Broccoli salad with peanut butter dressing and baked tofu

This is week one of an attempt to make better lunches. By better, I mean more satisfying than my default meal of yogurt, carrots and fruit. That works fine enough in summer, but it doesn't seem to cut it in the nasty months of the year, when winter seems endless. And then I wind up hitting the vending machine, which is still not satisfying, or good for me.

So the plan is to spend a bit more time on the weekend prepping some choices for the week. I figured I'd start with some of the options from this Kitchn post, which breaks things down into bases, toppings and dressings that you can toss together each day so you don't have a soggy lunch that makes you go to the vending machine.

I thought I’d give another tofu recipe a try, just in case it’s somehow gotten better.

Tofu and broccoli salad with peanut butter dressing

Adapted from Kitchn.com

The base: 1 bag broccoli slaw mix mixed with 1 red pepper, cut into julienne strips

The toppings: Peanuts, chopped cilantro, baked tofu (made from this Kitchn method, by first marinating chunks of tofu in a mixture of 1 tablespoon each of rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce and water for up to overnight and then baking it for 20 minutes or more at 350 degrees. (Longer baking time equals chewier tofu.)

The dressing: ½ cup smooth peanut butter, ¼ cup rice vinegar, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons water, 1 to 2 teaspoons Sriracha, 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil. The original recipe calls for this being whisked together. I can’t imagine how the recipe authors managed this, unless they are co-op shoppers who only can imagine fancy peanut butter from the produce area instead of the stuff in the tub in the canned good aisles from Target. I broke down and used a food processor. It still winds up being a bit of a sludge, but that way it’s a mixed sludge instead of brown liquid with a big ball of peanut butter in it.

The drill: Store the base mixture separately, then top as desired when you're ready to assemble your lunch. No need to transport the dressing separately; you can put glops of the dressing on top and it’s so thick it won’t make the sturdy cabbage soggy.

Rating: The dressing is tasty, even if it looks a tad unappetizing before it’s mixed in. Reasonably filling, since the cabbage provides plenty of bulk and crunch, and the thick dressing with peanut butter adds to the heft factor. If I were to make it again, I might try adding more liquid to make the dressing more dressing-like. The tofu? Well, that treatment makes it more edible than I remember, since the marinade gives it some flavor (and no doubt more calories/sodium as well).

At any rate, no vending machine trips this past week, so yay me.