Vinegar Marinated Roast Tofu

Growing up in a tiny town outside of Fargo, North Dakota didn't provide me with a whole lot of opportunities for expanding my culinary horizons. My mom is actually a great cook, but the '80's were known for the rise of the convenience packaged food product and my family partook of them often. We had our share of Hamburger Helper, and my favorite meal was Campbell's Bean with Bacon Soup, served with buttered saltine crackers (I can't believe I just admitted that).

So, I relate to Kate of the awesome blog Hola Jalapeno. She's a former San Franciscan who lives in Valley City, ND with her family and faces a familiar lack of options in her grocery store. Yet, she finds a way to cook amazing food and blog about it.

Kate recently brilliantly marinated some chicken in fruit vinegar and roasted it. Well, I simply love vinegar so I wanted to try this but I did it with tofu, and added shallots. It turned out amazing. The vinegar reduced to a thick glaze that made the tofu chewy and delicious. The crispy sweet shallots were my favorite part.

I only used half a block of tofu, and wish I would have done the whole thing so I could have more tofu for snacking later. I served my vinegar marinated roast tofu on a bed of spinach and poured the remaining hot marinade over the whole thing as a warm dressing.

Vinegar Marinated Roast Tofu, adapted from Hola Jalapeno

Serves 2

1/2 large block of tofu, moisture pressed out

1 medium shallot, sliced thin

1/3 cup fruit vinegar (I used Trader Joe's Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar)

1/3 cup olive oil

2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper

fresh spinach

In a large shallow dish, mix together vinegar, oil, S&P, and Worcestershire. Add tofu and shallots and coat evenly. Marinate 1 hour to overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Add tofu and shallots to a foil lined baking sheet and pour leftover marinade on top.

Roast 20 minutes, flipping halfway.

Cut tofu into bite-sized pieces and add to a bed of spinach. Pour warm remaining marinade from pan over salad and season with salt and pepper.

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