Sunday Brunch: Tofu Benedict/Florentine

Did I ever mention that I have a garden? I have a container garden out on our fire escape. I kept meaning to take pictures of it and to write about it this summer, but I guess I just never got around to that. Well, there was a cold snap in Boston earlier this week, and my basil decided it was time to pass on. I've been harvesting as much of my little garden as I can this week, but I managed to snap a quick picture this morning.

It's not as abundant as it was in the summer. The dill went to seed a while back, and the chard is actually replacing the cilantro, which lived its life and died over the course of the summer. Container gardening is actually pretty easy, it turns out, as long as you don't forget to water the plants every other day. That almost killed my garden a couple times this year.

ANYWAY, early on in the summer, when the garden was just starting up, the fiance requested tofu florentine for brunch. Not having spinach (which, I discovered, turns "benedict" into "florentine"--I had no idea), I used some tiny new arugula from our garden just to top the potatoes--microgreens!

You know how food people always say arugula is a "peppery" green? Meaning it has a little kick to it like pepper does? For some reason, I've always tasted that kick as being rather sulfury, and therefore eggy. So for me, arugula is the perfect green to serve with brunches involving tofu eggs. Arugula has a really short growth cycle; it takes less than a month to mature. So I've replanted every three weeks, and we had arugula all season.

I made tofu florentine again this morning, and we had what is probably the last batch of arugula for the season on top.

(Mmmm and the cheesy sauce is still steaming.) Goodbye, little container garden! And thanks for adding so much green to our meals... including our Sunday brunches!