Delicious Black Pepper Tofu with Zucchini. This is a simple vegetarian stir fry that can be made in 30 minutes or less!
It has been two years now since I have had red meat in my diet. While I eat chicken and fish outside the house, I only cook vegetarian in the house. It is so hard to find a good vegetarian dish that is filled with protein and tastes good. This meal was a big hit in my house everyone loved it! I have found that tofu is hard to make right however when you find the right dish it tastes so good. This black peppered tofu is a great dish that is surprisingly simple to make. This dish is extremely spicy so I would recommend cutting down on the spice level if you do not like spiciness. However, the dish is meant to be spicy. It is the point of all the flavor so don't cut back on the spices too much. Adding rice to the dish balances out the spiciness really well. I added zucchini to this dish because I like vegetables in my stir fry. This Black Peppered Tofu with Zucchini is quick and easy to make during the week and tastes delicious over rice.
A few tips for this stir fry:
Prepare - to make the best stir fry it is easiest to prepare all the ingredients before you begin cooking. Then place the ingredients close to the stove so you can have everything ready when you are stir-frying. The cooking process goes very quickly so it is easy to have all the ingredients ready.
Black pepper - this recipe calls for a ton of black pepper. I love spice and even added dried red chili peppers to the stir fry however, use less pepper if you can't tolerate the spice level.
Tofu - Baking the tofu will dry it out which helps the tofu absorb all the juices in the sauce. You can skip this step but the tofu will end up on the mushier side.
Black Peppered Tofu
Serving size: 4
Total Time: 30 minutes
Source: Recipe adapted from Plenty cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi.
1 pound firm tofu
Cornstarch to dust the tofu
11 tablespoons butter
12 small shallots, thinly sliced
8 fresh red chiles (fairly mild ones), thinly sliced
12 garlic cloves, crushed
3 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
3 tablespoon sweet soy sauce (or mix 1 tablespoon honey with 2 tablespoon soy sauce)
3 tablespoon light soy sauce
4 teaspoon dark soy sauce
2 tablespoon sugar
5 tablespoons coarsely crushed black peppercorns (from a spice grinder)
16 small and thin green onions, cut into 1 1/4-inch segments
2-3 slice vegetable of your choice (I used zucchini)
Brown rice to serve with the tofu
Step 1: Slice the green onions and shallots. Mince the garlic and ginger. Chop the chiles and set all ingredients aside.
Step 2: Cube the tofu into biteable pieces. Dry out the tofu chunks by either pressing with a napkin or baking in the oven for 15 minutes. I like to do this before working with tofu because I have found it makes the tofu crispy which I prefer. Alternatively, you can skip this step.
Step 3: Sprinkle cornstarch or flour onto the tofu. Pour enough oil into a large frying pan or wok to come 1/4 inch up the sides and heat. You'll need to fry the tofu pieces in a few batches so they don't stew in the pan. Fry tofu, turning them around as you go until they are golden all over and have a thin crust. As they are cooked, transfer them onto paper towels.
Step 4: Remove the oil and any sediment from the pan, then put the butter or oil (if you are health conscious you can use olive oil or coconut oil) inside and melt it. Add the shallots, chiles, garlic, and ginger. Sauté on low to medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the ingredients have turned shiny and are totally soft. Next, add the soy sauces and sugar and stir, then add the crushed black pepper.
Step 5: Add the tofu to warm it up in the sauce for about a minute. Finally, stir in the green onions. Serve hot, with steamed brown rice. Enjoy!
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