Healthy Asian Inspired Potato Salad (with Tofu Croutons!)

This month was my first month participating in the "Daring cooks" challenge.  This month we were challenged to create a healthy potato salad from around the world.  I loved this challenge because although it wasn't "difficult", it forced me to be creative.  

Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana! 

For this challenge I decided that I needed to get rid of the traditional "creamy" dressing that I associate with most potato salads.  I also wanted to include the skins for extra goodness and include something that would add some protein. 

Maybe because it has "salad" in the title, or maybe because I've been really wanting to enjoy tofu, I decided to make crispy tofu croutons to add protein to my potato salad.   I marinated the tofu in an asian inspired sauce and then used that sauce to top the salad (instead of using a mayo based sauce).  I used a low sodium tamari to try to cut down on the sodium.  

I loved the varying textures and flavors in this salad.  The bell pepper was really fresh, the tofu was crispy and savory and the potatoes were creamy.  The marinade dressing also added a really zingy fresh touch.  Overall, I really enjoyed the "salad" as a whole. :-) 

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Asian Inspired Potato Salad with Tofu Croutons

by Karla June-15-2011

A healthy, vegan potato salad with Asian flavors and crispy tofu croutons.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound Extra firm tofu, pressed
• 2Tbs Tamari (or soy) sauce
• 2Tbs Rice wine vinegar
• 1tsp Hot sauce
• 1Tbs Sesame oil
• 2 cloves Garlic, mashed
• 1/4tsp Ginger powder
• 1lb Small red potatoes, cubed
• 1 Bell pepper, diced
• 1tsp Toasted sesame seeds

Instructions

1. Cut tofu into small (1cm) cubes. Whisk together the tamari, oil, vinegar, garlic, hot sauce and ginger and cover the tofu cubes. Marinate cubes for one hour, stirring once. 2. Preheat the oven to 400F. Remove tofu cubes from the marinade (reserve the marinade!) and pat dry. Bake on a cookie sheet for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until brown and crispy. Cool the croutons. 3. Boil the cubed potatoes for 10 minutes or until easily pierced with a fork. Drain and cool. 4. Mix cooked potatoes, diced bell peppers and 1/2 of the reserved marinade. Top with tofu croutons and toasted sesame seeds.

Details

Prep time: 1 hour 10 mins Cook time: 1 hour Total time: 2 hour 10 mins Yield: 4 side servings

Bakesale Betty's Coleslaw.

Bakesale Betty's is an Oakland institution. People line up out the door and around the block every day during lunch to have one of her amazing fried chicken sandwiches.  These sandwiches consist of nothing more than a torpedo roll, spicy fried chicken breast and spicy coleslaw.  But it is enough to keep people coming back again.  and again...and again... I might have been one of those people.  Oh Oakland, I miss you!

The part of the sandwich I loved the best was the spicy slaw that is piled on top.  Turns out google is awesome and there were recipes posted online!  I made the slaw and ate it by itself for a quick light lunch.  It is super simple and uberly delicious. 

All you do is marinate some thinly sliced red onion in red wine vinegar for a couple minutes.  Then, toss together a small sliced cabbage, the onions, a chopped up small bunch of parsley and a minced jalapeno.  Dress it with a simple dressing of red wine vinegar, olive oil (the best you have!), dijon mustard and salt.  Simple.  Summery.  Fresh.  Awesome!  I used the recipe found here, but with about half of the recommended oil.  I don't miss it. 

I'll be posting my own original recipe for this month's "daring cooks" challenge tomorrow!  See you then. Wheeee :-)