Not a Nut Sunflower Stew

No peanut butter for me from now on folks!

Well, at least not for a while. November 1st was international Vegan

Day. We went over to Burbank for a Vegan Roller Skating Party, which

was a blast. There were tons of vegan food vendors, a silent auction,

raffles, goodie bags, and lots of roller skating vegans.

So I left with a huge bruise on my tail bone and the winning bid for a

huge basket of sunflower seed butter (5 jars and a bunch of other stuff).

Sunbutter is pretty darn tasty-- and if you have a peanut allergy, its the

butter for you. My basket and goodie bag came with a bunch of their

little sample packs too, which I guess will be good for school lunches

but I don't like all that extra packaging that cannot be recycled.

Since I love peanut thai dishes, I absolutely had to try this out.

All the flavour and love of a traditional thai dish without the hidden

nastiness of the fish sauce. (That is something to remember kids,

whenever you eat out ANYWHERE-- thai dishes [curry, etc] will

ALWAYS have fish sauce or flakes init-- even if it is on the vegetarian

portion of a menu). You know how, even after you tell people that you

don't eat meat they still think you eat fish because some how fish

doesn't qualify as an animal (??!).

Anyway, enjoy my come back boys and girls (and monkeys)

Thai Sunbutter Stew

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 roma tomatoes, diced

1 large bell pepper, diced

1 tsp fresh ginger, minced

some vegetable broth or water

1 package of firm or extra firm tofu

1 sample pack or about 2 tablespoons of sunbutter

3 tablespoons sweet chili sauce

(1 tablespoon fresh lime juice- opt)

1 tablespoon (or more) of soy sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and add onions.

Cook, stirring, until they start to turn translucent. Add garlic

and cook for one minute more. Add tomatoes, pepper, ginger and

some water or vegetable broth to assist in cooking and prevent

sticking. Cook for a few minutes more until peppers just start

to get tender. Add sunbutter, chili sauce, juice and seasoning. Stir until

all mixed and add tofu. Continue to cook until tofu is heated through

and peppers are thoroughly cooked. Serve over jasmine rice or a

super thin pasta like I did.

The pasta I used is similar to a thin angel hair, but it is packaged

in almost cake like packs at mexican markets. Super good and

satisfies every peanut craving.

Feel free to add a hot chili pepper to this recipe to add an extra

kick, I would have if I had had one...