Friday 27 March 2009

Sticky Lime and Chilli Tofu - two ways

sticky lime and chilli tofuOven grilled with broccoli rice.

Pan griddled with steamed broccoli and pad thai noodles.


Hurrah! After five posts of excessive sweets I finally post a savoury dish!! I really don't live off cake and cookies, I swear.... Saw this recipe on BBC Good Food ages ago, it was featured with chicken but I thought the flavours would suit tofu really well for a simple replacement. It's also dead easy, using bottled thai sweet chilli sauce, and easy is what I need right now as I am still, yes still, trying to get over this cold!

Initially I made it with the noodles and despite the recipe stating to oven grill, I pan griddled. As you can see it didn't get as 'sticky' as the oven grilled version and I really don't recommend it this way. It did go nice with the noodles but afterwards I realized it was all way too similar to a dish I've already posted .

So today I thought I would make it with rice and to oven grill the tofu. Again, oven grilling is the way to go (although you'll need to have a chair ready under your fire alarm!) As you can see it got better cooked and nice and sticky like it should be. For the rice, I intended to have nice bright green florets of broccoli stir fried in like with the noodles but decided to boil the broccoli with the rice and clearly over did it! At first I was disappointed as it wouldn't look as good but it was actually really yummy that way and I would do it again this way.

I'm not too sure what quantities to give here, when I made it with noodles I made a lot (too much for me although I did shamefully manage to eat it all). With the rice I cut everything in half and found that to be a much nicer amount. I'll give the smaller amount here, just double as your appetite desires! Serves 1:

Rice version: (my preferred)
63g firm fresh tofu (that's 1/4 pack of cauldron tofu for those in uk)
50g thai rice (raw weight)
50g broccoli florets
1/4 tsp soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp thai sweet chilli sauce
1/2 lime, zest and juice (you want about 10ml juice)
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp peanut oil

After pressing your tofu and cutting into 4 thin triangles, mix together the 1/4 tsp soy sauce, lime zest, thai sweet chilli sauce and half the lime juice. Pour over the tofu and marinade, turning over now and again. I didn't time this, 15 - 30 minutes I guess. Put some salted water on for the rice and cook according to package directions. When there is 5 minutes left add the broccoli, add this later if you want them whole, but I did like it cooked down like in the picture. Meanwhile, lightly grease a baking sheet with some extra peanut oil and place the tofu on. Grill under a hot grill until golden and charred around the edges, flip over, brush with more marinade and grill again.

When rice is done, drain and add back to the pot with the other half of lime juice, 1/2 tsp soy sauce and the peanut oil. Stir gently over low heat till well mixed. Tip this onto a plate then top with the grilled tofu, brushing a bit more marinade over top.

Noodle version:

I would follow the steps for the tofu above as it was much better grilled, then just replace the rice with 100g straight to wok noodles of your choice, still tossing them with the lime, soy and peanut oil mixture.

** Just a note, if you do have a big appetite and double this, 1 serving gives you 428.6mg of calcium, 31g of protein and 6.4g of fibre!**

Based on the recipe here .

5 comments:

  1. i've just discovered you're blog and i love it so much! can't wait to try out your recipies. You're a genuis!! :)

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  2. Thanks so much and welcome to my blog!! :)

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  3. This is my new favourite recipe!!
    I've made it two days in a row, the grilled method. So good!
    I added the leftovers to a salad for lunch too.

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  4. Glad you like it! Love the idea of using leftovers in a salad, thanks - will definitely be trying that out!!

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