Vegan Grilled Cheese with Crispy Garlic Tofu

When I think of my early twenties I think of beer and grilled cheese sandwiches. Ah, the carefree days of youth! There's little more comforting to me than crispy bread and gooey cheese. Except...I can't eat cheese. In fact, it was making me sick for thirty years. When I finally made the choice to go dairy-free I felt better every day going forward, yet I missed grilled cheese. So I set out to make a good substitute. Simply using a vegan cheese like Daiya wasn't going to cut it. That just screams fake cheese! 


Lately we've been hooked on this extra firm tofu from Mother's Market by Wildwood. It's a pressed, vacuum packed, sprouted, organic, extra-firm tofu. This means it's super dense and you don't have to spend time (and endless paper towels) pressing and draining it. It slices nice and thin and cooks up perfectly. Even my mother who thinks she hates tofu loves this tofu!

The secret to this grilled cheese is a thin slice of garlic powder dusted and pan crisped tofu along with a thin layer of daiya and a thin layer of nayonaise. Find a good bread for this - nothing too dense, something airy that won't overwhelm the filling. I used Old Town Baking Co.'s Roasted Gilroy Garlic Sourdough and it was delicious!



Serves 2
INGREDIENTS:

• 4 slices of good bread
• cooking spray
• 1/3 cup +/- Daiya cheddar
• 2 bread-sized slices extra firm pressed tofu
• garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp Nayonaise

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat cast-iron skillet or large frying pan over medium heat. Coat with cooking spray
2. Sprinkle both sides of tofu with garlic powder and add tofu to pan. Cook about 3-5 minutes until golden and crispy. Flip and cook other side.
3. Remove tofu, but keep pan hot.
4. Spread Nayonaise on one side of bread, top with tofu, sprinkle Daiya on top, cover with second piece of bread. 
5. Spray pan with cooking spray and carefully set made sandwich in pan. Cook until bottom of bread is golden and crispy. Spray TOP side of bread with cooking spray and gently flip sandwich.
6. Cook other side of bread until golden and crispy.
7. Slice in half and enjoy!