MONDAY RECIPE POST - TOFU, BROCCOLI AND OTHER VEGGIES WITH ANGEL HAIR PASTA

I subscribe to Yeung Man Cooking on YouTube, and enjoy his easy and pleasant cooking style.  Tonight (7-25-21) we put together one of his meals adding a few changes to suit pantry supply and also cooking tastes.  You can see his delicious version at this link.

Angel Hair Pasta (we used 1/2 of a 16 ozs. box)

1 14 oz. container of extra firm Tofu

2 tablespoons of cornstarch

2 cloves garlic, chopped fine

1 to 2 inch piece of ginger, chopped fine

1 head of broccoli cut into small florets

14 ozs. container of extra firm tofu

1 teaspoon potato starch (you can substitute cornstarch)

1 tablespoon oyster sauce (can be plant based)

1/2 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon maple syrup

Drizzle of olive oil

We added the following:

1 whole onion, sliced

1 whole zucchini, sliced

1 tablespoon of Chili Crisp

After draining the tofu when you remove it from its container, wrap a clean kitchen towel around it (or paper towels). Add a heavy-ish pan on the top so that it safely rests without falling off.  Leave for half an hour, replacing the wet towel with dry ones if necessary.  The more water you can squeeze out, the crispier it will be when you fry the tofu.  

When it is dry slice into bite-size cubes.  

Put the cornstarch in a bowl and add the tofu, stirring until it is thoroughly coated.  Set aside for a few minutes.

Somewhere in all this, heat your water to boiling for the angel hair pasta.

Finely chop the garlic and ginger.

Chop the broccoli into bite-size pieces, and prepare the other vegetables also.

To make the sauce add to a bowl the potato starch and 1/4 cup water.  Mix together.  Next add the oyster sauce, low-sodium soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, maple syrup and 1 heaping tablespoon of Chili Crisp, depending on how much heat you like.  We didn't find it all that hot after adding it.  If you don't have the Chili Crisp you can add chili flakes from out of your spice cabinet, or not if you don’t want hot and spicy.  Stir the sauce to mix thoroughly.

Heat up a nonstick pan to medium heat.  Drizzle in the olive oil.  If you have another oil you prefer you can use that as long as it has a relatively high smoking point (you can read here for advice on that).

Shake excess cornstarch off the tofu and add it to the pan.  Depending on how brown and crispy you like your tofu, you can cook it anywhere from a few minutes up to 12 minutes, depending how hot your element gets and how crispy you like your tofu.  We are into extra crispy so it was around twelve minutes, but we turned the pieces over after each side became brown.  

When done to your liking carefully take the tofu out, put it in a bowl and set aside.

In the same pan add a little oil if needed, and cook the broccoli, onions, zucchini, garlic and ginger, stirring the veggies to combine.  Cook on medium heat about 4 minutes.

Start cooking your pasta according to the directions on the box.  Our angel hair pasta only takes 4-1/2 minutes before it becomes al dente.  

Add the tofu back into the veggies, along with the sauce. After stirring for about 10 seconds add 1/4 cup of water and continue to cook for another 3 to 4 minutes.

Carefully drain your pasta when it is cooked.  Use a plate or a bowl and arrange your pasta and tofu mixture to whatever pleases your eye.  

Sliced green onions would have been nice but I didn't have any.  I did put a good dash of Furikaki on the top, which is my popular go-to at the moment.

We have leftovers so no cooking tomorrow, and I know it is going to taste even better.

Thanks for looking and have a great week.

Yeung Man Cookin