Oh. My. God.

I suppose I should preface this post by saying that I absolutely adore caramelized onions. I start nearly every soup I make by caramelizing an onion, I stir them into otherwise-boring pasta, lentil and rice dishes, pile them on top of polenta and potatoes and have even been known to stir them into mashed potatoes for special occasions (which is smashingly good, btw). The general rule of thumb for me is that if it comes smothered in caramelized onions I'm probably going to try it at least once. With this attitude, it was no surprise that one of my favorite lunches when I was in my old job was a goat cheese and onion tart from the cafe around the corner. It was heaven and combined just about everything you could want in a dish like that--buttery pastry (and I HATE piecrust, this was puff and therefore acceptable. Stellar, actually.), gobs of soft, almost gooey goat cheese swimming in a sea of caramelized onions and served with an exquisitely dressed salad of field greens that served to cut *some* of the richness of the meal nicely. I gave up the dish when I lost the job, as even though it was far from the most expensive thing on that menu I've not had any reason to go back to the restaurant since the loss of the job. Besides, I always figured I could make a perfectly good version myself and probably still could, if I tried. That said, I've not had much luck convincing myself to make a copycat version, as then I would know just how much butter and cheese I was consuming in one sitting and these days I'm not entirely certain I could comfortably stomach it. Don't get me wrong, I'd try, but still.

But seeing as I'm leaning towards less is more when it comes to dairy a full version just isn't going to happen. Fortunately for me and the other onion addicts everywhere my recent experimentation with tofu has lead to one of the best dishes I've ever made, hands down. This one was so good even my mom ate it, which is saying a lot when it comes to tofu-based alternatives. The version I made this evening used polenta as a base because that's what I had, and it came out damn near perfect. Tomorrow night I'm reverting to a dough-based alternative and using a purchased whole wheat pizza crust and making it more pizza-like. I'll grant, this isn't exactly low fat, but it's a great deal less fatty than the traditional version and the fats involved are of the good, olive oil kind. If you opt to make your own pizza crust you can make it more whole-grainy (I'm tempted to work a little millet into my dough to see how it goes and give it some more texture) and if you'd rather make your own polenta for the crust you can seriously cut down on additives, preservatives and sodium. Leftover polenta is a whole other post for another time, but I will advise that if you opt for quick cooking polenta you pay attention to those directions very carefully. Learn from my mistakes--the stuff sets up FAST compared to the regular old cornmeal version.
This recipe is really comprised of three separate recipes, all of which are worth making on their own. You can skip the gremolata pesto if you like, but I wouldn't since you'll find all sorts of things to top with it--pasta and seafood come to mind. Tossing some with some shrimp and linguini would make an easy and lively meal, especially with some good garlic bread. The ricotta-textured "goat cheese" tofu recipe makes enough to use for this dish, but doubling the batch would leave some excellent leftovers to use on pizza (there will be a post on that very soon), stir into pasta or spread on crusty bread. I have been known to clean out the processor bowl with a piece of fresh french bread for a quick snack, and it's even better when combined with Trader Joe's Eggplant Garlic spread.

Gremolata Pesto
Ingredients:
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
zest of two lemons
2 cloves garlic
1/8 teaspoon salt
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:
Chop the bottom half of the bunch of parsley off where the leaves start, discard the stems and rough chop the rest of the leaves. Smash the garlic cloves with the flat of the knife and place parsley, garlic and all other ingredients except for olive oil into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until all ingredients are chopped fine, scraping down sides with a spatula as needed. Add the olive oil to the bowl and process for 15-30 seconds until combined into a paste.


Tofu "Goat Cheese"-style

Ingredients:
4-6 oz firm or extra firm regular tofu (don't use silken)
1 Tablespoon gremolata pesto
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons capers
2 teaspoons caper brine
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:

Crumble 6 to 8 ounces firm or extra firm regular tofu into the bowl of a food processor. Add all other ingredients and pulse until tofu is processed to a texture resembling ricotta cheese, about a minute to a minute and a half, scraping down the sides once or twice if needed. Taste for seasoning and add more salt, garlic powder, lemon juice or caper brine if desired to achieve the saltiness and tang of goat cheese. Allow to sit for at least fifteen minutes before using if possible.

Vegan Onion Tart

Ingredients:

One recipe tofu “goat cheese”
3-4 large sweet onions, sliced thin (about 2 pounds)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 whole wheat pizza crust, store bought or home made OR 1 sheet puff pastry
Balsamic vinegar
8 oz white button mushrooms, sliced
Coarse ground black pepper

Directions:
Make the goat cheese and set aside to let flavors meld. Caramelize the onions with the olive oil over medium to medium high heat, stirring frequently to prevent burning. When onions are golden and browning on the edges season to taste with balsamic vinegar—start with a tablespoon or so and add more if you like. While onions are cooking, stretch the dough into your preferred shape or line a cookie sheet with prepared puff pastry. Spread the tofu goat cheese in an even layer over top and distribute the sliced mushrooms and caramelized onions evenly over the cheese. Sprinkle coarse ground pepper over top and bake according to the package directions.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes:

-Polenta based alternative: Pat cooled polenta (about 2 1/2 cups) into a greased 9 inch round cake pan, square casserole or 8x8 brownie pan into 1/2 inch thick layer. Set in the fridge to chill and firm up--overnight is best, but an hour or so will do just fine. Brush with a very thin layer of olive oil, if desired, and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Make the goat cheese and cook the onions while the shell bakes. Remove the shell from the oven and spread the cheese in the pan, follwed by the mushrooms and onions. Put back in the oven and bake for another 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove pan and allow to let cool for a bit before cutting into wedges. Serve warm or at room temperature.

-Feel free to add more onions to the recipe. The more, the better. The amount I've started with is good, but the true addicts will probably want to add more. Any onions you don't use will make for excellent sandwiches later with some more tofu goat cheese spread on a toasted baguette and whatever roasted veggies you can find to add.