Baked tofu with sun butter cilantro sauce...

I found this recipe at Chick in the Kitchen's blog during one of our Menu Plan Mondays and was immediately intrigued. Since having the kids, I have been pretty much obsessed with any recipe than can be done in the crock pot or the oven. Who has time to stir and watch over a pot on the stove top with two babies under two running around like wild monkeys? Not me!
Dara over at Chick in the Kitchen already adapted this recipe a bit from the original, which she found at Swell Vegan. She started by leaving out the mint and instead of half regular and half smoked tofu, she changed it to only regular tofu. Both moves were good ones in my opinion, but I had to change it a bit more to suit our family.
One of my children is completely appalled by cauliflower, so that had to go, and since I don't like almond butter, I swapped it for sun butter (made from sunflower seeds in a peanut-free facility, so it was safe for my toddlers who have not yet been introduced to peanut products).

Baked Tofu in Sun Butter & Cilantro Sauce

1 large sweet potato, cut into 2-bite size pieces and microwaved until mostly tender
1 package extra-firm tofu, drained & cut into bite-sized cubes
1 c. frozen peas
1 c. pre-shredded carrot

2/3 c. sun butter
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced (I used 1 heaping tsp. minced jarred garlic)
1 Tbsp. fresh ginger, grated
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 c. fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
3/4 c. hot water

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Place sweet potato, tofu, peas and carrots in a casserole dish and set aside.

To prepare the sauce, combine the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir until the combined (the hot water is easier to stir into the sun butter, cold will make it clumpy)

Pour the sauce over the tofu and veggies and gently toss to combine. Bake for 40 minutes. Serve over brown rice or noodles.

I served up the grown-up plates with lime wedges and Sriracha sauce for a bit of kick.

This was soooo good! In fact, the only thing that would have made it better was if my son didn't freak out every time he got the slightest fleck of cilantro on his tongue. Overall, he liked the flavors, but the cilantro just wasn't for him. My daughter, on the other hand, just plain gagged over this. She ended up eating Cheerios, cheese and a huge pile of fruit.