Meatless Monday with Vegan Tofu Kebabs with Cilantro Sauce

Welcome to the Miratel blog for another summer edition of our Meatless Monday vegan recipe share series. Miratel took the Meatless Monday pledge to support reducing meat consumption 15% by eliminating it one day per week to preserve the health of our planet. We consider our support of this great movement part of our CSR business strategies as it spreads awareness of the impact of our food choices on our environment.

The summer months bring about thoughts of BBQs, burgers, kebobs and hotdogs; and just because you’ve made the choice to go vegan doesn’t mean you can’t have all of these foods. In recent weeks, we’ve been sharing some great summer BBQ recipes like a Vegan Grilled Vegetable and Tofu “Lasagna” with Pesto, a Vegan Eggplant Crunchburger, a Vegan Kidney Bean & Walnut Burgers with Mississippi Comeback Sauce, a Vegan Japanese Eggplant Dog, a Vegan Bistro Beet Burger and the Ultimate Sriracha Veggie Burger. Today we’ll be adding to this list with a tofu kebab with cilantro sauce recipe, which comes by way of the Martha Stewart kitchens at Everyday Food. Although not exclusively vegetarian or vegan, the Martha Stewart website also includes some wonderful vegetarian and vegan recipes perfect for all occasions.

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh cilantro leaves
  

  Image courtesy of marthastewart.com

• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more for grates
• 1/2 jalapeno chile, seeded
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 3 scallions, white and green parts separated and cut into 1-inch lengths
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 package (14 ounces) extra-firm tofu, weighted and cut into 12 pieces
• 2 summer squash, halved and cut into 1-inch pieces

Directions

1. Heat grill to medium. In a food processor, combine cilantro, 1/4 cup oil, jalapeno, ginger, lime juice, and scallion greens. Blend until smooth; season with salt and pepper. Combine tofu, scallion whites, and 1 tablespoon oil; season with salt and pepper. Thread tofu and scallion whites onto four skewers, then thread squash onto four skewers.
2. Clean and lightly oil hot grates. Grill squash kebabs, covered, until tender, 11 to 13 minutes, turning occasionally. Grill tofu kebabs until scallions are soft, 4 to 6 minutes, turning occasionally; brush with cup cilantro sauce and grill 30 seconds more. Serve kebabs with remaining cilantro sauce.

Our recipe will yield four portions but can easily be expanded upon for summer gatherings. This is a great vegan option for a weeknight meal or weekend gathering because it takes thirty minutes to prepare and a total of thirty minutes to make. When prepping this dish, be aware that “both wooden and metal skewers are great for kebabs. Wooden skewers need to be soaked in water for 30 minutes before use.” By soaking the wooden skewers before using them it will prevent them from burning on the grill.

To complete this meal, serve with a leafy green salad and some bread lightly brushed with oil and toasted on the grill.

If you haven’t already, we encourage you to visit the Meatless Monday website and join us in taking the pledge today. Spread the word at home and at work and promote CSR business initiatives to make your green call centre, office, factory, shop, restaurant or salon even greener.

___________________________________________________________________________________

For nonprofit, nonprofit fundraising, CSR business and other news, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Pinterest or subscribe to our RSS feed.

Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including PCI compliant inbound telephone fundraising, outbound telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery fundraising services, donation processing and receipting and direct mail fundraising services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all our business decisions  and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.