Marinades Made Easy

Cooking has been a constant struggle for me since I got married several years ago. My husband is a vegetarian and always want a good home cooked meal for dinner. We eat out once in a while but we only go to a restaurant that had already passed the taste test of his fastidious palate. Also food delivery and ready to eat meals are not popular in our household.Then my son came along who is a finicky eater also. Being a non-vegetarian and had no prior knowledge about vegetarian diet, cooking  meals everyday became overwhelming especially when deciding what to cook for dinner. 


Throughout the years I have collected vegetarian recipes that made my life easier, and among my collections are the marinade recipes. Marinades are great to incorporate in a vegetarian cooking because they give a variety of flavors to a bland tofu, gluten or seitan. Once you had marinated the tofu, gluten or seitan for 30 minutes to 1 hour, you can now bake, fry, barbecue or grill them. Then you will have a tasty meat substitute that you can add to a vegetable stir fry or a vegetable salad. I also marinate vegetables, such as broccoli, mushrooms, cauliflower, carrots and so on. Then I steamed them for a quick vegetable side dish or bake them with sprinkled grated cheese. When I cook  vegetables with cheese, my son would eat them without a fuss. So I'm glad somebody invented the cheese!

 For meat eaters, marinades are good meat tenderizers and flavor enhancers. Making your own marinade is cheaper, healthier and tastier than buying a commercial one. Yogurt, buttermilk , vinegar, lemon, oil and spices are the basic ingredients in a marinade. Before soaking the meat, piercing them with a fork in several places will help absorb more flavors. The longer you marinate, the stronger the flavor, but over soaking your meat in acid can turn the meat in to a tough and mushy texture. If you are not following a very specific recipe/technique, then you can use these time guidelines on how long to marinate your meat; for denser meats such as pork and beef marinate for 24 hours or longer. A lighter meat like chicken can marinate between 2 hours and 24 hours. For seafood 30 to 60 minutes of marinating is good enough. 

Simple tips:

•       Marinate meat in a nonreactive container such as a glass dish or a resealable plastic bag so that you can turn them over easily and for easy clean up. 
•       When marinating always place the container in refrigerator immediately to avoid the growth of bacteria.
•         Drain and pat dry marinated meat before cooking. If you don’t, it will steam instead of sear and brown.
•        If you want to baste the meat with the marinade while it’s cooking, make extra marinade just for basting purposes.
•         Discard the leftover marinade. 

You can try these 2 marinade recipes I got from Family Circle magazine.

Yogurt-flavored marinade

I cup plain yogurt

2 minced scallions

1 tsp minced ginger

1 tsp ground cumin

3 tbsp chopped cilantro

Salt, cayenne and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients. Best marinade for chicken.

Wine flavored marinade

½ cup dry red wine

1 small chopped onion

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp dried thyme

1 clove minced garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

 Combine all the ingredients, best for steak.  

Happy cooking!