Mediterranean potato and vegetable pan with marinated walnut tofu topping and pickled pearl onions

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 800 g potatoes, mainly waxy
• 2 bell peppers, yellow
• 350 g zucchini
• 200 g carrot(s)
• 150 g date tomatoes
• 4 stalk(s) Celery
• 3 garlic cloves
• 600 ml vegetable stock
• 4 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp, heaped curry paste, yellow
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• ½ lemon(s), juice
• 1 tsp thyme, dried
• 1 tsp rosemary, dried
• 1 tsp oregano, dried
• 1 tsp marjoram, dried
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• e.g. salt and pepper
• 250 g natural tofu
• 40 ml soy sauce
• 2 tbsp oil (basil oil)
• 2 tsp red wine vinegar
• ½ small onion(s)
• 1 garlic clove(s)
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• 40 g walnuts
• 1 tsp powdered sugar
• 125 g shallots, from the jar
• 1 tbsp oil for frying

Instructions

Working time approx. 40 minutes; Rest time approx. 12 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 25 minutes; Total time approx. 13 hours 5 minutes

vegan

Marinate the tofu overnight. First, squeeze the tofu for at least 15 minutes by wrapping it in kitchen paper and weighing it down with a weight, such as a carton of milk. This should draw out the flavorless water and allow the flavorful marinade to soak in. For the marinade: Mix the soy sauce, basil oil, and red wine vinegar in a sufficiently large bowl with a tight-fitting lid. Grate in some fresh onion and garlic. Crush the caraway seeds in a mortar and pestle and stir them into the marinade. Tear the squeezed tofu into smaller pieces and add them to the bowl with the marinade. Cover the bowl, shake everything well, and then refrigerate overnight. For the potato and vegetable stir-fry: Peel and dice the potatoes and carrots. Wash the bell peppers, remove the stems, cores, and white inner membranes, and cut the peppers into bite-sized pieces. Wash and slice the zucchini, halving thicker zucchini lengthwise if necessary. Wash and quarter the cherry tomatoes. Wash the celery and cut into small pieces. Peel and press or finely chop the garlic. Heat the olive oil in a high pan and fry the potatoes with the carrots, bell peppers, celery, and garlic for about 5-6 minutes over medium heat. Stir in the tomato paste and curry paste and fry everything for about 1 minute, stirring. Deglaze everything with the stock and add the thyme, rosemary, and oregano. Also add the red wine vinegar. Bring everything to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Then add the zucchini to the pan and cook for another 8 minutes. Finally, add the tomatoes and only now the marjoram and cook for another 2-3 minutes. This way, all the ingredients are roughly cooked to the same degree and are not mushy and overcooked. Season the pan with lemon juice, pepper, and salt. While the vegetables are cooking, take the marinated tofu out of the refrigerator and heat a pan with oil. Add the tofu with the remaining marinade, roughly crushed walnuts, and pickled shallots from the jar, and dust everything with powdered sugar. Fry the contents of the pan for about 5 minutes until caramelized, tossing or stirring occasionally. When serving, pour the tofu, walnuts, and shallots over the vegetables. Note: The marinade gives the tofu a lovely Mediterranean flavor; the caraway seeds develop roasted aromas in the pan and lose their strong caraway flavor. The walnuts add texture and nutty, bitter flavors, while the shallots add a sour crunch. The marinade for the tofu consists of very few solid ingredients, apart from the crushed caraway seeds, so that the liquids can penetrate the tofu. That’s why basil oil is used for the flavor here, not just olive oil with fresh basil. If you don’t have such a flavorful oil, just use olive oil. Basil would burn during frying anyway. The same applies to the grated onion and garlic. The juice produced during grating is important here. If you don’t have all the individual dried spices, you can use a blend of herbs de Provence instead, which is then added to the dish at the beginning along with the vegetable broth.