Basic Sauteed Tofu

Just a basic recipe for moderately spicy sauteed tofu, quick and easy and not too unhealthy. Goes well with steamed broccoli and rice.

I don't press the tofu as I find when it does it absorbs too much of the marinade and the inside of the cubes just become vaguely vinegary.

Ingredients

• 14oz (397g) Firm Tofu
• Oil for sauteeing. Recommend a few tbsp of plain sesame oil with a small amount of toasted sesame oil added near the end.

Marinade

• 1/2 cup water
• 2.5 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
  • Try to find some with no added sugar (hard nowadays!). Al Wadi pomegranate molasses is available on Amazon (Bezos wins this round...) if your local market doesn't have any pure pomegranate molasses.
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tbsp onion powder
• 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 small serrano or habanero pepper, minced
• 2 tsp corn starch

Sauteed Vegetables

Can really be anything, sautee separately for a few minutes. I like:

• 1 Sweet bell pepper (red, yellow, or orange)
• 1 bunch green onions
• Baby Corn
• Snap peas
• 1/2 medium white onion (cut into 1/2 inch thick slices parallel with rings, then cut each slice in half)
• 1 tbsp chili paste

Rice

• 1 cup rice
• 2 whole cloves garlic
• 1/4 tsp tumeric
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp olive oil

Cook rice on side, using whatever rice you like. Remove garlic before serving.

Directions

1. Drain tofu and cut tofu into cubes of desired size (1/2 inch suggested)
2. Combine marinade ingredients except for corn starch and freshly minced garlic
3. Cover tofu with marinade, marinate for ~30 minutes, refrigerated
4. Strain tofu, retain marinade!
5. Prepare cornstarch by dissolving in a few tbsp of water
6. Mix retained marinade, cornstarch, and minced garlic well
7. Preheat pan over medium-high heat
8. Add oil and sautee tofu for ~12 minutes, tossing every three or four minutes
9. Lower heat to medium, add sauce, and simmer until sauce thickens (~8 minutes).

TODO

bird's eye peppers instead of serrano/habanero

pressing tofu seems to have made it worse; outside of tofu isn't as "chewy" and inside just tasted like marinade and was a bit chewier than I wanted. Skip.

In the batch where the tofu was pressed (and I first increased the cornstarch), the sauce thickened in under four minutes and scorched a bit from the heat. Sauce did not thicken quickly in next batch (did not press tofu) — it looks like pressing the tofu caused the tofu to absorb more of the marinade so there was less sauce.

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Last Modified: May 9, 2019