Week Four, Day Two: Feb. 5th

Fried Tofu in Peanut Sauce
with Broccoli
I had planned to make a big, fancy dinner tonight, but then I somehow forgot to eat lunch (despite having a perfect lunch-sized portion of black beans and quinoa leftovers in the fridge) and found myself starving and in need of a fast dinner instead.  So Fried Tofu in Peanut Sauce with Broccoli it was! 

The peanut sauce recipe is adapted from Bittman's HTCEV. It's supposed to be a Thai-style sauce, but after omitting the hot chiles and coconut milk it's pretty tame.

Recipe after the jump.

Peanut Sauce
(serves 1-2)
1 large and 1 small garlic clove, peeled
2 shallots, peeled
1 tsp. ground turmeric
1 tbl. peanut oil
1/2 c. vegetable broth
scant 1 tbl. brown sugar
1 tbl. soy sauce
juice from 1/2 a lime
1/2 c. chopped, roasted, unsalted peanuts

Mix garlic, shallots, and turmeric in food processor until smooth-ish.  Heat oil in a saucepan and cook garlic mixture for a minute then add remaining ingredients and stir.  Cook until the sauce thickens--about 10 min.  Salt to taste. Optional: add chilis or red pepper flakes for some heat in the first step.
As the peanut sauce was reducing, I put the broccoli on to steam and fried the tofu.  I started with 1/2 a block of firm organic Ithaca Soy tofu, which is the only kind I use these days. I had cut the 1/2 block into triangles, pressed out the extra water with paper towels and set these aside to drain while I was preparing the sauce, so the tofu was now ready to fry. I used grapeseed oil and fried the tofu for about 3 min., turning half-way.
After draining the fried tofu on paper towels, I spooned the peanut sauce onto a plate, put the tofu on top and surrounded it with the broccoli. Between the tofu and the peanuts, this was a quick, high protein meal, which is what I was looking for. It was also pretty tasty, though next time I would make it a little spicier, I think.  Oh, and I learned that turmeric is excellent at dyeing everything yellow, so watch out for that.

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