Seared tofu with date barbecue sauce - but without a barbecue

This week hasn't been the best of weeks, for a couple of reasons.

What happens when the going gets tough? The tough get BBQing tofu, clearly.

A few weeks ago, The Guardian published a series of three vegan recipes from a recently published vegan cookbook called Pure Vegan. The first, polenta with wild mushrooms, figs and hazelnuts, looked too energetic for me. The last, chocolate and tahini timbales, looks gorgeous, and is definitely on my to-bake list, but it was the middle one that got my attention: seared tofu with date barbeque sauce.

I was initially a bit sceptical about the likelihood of the watery recipe I made coming together to make thick, sticky sauce that I was expecting. I was wrong: good as gold, it came together when it was just left alone to simmer away on the hob for a bit, leaving me enough time to get on with making some jacket spuds and spinach to go with it.

Putting dates in the mix was a bit of a stroke of genius in this one - it thickened up the sauce without flour or boiling it half to death, and it gave it a spicy sweetness without the need for too much sugar.

Alas and alack, my tofu didn't turn out quite as pretty as The Guardian's, given I don't have a griddle pan and had to content myself with sticking it in the oven for a while.

And, living in a second floor flat in the middle of London, having a real live BBQ just isn't an option - but when you've got a recipe this tasty, I couldn't say I minded.