Simple Stir-Fry with Marinated Tofu

Tuesday, April 1

Simple Stir-Fry with Marinated Tofu

Rating: 4.25

Sometimes, a simple dinner is best. We love to have a big pile of veggies with marinated tofu, so stir-frys are pretty common around here. I rarely use anything resembling a recipe for these, but they always involve broccoli and bell peppers. I started off by pressing, dry-frying, and then marinating the tofu. There’s a wonderful Asian tofu marinade recipe in Veganomicon, which is more or less the basis for what I do, but with a couple of changes. I don’t measure, but just pour some tamari, mirin, rice vinegar, and sriracha into a bowl, then add some grated ginger and a couple of cloves of pressed garlic. A little sesame oil is good too. I always cut the tofu into cubes or triangles before marinating, and sometimes like today, dry-fry it. A few hours is best for getting the most flavor into the tofu. I like to prep it first thing in the morning and then it’s all ready to go that night for dinner. I cooked the tofu in the wok first and set it aside. I reserved the marinade and added a little bit of cornstarch to it to thicken it up and use it for a stir-fry sauce. The veggies went into the wok next, and were our usual suspects of broccoli, bell pepper, carrot, green onion, shallots, and garlic. I added splashes of the marinade-turned-sauce as I they cooked so they would be coated with the sauce, but not get soggy. When the veggies were just about done, I put the tofu back into the wok to warm up again and mixed it will with the vegetables. I normally like to use brown rice, but I always cook it in broth to give it more flavor and I was out of broth, so I used basmati rice instead. I generally make a little extra rice since the stir-fry really makes enough for three servings. That way, there’s a complete lunch leftover. We like to have spring rolls (I buy the frozen Ling Ling brand) and lately, we’ve been enjoying the gyoza from Trader Joe’s as well. Who needs take-out when you can have a yummy stir-fry dinner with all the trimmings at home?