by : Reiko Air Fryer, Japanese Food, Rice/Grains, Tofu

Tofu Karaage Onigiri Lunch
豆腐唐揚げおにぎり定食

It was a busy week, and I was glad that I decided to give myself a day off today.

You need to listen to your mind and body, right?

Instead of working, I decided to make a nice lunch for myself and my hubby.

This salted Kombu seaweed is one of my favorite things to keep in my pantry.

It’s not always easy to find in the U.S., so when I find it, I always buy it.

The salted Kombu and chopped pickled beets were added to freshly cooked Japanese rice.

Taste it first and then add salt if it’s needed.

The salted Kombu is quite salty, so you want to make sure if additional salt is needed first.

These Onigiri turned out so pretty with the pink color from the beets.

But they are also super tasty!

Kombu Onigiri is one of my favorites.

I also made Karaage with the extra firm tofu from Costco.

The Costco tofu is so firm, firmer than the regular extra firm one I buy from other stores, and it works great for this dish.

Karaage is a Japanese fried chicken.

You marinade the chicken first, and I do the same with my tofu.

I used my air fryer to fry the marinated and floured Tofu.

It works every time.

Also found the lunch tray are miso soup, kimchi, and curried chickpea salad.

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by : Reiko Japanese Food, Tofu

Koya-Tofu Nanban
高野豆腐南蛮

Chicken Nanaban is a popular dish in Japan.

It’s fried chicken coated with sweet tangy glaze and then served with chunky mayo-based sauce.

To veganize the dish I used Koya-tofu (freeze dried tofu) in place of chicken.

I “fried” my Koya-tofu in my air fryer first.

Make sure it’s coated well with this delicious sauce.

Soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, crushed red pepper flakes.

It’s best to enjoy this dish with white rice.

I can eat bowls of rice endlessly!

Traditionally, you add chopped boiled eggs to the mayo sauce.

But instead I used capers, which added some interesting flavor and texture.

I also added finely chopped radish.

Homemade vegan mayo, mustard, ketchup, salt, pepper, chopped radish, chopped capers.

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by : Reiko Mushrooms, Noodles/Pasta, Tofu

Fettuccine with King Mushrooms, Ground Koya-Tofu, and Garlic Chives
きのこ高野豆腐”挽肉”ニンニクの芽フェットチーネ

I like pasta with red sauce.

And we have that a lot for a weeknight dinner.

It’s an easy and tasty meal.

But I also like pasta without sauce, especially when I have certain ingredients.

I love any mushrooms, but king mushroom is one of my favorite mushrooms, mostly because of its meaty texture.

Ground Koya-Tofu (freeze dried tofu; cooked with soy sauce based sauce).

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2023/04/10/rice-with-bean-sprouts-and-ground-koya-tofu

I can’t help buying it when I find fresh chive flower (or garlic chives) at the local Asian grocery store.

I also used baby bella mushrooms.

They (and garlic) were all sauteed with olive oil, salt, and pepper and combined with freshly cooked fettuccine.

No sauce needed.

Simple and delicious.

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by : Reiko Rice/Grains, Tofu

Rice with Bean Sprouts and Ground Koya-Tofu
豆もやしと高野豆腐そぼろでごはん

I love bean sprouts, but they are usually served as a side dish, never a main dish.

I had such a large bag of them, and I was in a mood for eating a lot of it with my rice.

So I made this yummy dish with thick rich sauce.

It’s sweet, sour, and spicy, all in one!

I got this freeze-dried tofu, Koya-Tofu, at the same Asian grocery store where I bought my bean sprouts.

This tofu was marked down because the use-by date was near.

The freeze-dried tofu is very unique.

The texture is firm, so it can be used in place of meat.

This time I made them into small pieces by using the food processor to make them resemble ground meat.

The bean sprouts were topped off with the Koya-Tofu ground “meat”.

Itadakimasu – Thank you for the food.

Generously place the bean sprouts-koya-tofu mixture on top of the rice.

Yum!

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by : Reiko Asian Food, Gluten Free, Tofu

Wonderfully Chewy Boiled Dumplings (vegan)
もっちり米粉水餃子（ヴィーガン）

My husband and I are both big dumpling fans.

I usually opt for fried dumplings (or pot stickers), but this time I was in a mood for the boiled version.

The filling was made of tofu, garlic, ginger, cabbage, onion, and green onion, plus soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, pepper, and some corn starch.

I’m so proud that I made the wrappers myself, too.

They were made of rice flour, and as a result, you get a really wonderful chewiness when they are cooked.

They were served with a chunky type of sauce (soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, sesame seeds, onion, cilantro).

So tasty!!

This recipe (Japanese) was adapted for the wrappers.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqIRQPRgLIR/

Because I used Thai rice flour purchased in the U.S. I had to adjust the amount of water (I needed some extra).

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by : Reiko Japanese Food, Noodles/Pasta, Tofu

Arare Tofu Soba
タモリさんのあられ豆腐のせ蕎麦

Making this Arare Tofu is quite easy.

You remove excess water from soft tofu.

Cook the tofu in sesame oil, and add flavor with soy sauce and sake.

I added tomato in addition to tofu, and I also used some sugar and salt to finish.

The original recipe was created by Mr. Tamori, who is a Japanese celebrity who hosted a popular daily show called “Waratte Iitomo” for many years.

In Japan it is customary to eat Soba noodles on December 31.

It’s supposed to be a good luck because the long noodles represent a long life and happiness.

We are having a quiet evening tonight.

Just me and my husband at home.

We will watch some TV.

Not sure if we can make it to 12:00…

We’ll see.

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by : Reiko Bread, Sandwiches, Tofu

Tofu Nugget Sandwich Lunch
豆腐ナゲットサンドイッチランチ&ちょこっと”大掃除”

This is the kind of lunch plate I like to eat.

Tasty sandwiches, salad, and soup.

There are a lot of veggies, and the whole plate is plant-based.

Homemade buns.

I loe them when they are just out of the oven.

They are so soft and smell good.

Homemade tofu nuggets.

This is a basic recipe for which I only wanted to use ingredients that are easy to come by and for which I don’t need to use a knife.

I used Ao-nori (seaweed flakes) to give them umami.

These are small sized ones.

They make a great snack.

These are the larger ones that I used for the sandwiches.

I love how these mini sandwiches looked.

Gochujang veggie soup.

Who is interested in this lunch plate?

This is the time when you deep-clean your house, called “O-soji” in Japan.

I’ve been keeping the house in a good shape, by cleaning a little every day, so I don’t feel like we need to do “O-soji”.

But today I cleaned the fridge inside and out, and I felt good.

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by : Reiko Tofu

2022 Christmas Eve Lunch
２０２２年クリスマスイブランチ

This year I decided to have a low-key Christmas meal.

I just wanted to have a quiet relaxing day.

Initially the plan was not having a plan (lol), but at the last minute I wanted to have something still a bit special for lunch.

I saved this recipe for a while ago, but I didn’t have a chance to try it.

The recipe looked easy enough, so I thought it would be a good main dish.

It WAS easy to make, and it turned out great!

I happened to have leftover roasted cabbage from yesterday, so I made this roasted cabbage lentil sesame stew.

For the buns I made this microwave stuffed buns in the Christmas colors.

The red ones are stuffed with vegan meatballs, and the green ones are stuffed with sweet Adzuki bean paste.

The brown sugar mustard glaze was so tasty that I wanted to lick the plate!

The glazed tofu recipe – > https://www.instagram.com/fitgreenmind/

Stay warm and safe if you live in a cold climate like we do.

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by : Reiko Japanese Food, Rice/Grains, Tofu

Crispy Tofu Temaki Sushi for One
かりかり豆腐で、おひとり様手巻き寿司

It’s been really cold the past few days.

Yesterday it was only 5 F degrees and snowed all day.

So, I stayed home.

Luckily, I had enough food plus some fun ingredients to try.

A friend of mine was recently back in Japan, and she brought some fun gift for me.

I’ve never seen this mini bag of rice.

It’s so cute!

I wanted to try, and I decided to cook it for lunch.

The “Shiso” and Yuzu are from the Kaiseki chef.

He is always so generous and kindly shares Japanese foods that are hard to come by here with me.

The Yuzu zest was added to make pickled radish.

The Yuzu has such a refreshing flavor and takes the pickles to the next level.

It was a one-person lunch yesterday, so this is all I prepared for myself.

Well, that’s pretty much everything I happened to have at hand.

Inside the roll you’ll find Shiso, Yuzu radish pickles, air-fryer crispy tofu, and mashed avocado.

These were super tasty!

Since you don’t have to tightly roll or slice (if you make regular rolls), “temaki” is so easy.

This way you can enjoy the roasted seaweed still crispy this way too because you roll it when you’re ready to eat.

I had a dish of soy sauce ready for dipping, but I didn’t have to use it.

They were delicious without any extra sauce.

By the way, it’s cold again today.

It’s only -7 F degrees onw.

I’m staying at home.

By the way, this is what I’m reading right now.

I liked another book (The Pillars of the Earth) written by this author, so that’s why I decided to try this one.

So far so good.

I have a long way to go.

But time is what I have right now : ) .

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by : Reiko Sandwiches, Tofu

Breakfast Open Panini Sandwich
ブレックファストパニーニオープンサンドイッチ

A lot of times what I cook heavily depends on what produce I have to use up.

For this one I had several ripe grape tomatoes in the fridge.

First, I decided to panini-press sandwich bread slices.

I thought it would be fun to have them really crispy.

This is homemade vegan white cheese.

Scrambled turmeric tofu.

It was finished with garlic and tomato cooked in extra virgin olive oil and fresh arugula.

Simple.

But super tasty!

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