This method will take the blandness off your tofu, yet make it just neutral enough to use in pretty much every dish you want to add tofu to.

It also gives tofu a great, chewy texture.

Ingredients

450 g of firm/extra firm tofu (I use Singh Tahoe brand), sliced into three slabs lengthwise

1/1.5 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp Chinese rice wine

1 tbsp sriracha sauce

Method

– Press the slabs of tofu by placing them between sheets of kitchen towel and putting weight on them. I use two chopping boards and a heavy, cast-iron pan to weigh it all down. Let stand for an hour.

– Dice the tofu. I cut every slab into three slices, then chop those into six pieces. Anyway, just think bite size.

– Mix the wet ingredients in a shallow container with a lid. Add the tofu and mix again. The sauce needs to *just* cover the tofu. Put on the lid.

– Let stand for at least an hour, carefully shaking the container or turning it over to coat the tofu once or twice. Marinating the tofu longer won’t hurt (at all). The tofu will absorb all the moisture.

– Preheat the oven to 200 C, line a baking tray with baking parchment.

– Bake the tofu for 30/40 minutes, turning it every 10 minutes or so (no need to be overly precise, just give the cubes a quick flip with a flat spatula).

– Bake until it looks firm and slightly charred.

– Take the tray out of the oven and let the tofu cool. It will firm up even more as it cools.

– Either use it in a dish straight away or store it in the fridge or freezer to use later.

When life hands you close-to-black bananas (or when you clearly haven’t been eating your fruit), make banana bread.

Wet ingredients

3 overripe bananas

1 tsp vanilla essence

75 ml flavourless oil (I use rice bran oil)

60 g almond butter

60 g coconut sugar

3 tbsp plant milk

Dry ingredients

110 g plain flour

90 g wholemeal flour

25 g unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

2 tsp baking powder

generous pinch of salt

70 g walnuts, roughly chopped

100 g dark chocolate (check if vegan), chopped

Preparation

– Preheat oven to 180 C.

– Cover a regular-sized loaf cake tin with baking parchment (if you’re lazy like me, just ball up the parchment and unscrunch it, then use it to cover the tin).

– Put peeled bananas in a wide bowl and mash them up.

– Add all ingredients under ‘wet ingredients’ and mix well.

– Put everything listed under ‘dry ingredients’ in another mixing bowl. Mix very well.

– Add wet to dry ingredients and mix until combined.

– Put the batter in the prepared baking tin, smoothing the top.

– Bake for 40/45 minutes until a wooden skewer comes out clean.

– Let cool in the tin for 10 minutes, before turning out on a cooling rack.