An easy grain bowl built on roasted tofu, broccoli — and a killer dressing
Sometimes it feels like I'm running a fast-casual restaurant out of my home kitchen, with a nightly clientele of just two. What grain would we like for the base of our bowls? What protein? What vegetable? What dressing, and what crunchy topping(s)?
That's when things are working the way I've planned, and I've got all of the above — in multiple choices, sometimes! — waiting in the fridge or freezer for me to defrost (if need be), assemble and warm. And it can be a particularly efficient, even satisfying, way to eat, especially because my partner and I have different dietary preferences. He can have shrimp over cauliflower “rice,” and I can have tofu or beans over barley, but we'll both get roasted red peppers, say, plus charred zucchini, topped with a homemade vinaigrette or yogurt sauce and nuts.
It's clearly the way Laura Wright eats as well. In the blogger's first cookbook, “The First Mess” (Avery, 2017), she writes about just the same type of strategy: “Most nights, dinner is an amalgamation of several parts nestled into a big bowl at my house.”
It might seem strange to be suggesting just such a strategy while also recommending Wright's recipe for one particular bowl, but consider it inspiration for the types of things you can combine when you get into the right mindset.
My favorite part of her recipe for Roasted Chile Lime Tofu Bowls is the dressing/marinade and its spicy-tart punch. You toss extra-firm tofu (patted dry but not pressed) in it quickly, then roast for a bit, add broccoli florets to the baking sheet and roast some more, and then serve both over brown rice with sprouts and sunflower seeds. You chop up basil, toss it in the remaining marinade and spoon that over the bowls before serving.
My only regret: that I wasn't left with any extra dressing. Next time, I'll double or triple that part — or perhaps every other element, too, and get my kitchen ready for the next few fast-casual nights.
• Joe Yonan is the Food and Dining editor of The Washington Post and the author of “Eat Your Vegetables: Bold Recipes for the Single Cook.”