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Recipes from the "Kits Two Eco-Team"

Localish Gnocchi (Gnocchi = little round potato pasta)

Freshly made pasta is way more yummy than the store bought stuff. This recipe isn't too hard but takes some time. I'd suggest making it with a friendly helper.

Ingredients

4 medium potatoes

2 cups of white flour

1 egg

How to make it "localish"

It should be easy to find B.C. potatoes and Vancouver area eggs by checking the labeling at a nearby grocery store. Rogers claims it is the only B.C. flour mill. The flour is made with grain from Alberta or B.C. Rogers brand is carried by Safeway and Choices, among other grocery stores. Other options for keeping your ingredients close to home are local farmers markets and grocery delivery services or food buying coops specializing in local foods like Small Potatoes Urban Delivery and NOW BC. [Brad- you could add links or refer to the resources page and add NOW BC if you'd like].

Directions

Peel, boil and mash potatoes. Let cool. Combine potatoes, egg and flour in a mixing bowl. You may need to add a little less or more flour so that the dough is moist but not overly sticky.

Roll the dough into tubes that are about 1 cm wide on a floured surface. Cut the tubes into 2–4 cm long pieces. Roll the pieces a bit if you want them to be round. Dust the pieces lightly with flour.

Cook the gnocchi pieces in small batches in boiling water. Small batches help keep the gnocchi from sticking together. Remove gnocchi once they float to the surface. This only takes a couple minutes.

Serve gnocchi with pesto, rose sauce or tomato sauce.

RECIPE: CRISPY TOFU and PEANUT SAUCE

Marinated Tofu Cubes

When making this marinade, it is very important to mix the ingredients first, before pouring them over the tofu, If you pour the individual ingredients over the tofu, whatever you put in first will be the only thing that flavours the tofu.

Cut a regular-size block of tofu into 64 cubes (4x4x4), to ensure that each cube has plenty of flavour. Because a marinade will penetrate only a couple of millimetres into the tofu, the cubes should be small enough so there is not too much plain tofu left in the middle of each.

There is enough marinade in this recipe to cover two clocks of firm tofu. Stored in a sealed container in the fridge, the cubes will keep up to three days.

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup tamari (tamari is essentially soya sauce but not as processed... but you can use soya sauce)

1/4 cup filtered water

1-1/2 tbsp sunflower oil

1 9 oz (250g) block firm tofu, cut into 64 cubes

1. Mix vinegar, tamari, water and oil thoroughly in a large bowl. Pour marinade over tofu cubes

2. Marinate cubes for at least 15 min (I recommend 1 hour or overnight)

Makes 64 cubes.

Then....

Coat these marinated cubes with:

Crispy Tofu Coating

This dry mix lasts indefinitely, as long as it doesn't have chunks of tofu or food left in it. it's a good idea to remove the amount of coating you need, so that if little bits of food break off, you haven't contaminated the whole batch.

1 cup flaked nutritional yeast (if you can't find flaked then unflaked nutritional yeast will be fine)

1/2 cup wheat germ

1 tbsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl; mix.

You then fry the coated cubes in oil until golden and crispy. I usually turn the cubes over and over again to get crispy on all sides (Best to fry in an oil like canola or sunflower or safflower because an oil like olive and I believe corn becomes unhealthy when heated to high temperatures.)

This sauce goes really well with the crispy tofu

Thai Peanut Sauce

Makes 4 servings

Be very careful when heating this sauce, as the peanut butter burns easily. If it becomes too thick or separates, just whisk in some water or stock until it is the right consistency. If you have a juicer, you can replace the vegetable stock with carrot and celery juice for a deeper fuller flavour. Stores for up to one week in the fridge (also freezes fine).

5 cloves garlic crushed

1 inch ginger root peeled and minced

1 1/2 cups natural smooth peanut butter

3/4 cups lemon juice

5 tbsp tamari

2 tbsp paprika

cayenne paper to taste

2 cups vegetable stock or filtered water

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth.

2. Heat gently for 10 minutes, stirring often. Serve hot.

Enjoy!

Cheers Anna