This is a go to dinner in our house, a few simple ingredients can make a perfect meal. While I love spicy and intensely flavored food, sometimes I’m just in the mood for a simple plate. This dish reaches the goal of simplicity while delivering a plenty of flavor. Wild rice mixed with truffle oiled, kale, and mushrooms topped with baked tofu.

Here are the details:

First, you’ll want to drain your brick of tofu. Do this in advance, about an hour before you really want to get into dinner prep. Press it with some paper towels and weigh it down with a couple of plates to help squeeze out some of the moisture. Set it aside while you prepare the rest of your ingredients.

Preheat your oven to 400°.

I grew up eating wild rice and all sorts of grains. While as a child, wild rice wasn’t necessarily my favorite, I did eat it willingly. I only mention this because I feel it’s one of those grains that people have a definite opinion of. And while we’re talking about opinions, I will just say that I Love wild rice… almost the most. Not only is it one of the most nutrient dense grains, the flavor is also quite nice. This rice just seems substantial with more flavor than your standard white or brown rice.

For this recipe you’ll need 1 cup of wild rice and 4 cups of vegetable stock. Check the instructions on your rice bag for additional cooking recommendations. The cooking time will vary depending on your taste. For us it takes about 45 minutes to an hour of simmering. If there is leftover water in your pot, just drain it out, we usually still have a little extra by the time it’s done cooking and that’s totally fine. Pasta boiling rice is a thing.

Once your rice is simmering, cut the tofu into cubes. Since we are baking these cubes, we will need to flip them a few times. We like to cut the tofu block into 32 cubes, about an inch each.

Oil a cast iron skillet and position the tofu cubes so they are not touching. As they bake, the moisture will escape and they will require flipping to achieve maximum crisp. We use a refillable oil sprayer for this, we actually use this sprayer all the time in cooking.

We initially bought it thinking that it would be a cheapo kitchen gadget that wouldn’t work for long- I’m happy to report that this little inexpensive gadget has been alive and well for over 5 years! Perhaps we were lucky with this one, I don’t know, there are lots of mixed reviews on the Misto Olive Oil Sprayer, but I’ll tell you, we use it almost daily and it has really done a great job. It has been going strong for far longer than we ever imagined. Wow, sounds like a fairytale right? It’s nice that we never have to buy spray oils, and when you spray instead of drizzle, you automatically cut down on how much oil you use at any given time. So that’s what I think about that!

Back to the technique, we’re baking tofu! Spray the bottom of your 12” cast iron skillet with olive oil and arrange the tofu cubes so they are not touching each other.

In a tiny bowl, combine approximately 1 teaspoons of Kosher Salt with 1 teaspoon dried garlic granules. Spray a light layer of olive oil over the top of your tofu cubes and sprinkle each one with a bit of the salty garlic seasoning. Place in the oven and set a timer for 20 minutes for your first flip. The tofu can cook for up to an hour, you’ll want to flip it about every 15-20 minutes to encourage the crispiness on all sides. While the tofu is spending time in the oven and your rice is cooking, prepare your veggies!

Cut the kale. Remove the center rib and chop the leafy green into thin ribbons. In a sautéing pan, fry up a clove or 2 of garlic in olive oil, I usually roast my garlic first because I have a sensitivity to it, this mutes the flavor a bit which I prefer for my own reasons. Add the kale and saute. As it begins to wilt, I like to add a small amount of water to the pan to help it steam and cook it a little faster. Kale can take some time to tender up, so keep on it and mix it around for a bit.

While your kale is cooking, chop your mushrooms.

Once the kale is just about done cooking, add the mushrooms and sauté together. When the mushrooms and kale are cooked to your liking, season with a bit of salt and pepper, and set pan aside.

Continue to keep an eye on all of your ingredients as you go along. By the the time you are done cooking your vegetables, everything should be coming together. Check on your rice, taste it and remove it from the heat when it is done.

Continue to flip your tofu until it is crisp on all sides, you’ll notice that the tofu puffs up a bit as it’s baking.

Once all of your initial parts are prepped you can begin putting the meal together. Almost time to eat!

Drizzle truffle oil over your kale and mushrooms and incorporate. We use about 2 Tablespoons of truffle oil, adjust to suit your taste preference. Combine the vegetable mixture with the cooked wild rice.

Remove the tofu from the oven and let it cool slightly.

And now for the best part! Nutritional yeast!

Sprinkle a hefty amount of nutritional yeast over your tofu and flip it around. By this time, your tofu cubes should be rather dry – nice and crispy.

The nutritional yeast will act like a breading and add a delicious nutty flavor. Since you seasoned the tofu during the cooking process, it’s not necessary to add anything else, I really enjoy the simplicity of the flavors here. The times that I have “enhanced” the flavor with something spicy or black pepper, I always wish I left it be. To me the additional flavor seems to mask the simplicity that I love.

Scoop a serving of wild rice into a bowl and top it off with your baked tofu. Enjoy!

Leftovers can be used for breakfast – fried eggs over rice and veggies… mmmm.

If you don’t know where to find Nutritional Yeast in your area, you can find it on Amazon or iherb – I used to find it in the bulk section of the health food store, but for the past few years I have preferred to purchase it online. I’ve been ordering most of my healthcare products from iherb over the past 5 years and I’ve always had a positive experience, fast/free shipping, great prices, I highly recommend checking the site out in general.

If you are new to iherb, you can use my referral code/link to get $5 off your first purchase with them. Click here to check them out: iherb