The Waffle Truth

For my first actual food-related post, I thought I’d serve up a helping of the most frequently eaten food item on my dining table, which is of course, the waffle. 

The Past

As I'm sure you can relate, my relationship with waffles had a bit of a rocky start. During my senior year of college, my roommate and I purchased our first waffle iron. Despite our gusto and best intentions, neither of us were that handy in the kitchen at the time, so our all of our waffles kind of sucked (i.e. they were hard and bland and weirdly rude to your mom). While we did discover that you can reheat delivery pizza in the iron by smashing in two slices toppings-side together and waffling on high for something like 10 minutes--it re-crisps the crust and transforms your old pie into a pizza-flavored panini (fancy)--the appliance otherwise went mostly unused. When we graduated, my roommate generously bestowed it to me, so I moved it all the way from Maryland to Ohio. It was pretty grimy when I unpacked it, and after spending some elbow grease scrubbing it clean, I immediately dropped it on the floor, breaking it (and my heart) into many irreparable pieces. I went several years sans waffles, until moving to New York and befriending fellow waffle-making-enthusiast, Josh, rekindling the fire that had nearly been extinguished so many moons ago. 

In some cosmic deja vu, Josh also gifted his waffle iron to me when he moved. Being much more cautious with it this time, it traveled the continent with me throughout my time on the road last year, bestowing steaming and delicious waffles to all corners of the US, and now safely rests (in one well-loved piece) in the cupboard above the stove. 

The Present

Nowadays, my go-to waffles are the Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Waffles from Minimalist Baker. A breakfast favorite in my household, I prepare a batch of these every morning on climbing days (back when climbing outside was a thing (looks forlornly out the window at the eternal winter rain)). I usually sub out ½ cup of the flour for protein powder (for the sends), and I’ve been known to add frozen berries to these with great success. Once, I layered it with ice cream for a cynfully decadent dessert. I can never manage to snap a picture of these before we stuff them in our faces, so here’s one of Nikhil doing it instead. 

Recently, I created this beautiful concoction as an homage to my southern roots: “Chicken”-Fried Tofu & Waffles

I learned a new trick for getting a more chickeny texture from tofu by freezing, thawing, and then marinating it before battering and pan-frying from this food blog. I used this more traditional recipe for the waffles themselves (doing the not gluten-free modification). I whipped up some hot honey butter and sauteed a bunch of kale to make it a meal. 

We made “chicken” & waffle sandwiches with the leftovers the following night (everything tastes better as a sandwich), but again, ate them too quickly for a photo so you’ll have to use your imagination (rest assured that they were fantastic). 

Some other waffle wonders from last year include Nacho Cornbread Waffles (pictured in a previous post), Lemon Blueberry Waffles, seasonally appropriate Pumpkin Chai and Gingerbread Waffles, and most perfectly named of all, Falafel Waffles (pictured below). 

The Future

I’d like to try adding a variety of grains and starches (quinoa (quinoaffle!!), noodles, sweet potato, etc) to my waffles to see how it impacts the texture. I think a Crispy Rice Waffle topped with braised tofu and kimchi would make my mom either very proud or mildly concerned. Either way, worth a go. Besides that, I haven’t even tried making panini-style sandwiches yet (panaffles? wafflini?), and I'd like to experiment with cooking different kinds of dough in the waffle iron (focaccia? quick breads? naan??). The possibilities are truly endless.

We waffled around for a bit, but I think we've finally ironed everything out, and I foresee many tasty and novel (and probably some hilariously inedible) waffles on the horizon.