Salt & Pepper Tofu with Scallion-Ginger Sauce and Sesame Broccoli

Monday, October 14

Salt & Pepper Tofu with Scallion-Ginger Sauce and Sesame Broccoli

Rating: 4.5

I’d planned to make this on Sunday, but Seth & I went to a movie (“Gravity” - it was just kinda meh. Seth really disliked it and was actually laughing by the end.) and we ended up walking over the park afterwards to grab a beer, completely forgetting that Pride was happening there. We decided to track down some friends working at the GARP booth, and by the time we headed back home (we’d walked to the movies and park) we were hungry and just wanted to eat right now. So we went to the Mexican place across from us. Nothing special to report there. Anyway, I moved everything we planned over by a day and the Sunday night last minute dinner out wasn’t a big deal. I really love Color Me Vegan and while I don’t cook from it as often as I do some other books, we’ve loved everything we’ve made from it. (If you have that book, try the olive bruschetta with cashew cream. You can thank me later.) This was the first time we made the Salt & Pepper Tofu recipe. We tend to prefer tofu that’s been marinated for a long time, but I’ve found several really great recipes recently that don’t require that and I have to say, we’re changing our minds about the issue. I think I’d not tried it because I thought it would be bland. The ingredient list is deceptively short and I didn’t think just a sauce on the side, or even one added to the pan at the end would overcome the inherent blandness of tofu. I was so, so wrong. It was delicious and definitely not lacking in the flavor department. I know that scallions and green onions are not the same thing, but for some reason, all I can find around here are green onions, so I just use those when a recipe calls for scallions. I did that this time as well. Between the seasoning blend (pepper, salt & smoked paprika) and the garlic & scallions (or green onions) it has plenty of flavor going on. If you’re an oil-free kind of person, this is not the recipe for you, (as our friend Adrienne once said to me, “I am not a low fat vegan.”) although I did reduce the amount called for frying the tofu by a bit. It just seemed like a lot. I also used about a teaspoon of sesame oil for flavor. I opted for the “add the sauce to the pan” version of the recipe (you can either add it to the pan, or just serve it on the side). There are three sauce options given and I made two of them – the Chili-Tamari sauce and the Ginger-Scallion Sauce. I added about 2/3 of the ginger sauce to the pan and let it get a little caramelized on the tofu. It was super good. I served the remaining sauce and the other sauce for dipping the tofu as we ate. I made a quick side of Sesame Broccoli – it’s not really a recipe, I just kind of throw it together by steaming some broccoli in the wok, then adding some chopped garlic, a splash of tamari and about ½ teaspoon of sesame oil. We had plain white rice this time because I was out of basmati and my brown rice apparently has insects living in it. A fact I did not discover until after I’d already put it in the pot – I checked to see if the broth had come back to a boil and saw a bunch of tiny carcasses floating in it. Sorry, little fellas. Bugs aside – it was a really good dinner. I’ll definitely make this again.