Tempeh, Tofu, Teats, & Tamoxifen. Soy and Cancer. You need to know. Anupy's Masala Tofu Scramble Recipe. Get Skinny on Soy? Eggs & Celery.

Seriously.  You need to watch this.  I found it pretty incredible.  Looks like if you want to reduce your risk of cancer........even breast cancer while taking tamoxifen (the second video)!   Watch!  Then grab your tofu! These are from my favorite nutritionist, Dr. Michael Greger.  Nutritionfacts.org

Go here for The Indian Masala Tofu Recipe

I have made "Tofu Scramble" maybe, um, hundreds of times.  No kidding.  I always add the turmeric, but vary between Mexican, American style, and Indian Spices.  So when I saw Tofu Masala on Anupy Singla's "Indian As Apple Pie" blog, I kind of figured it would taste like "my" Indian Tofu.  Don't ever doubt Anupy.  This was hands down, the best Masala Tofu Scramble ever made in my house!

Hmmm...I have seen Anupy write about Kala Namak being one of her fave spices, but I once again, thought...salt.....really??  Yeah, that's because I have never had black salt.  This stuff stinks of sulfur & is the most delicious salt you will encounter!! It doesn't just add sodium, but gives imparts a real "eggy" flavor.  Which is what we are kind of going for here.  The Kala Namak is the "mystery" ingredient! The "original" unvegan version is scrambled egg.  So we are just leaving the chicken out of it this time around and keeping our heart healthy.  If you wonder what's wrong with eggs, sneak a peek at the video at the end.  FYI, you would have to eat 371 avocados to get the amount of cholesterol you get eating 1 egg!!

This just happens to be 365 brand, but I actually prefer WhiteWave.

It doesn't matter at all really, but aim to buy organic (at least for soy products).  And you don't need to freeze it at all-just keep it in your fridge.  We tend to buy stuff in bulk, and run out of room in our fridge (s).

I also buy the turmeric in bulk and keep it in a glass jar.  Turmeric is getting a lot of good press these days (to reduce inflammation) and it's cheap and I buy organic from Mountain Rose Herbs. 

If you are new to Indian Cuisine, Pick up Indian Chili powder, which is NOT a mix of spices.  Don't be buying Mexican Chili and wondering what's jacked up with your tofu dish.   

We buy extra firm tofu.  Then press the water out (kind of but I don't really knock myself out on this).  They sell tofu presses which have been all the rage on vegan blogs, but, I guess I am "old school" and have lived without one for this long!

What's that?  Yes.  I am using a cast iron skillet.  Notice, there is NO slow cooker in this recipe!!  Anupy is working on an ALL VEGAN book due to come out in 2012 and that is why she is being such a Plant Flirt.  She's mostly a Plant Eater anyway, but now she is really coming out to play!!  Ditching the eggs for Tofu!!!!  And the next book will have both slow cooker recipes & regular stove top & salads & we will just have to wait and see what else.  She is in her kitchen creating!!  

Still easy.  Even without the slow cooker.  Fry up the spices & onion.

By the way, there's no garlic in this recipe. So you can eat the whole pound, go to work, and not burp garlic the entire day.  Of course, add your own if you think your workmates will miss it, or you are expecting a vampire.  Unless of course you like the vampire.

Add your tofu.  

And you just transformed tofu into Magical Masala Tofu compliments to Anupy Singla.

I am just a little crazy about Anupy's slow cooker book.  I didn't really cook at all for a long time, as I was doing a LOT of raw food but then I felt guilty for not having a spectacular meal always made for my man.  He likes raw stuff too, but sometimes it just gets WEIRD.  I think the Raw Burdock Salad might have just been a wee too healthy, from the Cafe Gratitude book.  Um, don't think that recipe got a whole lot of "gratitude".  Anupy's food is super healthy, but it doesn't taste like it's missing anything (and it doesn't use massive amounts of raw burdock).  Anyway, now it's so easy to throw some stuff in the crockpot & leave.  I don't even have to soak the beans.  Simple.  And I adore Indian food as well-it was the one cuisine that "Raw" didn't really fulfill and I still can't bring myself to fully demonize beans.  I still have time & energy to make fresh, raw food but can also put together a dish in 15 minutes!  So everyone is happy and I don't really have to spend much more time preparing food (although it is my meditation room).

The Turmeric makes it that "eggy" color.  Don't spill that stuff on your clothes.  All of my "cooking" shirts have lovely yellow tints.  I used it in a facial mask once, and thankfully didn't have to leave the house for a couple days afterwards.  Apparently that has happened to other gals too, getting a little "too" yellow with the "natural" masks.  Sheesh.  I won't even go there with pure sea buckthorn oil.  I have nightmares about turning red.

Hands down, the best Masala Tofu Scramble I have ever made.  Loved the flavor.  And this dish isn't super hot.  You can change the amount of pepper-but it's not a "knock ya out" kind of heat.  Simply Lovely.  Think that even non-tofu lovers would dig this.  As tofu doesn't have a flavor anyhow-it takes on whatever seasoning you put on it.  I know there are some tofu "haters" out there, but unlikely any of those people would even be looking at this blog! I did want to throw in some shout outs for soy though.  As it has been getting a bad rap lately, mostly from people who chug Krill Oil and farm salmon in their bathtubs and raise chickens in their basement.  You certainly can be vegan and not eat any soy at all, ever.  Totally possible.  But between the disses from the Egg Industry and the Fish Oil Industry, thought we should give soy some actual peer reviewed study time.  Thanks Dr. Greger.

And the SKINNY on Soy.  You know all that talk about "calories being equal" blah blah blah blah meh.  I totally can't count calories, I give up after one meal.  But have never worried about them either.  Why?  Maybe because if you eat whole plant foods (leave the Tofu Cuties out of your daily diet), then you are actually thinner.  Check out this short video.  With animal or soy products, the same amount of calories consumed resulted in a significant drop in abdominal fat for the "soy group".  Soy actually has something that helps prevent cells from taking the fat up in the first place.  So it does matter from where your calories come.  These magical "phytoestrogens" are SO magical that the Meat Industry bragged that a piece of meat measured 4 in phytoestrogens.  A Veggieburger?  4000.  Dairy Milk had 6.  Soymilk? 6000.  So if ya want to stay skinny, be pickin' that organic soy up next time at the super.  Then people will be asking "How do you eat So much food and stay thin??".  And you can just smile, as you ate an entire pound of tofu in the form of pudding just minutes earlier.  So grab that soy & make Masala!!

If ya eat eggs, grab the celery.To get your VAP cholesterol numbers "in check", grab Anupy's "The Indian Slow Cooker" book.
The Indian Slow Cooker: 50 Healthy, Easy, Authentic RecipesAnd if you want to really Simplify your cooking, pick up a "Spice Tiffin" with standard measuring spoons!

"The Spice Tiffin"
Photo by "Brave New Pictures"
This will save you a lot of time opening jars of bulk spices and finding your spices!
Comes with standard measuring spoons and you don't need a knife to "level" off!

Vegan Chana Dal from the Indian Slow Cooker Book

"Chana dal" from The Indian Slow Cooker  by Anupy Singla

                                                                      

 Today I made the "Chana Dal" from Anupy Singla's  The Indian Slow Cooker 

(which is now back in stock on Amazon).  The recipes in her book list an Americanized name and then the normal Indian name beneath.  The recipe I decide to make each day is nearly 100 percent dependent upon the cooking time.  This particular one took 6 hours on high and yielded 10 cups of food.

Dried Chana Dal

    

          "Chana Dal" This is what the package looks like.

I have the first edition of the book which is nearly perfect but does contain a couple of mistakes.  This happens to be one of them :)  It says to add 33 cups of dried chana dal to the slow cooker but it was pretty obvious that it was supposed to be three.  I think anyone that has ever been in a kitchen could figure that out pretty easily.  Yet, I am reminded of a Belgian roommate that I had.  We were living in a Spanish speaking country and she had gone to buy some asparagus that day.  She didn't cook much and pasta was even a little challenging for her.  She had even melted the entire teapot.  It would get left on for hours.  Well,  she bought this asparagus from the Bolivian woman sitting outside selling veggies.  The woman explained that you need to cut the ends off before you cook it since they were a bit fibrous.  Now, my roommate actually spoke excellent Spanish, so I am thinking it was the cooking part in which she was a little less fluent.  Anyhow, she knocked on my door and said she had made some fresh asparagus and would I like some.  I jumped at the chance as I was living on kilos of apples and oranges there.  I looked in the colander and there were the ends of the asparagus.  She had cut the rough ends off and cooked them!!  So the beautiful tips had been disposed of in the trash.  She kind of thrived on salami and cheese (she's Belgian after all) so there was no picking through the trash.  It was so funny.  She once cooked tofu by taking the whole block and boiling it in water.   My point?  Well, this dear friend of mine just may have tried to put 33 cups of chana in.  But I am confident anyone else with the first edition of this book will look at the page to the left which uses toor dal, and only 3 cups, and will determine that this recipe meant to say 3 cups also.  The "American" description of this dish is "Simple Split Chickpea Curry" and it is on page 63 of this awesome book.  And simple it was.

Just chop ingredients up and dump in pot.

You dump dried chana in with ingredients.  Add water.  And when you get home from work you think that maybe there was an Indian woman cooking in your house all afternoon.

I think it might become a staple in our home.  It had a little spice in it, but nothing overwhelming.  The second night we added spinach.  This dish is sort of "soupy" and you can take a cup out and blend it in the Vita-Mix to create a broth.   And don't be confused by the "Split Chickpea" description.  They are split chickpeas, but black chickpeas.  Split and skinned black chickpeas which are very common in Indian cooking.  She refers to these as "lentils" also, so you just have to adjust your terminology if you haven't shopped for Indian legumes prior.  Black Chickpeas are also called Kala Chana.  The white chickpeas which we use to make hummus here and to make the Indian Chana Masala are called "Kabuli Chana".  Anupy has a whole section in her book (starting on page 39) describing the different legumes and she also has many photos.   Her blog is here.  She is really funny!  "Indian as Apple Pie" is the name of it which is very fitting.  She quit her reporter job at WGN in Chicago to cook Indian Food. She seems like a super progressive gal who has this beautiful blend of two cultures.  What are your favorite Vegan Indian dishes??