Waldorf Salad Pockets with Baked Tofu

I’ve always rather liked Waldorf Salad and have made different vegan versions over the years. This time I decided to try more of a main-dish take on it. It turned out nicely—quite refreshing and rather summery, even though the non-seasonal ingredients make it easy to make year-round.

I rather like recipes like this that can be made ahead in volume and served cold. They can come in handy during busy times. Whether it’s the joyful chaos of a family wedding or new baby, or the less pleasant stress of a loved one in the hospital, it’s nice know there’s a big bowl in your fridge waiting for anyone passing through who needs a meal on the go. When it’s something wholesome and well rounded with protein, fruits and veggies that will really nourish people and keep them going when they need it the most, that’s even better. Other recipes I’ve used for this purpose include Quinoa Salad, Mashed Garbanzo and Artichoke Spread, and Tofu Salad Sandwich Filling.

Vegan Waldorf Salad Pockets

 

Waldorf Salad Pockets with Baked Tofu

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs tofu, baked according to this recipe (or store-bought baked tofu)

3 large apples, diced into ½ inch pieces (not peeled)

1 12 oz package of broccoli slaw

½ cup dried cranberries

¼ cup chopped walnuts

Dressing:

1/3 cup vegan mayonaisse

3 Tbsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp sugar or sweetener (more or less to taste)

½ tsp onion powder

¼ tsp ground ginger

salt and pepper to taste

Pita pockets or other flatbread

Directions:

Dicing the baked tofu

Dice the baked tofu into bite-sized pieces; set aside.

Whisk together all dressing ingredients until completely smooth.

In a large mixing bowl, combine tofu, apples, broccoli slaw, dried cranberries, and walnuts. Add dressing and stir until well coated. Taste and adjust seasoning and sweetness.

Baked Tofu Waldorf Salad

Warm your pitas if you wish, then stuff your Waldorf salad inside. Enjoy!

Makes quite a bit—at least 8-10 large servings.

Variations:

Waldorf salads sometimes contain diced celery or onions; those would both be welcome additions. The dried cranberries can be replaced with other dried fruits, such as cherries or raisins.

The walnuts could be substituted with almonds or pecans. The proportions of various ingredients can be adjusted to your taste as well (e.g. double the amount of nuts and halve the craisins).

The amount or composition of the dressing may be tweaked as well.

It would be quite authentic to serve the salad on a lettuce leaf instead of the pita, too.

Vegan Options for Dressing Fruit Salads:  

I like to make fruit salads, and since the dressing is usually the only non-vegan component, I’ve tried a number of different things over the years. Here are the basic options:

Fruit Salad, dressed with vegan yogurt

            Vegan yogurt is an excellent choice for dessert style fruit salads because of its sweetness. Its high sugar content may be undesirable in more savory recipes though (such as the one above) as well as nutritionally problematic for some people. The best flavors of vegan yogurt for fruit salads are vanilla, plain and lemon, although you could get more adventurous if you wanted to.

            Vegan sour cream is nice and creamy, richer and less sweet than yogurt, so it can be used in savory recipes. It may be less nutritious due to higher fat content and some even contain trans fat, however.

            Vegan mayo is arguably the best of both worlds nutritionally, much lower in sugar than vegan yogurt and lower in fat than vegan sour cream. Also one of very few specialty vegan staples that actually comes in reduced fat and even fat-free varieties (although availability varies by locale). It’s a very effective dressing base not just for fruit salads but also green/veggie salads. It benefits from being jazzed up a little with extra flavors like lemon juice, onion powder and sweetener. 

            Vegan “buttermilk” is not something you buy, it’s something you make by combining non-dairy milk with lemon juice or vinegar. For baking, the ratio is one tablespoon lemon juice to a scant cup of non-dairy milk, but for dressings I like it tangier. I use about one tablespoon of lemon juice per quarter-cup non-dairy milk, then sweeten and flavor to taste. Vegan buttermilk is not as thick as the other sauce options, so a smaller amount (1/2 to 2/3) should be used to prevent runniness. The advantages to using the “buttermilk” over the other sauce options are that it’s very economical and uses widely available ingredients—depending on where you live, soymilk and lemon juice may be much easier to get a hold of than specialty vegan yogurts, sour creams and mayos. It tastes pretty good too, especially if sweetened, and the lemon juice makes it effective at preventing oxidation in the fruit.

            Non creamy sauces for fruit salads are often vegan already with no modification. They can be based off of fruit juices, sugar syrups or vinaigrettes.

            No sauce at all: there’s nothing to say that a fruit salad has to be dressed with a sauce in the first place. If the fruit is on the juicy side, it’ll sauce itself. : )

Vegan Waldorf Salad with Baked Tofu and Broccoli Slaw

A Taste of Spring: Vegan Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Strawberry-Rhubarb is usually one of the first pies of the produce season. Strawberry and rhubarb get paired up because they have similar growing seasons and of course, because their flavors and textures are so compatible. They have a certain magic together that the two of them lack separately. 

Rhubarb is easiest to find at farmer's markets and some health food stores. The stalk is the only edible part; do not try to eat the leaves or anything else--some parts of the rhubarb plant are not only inedible but poisonous. Another name for rhubarb is "Pie Plant," and there's a reason for it: the distinct tang and jam-like texture of cooked rhubarb makes an exceptionally good pie filling, both alone and in combination with a variety of other fruits, particularly sweet ones that could use some extra tanginess.

 

Vegan Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Crumble Topping

 

Vegan Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients:

1 prepared pie crust, either crumb or pastry style

Filling:

3 cup chopped rhubarb

2 cups fresh or thawed frozen strawberries, halved

1 cup sugar or sweetener

1/3 cup flour

½ tsp cinnamon

dash of cardamom

Topping:

¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour

¼ cup ground almonds or walnuts (other nuts okay too)

½ cup sugar or sweetener

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

dash salt

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 ½ Tbsp water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Make topping: Stir together flour, ground nuts, sugar/sweetener, spices and salt. Drizzle in oil and water. Mix into crumbs with fingers; set aside.

Strawberry -Rhubarb Filling

Mix together dry ingredients for the filling; stir in fruit. Pour filling into pie crust. Sprinkle topping evenly over top.

With nutty crumble topping

Bake pie for 45 minutes, covering with foil halfway through if the topping starts to brown too much.

Let cool for 30-60 minutes before slicing.

Variation:

If strawberries aren't an option for some reason (availability, allergies, etc.) you could substitute an equal amount of diced ripe mango for a really delicious variation.

Now the only trouble is waiting to slice into it...

Mixed Berry Shortcakes with Soft, Fluffy Vegan Biscuits

This is a nice light, summery dessert; it's not overly rich or sweet and it comes together fairly quickly. It works beautifully sugar-free, too.

A shortcake is basically a sweet biscuit or similar baked good that is covered with juicy fruit and/or other toppings and absorbs them to become soft and flavorful. You could say it's a dessert version of biscuits and gravy. 

This biscuit recipe would work well in other applications; if you want to use it in a less sweet context, decrease the sugar or sweetener to 1 Tbsp.

Mixed Berry Shortcake

Mixed Berry Shortcakes

with Soft, Fluffy Vegan Biscuits

Biscuits:

Dry ingredients:

1 7/8 cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 Tbsp cornmeal

1 Tbsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp cream of tarter

½ to 1 tsp salt (depending on personal taste)

3 Tbsp sugar or sweetener

¼ tsp cinnamon (optional)

dash of nutmeg

3 Tbsp oil

1 ½ cup soymilk

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup more flour for rolling (you won’t use it all)

Berries:

5–8 cups fresh or frozen berries

¼ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp vanilla

sweetener to taste, varies bases on type and ripeness of berries

Whipped cream substitute of your choice (see note)

Directions:

For the biscuits:

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Place the ½ cup of flour for rolling in the bottom of a pie plate.

Whisk together remaining dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add oil and toss with a fork until it looks like clumpy wet sand. Pour in the soymilk and vanilla and stir until just combined.

Soft Whole-Wheat Biscuits

Take a spoonful of batter (about 1/10^th of total) and drop it onto the pie plate with the flour. Roll it around until it is well coated on all sides. Pick it up and place it in a greased 9-inch cake pan. Take another spoonful of similar size and coat it with flour the same way; repeat until all the batter is used up and the cake pan is full. Spray the tops of the biscuits with cooking spray or brush lightly with oil.

Fresh from the oven

Bake for 5 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 450 degrees F and bake for 15 minutes more. Let cool in the pan for 2-3 minutes, then turn them out and pull them apart (be careful not to burn yourself).

For the berries: If you are using frozen berries, merely thaw them and toss them undrained with the sweetener, cinnamon and vanilla, and heat until warm.

If you’re using fresh, you’ll want to encourage them to form a sauce either by macerating—tossing them with sugar and letting them sit for half an hour until juices are released due to osmosis—or by mashing a fraction of the berries with a little water or juice and using that as a sauce for the remaining berries. Either way, mix with other ingredients and heat before serving.

Biscuit with Berries

To assemble: Place a biscuit into each individual bowl, and spoon some berries and juice over it. Top with a dollop (1-2 tablespoons) of vegan whipped topping substitute.

Makes about 10 servings.

One of the reasons I made this recipe is to try out a new vegan whipped topping I found at the store called Smackin’ Whip. I like it; it is a very close facsimile to Cool Whip in both flavor and texture. It doesn’t have a whole lot in the way of nutritional value, but it’s fine as an occasional treat. I'm eager to try it in other classic Cool Whip family recipes.

Store-bought Vegan Whipped Topping

If you don’t have any access to store-bought vegan whipped cream substitutes, there are a variety of different options for homemade vegan whipped topping recipes. Recipes based on ground soaked cashews, whipped coconut milk, pureed tofu, or some combination thereof are typical approaches. You may develop a preference based on taste or nutrition. For example, I tend to prefer the heart-healthy fats in certain nuts to the saturated fat of coconut. People who need a very low fat recipe might even try a custard-like topping of cooked, thickened non-dairy milk, sweetened and flavored to their liking.

 My favorite homemade whipped cream substitute is my Hazelnut or Almond Mousse, which also works as a pudding or pie filling when the higher amount of sweetener is used.

Hazelnut Mousse as a Pie filling

Hazelnut Mousse (vegan whipped topping substitute)

1 12 oz package firm silken tofu

2/3 cup chopped hazelnuts or almonds

¼ to 2/3 cup sugar or sweetener (based on personal taste)

1 ¼ tsp vanilla

2-3 Tbsp soy milk (enough to blend easily)

dash or two of cinnamon (or other flavorings* as desired)

Blend all ingredients together in a blender or food processor. Taste and adjust sweetness and flavorings to your liking. You can chill it for a couple hours to firm up if you like, and stir briefly with a spoon before serving to fluff up.

You can decide whether or not to toast the nuts beforehand depending on whether you would like a strong nutty flavor or a subtler one.

*Extracts such as maple or coconut would be good additions, and so would spices such a cardamom or ginger or even a little espresso powder. 

Variations:

I’ve used blueberries and blackberries here, but other fruits would work well too. Strawberries and peaches are fairly traditional, but anything from pears to mangoes will work too as long as the sweetener is adjusted. Even canned fruit can work in a pinch.

The preparation method on the fruit can be changed as well. A variation in which the fruit is grilled is great as barbecues. The biscuits and toppings could be prepared ahead of time and brought along. The fruit could also be chilled instead of heated on hot days too.

If vanilla vegan ice cream is easier to find in your area, you could use it in place of the vegan whipped topping for an a la mode variation.

Other desserts, such as cake, could be used as a base in place of the biscuit. This may be a particularly good way to re-purpose a dessert that turned out dry or bland on its own.

For a sugar-free version, simply replace all sugar with an equivalent amount of a sweetener such as stevia or splenda, making sure to do so in all of the elements (biscuits, fruit, cream).

Gooey, creamy shortcake

Pear-Almond Crisp

Here is a nice autumn dessert. The almonds and pears’ mild flavors combine beautifully for a very delicate dessert. I happened to have a counter full of rapidly over-ripening pears, so a giant crisp was in order, but feel free to halve the recipe if you lack such a bounty.

Don’t peel the pears—the peels contain a fair amount of the pears’ flavor and aroma, and also help with structural integrity.

Pear Almond Crisp

Pear-Almond Crisp

Fruit filling:

About 12 pears (depending on size)

2-3 tsp cornstarch (more or less based on ripeness of pears)

4 tsp lemon juice

¼ tsp vanilla

dash of cinnamon

2 tbsp sugar or sweetener

2 Tbsp crystallized ginger, finely chopped

Topping:

2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup oats (I used quick oats)

1/3 cup almond meal

2-3 Tbsp slivered almonds

2/3 cup sugar or sweetener

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp cardamom

1/3-1/2 cup oil

½ tsp vanilla

Mix together all the dry ingredients for topping. Stir vanilla into 1/3 cup of oil and drizzle into dry ingredients while tossing with fork. Squeeze and toss with fingers until mixture looks and feels like crumbly wet sand, adding some or all of the rest of the oil if necessary.

Cut pears into half inch slices, then cut slices in half into chunks. Chop ginger and set aside. Whisk together rest of filling ingredients and gently toss with pears. Spray a 9 by 13 inch baking pan or casserole dish with cooking spray.  Pour pears into baking pan and spread out. Sprinkle ginger evenly over top, then sprinkle on topping mixture.

Bake at 425 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes.

Makes 12 generous servings. 

Grandma's Fruit Salad

This is a simple recipe, but a nice one. Canned fruit salads are sometimes a little bland and mushy, but this one chooses its fruits carefully—canned pineapple and mandarin oranges maintain their flavor and texture through the canning process much better than most fruits.  Using canned fruit also means you can make it any time of year without paying a mint in ingredients.

It’s very satisfying when you’re able to modify a recipe from your childhood to work within your current nutritional needs. Comfort food is mainly a matter of emotional associations, and a recipe doesn’t have to be completely identical to stir those same memories. Even though the original contained dairy and this one does not, one bite still transports me back to family reunions and grandmotherly hugs just as well as the proverbial madeleines. 

Grandma’s Any-Season Fruit Salad

2 20 oz cans pineapple chunks

2 15 oz cans mandarin oranges OR 3 11 oz cans

½ cup shredded coconut (more or less to taste)

6 oz vegan yogurt (vanilla, lemon, or plain work well for sauces) or soy sour cream

A handful of smallish vegan marshmallows, optional

Directions:

Drain fruit in a colander—ideally for several hours or overnight if possible, but whatever time you have is fine. Mix drained fruit with rest of ingredients and chill.

The marshmallows add a retro touch and make the dish more of a dessert. It tastes just fine without them though; you can see in the picture that I left them out this time.

In addition to being a walk down memory lane for me, this is a nice summery dessert that doesn't heat up the kitchen and gives you at least one serving of fruit. Not bad!