The clocks went back overnight, and from here until spring the sun is down before dinner. That is the point where I start wanting the oven on, and wanting something in it that fills the kitchen with a smell.
Sweet potatoes are at their best this month, sweet and cheap and heavy in the bag. This week they roast next to a pan of tofu that comes out craggy and crisp, with a peanut sauce spooned over both. The trick is in how you cut the tofu, which is to say you don't.
The recipe: Crispy Tofu with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Peanut Sauce
Makes two sheet pans in about 50 minutes, 35 of it in the oven: dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow, or one big dinner if that is where your appetite lands today. The tofu alone holds roughly 70g of protein, going by USDA's figure for firm tofu. Tofu varies by brand and type, so check the label on your blocks, and the peanut sauce adds more on top.
2 blocks (14 oz each) extra-firm tofu
2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1 bunch kale, stems removed, leaves torn
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 lime
1 tablespoon honey
1 inch fresh ginger, grated
Olive oil, salt
Drain the tofu and wrap each block in a clean towel. Set a heavy skillet on top and leave it 15 minutes while the oven heats to 425°F.
Tear the tofu into rough pieces, one to one and a half inches, with your hands. Toss it in a big bowl with two tablespoons of the soy sauce and two tablespoons of oil, then sprinkle the cornstarch over and toss again until every piece looks dusty. Spread it out on one rimmed sheet pan with space between the pieces.
Toss the sweet potatoes on a second pan with two tablespoons of oil and a good pinch of salt. Both pans go in the oven for 20 minutes. Flip the tofu, stir the potatoes, and roast 10 to 12 minutes more.
Toss the kale with a teaspoon of oil and a pinch of salt, scatter it over the potatoes, and give it the last 7 minutes, until the edges go crisp. While it roasts, whisk the peanut butter, the last tablespoon of soy sauce, the juice of the lime, the honey and the ginger with three or four tablespoons of warm water, until it pours like heavy cream. Spoon it over everything.
Why this works: torn tofu has rough, uneven edges, and those ridges dry out and brown more than the flat faces of a cut cube. The cornstarch adds a thin dry shell on top of that.
Everything keeps 4 days in the fridge, with the sauce in a jar on the side. Reheat the tofu in a 400°F oven or a dry skillet for about 8 minutes so it crisps again. The microwave turns it soft.
No-cook breakfast: turkey and cranberry lettuce wraps
No recipe, just an order of operations. Peel three big butter lettuce leaves off the head and lay them flat. Smear a teaspoon of cream cheese down the middle of each, fold roughly four ounces of sliced deli turkey across the three, and add a spoonful of whole-berry cranberry sauce to each. Fold the sides in and eat them like tacos.
Keep the cranberry sauce to a spoonful. It does the job mustard would, sweet and sharp against the turkey, but a heavy hand buries the meat. Ask for the turkey sliced thin at the deli counter so it folds instead of cracking. Four ounces comes to about 22g of protein, going by one common deli brand's label, which lists 11g per 2 ounces. Other brands vary, so read yours.
Three quick bites
Baked cheese crisps from the snack aisle, the kind where the ingredient list is cheese and nothing else. They shatter like a cracker and taste like the browned edge of a grilled cheese. Eat a handful from the bag, or break a few over a bowl of soup.
Where a salad wants croutons, roast canned chickpeas instead. Drain and rinse a can, dry them hard on a towel, and toss them with oil, salt and smoked paprika. Roast at 425°F for about 25 minutes, shaking the pan once, until they rattle when you shake it.
In the dairy case, sometimes near the packaged lunch meat and sometimes beside the regular eggs, look for peeled hard-boiled eggs in a pouch. Someone else already did the peeling. Check the date on the pack, then slice them onto toast or over a bowl of rice with a little soy sauce.
The why
A block of firm tofu is mostly water. USDA lists roughly 70 percent water in firm tofu made with calcium sulfate, and closer to 83 to 85 percent in other types. That water is why tofu steams instead of browning when it goes straight into the oven, because every bit of moisture on the surface has to cook off before browning can start. So crisp tofu is mostly a job of getting water out. Press it, tear it so there is more surface for the water to leave from, dust it with cornstarch to soak up what remains, and leave room on the pan so the steam has somewhere to go.
The rough-day plate
For the day this week when cooking is not going to happen: warm half a can of white beans with a splash of their liquid and a spoonful of olive oil. Mash them roughly with a fork, salt them, and spoon them over a slice of soft toast. Warm, savory and mild, and easy to get down.
Buy the extra-firm blocks packed in water, not the silken kind, which falls apart on the pan. Sweet potatoes keep best in a cool, dark cupboard, so buy a few extra while they are cheap.
If you know someone who gave up on tofu after one soggy first try, forward this to them.
Jan
The New Appetite is a food publication, not medical advice. Always talk to your healthcare provider about your nutrition and medication.