Tofu-bacon and spinach muffins

After making vegan cheddar cheese, I wanted to try baking with it.  When Sylvia started up a request for tofu bacon I liked the idea of making muffins with both home made vegan cheese and bacon.  These Bacon and Spinach Muffins were fantastic.  Vegetarian.  Dairy-free.  Easy to adapt to Vegan. Chunky.  Even rustic.  Not overly cheesy but full of flavour.

I think I would be right in guessing these are far less fatty than regular bacon and cheese muffins.  Both the vegan bacon and vegan cheese don't ooze oil the way their omnivore counterparts do.  So possibly the texture of these would be slightly richer if I had followed the recipe more religiously.  I also decided to fry my onion and bacon separately because I have tried it together and it isn't great.

We ate the muffins with some pumpkin and lentil soup (a bit like this one).  It was fantastic.  Not quite as early as I would have liked.  I guess I did ok, given that I only started pressing the tofu at 5pm (and we ate at 7.30pm).  Ideally the pressing and marinating of the tofu bacon should take hours but I take shortcuts here. 

As an aside I wanted to include some random reflections.

• I am really enjoying watching Puberty Blues.  I think I read the book but can't quite remember.  It was seen as x-rated when I was at school.  The tv show brings back memories.  I remember the Big M girls (I had a Big M beach bag), watching Storm Boy at the cinema (a friend of a friend had seen Greg Rowe somewhere and said he was really stuck up) and slang like 'dobbing', 'root' and 'mole' being in common parlance in my school playground (more than I would have liked).
  
  Not all is perfect in the tv series.  I have noticed a couple of anachronisms.  Tonight's episode is that it showed a mother going through the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book.  The series is set in the 1970s and the book was published in 1980. 

• Today we went into a fruit and veg shop where I apologised for Sylvia sampling the grapes.  I offered money.  Instead the "payer", as Sylvia likes to call the cashier, very kindly gave her a small bunch of grapes and waved away my offers to pay.

• I have seen a couple of interesting articles on veg*nism lately.  Soy versus dairy: what's the footprint of milk? (in The Conversation, 28 August 2012) and Food shortages could force world into vegetarianism, warn scientists (The Guardian, 26 August 2012).

I am sending these muffins to Javelin Warrior for his Made with Love Mondays event.  It celebrates foods made from scratch.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
One year ago: Coconut brittle, leftovers and a week of eats
Two years ago: Taste of Melbourne: on a sugar high
Three years ago: Accidental Plastic Tart
Five years ago: WTSIM ... Beggars Burgers

Facon and spinach muffins
Adapted from Food Ideas June 2006 via taste.com.au
makes 12

2-3 teaspoons olive oil, or as required
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1/3 batch of tofu bacon, chopped
120g baby spinach, finely chopped
1/2 cup grated tasty cheese (I used my vegan cheese)
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cups milk (I used soy)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
pinch salt
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F).  Grease a 12 hole muffin tin.  (I also cut little rounds out of baking paper  to line the bottom of each muffin hole because my muffins usually either stick to the bottom if I don't use muffin papers or they stick to the muffin papers - this was a great compromise.)

Fry onion in 1 tsp olive oil (or more) for about 10 minutes until golden brown and cooked.  Fry the tofu bacon in remaining oil (I used 1 tsp and then added more oil while it was frying) until crispy and brown.  Remove from heat.  Add spinach and cheese.  (They don't need to wilt/melt, they are just then easy to add together.)

Meanwhile mix flour, egg, milk, and oil to make a stiff batter.  Gently stir in tofu and onion mixture.  Spoon into prepared muffin tins.  Mine were really full but they don't rise too much.  Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown and a skewer comes out cleanly when inserted in a muffin.  (I did 30 minutes.) 

On the stereo:
The Sound of the Smiths