Warm Quinoa salad with fried Tofu

This is a salad i made a while ago. Really refreshing, filling, tasty and healthy dish. People who say, they hate salads, have propably always eaten tomato-lettuce-cucumber salad with some crappy dressing or without anything.. and that's all. I have heard so many times from peoples mouth, SALADS are BORING. Honestly, i just think people are ignorant and not willing to try out stuff. I really believe in the saying "Better food, Better mind" and i think people should really start thinking what they put in their mouth. Not eat the same crap all the time like most people do. Try out something new, live out a bit! You could be suprised how much you actually might enjoy things more!

Well back in business, here is how to make this delicious, fast and easy salad!

• 1 packet of Firm Tofu
• 1-2 dl Quinoa 
• Celery (fresh not the root)
• Cucumber
• Chickpeas ( i used the ready canned ones)
• Some mixed salad ( I used salad mix with lettuce, carrot, cabbage etc.)
• Sunflower seeds or seed mix. Pine nuts are exelled too!
• Olive oil
• Sesame oil
• Herbsalt ( I use Herbamare)
• Salt & Pepper
• For dressing i used some Fig balsamic vinegar dressing which goes really well with this

First cut the tofu on cubes. Heat up pan and add olive oil & sesame oil on the pan and the tofu cubes.
Add some pepper & salt ( or mixed up spices if you want to spice up the tofu some more). When the tofu is fried nice and crispy, put it a side to cool down a bit. Prepare the salad. Wash salad mix, cut the celery and cucumber on small pieces. Put them on a bowl. Add some chickpeas, sunflower seeds or pine nuts. Mix well and add some herbsalt and pepper. Boil some water and add the quinoa in the boiling water. Let it boil about 5 minutes until the quinoa is soft. Stir all the time while boiling. Pour the water out from the pot. Add the warm quinoa and the fried tofu in the salad. Mix well and serve. Add some Fig balsamic vinegar dressing and enjoy!

Fried Tofu with Spicy Carrots and Vegetables

This is simple and easy home-cooked meal. My mom taught me the recipe for the delicious spicy carrots and i love to make variations of it often. Here is a recipe for you:

Ingredients:

• Summer potatoes
• Carrots
• Tofu (Hard)
• Asparagus
• Cherry tomatoes
• Rocket
• Spring onions
• Sour cream
• Honey
• Salt & pepper
• Fresh Tinjam
• Santamaria Lime & pepper or lemon pepper
• Olive oil
• Butter
• For Tofu marinade: Sesame oil,  Santamaria Garlic & pepper mix, Santamaria BBQ & Grill mix

First marinade tofu with some sesame oil, salt, pepper, and variation of mixed spices listed above or you can variate your own mix. Put the potates, carrots and asparagus boiling on seperate pots. Mix some lemon pepper ( i used Santamaria Lime & Pepper mix) , honey, salt and pepper with sour cream. Put it cool in the fridge. Start frying the tofu on a hot pan. Make the salad; Add some rocket, cherrytomatoes and springonions, some salt & pepper and some olive oil. When the carrots are ready, pour the water out, add some butter, salt & pepper, garlic & pepper mix and fresh tinjam on the pot. Mix it well. Pour the water out of the asparagus, add some pepper, salt and butter. Serve the fried tofu with boiled potatoes, spicy carrots, asparagus, rocket salad and the sour Cream sauce. Enjoy!

Papaya Salad with Tofu & Edamame beans

I found Papaya couple years ago, when i first ate papaya salad in a lovely Thai restaurant in Helsinki, called Lemon Grass. It was one of the greatest and simplest salads i had ever eaten. The power of the flavors are amazing! I made my own variation of the basic Papaya salad by adding some tofu and edamame beans in. Normally you put green beans and salty peanuts on in, but this one is without them.  The Recipe goes like this:

Ingredients:

• 1 green Papaya (You can fid this in most of the Asian stores)
• 2-3 Garlic cloves
• Red Chilies ( as much as you can take the heat! In Thailand, they make it really strong!)
• 1 Carrot
• Cherry tomatoes
• 1-2 branches of Spring onion
• Ginger
• Soy sauce (Kikkoman or other light soy)
• Fish sauce
• Sesame oil
• Basic cooking oil
• 2 limes
• Tofu (hard)
• Edamame beans (You can find these frozen in some stores and most of the Asian stores)
• Lettuce (Optional, for decoration if you want)

First marinade the Tofu with Soy sauce, Fish sauce and Sesame oil.  Add little bit of Garlic, Chili and Ginger on the marinade too. Peel the Papaya with special peeler ( that one you can buy cheaply in Asian stores) Or if you don't have a special peeler, you can use normal vegetable grater. First take the green peel away. Start peeling long thin slides into a bowl from the Papaya. Peel as much as you need, but stop peeling when you reach to the hard center of the Papaya. Mean while you can start cooking the Tofu on a hot pan with some cooking oil on it. Peel some thin slides of carrot also into the bowl. Add some half cutted Cherry tomatoes and some Spring onion into the mix. Add finely chopped Garlic, Chili and Ginger into the mix. Melt some Edamame beans on microwave(about 3 minutes), peel them and add the beans into the bowl. Pour some Soy sauce & Fish sauce in and mix it well. When the Tofu is cooked golden brown, put it on side to cool down. Add the Tofu into the salad and mix again. Squeeze some lime juice on top mix and taste that it has enough spice and taste! Add more sauces if needed. Pile the salad on top of lettuce and enjoy.

Delicious Scallop Salad

I have found scallops as an ingredient a little while ago and really fell in love to the taste! Simple and Delicious! Here's a recipe for you:

Ingredients:

Portion for two

• 8 frozen scallops (or fresh ones if available) 
• Haricot vert
• Grapes
• Pine nuts
• Pecorino cheese
• 1 big avocado
• Romain lettuce 
• Cooking oil
• Butter
• Salt & pepper
• Citron pepper
• Santamaria Garlic & Pepper mix
• Special fig vinegar as a salad dressing, but you can use plain red vinegar. 

Wash the lettuce well and dry it little bit with a towel. Pile the lettuce on a circle in the plate. Cut avocado on slides and put them on the plates. Springle some citron pepper on top. Add some oil on the pan, let it come to heat and add the Haricot vert on frying. Add some salt and pepper and cook until the beans are little bit fried and soft. Put the beans on side waiting. Fry some Pine nuts on a dry pan, just until they are golden brown. Put them a side to wait. Add butter on a clean pan, and cook the melted/fresh scallops on both sides about 3-4 minutes until they are golden brown. Spoon the butter on top of the scallops while cooking and add some salt & pepper on them. Place the Haricot verts and Scallops on top of the salad, add some grapes on the plates, grate some Pecorino cheese on top and pour the pine nuts on top. Grate some Santamaria Garlic & pepper mix on the salad and pour a hint of vinegar on top.  Damn delicious!