Fast Sweet & Spicy Sauce

I can’t get enough of fast, veggie-based blender sauces with plenty of kick lately, they’re perfect for a fast meal after a busy workday. Our poor Vitamix is being worked into the ground, if that’s possible. It gets used at least three times a day lately for smoothies, sauces, etc. The container is starting to look likes it’s been through a war, but that’s not a bad thing! I got inspired by an episode of Raw Vegan Radio earlier this week discussing the health benefits of whole grains and created this sauce to turn a plain tofu and quinoa dish into a creamy, sweet, and spicy party.

 

Using an entire jalapeno in a sauce is daring since they can vary in heat levels, I knew the ones from our garden are pretty mild this year. But you can use half or a teaspoon of hot sauce to reduce the heat.

Currently I’ve been ordering this 6-pack of Eden Organic Quinoa from Amazon, it’s one of the cheaper prices I’ve found for organic and the 6 smaller bags makes it easier to store in the pantry and use incrementally while keeping the rest fresh.

I’m a fan of toasting the dry quinoa on the stove top until golden before adding water to cook lately because it gives it a firmer texture and little crunch after cooking. I cooked 1/2 cup of quinoa for this dish.

I also sauteed about 4 oz. of crumpled extra firm tofu on the stove top.

And mixed the tofu and sauce in with the quinoa after letting it cook for 20 minutes.

Then I removed the mixture from the heat to cool a bit and added fresh kale for a semi-raw, creamy quinoa dish.

It was a pretty simple and fast one-pot meal that came out very creamy and rich with the right amount of sweet and spicy.