MONDAY RECIPE POST - VEGGIE TOFU STIR-FRY

I gave this dish a 10 out of 10.  Gregg gave it a 9 out of 10 which is still darned good.  I will give his reasons for dropping that point at the end of the post, which might be helpful in making your own decisions.  This week's recipe came from a food blog called The Minimalist Baker. 

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Total time: 1 hour
Servings: 2


1 14 oz. package firm or extra firm tofu
2 cups roughly chopped green beans 
1 cup diced carrots or a sweet red pepper (or both)
2 tablespoons sesame oil for sautéing, or you can use peanut or coconut oils

Sauce:

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce (you can buy gluten free)
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
2 tablespoons organic brown sugar (reduce slightly for a less sweeter sauce)
1 tablespoon of Agave Syrup (or honey if not vegan and reduce amount for a less sweeter sauce)
1 tablespoon cornstarch

For serving (optional)

Brown rice
White rice
Quinoa
Peanut Sauce

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (204 C), and begin drying out your tofu.  Drain, remove it from the package.  Place it between two thick towels folded snuggly but not too tight around the tofu.  Place it between two plates and put something on the top plate like a book, heavy can of something, or a frying pan (whatever you think will do the job).  The more liquid you can get out of the tofu, the crispier it will be.  Let it dry for 15 minutes and if the towels get too wet, repeat with two dry ones.

When dry cut into 1 inch cubes or rectangles.  (You can check the photos on Minimalist Baker and see additional tips.)

To prevent sticking arrange the tofu on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet for a total of 25 to 30 minutes, turning over once for even cooking.  This will help dry out the tofu and give it a more meat-like texture.  If you want a firmer texture add a few minutes, for a less firmer texture, lessen the time.  When it is done to the way you like it, take it out, put it in a bowl and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.

Start cooking your rice according to package directions.

In a small bowl whisk together all sauce ingredients and set aside.

To a large skillet over medium-high heat, add sesame oil and swirl around to coat the bottom of the skillet.  Add the veggies and sauté 5 to 7 minutes, stirring often.  When the vegetables have softened a little, add the sauce and stir gently to evenly coat the vegetables.  It will begin to bubble and thicken.  Add the tofu and incorporate it into the veggies-sauce mix to coat.  

Cook for a further 3 to 5 minutes.  Hopefully the veggies are cooked to how you like them but check just in case.  

Serve with rice or other ingredients mentioned above.

Our host says this is best when eaten fresh, but will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

In our humble opinion this was top notch and delicious.  We did change a few things to fit in with our own taste, and there were adjustments depending on what we had in the fridge and pantry.

With the ingredients we changed them to the following:

1 chopped yellow onion

A handful of frozen peas

1small sliced zucchini

No green beans but kept the carrots

Sauce ingredients:

1 teaspoon ginger powder as we had no fresh

(we decided we would add 2 teaspoons next time)

Agave syrup and honey in the pantry but we chose the Agave

1 tablespoon of Chili paste which made it nice and hot but not too hot

We both would like more sauce next time, and thought maybe adding a little vegetable broth would be good.

This sauce wasn't too sweet and we will keep the brown sugar and Agave as is.

We used our favorite Jasmine Rice from Trader Joe's because A) it is tasty as rice goes and B) it is super easy to do.  One box has three packets and each packet has enough for both of us.  You just pop it in the microwave for three minutes and that's it.  Very nice and fast, though we do have regular Jasmine Rice in the pantry.  I daresay we will be using that when we run out of the frozen, as I am not sure when we can get back to Trader Joe's.

Now for that one point I mentioned at the beginning of this post.  Last time we cooked tofu the recipe called for us to marinate the tofu in a sauce.  Gregg liked that and so did I.  In this recipe he thought the tofu was a bit bland. I didn't but then my tastes run to the plainer side of things. Well, it would be a boring old world if we all thought the same wouldn't it?

There you go, I hope you like the sound of this dish and that I haven't overwhelmed you with all our thoughts and changes.

I also hope you are doing okay out there considering what we are all dealing with around the world.  Take good care of yourselves and thanks for stopping by.