$5 challenge; Vegan Bobotie.

Bobotie ( Ba boat ee) is a South African dish of spiced mince with an egg based custard topping. It is a beautiful dish and one that has many variants. Another reason to like it as if you do not have an ingredient you can substitute another. It can also act as a spiced version of Shepherds Pie and make use of leftover roasted meat.

The price of meat in Australia currently is proving a boon to the farmers and exporters with high prices. However this leaves those living frugally with a  a harder task to make ends meet. ( no pun intended)

Having recently discovered I can make something edible from firm tofu I set about making a vegan bobotie. By eliminating the meat  I hoped to be able to make an inexpensive yet tasty alternative.

I was not being facetious about making firm tofu edible. I love silky tofu in all its various culinary forms but the texture of firm tofu does not in the main agree with me. I can eat it but the enjoyment would be greater if I were to eat a kitchen sponge. This indolence towards using firm tofu changed when I was tempted to try to make some crispy tofu, sweet corn and green onions balls. I wish I had taken photos so I could have told you more about making them.

The essential thing was the tofu was blended to a paste and then other ingredients were mixed in. After the addition of a small amount of flour the paste was made into balls and these were baked in the oven with a dusting of oil spray to get them nice and brown. Oh my oh my! They were delicious that night as well as cold the next day.

Back to the vegan bobotie. There are two basic parts to the bobotie; the "meaty" mix and the topping.

The meaty mix.  Remember this a vegan version so lentils replace the minced meat.

Ingredients:

1 cup ( 220g) of brown lentils @ $4.27/kg                  $1.00
1 tin diced tomatoes                                                     $0.59cents
1 large carrot chopped into small pieces  @$1.29/kg  $0.30cents
1 large  brown onion chopped @$0.99/kg                   $0.20cents  
a handful of raisins or sultanas  
a teaspoons of all or a selection of herbs; thyme, cumin, garam masala, chilli, turmeric , ginger, mustard.

So you do all the usual palava; brown the onion, add the carrot, add the tin of tomatoes, add all or some of the herbs and spices, throw in the washed lentils, add water or stock to make a thick stew like consistency, throw in the raisins and bring to bubble and simmer for 30-40 minutes or put in a covered dish in the oven at 180 degrees C for 45 minutes or so.

Topping:

1 block of firm tofu                                                    $2.25
splash of soya sauce
1 tblspn of curry powder
1/4 tspn of nutmeg
a few almonds

Meanwhile, back at the kitchen bench, take your block of firm tofu and wipe the excess moisture off and plop it into the food processor with some nutmeg, a slurp of soya sauce, a teaspoon of curry powder and whizz away.  The resultant custard is the topping for the bobotie.

Smear this over the meaty mix in the now lid less casserole dish and you are ready to pop it back into the oven for a further 20 minutes or so. I did place a few almonds in the mix for show and gave the top a light spray of cooking oil to help it to brown up. Yes, I did find one paltry radish in the garden so I put that on too.

Ready to go back in the oven

Browned and cooked ready to serve up.

Served with some kale and parsley.

 The result was very nice.  As for the five dollar challenge? Pretty close I think but it is hard to price out the various herbs and spices. The addition of the almonds might just take it over the $5 mark. Also it is easy to add or subtract these depending on what you have available.. A good dollop of curry powder would suffice without all of the other things.

So I was very happy to successfully make a tasty inexpensive meal for two, plus lunch for four the next day for around the $5 mark. Plus I have a new found respect for firm tofu, I just hadn't been treating it right!