The Aspiring Luddite

	I carry no phone An aspiring Luddite In a wired world. Mastodon Verification Link	Jeff Berry is an early adopter of the Internet and the Web, a late adopter of Twitter, and declines to adopt Facebook. With the death of Google+, he migrated to the Fediverse. He admins a medievalist Mastodon instance. He hates cell-phones.

BBQ Tofu (with Lentils)
21 March 2013

When I lived in Boulder, there was a restaurant downtown run by Tibetan monks. It's not there anymore, sadly, because they made an amazing BBQ tofu. Over the years, I've made a few attempts at recreating it, and while the results have all been at least edible, and sometimes were pretty good, they weren't quite the same. I'm not sure that the version I've got here is the same either, but it's closer than many of my attempts. It's also better than many of them.

The trick, of course, is getting the sauce right. You could make this dish using your favorite commercial barbecue or BBQ sauce, but you'll miss out on some of the fun that way. The lentils are also entirely optional, and did not, in fact, appear in the original. I added them for two reasons: they add a bit of crunch, which is nice, and I'm enjoying playing with lentils at the moment.

As for the tortilla ... well, I had originally thought I would be making something like a roti. It wasn't until the tofu was in the sauce that I realized I was flashing back to the halcyon days of my youth in Boulder.

[Lots of pictures]

BBQ Tofu (with Lentils)

an onion
4 cloves garlic
a splash of olive oil
1 lb canned tomatoes
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp chili powder (chipotle, if you've got it)
1/2 lb lentils
1 package tofu (usually around a pound)

Again, we commence with something great and good - onions and garlic sautéing in olive oil. Mince the garlic, chop the onion pretty small and get it all going in the oil. Add the salt, sugar and pepper and mix well. Cook until the sugar has dissolved and the onions and garlic have picked up a little color. Add the tomatoes and chili powder, bring to a simmer and walk away for a while - ten minutes or so, although you can go longer if you've got the heat low enough.

Put your lentils into a pot with about twice as much water as lentil and bring to a simmer. I used plain lentils for this, since they hold together well, and I wanted the crunch.

As the lentils cook, cut your tofu and add it to the pot with the sauce. Stir to make sure they get good and coated. Then let them soak in the simmering sauce until the lentils are just cooked.

Drain the lentils. Put a helping of tofu and sauce on a tortilla, add some lentils on top, fold and serve.

That's all there is to it ... pretty straight-forward but oh-so-good.

The Aspiring Luddite