Tasty Vegan Grilled Salad with Tofu and Portobellos

A decent vegan grilled salad has been on my to-do list for a while now. I need a substantial amount of protein to help get me through the afternoon without hunger pangs. Tofu to the rescue there. Grilled portobello mushrooms always remind me of beef, so the flavour is rich to me even if the ingredient itself isn't. Rich is always good in a salad. Of course, not everybody is a mushroom fan. If it's not your cup of tea, the mushrooms can be replaced with more raw veggies (I'm thinking cucumber cubes and chunks red bell pepper. A simple lemon vinaigrette adds the required tang. But suprisingly enough, the star of the show turned out to be the pumpkin seeds. The contrasting crunch really ties everything together and makes it feel like a meal.

There's a little bit of prep involved—the tofu and mushrooms need time to marinate in the fridge, ideally overnight, before being grilled and allowed to cool. (I actually like the grilled ingredients better cold in this salad. The tofu in particular has a firmer texture and the flavour from the marinade seems to come out more somehow.)

Speaking of cold, I used this salad as an opportunity to test out a salad container that I spotted at the local kitchen store. It comes from a company called Fuel (and no, there's no cash coming to yours truly for talking about it).

What I love about this container is the lid. First, it has an innovative dressing container that snaps shut and screws into the top. More importantly, it has a snap-in ice pack that keeps your lunch nice and cold even if your workplace doesn't have a staff fridge. I think I made this salad for two weeks straight and took it to work in this container with no problems. That makes me a satisfied customer. It's not water tight, but that's not a problem if you keep the dressing separate from the salad and rinse it out before bringing it home from work. I bought a second one just so I'll always have a fresh ice pack in the freezer.

The salad goes in the bottom obviously and everything else goes under the lid. Very cool.

Ingredients

300 g mixed greens

This grilled tofu recipe (ignore the lemon sauce)

This grilled portobello mushroom recipe

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

Lemon Vinaigrette

3 Tbl red wine vinegar

2 Tbl dijon mustard

2 Tbl fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

ground black pepper

2 Tbl sugar

1/2 cup olive oil

Directions

Marinate and grill up the tofu and mushrooms in the usual way, and let them cool (fridge is fine if you want to do it as a do-ahead).

Put all of the dressing ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake vigorously.

To prep an individual salad, dice a couple of pieces of tofu and one large mushroom into bite-sized pieces.

Lay a couple handfulls of salad greens on the bottom.

Scatter the tofu and mushrooms.

Pour dressing and sprinkle 2 Tbl of pepitas on top.

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Posted: Sunday, February 12, 2017