Friday, January 18, 2008

Is this tofu craze here to stay?

Over the last few months, a lot of tofu has been cooked - marinated in a variety of sauces, sauteed with a plethora of spices, baked into crispy bars ... and pretty much every single option has been extremely palatable. I'd love to think I had something to do with it, but the truth is that tofu is the ultimate sponge! It absorbs spices so easily and then adds its own tinge - every mouthful ends up with this mishmash of flavours.

Hey, speaking of Mishmash - Shn just celebrated a year of blogging, if you haven't had a chance to check out her fabulous cakes and cooking, run there right now :)

Ok, back to tofu love ... I wanted to try something new, something different with the tofu - not the usual chunks. I started off thinking that I wanted to make some kind of fresh vegetable rolls - shredded and grated vegetables in a cabbage wrap, maybe? Hmm ... no cabbage! How about kale? Or chard? Nope! Low on greens :( Wait, there is spinach - would that work? Well, even somewhat large spinach leaves don't really make for decent rolls. Not even with toothpicks stuck into them! *sigh*


So, I had to bail on the whole rolls fantasy. Oh well! Instead, I just settled for the shredded tofu salad served over a bed of wilted spiced spinach. Guess those cabbage wraps will have to wait for another day!



Shredded Tofu Salad
Served on a bed of wilted spinach

Servings: 2

80 gms extra-firm tofu (about 1/5 of a regular block of tofu)

1 small head of broccoli

1/2 red onion

1/2 red bell pepper

1 T grated ginger

1 t sambal oelek
1 T soy sauce

1 t sesame oil or oil spray
salt


1 T vinegar
1 t cayenne pepper

10-12 fresh spinach leaves - washed and dried


Grate the tofu using a medium sized grater and set aside.

Finely dice the onion and bell pepper.
Shred the broccoli into small pieces.

Heat the oil in a wok and saute the onions and ginger till browned.
Add the broccoli and bell pepper and saute for 2-3 minutes.
Stir in the tofu along with salt to taste.
Add the sambal oelek and soy sauce and saute for about 4-5 minutes till the tofu starts to brown.


In the meantime, pour the vinegar into a saucepan and heat on low.

Stir in the cayenne pepper.
Add the spinach leaves and cook covered, on low for a couple of minutes till the spinach is partly wilted.

Serve the tofu salad on a bed of wilted spinach leaves.





Good?

This is my absolute favourite way to eat tofu! Once shredded, it totally sucked in all the flavours and was super moist and juicy. The spinach actually ended up being a great touch - the vinegary leaves were a perfect foil for the salad.

11 comments:

sunita said...

Kaykat, that's a lovely salad...btw, don't forget to post those rolls too, when you get the chance to make them :-)

Rajesh &Shankari said...

What a novel idea! they look so cute!

Suganya said...

Tofu in salads are surprisingly tasty. I too loved the one I tried few weeks back.

DEEPA said...

excellent salad ..Pics just are drooling me !!!!

DEEPA said...

excellent salad ..Pics just are drooling me !!!!

DEEPA said...

excellent salad ..Pics just are drooling me !!!!

Manju said...

this defenitely is a novel idea!! drooling over them... :)

amna said...

i am not a tofu fan but i cant deny the health benefits, now can i? :D

Rajitha said...

hmm..that is bold kaykat..should try it..i have never tried eating raw tofu...

Raaga said...

I think I may have everything this recipe calls for!!

LisaRene said...

This looks flavorful and healthy! So glad I stumbled upon your blog, everything I have seen looks great. I'm a lacto-vegetarian and am always excited to discover other vegetarian blogs.