It's all about the {veggiestyle} BBQ in Texas

Texas is all about the BBQ and it makes it gets difficult when I am craving some good ol Rudy's BBQ sauce but all I can put it on is a baked potato (lame). So when I came across this amazing looking recipe for tofu in pineapple BBQ sauce, I couldn't wait to give it a try.

Tofu BBQ over rice

The unfortunate part is that I have been so busy lately (especially in the evenings) that I don't have time to even throw everything in a crock pit and let it do it's own thing for 8 hours. Seriously, it's ridiculous. So for the time being I decided to just make the barbeque sauce and cook it all in the oven.

The key to this recipe is freezing the tofu. I never thought about doing this before, but it really changes the texture... I now want to stock my fridge with tofu so that's it's there any time I need it.
Defrosting the tofu is the only part that was time consuming.

The original recipe came from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen and it is excellent. Next time I will have to try it in the slow cooker.

Start by freezing 2 14-16 oz packages of Hard/Firm tofu for 24 hours. The best way to do this is to drain the liquid out and then put the tofu in a freezer baggie. When it comes to defrosting the tofu, I recommend just using the microwave until the tofu is all the way (or mostly soft) all the way through. If it's not all the way soft in the middle, you can slice the tofu and put it in a hot water bath for a bit.

Look at all this garlic

Pre-heat the oven to 350 while making the sauce.

BBQ Sauce:

• 1 large onion, chopped (I used white)
• 8 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup pitted dates (about 2.5 ounces) << Prunes can be substituted 
• 1 1/2 cup crushed pineapple in own juice
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 inches ginger-root, peeled and minced (about 3 tablespoons minced)
• 5 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons tamari or lite soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• generous grating of black pepper
• Salt, (optional), to taste

Sauté the onion on medium high heat until most of the onion starts to brown, then add the garlic - the garlic doesn't have to be super finely minced. Put the onion and garlic in a blender (my blender produced a smoother sauce than than my food processor) and add the rest of the ingredients besides the tofu.  Blend the ingredients until the sauce is at the consistency you want. 

Slice the tofu into bite-sized squares and put into a oiled or greased baking dish. Cover the tofu with the BBQ sauce. It will seem like a lot of sauce, but use all of it. Put the dish with the tofu and bbq sauce in the oven covered for 30 mins. When I made this dish I didn't have foil, so I just used a cookie sheet to cover my dish. After 30 minutes, uncover the dish and cook for 20 more minutes. 

Tofu BBQ taco with sliced roasted brusseles sprouts

This recipe made a lot of servings, especially for a single lady like myself. So I did a lot of different things with it. I ate it with rice, by itself, on corn tortillas as tacos, with roasted brussels sprouts. It was good no matter how I tried it.