Smokin' Tofu Sammies

So I'm gradually working my way through the hi-nor-may stack of vegan cookbooks that I've purchased in the last 4 months. So far, so good, but there's a long way to go. 

Tonight's meal was completely delish: 

• Smoky Tofu sandwiches from Vegan Yum Yum
• Rosemary Polenta Fries from Eat Drink and be Vegan 
• Crispy Sesame Kale from Vegan Yum Yum

These sandwiches were truly amazing. The tofu gets sliced pretty thin thin, briefly marinated with a thick sauce containing sugar, miso, tamari, lemon juice, nutritional yeast and liquid smoke, then baked. I smashed it onto some lightly grilled rye bread with spinach, green onions, Veganaise and avocado slices. The savory rye was a perfect compliment to the miso flavoring. The semi-mushy avocado kept the spinach in place and held the whole sammie together. It was definitely one of my greater successes thus far. I can't even tell you. Yum, yum, indeed!

The crispy sesame kale has become a standby in my home-- Paul and I sometimes share a bowl over Sunday afternoon football. For me, crispy kale is right for any occasion. Kale, sesame oil and sesame seeds. Perfection. 

We've also tried the polenta fries before, particularly for our Autumnal Equinox party as an appetizer. Something interesting I learned from Dreena Burton's recipe is that if you peel the outer layer of the polenta with a veggie peeler before you cut it into pieces, the oil and cornmeal are going to adhere better to the polenta. 

Polenta fries are just what they sound like-- take a roll of polenta, cut it up into fry-ish pieces and bake them. Dreena has you toss them with olive oil, cornmeal, rosemary and salt, and her book offers a couple other variations. You can imagine the versatility of that side dish. I like to serve these with spicy ketchup. I mix 3 T ketchup with about 1t. Siracha. It's great! 

I use my baking stone for extra crispiness on the fries...they get this nice crusty outside, but the inside is nice and soft, creamy, almost, but with a great texture. Dreena mentions that the longer they sit and cool the chewier the texture will be. They haven't been around long enough to find out at my house, but I imagine the flavor is still great. I love the salty rosemary...

Whipping everything together from start to finish (all three dishes) took about an hour. 

I'm going to have to get back into the habit of taking photos of my food if I'm going to be writing about it...I swear it was pretty, but sadly, these pics are "borrowed".