Miso Marinated Tofu with My Pasta’s Last Stand: Vegan & Gluten Free

An easy to make anytime pasta with a vegetable packed tomato sauce, using whatever vegetables you have to hand. Jazzed up here with some miso marinated tofu to make a completely vegan meal. You could of course use grated cheese instead.

Whenever I need to get supper on and I haven’t thought about what we’re going to eat, I inevitably turn to my Pasta’s Last Stand. It’s always delicious, I don’t need any special ingredients, but best of all, I don’t have to think about it. Normally I’d scatter a bit of cheese over the top, but as it’s Veganuary this month, I thought I’d ring the changes and scatter some miso marinated tofu over it instead.

Veganuary

As regular readers will know, I’m not a vegan. However I do cook and eat a lot of vegan food. During Veganuary, I try to eat a bit more than normal – it seems a good thing to do after all the chocolate and rich eating at Christmas. Veganuary is a charity that aims to inspire people to eat only plant-based foods for the month of January. For many it’s the start of a vegan journey.

Miso Marinated Tofu

Oh my. I could eat a plateful of this miso marinated tofu every day. It’s absolutely scrumptious. Long gone are the days when I thought tofu was just too boring for words. It’s true, if given a choice, I’d take tempeh, but tofu is just brilliant for marinading and soaking up those flavours. In this case you can marinade it whilst preparing Pasta’s Last Stand, though an even longer soak would be better.

You wouldn’t think the Asian flavours of the miso marinated tofu would go so well with an Italian style pasta, but they really do. It was such a success, CT has declared himself keen on having the tofu as a topping instead of cheese from now on in. I’m not sure that’s going to happen, but it’s a great way to jazz up my Pasta’s Last Stand.

Pasta’s Last Stand

This is a great standby. I nearly always have tins of tomatoes to hand along with fresh onions & garlic. A raid on the rack normally yields some other vegetables. I just use what I’ve got. If I don’t have any fresh veg, then frozen will do nicely. Courgettes, broccoli stems, celery, carrots, parsnips, squash, sweetcorn and peas all work well. This time I went with celery, carrots & red pepper as that’s what I had to hand.

If you don’t fancy making the marinated miso as a topping, why not try my easy recipe for vegan parmesan cheese instead? It’s really good.

This time the pasta I used was Suma’s fusilli brown rice pasta. We were impressed. It was hard to tell the difference between that and standard wheat pasta. The fusilli are slightly smaller, tighter and springier, which we really liked. It’s also gluten free.

You should be able to find the pasta in most independent whole food stores. Suma is a wholesale cooperative selling vegetarian wholefoods, though you can order direct. They have their own line on most products and the quality is high.  My latest Suma order also included some tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, barley miso and tofu – all organic of course.

Homemade Pasta

If you fancy having a go at making your own whole wheat pasta, you can elevate most pasta dishes into a gourmet meal. It’s a lot easier than you might think. Follow the link and you’ll find out how to make it.

Other Easy Vegan Meals You Might Like

• Asparagus risotto with peas and wild garlic pesto
• Black bean curry bowls
• Carrot falafel with tahini sauce
• Pulled jackfruit in barbecue sauce
• Simple laksa noodle soup with tofu, red peppers and green cabbage
• Swede & bean stew

I have plenty more Tin and Thyme recipes which feature tofu as a main ingredient. And for even more ideas, head over to my tofu Pinterest board.

Keep in Touch

If you’d like more pasta recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.

Choclette x

Miso Marinated Tofu and Gluten-Free Pasta. PIN IT.

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5 from 2 votes

Miso Marinated Tofu & Pasta’s Last Stand

An easy to make anytime pasta with a vegetable packed tomato sauce, using whatever vegetables you have to hand. Jazzed up here with some miso marinated tofu to make a completely vegan meal. You could of course use grated cheese instead.

Cook ModeToggle to keep screen awake

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian, Japanese

Keyword: easy, midweek meal, miso, pasta, smoked tofu, vegan, vegetarian

Servings: 4 people

Calories: 552kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Ingredients

Miso Marinated Tofu

• 2 spring onions (scallions) sliced
• 2 clove garlic finely chopped
• thumb size knob root ginger finely chopped
• 4 tsp barley miso
• ½ orange juiced
• 450 g firm tofu cut into 2cm squares
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Pasta’s Last Stand

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion finely chopped
• 2 large carrots diced
• 2 stick celery diced
• 1 large red pepper diced
• 2 clove garlic
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tsp dried Italian herbs (Italian seasoning) or a few sprigs of fresh herbs – thyme, basil, oregano, marjoram, parsley
• 400 g tinned chopped tomatoes
• 2 tsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp tamari (affiliate link)
• 1 tsp sweet chilli sauce optional, but recommended
• 320 g fusilli rice pasta or pasta of your choice

Metric – US Customary

Instructions

Miso Marinated Tofu

• Place all of the marinated tofu ingredients except the tofu and olive oil into a bowl and mix everything together. Add the tofu pieces and stir gently until everything is covered. Marinade overnight of possible, but at least ½ an hour. Stir occasionally so that the tofu can absorb as much as the marinade as possible.
• Five minutes before the pasta is ready to be served, fry the tofu pieces in the olive oil over a medium heat until they are nicely burnished.

Pasta’s Last Stand

• Fry the onions, celery, carrots, pepper and garlic in a large pan over a moderate heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add the water and clamp a lid on the pan so that the vegetables can soften. Simmer for about 5 minutes.
• Add all the remaining ingredients except the pasta. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or longer if you prefer. The longer the sauce simmers, the better it is.
• Meanwhile cook the pasta according to packet instructions.
• Serve the pasta in large bowls. Ladle on some sauce, then scatter over some miso marinated tofu.

Notes

Any leftover marinade can be added to the pasta sauce.

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on exact ingredients used.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories: 552kcal | Carbohydrates: 82g | Protein: 19g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Sodium: 482mg | Potassium: 522mg | Fiber: 11g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 6339IU | Vitamin C: 55mg | Calcium: 210mg | Iron: 3mg

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below letting us know how you got on and do share a photo on Instagram. Tag @choclette8 or use hashtag #tinandthyme.

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Link-ups

This miso marinaded tofu with Pasta’s Last Stand is my twelfth recipe for the Suma Blogger’s Network.

I’m sharing this with Cook Once Eat Twice over at Searching for Spice. I always make enough Pasta’s Last Stand for two nights, so all I have to do the next day is cook some pasta.

Also sharing with Everyday Healthy Recipes for #CookBlogShare.

And finally my miso marinated tofu and Pasta’s Last Stand go to Le Coin de Miel for #FreeFromFridays.

Some of the ingredients for this recipe were provided by Suma.I was not expected to write a positive review and all opinions are, as always, my own. Thanks to my readers for supporting the brands and organisations that help to keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging.