Today was so unseasonably warm (almost 60 degrees!) that for just a moment I considered firing up the grill again, just for old time’s sake! But in the end I decided to go with the original plan and light the smoker instead. This is a decision I’m very pleased with; the results were worth the wait!
I started marinating the tofu first thing this morning, dousing each rectangle with plenty of barbecue sauce before putting the zip-top bag in the fridge to stay nice and cool. Then there wasn’t much else to do but wait until late afternoon to get the smoker heated up!
A couple of hours out from dinnertime, I lit the smoker and let the flames die down. As they did, I prepped my Brussels sprouts, wrapping each sprout in a piece of vegetarian bacon! (I actually ran out of bacon and ended up cooking some of the sprouts by themselves, which we found was a nice complement to the bacon-laden offerings.)
Once the flames had settled out, I placed the barbecue tofu slices on the grate closest to the heat, then added the sprouts to the upper grate, and let everything cook for about an hour and a half. I certainly could have let them go a bit longer if needed – up to two hours, I’d say – but 90 minutes definitely did the job!
About 15 minutes out from serving time, I prepared the vegan macaroni and cheese – we used Earth Balance’s version for the first time. It was an easy lift, and by the time we’d pulled everything off the smoker, the mac and cheese was ready as well. We sat down to dig in, and we were not disappointed!
First of all, as usual, the stars of the show were those bacon-wrapped sprouts. Man oh man – we can’t get enough of them around here! Especially when the sprouts are so small and tender, straight from the farmers’ market, fresh-picked last week. The BBQ tofu was also a crowd-pleaser: In the interest of calorie-counting, we decided to forgo the buns tonight and eat them a la ribs instead, and we were very happy with the results.
And, finally, the Earth Balance mac and cheese. It was fantastic! So flavorful and, well, cheesy. I confess this was an impulse buy at the store last week, but next time it’ll be a planned purchase, and in short order, too. We were both very impressed.
Barbecue, bacon, and mac and cheese … I can’t think of a better way to kick off a new week!
:)