A little bit of vegan, a little bit of healthy: Green salad with tofu dumplings and Chinese vinaigrette

My mom raised my brother and I as vegetable-eating people. I have no problem with veggies (except for onions) even when I was a kid, so going for vegan food does not require too much effort on my part. Although, since I normally get tired of the same taste in food, I started experimenting with new recipes.

I was preparing the normal green salad one day and thought to make it a little bit more interesting. So I tried some new tweaks to spice it up.

Green salad was made of:
1 head Romaine Lettuce, washed well and tear into pieces
2 large green tomatoes (yes green! :) with seeds removed)
1 cup baby carrots, peeled and sliced
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and thinly sliced
2 hard boiled eggs, sliced (omit for full vegan diet)

Additional toppings could be: 1) Nuts, 2) Dried fruits, 3) Fresh mangoes, apples, pear or grapes

Sample salad bar:

For the tofu dumplings:

Half bar of Chinese tofu (extra firm), drained and cut into 1 inch cubes
Dumpling wrappers
Salt and pepper
Dried herbs

Wrap the tofu squares in dumpling wrapper (the same way that you would wrap siomai dumplings), seal with a little bit of water. Then sprinkle with a little bit of salt, pepper, and dried herbs on top. Or you can leave it as it is since the vinaigrette is already flavorful anyway.

Then heat up some oil in a deep frying pan, fry the tofu dumplings until golden brown. Remove from oil then let drain on paper towels.

They should look like this when cooked:

For the Chinese Vinaigrette:

2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
3 tbsp cane or red wine vinegar
3 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp organic honey
Salt and pepper to taste

Set the veggies on the plate, top with dumplings and Vinaigrette. :)

Guilt free (well, a little guilt from the frying part haha) and satisfying! :)

Try it and let me know how it turns out. :)

Pics c/o Jem Sese. Thanks again! :)