Ethan's Ribbon Salad

My son has always been pretty picky about what foods he will eat, but I've been wearing him down over the last year or so, trying to get him to try new things by preparing them in different ways. I made a simple salad using my peanut dressing and was happy to find that he would tolerate eating more than just a bite, so I've added it to my regular recipe rotation. The trick is, I think, in shredding the lettuce. It turns it into little green ribbons that have a fun texture and coat well using very little dressing.

Ethan's Ribbon Salad

1 head romaine lettuce (or two romaine hearts)
2 green onions, sliced thin
1/4 c. sliced almonds
2 tsp. flax seeds
1-2 T. Tangy Peanut Dressing (to taste)

Wash the romaine and shake off as much excess water as you can. Blot leaves dry with a clean towel and stack on a cutting board, holding the leaves together in a tight bundle, and slice thinly across. (I like my threads to be about as wide as a linguine noodle, maybe a little smaller... I just eyeball it!) Toss in a medium-large bowl with the green onion. You can refrigerate the salad here, or let it sit for a while to let the onion flavor to come out a bit. When you are ready to serve the salad, top with almonds, flax seeds, and dressing and toss till coated. I use the minimum amount of dressing on this salad, as it's pretty potent and I don't like the other flavors in the salad to be overwhelmed.

You can also add shredded carrot, thinly sliced celery, or peeled and seeded cucumber chunks to your salad and it will be fabulous.

Tangy Peanut Sauce & Dressing

This is a great all-purpose sauce to have on hand. Just store it in a reused peanut butter jar like I do, and thin it with water or oil depending on how you use it. I love it on noodles and salads :)

Tangy Peanut Sauce & Dressing

2/3 c. smooth, unsweetened peanut butter (I use Maranatha brand)
1/3 c. seasoned rice vinegar
1/3 c. soy sauce
2 T. olive oil
2 t. ground ginger
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. maple or cane syrup
pinch red pepper

Whisk ingredients till smooth and store in a tightly sealed container in the fridge.

How to press tofu!

Okay, I know everyone's new to tofu at some point. I'm going to attempt to explain how one goes about pressing the much-maligned bean curd here, for reference. This is my method, which I've perfected over the course of a year of working with the stuff. It'll press your tofu into a very dense little brick that fries up chewy and crisp, or that you can squish into mock ricotta cheese.

You want to start with a tray of extra firm tofu. Not the little shelf-stable boxes, but the kind you have to refrigerate. (Golly, this would be better with pictures, huh?) Cut the plastic open and drain, then turn out the tofu onto a cutting board. Wrap the block in a paper towel, nothing fancy... just make sure the big sides are covered. The sides don't mater much. Next, take a dry, very clean dishtowel and roll it around the tofu. You want a nice little bundle that lies flat, go ahead an experiment with different folds to see what works best for your towel size.

Next, you want something heavy and preferably small. I'm a big cheater and have a 4"x4" block of steel from my jewelrysmithing days, and it weighs a ton so I just keep it in a ziploc bag and put it on my tofu bundle. You can experiment with books, or use a small plate or pan and put a couple cans of beans or something on top. Anything that's heavy and fairly compact will do. If it's too big, it tends to tip to one side or the other and can leave you with lopsided tofu. Nobody wants that!

Once you've got something heavy resting on your tofu, go read some new recipes or clean the kitchen, or maybe read a book. Watch a movie or go shopping, whatever you like, because you're going to want to press that puppy for at least an hour. I usually leave mine pressing for 3 hours (or longer, if I forget...). Once it's pressed to your liking, take off the sopping-wet dishtowel, peel off the paper towel, and use or store in the fridge till you need it. To store it, put it in a flat-bottomed container and cover with clean water. It won't reabsorb the water, I promise!

Now you are ready tomake some pretty awesome tofu recipes!