Intro

Out of the blue, without having any symptoms, my husband was diagnosed as diabetic and told by his doctor to follow the South Beach diet. After three years of eating a low-carb diet his glucose numbers have not gone down, his diabetes medication has been increased, and we are both on medication to lower our cholesterol levels.

After reading "Reverse Diabetes Now" by Neal D. Barnard, MD, we have decided to try instead, a low-fat vegan diet. According to the book, we can expect to see a change in as little as three weeks.

Both of us being life-long meat and dairy eaters, this is big change in our lives, but I don't think it will be a particularly difficult one. I have always been a bit uncomfortable thinking about exactly where our dinner comes from anyway, and I look forward to the challenge of creating delicious, satisfying meals in a new way.

We've been easing into the change by trying out some vegetarian dishes the past few weeks while we use up all the 'animal products' we have around the house, because once we start, we want to be very strict for the entire three week period.

Through this blog I plan to chronicle our journey to a vegan lifestyle and any changes in my husband's glucose levels; and hopefully, our cholesterol will go down and I will drop a few pounds!








Friday, January 7, 2011

Dry frying tofu for the first time

Up to this point, the only way I have ever cooked tofu was to fry it in oil.  Today, for the first time, I dry fried it.  I bought extra-firm tofu, cut it into slices and laid it on a griddle on med-low heat, until it seemed "dry" and a little browned.
I made a marinade of:
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 splash of rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sambal (Indonesian chili paste)
1 shallot minced

I let the tofu soak in the marinade, in the refrigerator, for about four hours.

In the wok, I used a tablespoon or two of canola oil and cooked some minced garlic and an 8 ounce package of white mushrooms, halved or quartered, depending on size, until the mushrooms were cooked nearly through, added the tofu, (which I decided was too large, so I cut it into smaller pieces), two bags of frozen stir-fry vegetables, and a couple of spoonfuls of the marinade.
We ate it over brown rice.  I thought is was pretty good... my husband thought it was a little bland. It could have used a little "something"... maybe more sambal or garlic.  I was very pleased with the way the tofu turned out, though - nice and firm.  I will definitely be using the dry-frying method again.

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