| Growing up -- Lox, Bagel and Cream Cheese, was my favorite breakfast. In my family, it was our special Sunday morning treat to be enjoyed alongside the Sunday edition of the newspaper (which had a full color comics section.) So coming up with a healthy, plant-based, gluten-free, oil-free, sugar-free alternative that is delicious and satisfying, brings me great joy! I hope that you enjoy these too! |
2 cups of red lentils
1/2 cup water
¼ cup lemon juice
1 TBS raisins
¾ cup psyllium husk powder
¼ cup ground golden flax seeds
1 TBS onion powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 TBS chia, poppy or sesame seeds (optional)
And what about Cream Cheese?
There are many great plant-based cream cheeses you can buy at the store now, however most of them have ingredients I'd prefer to avoid, and they tend to be kind of pricey too. So I was thrilled to find a truly delicious and simple recipe to make your own tofu cream cheese in Joanne Stepaniak's Uncheese Cookbooks. I have both editions of this (out of print) book and they are still my favorite cook books. Stepaniak was the first to publish a book of vegan cheese recipes, which was revolutionary at the time, especially since her recipes were all really terrific and tasty -- using mostly whole foods! They are always my first "go-to." She has slightly different recipes for her tofu cream cheese in the first book compared to the second. Here I have adapted her recipe more to my nutritional preferences. But I will warn you, my husband prefers the flavor of Stepaniak's recipe in the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook to mine LOL. So if higher fat, salt and sugar are what you desire -- I'd recommend you go straight to the Uncheese Cookbook --- it will probably taste better to you.
12 oz of extra firm tofu -- boiled and pressed slightly to remove water -- then weighed.*
1/3 cup raw cashew pieces (if using whole cashews -- use slightly more to get 40 grams)
1/4 cup hemp hearts
1 teaspoon nutritional yeast powder
1 tsp maple syrup
3 TBS lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt (NaCl)
1/4 teaspoon potassium chloride (KCl -- salt substitute)
- *I used the Kirkland organic extra firm tofu in a 1 lb package, which after breaking into chunks and boiling and then draining it and pressing with a slotted spoon -- I ended up using nearly the entire package in order to obtain 12 of very firm pressed tofu!
1) Break the tofu into chunks and put into a pot and cover with water and bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Then drain through a strainer-- pressing down with a slotted spoon to squeeze out extra water, then weight out 12 oz and put this into a powerful blender.
2) Place the remaining ingredients into the blender and blend well.
3) Drain the tofu and add it to the blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
For the full Lox, Bagel and Cream Cheese experience, you can get a jar of roasted red pepper slices (Woodstock organic fire roasted red peppers are delicious) cut these into strips and serve like lox. But a perfectly ripe summer tomato is almost as good!





