If you are concerned that making gluten-free vegan meals is too labor-intensive, too time-consuming, and too much trouble, consider the meal in the accompanying photo.
First, this vegan gluten-free meal of baked tofu with ginger and chutney, butternut squash soup with rice garnished with Brad’s Raw Leafy Kale with vegan cashew cheese, and fresh tomato wedges with a fresh basil leaf requires very little labor, time, or trouble.
For the baked tofu with ginger, adapted from a recipe on Aldi’s website almost 5 years ago, cut a pound of nonsilken tofu into 3/4-inch slices and arrange them in a single layer in a nonreactive baking dish. Combine 2 T gluten-free tamari sauce, 2 T fresh chopped basil (optional, but delicious), 2 t olive oil, 1 T vinegar, 1 T chopped parsley, ½ t ground ginger or 1 T minced fresh ginger, and 1 t sesame oil in a jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake vigorously. Pour over tofu and marinate 20 minutes. Bake tofu in marinade 10-15 minutes in a 400-degree oven. Serve with your favorite chutney.
Stock up on soups, such as Imagine brand. Be sure to read the labels because not all are vegan or gluten-free. The butternut squash soup in the photo is straight out of the package with leftover steamed rice. Garnish with the small bits of Brad’s Raw Leafy Kale that end up in the bottom of the container and that you cannot bear to throw away.
Add fresh tomato wedges garnished with fresh basil (or parsley or mint or whatever you like).
Second, not everything that a gluten-free vegan eats has to come from the bulk food aisle, simmer for 12 hours, require three hours of washing and chopping, and so forth. Keep enough of your favorite healthy, vegan, gluten-free fast foods on hand to keep you from feeling deprived. Going vegan and gluten-free should feel as if a great weight has been lifted from your shoulders, not as if you were a pack mule with two more steamer trunks to lug up from the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
Third, if you need a way to keep track of your new recipes, get the free app at PepperPlate.com to download recipes, add your own recipes manually, and generate shopping lists from those recipes (thank you, dear daughter Meg McCart for that idea and the baked tofu with ginger recipe).
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