Let’s cut right to the chase: There wasn’t a laggard in the bunch in this meal tonight! From the grilled tofu to the lettuce it was wrapped in, from the corn on the cob to the green beans speckled with vegetarian bacon, we devoured this meal from end to end, and we took no prisoners.
The grilled tofu was certainly a star – if not the star – of the show, for sure. Around lunchtime, I prepared a marinade of ¾ cup of soy sauce with two tablespoons of honey, plus a teaspoon of garlic and a dash of cherry-pepper-and-cinnamon seasoning, whisked it together, and then poured it over eight tofu slices in a zip-top bag, moving the bag back and forth gently after zipping it to ensure the marinade had coated everything evenly. Then I put the tofu back in the fridge and let it sit until it was time to grill – about five hours later.
When we were about half an hour away from lighting the charcoal tonight, I prepared a whole passel of green beans from our friends out at Great Country Farms, washing the beans thoroughly and then snapping off the ends. I placed the newly-haircut beans into a foil packet along with a pat of butter, some dried minced onion, some garlic powder (not a lot!), about five halved cherry tomatoes (also from GCF), and, last but not least, some vegetarian bacon, which I broke apart and sprinkled on top of the green beans. Then I folded the packet up, added an extra sheet of foil for good measure, and put it on a plate to await Go Time.
Finally, I turned my attention to the corn. I came across this recipe earlier in the week and filed it away for use tonight; we’ve got a ton of corn flowing in the door right now, again from our friends at the farm, and quite honestly I’ve been running out of ways to grill it! So this recipe came at a very fortuitous time for me, all told. I followed it partially to the letter; I left out the cilantro and the cheese, and used Just Mayo for the mayonnaise. I also added some chipotle powder, because why not. Other than that, perfectly in line with this recipe. Hee.
With the prep work done, I fired up the grill and got down to business! First I put the green beans on – in the hottest part of the grill, as usual – and let them cook for about half an hour in all, turning them over every 10 minutes or so. Ten minutes into the cooking time, I added the corn to the party, and 15 minutes in I added the tofu. I paid careful attention to the tofu this time around – it has a tendency to stick on the grill grates if you get busy talking to your neighbors and don’t flip it very often! This time, I turned each tofu rectangle over every 5 minutes and had much better results.
As everything became nicely brown and thoroughly cooked, I pulled the tofu off first, then took the corn off to brush each ear with some of the creamy aioli I’d made inside earlier. Then I put the corn back on the grill for just a couple of minutes, rotating them to ensure they finished cooking evenly, and then took them and the green beans off the grill.
We tucked the tofu into large romaine lettuce leaves, creating little wraps for them and the accompany tomato slices I’d cut up earlier. The corn and green beans cuddled up alongside, and we dug in for a backyard barbecue that couldn’t be beat! The soy-honey glaze soaked into each bite of tofu beautifully, adding a sweet-savory kick to each mouthful, and the flavors of the Mexican street corn accompanied the tofu perfectly. The green beans brought the meal together with some (non-)meaty bacon and some tangy tomatoes, and of course we washed everything down with a Port City Derecho Common beer. Because why not?
I think it’s safe to say that we’ll make every ounce of this meal again in short order. It was a winner, from stem to stern!
:)