Tofu Rolls and Raw Almond Chocolate Balls

Tofu Rolls

Well, it’s been raining here all day and it’s just so damn depressing (yes, even with the few rays of sun that shine through the clouds every so often).  And, what is more cheerful that party food!  So, here are some wonderful ‘sausage’ rolls – great for packed lunches and picnics too!

I have slightly modified my pastry recipe (found here) to suit my new eating habits.  The plain flour should be exchanged with wholemeal or whole wheat flour (or rice flour if you wish), and most of the Nuttelex with vegetable oil.  You can make it whichever way you wish.  If you prefer, you can just roll this out on frozen pastry sheets (Borg’s make an excellent vegan puff pastry which would work well.)

What you’ll need for the filling:

• 1/2 cup loosely packed walnuts
• 3/4 cup loosely packed almonds
• 250 grams firm tofu
• 1 decent sized onion
• 4-5 spears of steamed and cooled asparagus (or tinned asparagus)
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes (optional)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon agave syrup or maple syrup
• 1/3 cup water

Put the nuts into a food processor and wizz up until in small chunks (if you want the mix more nutty, leave the nut-chunks bigger, if you want it smooth, make them smaller).  Put in the tofu in large cubes and blend until combined.  Add the onion (sectioned into 8 chunks) and the asparagus and wizz until they are combined in.  Then add the nutritional yeast, soy sauce and syrup and begin wizzing those in, while slowly pouring the water into the mix.

Spread the mix out onto pastry sheets and roll – brush the pastry with a little bit of non-dairy milk!  Bake in a pre-heated 180-200 degree oven for about 20 minutes, turning over for the final five, or until pastry is golden.

As you can see from the photo, I didn’t trim the excess pastry off the edges – these are just for S and I to have for lunch during the week, and I’m tired.  Also – I kind of like how rustic they look (though, you will notice that one of them split…  ah well!)

Raw Almond Chocolate Balls

This recipe only makes a very small batch.  Maybe 5 or 6 balls depending how big you roll them out.  This is meant to just be a sweet-tooth quencher or a for those times you really feel like something delicious with your tea and there are no biscuits in the entire house.

You’ll need:

• 6 tablespoons almond meal
• 1 tablespoon LSA mix (Linseed, Sunflower and Almond)  Alternatively – use 7 tablespoons of almond
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
• just enough agave syrup/maple syrup/rice malt syrup to bind together (choose your poison, but remember that these will produce different sweetness levels)

Mix all the dry in a small bowl, slowly add the syrup until the mix is just combined enough, roll into balls, eat.

That’s it.  I would give you a photo, but I ate all the balls…