My First Vegan Recipe

I may be on a recipe creation this week. As a work at home mom, one of my challenges every weekend is coming up with a full week's menu. It became a bit more challenging when I started to refuse eating meat. I think it's been more than a month since I last ate pork or beef. If I had, I may have done so unknowingly or unwittingly. All I know is that I do not want to eat or prepare dishes that has meat as its main ingredient. Thus, the month-long streak of fish menu in our household.

I do not however know if I would want to be a vegan, all I know is that I prefer to eat veggies and fish now more than any other. I still know for a fact that I can not give up butter and fresh milk. Not yet, that is. But until I can find something else to be obsessed with, I guess I can not go full-on vegan just yet.

But going back to my weekly dilemma, I have found a solution. I gave the task to my husband. Because that's what husbands are for. Plus, it was only fair and reasonable. He thinks of the food, I cook. As long as there's no meat in there, I'm good with it. But the solution posed another problem. My husband kind of got a bit too experimental. He imagined so much vegetable and non-meat food that he sort of like opened a new portal for new recipes for me. Which is totally cool, by the way. I like pushing myself to new boundaries. It's exciting. So yesterday was a bit easy. I just pulled an old recipe I invented during my breastfeeding days. It was easy. But for today, the dish he requested was something I have never tried before. Well, sort of.

He wanted me to cook a tofu dish. I would call it Tofu with green beans and carrots in tomato sauce. Not really artistically and intelligibly thought of because that's basically just it. Nothing too special about it. Just tofu mixed with green beans and carrots, drenched in tomato sauce.

The recipe

Here's what you need:
4 pcs Tofu
2 pcs carrots
1 can green beans
half of a small pack of tomato paste
2 cups water
salt and pepper

Procedure:
You need to fry the tofu. But before you do, slice each pieces into three slightly thin layers and dry it in between layers of paper towels for at least 30 minutes. Once you've dried it, slice each layers into three long pieces. It should look like fat french fries ready to be fried. Fry the tofu until they're golden brown. Set aside.

On a separate pan, sautee onion and garlic on olive oil until onions are limp. Then, add the fried tofu. Sprinkle some salt and pepper. Then, pour the tomato paste. Add water. Let boil for a few minutes. Add the carrots. I like my carrots a bit crunchy that's why I add them last. Simmer for a few more minutes and serve while it's hot.

I didn't realize that the entire thing has become a vegan recipe. It just looks like a menudo or mechado recipe without the meat. Like I said, I don't really plan on becoming a vegan, this may be just a one time thing. But hey, it all starts with one meal, right? I'm not sure though if I can do this everytime especially that I did not really intend to not use any non-vegan ingredient for this recipe. Who knows?