

With all the trips Bobby and I have been taking, we've eaten a lot of fruit, crackers, granola bars, and PB&J's on the road. Upon returning (briefly) to our homebase, there were lots of odds and ends to use up. This is the result of cleaning out the fridge...



A vegan sausage patty sandwich on onion poppy seed bread with spring mix, swiss chard, tomatoes, sliced beets/radishes, chopped green and red bell pepper, and a good slather of vegan mayo and spicy horseradish mustard. About half of those veggies were from our CSA. The sides are asparagus, and CSA green beans with walnuts sauteed in fresh garlic. Not too bad for a meal consisting of little bits and pieces and odds and ends.

Letting Someone Else Cook

I had been wanting Thai food for a while, and Bobby had asked around work for good suggestions. We were pointed in the direction of Bann Thai restaurant downtown. I am so glad we went, because we will definitely be going back.



Bobby and I shared a bowl of tom kha soup, with tofu instead of veggies- this was one of the options on the menu, not a special request. With the tofu it was vegan, how easy is that? If you've never had tom kha, it's a lemongrass flavored coconut milk soup with carrots, mushrooms, and usually chicken. My favorite place in Dallas makes it vegan, and then just adds in chicken at the end, so that's pretty friendly too :)



The main event, pineapple stir fried rice- I ate about 1/3 before I remembered to take a picture, it was that good. This was the best version of this dish I've ever had. I really love the smoky taste of fried rice, that's one flavor that can be lacking even in a vegetarian diet since it's usually accompanying grilled meat. This dish also had the option of 3 different kinds of meat or tofu, I would usually forgo the tofu but I tried it this time. It was filled with carrots, tomatoes, small bits of broccoli, toasted cashews, and juicy pineapple chunks, and would normally come with eggs but those were easily left out. All of this was flecked with basil and topped with cilantro and green onions. Bobby had a pineapple curry, and we were happy to discover that they didn't use fish paste in *any* of their curries or other dishes. We'll be back for more menu exploration I'm sure.

Thai food is a great eat-out option for vegans that doesn't make you feel like you've created a bunch of gaps in your meal with the absence of animal products. The main thing to look out for is the fish paste in the curries, and asking them to leave out the eggs on the stir fries. Even in Dallas, which is far from veg/vegan friendly, there was always an option for tofu in all of the stir fries and curries to sub for the meat. Plus, Thai food is just delicious, so it's always good to try and have some in your life.

Clapping over a Pot

Forgive me kittens. Even with a good camera and somewhat ok light, it is terribly difficult to take an attractive picture of a creamy pasta dish. This doesn't come close to capturing in photo form just how good this was. The sides are simple- asparagus pan fried in a smidge of olive oil, seasoned with only black pepper and a hint of salt. The potatoes were roasted in the oven with sage, rosemary, garlic, and olive oil. The pasta sauce was made up of 3 colors of bell peppers, zucchini, squash, red onions, beets, and leftover swiss chard all sauteed in fresh garlic, red onions, and olive oil. Then it simmered in a light covering of homemade tomato sauce. In the end it was all doused in the red pepper cashew cheese sauce I discovered a while back. This velvety veggie goodness was piled on top of tri-color pasta, and served with onion poppyseed bread.

If you're eating vegan and you miss that creamy, rich mouthfeel and taste of buttery pastas, I highly suggest playing around with the hundreds upon hundreds of variations of cashew cheese out there in the wide world. Yes, nuts are fatty and higher calorie, but so is a pile 'o cheese and butter. In the end, you don't use that many nuts- this had 1/4 of a cup of raw, unsalted cashew nuts in it, and it fed 4 adults with two meals left over. So, very low nut to person ratio. Plus, the fat in nuts is the kind of fat that would make your body happy, and it would give you a high five for it, but really you'd just be standing in your kitchen clapping over a pot, so maybe don't do that ;)

Don't worry if your first tries at cashew cheese fail, I tried two recipes before I just kind of made up my own based on two others I combined. Any Google search of "vegan cashew cheese" will happily return heaps of pages for you to sift through. One thing I've found out- most include lemon juice, in copious amounts. The lemon gives it a necessary tart element, but I generally like using about half of what they suggest. I usually just squeeze out one lemon and call it a day. Let me know if you try any cashew cheese recipes!

Peripheral Benefits of CSA Produce...

Seriously though, I'm so excited to make zucchini bread!

Camping Cooking

Vegan food at our mountaintop campground.


We all went up to Rocky Mountain National Park to camp while the girls were in, and we had a pretty nice breakfast feast. Bobby made some veggie sausage over the propane grill...

I ate some of that plus instant oatmeal, with trail mix stirred in, out of a stereotypical camping cup.


And we dropped $6 on vegan marshmallows so we could have s'mores! (my hat matches my pants by pure coincidence, I don't match very well in real life, much less camping life!)

Look at how gorgeous that is. Even at 8 a.m.

Super dark vegan chocolate rounds it out!

How To Scramble

I love scrambles for breakfast. You can chuck in a ton of good veggies- especially odds 'n ends that need to get used up-, get a big dose of protein, mix in some nutritional yeast for your daily allowance of B12, and the cherry on top is you can cover it all in salsa and eat it with biscuits. This particular scramble had yellow bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, red and yellow onions, baby bellas, and black beans. Biscuits are from scratch- unfortunately not wheat, I'm trying to use up the rest of my white flour- and the sausage is vegan. I feel like I'm leaving a veg out, but that's all I can remember.

If you want to try your hand at making a tofu scramble, the very most important thing is to get extra firm tofu, and be sure to press the hell out of it so everything stays crumbly instead of getting mushy. Another tip is to mix all of your spices together in a little bowl, so you can sprinkle it evenly since the tofu can suck up the spices so quickly. I use this recipe-

http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=110

but I never use the lime/lemon juice, never add the carrot, you can't taste/feel a difference if you leave out the nutritional yeast, I don't measure any of the veg/onion, and I adjust the level of spices depending on how much extra veg I add. If you add in spinach/greens- ah! SPINACH, that's what I was leaving out!- add it in once you've crumbled the tofu in so it will wilt but not get slimy/sloggy/nasty. I have to admit, I wasn't over the moon about tofu scrambles until I made them myself at home. I always had to have my eggs *very* hard scrambled, so this gave me control over the cooking time. Have fun experimenting :)

P.S.- This makes a LOT of scramble. Get some tortillas and use the leftovers to roll up breakfast burritos, wrap them up well, and freeze for quick breakfasts. Or, just use half the block of tofu and try your hand at baking the other for a separate meal.

Crumble

After our epic southern feast, we had to have dessert. That's just the way it's done. Bobby made this crumble for us. About 6 months ago we found the recipe on the back of a package of frozen rhubarb, when, while grocery shopping, we both decided since neither of us had ever eaten rhubarb we should give it a try. The original recipe called for the standard half 'barb/half strawberry mix, but we've used pretty much every fruit under the sun since then. This is a mixture of frozen blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries with some fresh blueberries thrown in to the mix. The topping is just equal parts flour to sugar, and then enough of a fat- sometimes we use oil, sometimes we use vegan butter- to make the dry mixture form crumbles. Mix about a tbsp each of sugar/flour in with the fruit, top with the crumble mixture, and bake. The time varies *wildly* depending on how much fruit you use, the ratio of frozen to fresh, and how deep the dish is. We usually just cover the bottom of a 9 inch square pan, that way things don't get too soggy. Serve with a good scoop of vanilla coconut milk ice cream!

Pot Pie for Katie and Anna

You guys have seen the pot pie before, and I don't need to remind you how much I love it. The first thing I said the first time I made it was "This is AMAZING" and the second thing was "I HAVE to make this when Katie comes up!". Katie and her friend Anna were here all last week as I mentioned, and I was *so* excited to make a nice Southern meal for all us Texas girls *and boy, hi Bobby!*


I served the pot pie with, from left to right, more of the white bean/spinach/sundried tomato dish; sauteed squash and zucchini from our CSA; red and golden beets, red, purple, and white turnips, and rainbow swiss chard from our CSA sauteed in red onions and garlic; mashed sweet potatoes. The pot pie was just as good the second time around and the sides gave a lot of variety to such a dense, hearty main dish. The girls loved it so I was a happy host :)

Coconut Banana Oat Cookies

Bobby and I had house guests all last week. They drove in last Monday- a 15 hour trip from Texas- and I fed them a mix of things I had in my fridge when they arrived late at night. Since we were all up and cookies don't take long to throw together and cook, I made these as they ate their dinner and we caught up. I still can't believe I'm not only making, but eating and enjoying, recipes with coconut in them. Seriously, as I've said before, getting organic, unsulphured, unsweetened dried shredded coconut to cook from has made all the difference. The stuff in the bags in the baking aisle, or whatever topped Sno-Balls or was stuffed into Almond Joy, almost ruined me for coconut forever.

These cookies had two mashed bananas, a cup of unsweetened shredded coconut, and a cup of oats, along with all the other standard cookie players like flour and oil and such. It was flavored with just a touch of cinnamon and vanilla, and I used brown sugar because I like the way it complements coconut. These cookies were awesome. I ate a good scoop of the batter and then had one fresh out of the oven. I think the sugar could have been completely omitted and they would have still been sweet from the bananas. It was a good start to a great week with friends.

Waffles and Rice

Whole wheat waffles topped with chia seeds, a big handful of raw trail mix- unsweetened coconut, dates, almonds, peanuts, raisins, sunflower seeds, walnuts- and a big drizzle of warmed up, organic, 100% maple syrup. After years of scoffing at its expense, I purchased some. I can definitely say it is both better than "pancake syrup" and is also worth the extra money.



The Caribbean rice, reincarnated as a breakfast rice pudding of sorts. Definitely fits in a bit better with waffles and mornings than it did as a dinner dish. I topped it with chopped, raw, unsalted walnuts and more chia seeds. With less sugar and the addition of the crunchy walnuts I liked it even more than I did the first time. Although I have to admit I only ate half of it thanks to filling up on waffles. Taking pictures of my food is so much better now that I stopped being lazy and learned the (absolute bare minimum basics) of Bobby's camera.

Dinner Part II- In Which I Take Sun Dried Tomatoes as a Mistress

During random minutes of downtime during the PotPie Making Process of 2010, I rounded up the ingredients for a side dish I found on Epicurious. While I love you guys, I have to confess that I didn't get out the bowls just for aesthetics of the picture- I usually like to put veggies in separate bowls so I can have a clear cutting board surface. I did, however, arrange them just so for the picture :) You're looking at sundried tomatoes, minced garlic, an onion, and white beans.


Everything save the beans gets all sauteed up in oil. I used the oil from the jar of tomatoes, since I used about half for the recipe. The only seasonings in the recipe are paprika, salt, and pepper, but the garlic, tomatoes, and olive oil are the real stars.


Add in a few good handfuls of baby spinach, put a lid on it and let it wilt, stirring occasionally to combine and aid in the wilting. I fiddled with all the measurements in this recipe, and I'm glad I did. It called for 20 oz of spinach, which is A LOT. I used about 10 oz and two cans of beans and it was a good ratio of spinach/beans to spices/oil/garlic. I would say it smelled like heaven, but I was putting this together as the potpie was coming into its own in the oven, and I have to say the potpie smelled like heaven. If heaven has a smell. I'm sure heaven has a smell. Let's just say it smells like awesome vegan pot pie. With beans and spinach in the background. Anyway, stop reading this pointless sentence and look below it...


Yes. Ma'am. This was so, so good. It was light and fresh tasting, which was the perfect complement to the dense creaminess of the potpie. I cannot wait for leftovers tomorrow. Or later tonight. Or as soon as I hit "Publish Post".

Dinner Part I- In Which I Decide to Marry a Potpie

Dinner tonight was epic. For the main dish, I made Cauliflower and Mushroom Potpie with Black Olive Crust from the old standby, "Veganomicon". Full disclosure- from start to finish, between this guy and the side I made, I was in the kitchen for 3 hours. BUT! Wait! Don't run off crying. Bear in mind this includes washing and cleaning and cutting and peeling loads of veggies, and you make a sauce and a biscuit crust from scratch. The point is, it is worth it. Worthitworthitworthit. Just trust me, this recipe alone is worth checking out and or buying this cookbook. Let's see what went down...



First you make a sauce- a naughty sauce, with 3 TBSP of Earth Balance (or butter if you prefer). Flour is browned in the Earth Balance until it's sizzling, then a milk sub (I used no sugar added almond milk)and marjoram, thyme, tarragon, mustard powder, and salt are whisked in. This gets thick and creamy, and smelled and tasted divine. I could have stopped right there and just had that in a glass for dinner, but there were two more elements to make.


A made from scratch biscuit crust with chopped olives and thyme added. I don't own a rolling pin, so I just smooshed it out with my fingers and it worked just fine.


A bit out of order, but I made the biscuit crust while this portion was steaming- leeks, carrots, and mushrooms are sauteed in olive oil and garlic, and then you dump in a pile of cauliflower to steam. Then you run over to the other side of the kitchen and are grateful you mixed the dry ingredients of the biscuits first, because getting them together while the cauliflower steams is much easier this way.

Now it's time to combine these wonderful things into an exponentially wonderful thing. Dump the creamy sauce on top of the veggies and give it a good mix. Again, fight the urge to just stop right there and eat them straight from the pot.

Slice up the biscuits haphazardly, ignoring the advice to cut into diamonds- this is what I mean by "Veganomicon" being a bit fussy. I went for the rustic look, and it worked just fine :)

Dump the veggie/sauce mixture into a baking pan, and then lay the biscuit strips on top, covering the top. All of this goes into the oven. While it cooked, I made the side, which gets its own post because Blogger is hell bent on making me lose my mind with it's sadistic photo uploading methods. But, another topic for another time.

The potpie came out bubbling and crumbly. And it was glorious. Everything about it was great.

Creamy, hearty, complex spice profile, and really good biscuits holdin' it all down. Make this. Please. I can't come to your house and do it for you, so you just have to trust me.

Juice

I took the leftover beet juice, and added the juice of my zested down orange that was leftover from my rice making. A splash of agave and a good swirl... and the verdict..


I actually liked it! It was definitely earthy, but the citrus cut through it and the agave gave it just enough sweet to take out any bitter notes. And lest you bestow any healthy street cred on me that I don't deserve, this is not my usual MO. I've just gotten really into trying to avoid my food waste in the last year, so I didn't want to waste the beet juice or the zested down orange. Was it the best drink ever? No, but it was good and it was certainly healthy, and I feel good about not wasting food. The remaining floppy hull of the orange was chopped up and tossed down my disposal along with some vinegar to freshen it. Ah, the circle of life.

Rice 'n Beans

Dinner tonight was based around a recipe for Caribbean rice from one of my favorite cookbooks, "Regina's International Vegetarian Favorites". Where there is rice, there must be beans, and where there is rice and especially black beans, I always feel the need to have sweet potatoes.



The rice was white Arborio rice (used in risottos) with coconut milk, almond milk, the zest of an *entire* orange- I feel like all I've done is shred things the last two days!- vanilla and almond extract, nutmeg, cinnamon, dried unsweetened coconut, and raisins. Oh, and 1/4 of a cup of brown sugar. It made a big pot, but I forgot that I usually cut sugar in half, and it was very sweet. But also very, very good.



Since I knew the rice would be sweet, I made the potatoes very simply, adding just a bit of blackstrap molasses. 1 TBSP of the stuff has 20% of you DV of calcium, as well as 20% of your DV of iron, and only about 40 calories. I sprinkled a bit of cinnamon as well, mashed them with a splash of coconut milk, and they were done. The black beans came from a can, and I spiced them with cumin and garlic salt. I made sure to fill up half my plate with them, since I had worked out for two hours today. Plus, I wanted to counteract the sweet of the other two sides. A big glass of water finished this meal off. Next time I'll probably leave the sugar out altogether, although I was thinking this would make a good breakfast rice pudding, especially if instead of the sugar I used molasses, and put a good dose of walnuts in it for some good protein and crunch.

A PSA

Beets are quite messy. They are delicious, and juicy, and taste like good things I want to eat, but just remember, if you ever decide to peel and shred and then squeeze the excess liquid out of 6 beets, this is what will await you. Don't say you haven't been warned. My previously yellow rags are now purple. Yet *another* reason I love beets- they turn things into my favorite color!



This was a step in the long, laborious process of creating beet latkes last night. I rarely, pretty much never, fry things, so it wasn't my most shining moment in the kitchen. The pictures turned out totally unappetizing, and at the risk of putting you off of beets forever, I decided to simply link you the recipe to Epicurious.com. I made the latkes and the apple salsa they recommend. The flavors were spot on, but mine weren't *quite* as crisp as a latke deserves to beet. Be. Beet. Ahem. Here's the recipe-

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cumin-Scented-Beet-Latkes-231262

I'm too lazy to embed, I know, I'm terrible. Don't judge me too harshly. I'm a bit sensitive after the less than stellar latke result. I can't stress enough- make these! They taste great. Just be better at frying things than me.

(I saved the beet juice for a smoothie later. If you don't want to put beet juice in your smoothie, try using it to dye something. As I said, it works very, very well. I'm also going to use some to tint a homemade lip balm. Oh beets. They're so useful.)

Shredded Breakfast

I know you're probably thinking "What the what, I come to this supposedly vegan blog and this chick is putting cheese on her cereal? That's just ridiculous." No worries though, that is actually a nice sprinkling of unsweetened shredded coconut. What *is* weird is that I despised coconut until about, oh, 6 months ago. Apparently Sno Balls are not the best way to be introduced to it. Who knew? Moral of the story- if you think you don't like something from your childhood, it might just be that you ate the lowest common denominator of it. Things I thought I hated but really didn't once I tried them fresh include not just coconut, but spinach, peas, and mushrooms. But for now the topic at hand is breakfast, so...

This morning I found a wrinkly peach hiding behind an orange in my fruit drawer. I chopped it up, and put it on top of 100% whole wheat, unsweetened shredded wheat. I added the aforementioned coconut, a good sprinkle of chia seeds, some cinnamon, and a drizzle of agave. I experimented with using my vanilla chai soymilk, and while interesting I don't think I'll be doing it again. It's only very lightly sweetened, but when I add in the agave, and the peach, and the natural sweetness of the coconut, it was a bit much for breakfast. I really liked the peach/coconut combo though. I could see myself making a peach/coconut compote for whole wheat pancakes in the future, with maybe a touch of ginger and brown sugar.

You Are My Sunshine

After discovering my love for Sunshine burgers, I picked up more at the store today, BBQ flavor this time per Bobby's request. Here's a peek at the spread of condiments and veggies. I think I should take this time to publicly profess my love for my wooden cutting block, gifted to me by my awesome Great Granny.



The finished product. The bread is onion poppy seed, it's very thin and airy and is just enough to hold it all together. My BBQ Sunshine burger has Vegenaise, horseradish mustard, avocado, tomato, lots of green bell pepper, and from our CSA a big heap of swiss chard, purple radishes, and red radishes. The chipotle sweet potato fries on the side are my favorite, but I ended up eating only half because I wanted to focus all my attention on that burger. It deserved it.

Drinking Lunch

After working out, I was super hungry but wanted something light on my stomach. I made a smoothie with one apricot, one peach, a cup of swiss chard from our CSA, a handful of frozen strawberries, a handful of fresh blackberries, a splash of vanilla chai soymilk, a tbsp of chia seeds, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. The weather is gorgeous, so I drank it out on our balcony. I managed to convince myself not to go to pool since I have so much to do today, although having a view of it doesn't help.



Mmmmmm, purple. Between chard for breakfast and chard for lunch, I'm sure my body is loving me. For now I'm off to clean the bathroom, put fresh sheets on the bed, shower, and head off to do research for my internship. Grocery shopping needs to happen as well, and tonight I'm trying out two new recipes. Here's to a busy day!

The Tofu Returns

The remaining half of the 1 lb block of tofu was scrambled this morning with half a white onion and two large swiss chard leaves from our CSA. It was seasoned with fresh garlic, marjoram, turmeric, cumin, salt, and pepper. The biscuits are whole wheat, made from scratch, and they were definitely worth getting out of bed to make. I made a scramble sandwich with one, and gave the other to Bobby. I did finish the scramble though, because right after breakfast was an hour of yoga followed by half an hour of weights and I didn't want to run out of energy. Isa, the author of "Veganomicon", says that tofu is meant to be scrambled. It certainly is. I always despised scrambled eggs, fried eggs, could barely do an omelet unless it was super dry and covered in veggies, but tofu scrambles? Ah, those I can do.

Lazy Thai- But Not as Lazy as a Clip-On Tie

To see how I made the tofu, check out the previous post :)



I was craving Thai food, but was out of coconut milk, and also didn't feel like making green curry paste. So, I sought out the help of Thai Kitchen. They make these noodle packages that are less than $1, and are similar Ramen. Except that they are so, so very much better. It's just rice noodles, an oil packet, and a spice packet. This is another good example of letting the pantry food aisle give you a helping hand for a good starter base. So, I cooked up two packages of the noodles. Into that I added about a cup of steamed broccoli, and let it all simmer together with some additional ginger and a squeeze of lime juice. I sauteed about two cups of squash and green bell pepper and two portabella mushrooms in olive oil and garlic, with a bit of ginger. All the sauteed veggies were stirred into the noodles and broccoli, and then the tofu I baked earlier was chopped up and stirred in as well.

When served, each bowl was topped with chopped peanuts, a sprinkle of basil, and a slice of lime. I was having one of those cooking nights were I just KNEW dinner was going to be awful, and then, on top of not being awful, it was really, really good. The portabella mushrooms and the tofu gave it a nice density. The flavor of the rice noodles was surprisingly complex for something that is little more than Ramen noodles' snooty uptown cousin. Then again, Thai Kitchen has yet to let me down. I would definitely make this again.

Baking Through the Tofu Fear

As a vegetarian and then as a vegan, trust me, I know all the stereotypes about tofu. In fact, it has only been this year that I have a) begun to like it and b) started cooking it at home. I was daunted by its tabula rasa lack of flavor. But actually, that bland lack of flavor that everyone complains about, is *precisely* why tofu rocks. Or jiggles. Or sometimes squelches when you squeeze it... but I digress.

Once I figured out- with the help of the internet, some veg friends, and some cookbooks- how to set in action the chain of events that leads to fabulous tofu cookery, I fell in love. Much like meat, you can make it taste like whatever you want with a good marinade and solid prep. What follows are a series of washed out flash pictures because there was 0 natural light in my kitchen. So, try to ignore that part. Please. And thank you. And we're off!



To make standard main course tofu, I used a 1 lb package of extra firm organic non-GMO tofu. The extra firm part is crucial, the rest is preference. Drain out the water, squeeze it gently in your hands, and then place a cloth napkin on a small plate. We don't use paper towels/rags/sponges, you can sub paper towels if that's the way you roll (that was an awful joke, I'm sorry). Put your tofu on top of the cloth...



top with another cloth, and then top with a weight. It should be heavy enough to press the tofu, but not so heavy that it splits it. Here, I've recruited my thrift store canister, which is currently housing my brown sugar. As a side note, I've actually seen tofu presses for sale. Seriously, all they do is just press on your little tofu block the exact same way my canister friend is doing so helpfully here. I'm all about avoiding the gadgets, so, avoid that gadget.



When it comes to the marinade, use whatever favorite standby you might otherwise use on chicken or pork. I tend to just throw things together, and since I was making Thai food tonight, I combined some sesame Thai ginger dressing, soy sauce, maple syrup, the juice of one lime, and then I added in some ginger and brown sugar. I whisked this all together in a baking pan- the size depends on how much tofu you're making, I only planned to use half.



Another element of tofu that googles people out is the sponginess of it. It can be disconcerting. I found the best way to avoid this weird texture problem is to slice the tofu very thinly. If this was going into say, a miso soup, I'd cube it and the softness would be fine. But for a meat-type substitute, I like mine chewier and a bit crispy. I sliced up about half of the tofu, six thin pieces in all. Because I'm using the rest tomorrow, I simply put it back on the plate and covered it with a moist napkin. If you were waiting longer, put it in a container with water to cover, basically recreating the package it came in.



Then just put your slices in the pan. The marinade would ideally juuuuuuust cover the top, but I got mine a bit too deep. Poke holes gently with a fork to let the marinade soak in, then flip and poke again. I usually like to marinate for at least 8 hours, so this step often happens in the morning.

For the baking, I like "Veganomicon's" method of baking tofu the best. Preheat oven to 425. Cook for about 45 minutes, flipping every 15 minutes or so. As the heat dries out the tofu, it sucks up the marinade, and then it's all cooked in- towards the end you may have just a very thin layer of marinade left sizzling in the pan. Once again, the strange properties of tofu are totally a plus when you work with it. If you think about it, chicken and pork and beef would be pretty unappetizing if all you did was grill them with absolutely no spices or marinades. This is the same for tofu. Because it is so water dense, it just needs a good dose of flavors, and it needs to be cooked correctly. I cook mine until it's crispy on the edges, and firm. If I try to lift it out and it flops over and threatens to break in half, it goes back in the oven.

There you have it. If you try this method and still hate tofu, I'm sorry I led you astray :)