Thai Tofu

This is a recipe adapted from one of my favourite cookbooks, Vegan With Bite by Shannon Martinez . I add onion because I love onion, and I pan-fry the tofu rather than bake it because i find it dries out less. Other than that, it's pretty much the same as the original.

Stats

• Time : 30-40 minutes
• Difficulty : 2/5
• Taste : 4.5/5

Ingredients

To serve 2-3

• 5/6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 or 2 medium onions, sliced into semi-circles
• 1-6 fresh red chillies, in little strips
• 1 block (~500gms) of medium firm tofu
• about 200g of green beans (capsicum, broccoli, or any other veg you like would work too)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp vegan fish sauce (I use one from Vincents Vegetarian )
• 1 tbsp vegan oyster sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 100 ml of vege stock
• 1-4 tbsp of cornflour
• As much thai basil as you want
• rice to serve

Method

Chop the onion and get it cooking in a big pan/pot with some oil. Get it a bit translucent before adding the garlic and chilli and cooking for a bit more until its slightly browned.

Put the rice on now so its ready by the time you're eating.

While that's happening, see if you can get the tofu to release some of its water (this doesn't seem to matter as much as other people say it does, but you may as well try while the onion is cooking). I usually slice the block into 3 rectangular pieces and pat it down with a tea towel and put something heavy on top.

After the onion mix is done, add all of the sauces, sugar and stock and let it simmer for a bit. Then add the green beans or other veg. You can microwave/steam the beans beforehand if you want them softer. I'll also usually add some cornflour to thicken the sauce at this point.

Instead of baking the tofu, I pan-fry it in a separate pan. I like to just put a little bit of oil in the pan and cook it on a high heat until it's browned or even a little burnt. Then I chop it into bite-sized pieces and add it to the sauce.

Then add the thai basil, stir it through and serve it up with the rice. Enjoy!