Thai Style Tofu Salad

With left over Summer vegetables

Some Summers, we don’t get good crops from our garden for various reasons and this past Summer fell into that ‘some’ year category. We are bit bummed about that. The only half-way decent yield we got was tomatoes. My favorite cherry tomato variety ‘Sweet 100’ was not bad yet in my opinion it got up to only 85…oh come on!  

A vegan meal night over the blue moon, the petite tomatoes support this Thai salad’s weight well. We may be carnivores but today, we enjoyed a bowl full of greens. The small changes were made on the recipe from a book Vibrant Food by Kimberley Hasselbrink.You will fall in love with her photographs.

Ingredients and Instruction for 4 servings (Print Recipe Here)

• 1 (16-ounce) package extra-firm tofu, drained

For marinade

• 1/4 cup low sodium tamari soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons roasted red chili paste ( I used Tobanjan soy paste)
• 2 teaspoons sugar

For the dressing

• 2 limes
• 4 Tablespoons tamari soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil or sesame oil
• 4 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoons red pepper flakes

For the greens – practically anything but here are some suggestions. It does not have to be exact measurements.

• Cherry tomatoes, halved 1-2 cups
• Okura, thinly sliced about 1/2 cup
• Sugar snap peas, sliced 1 cup – I cooked in salted  boiling water for 1 minute, drained then plunged in ice cold water. It can be raw if you prefer.
  
• Cucumber, cubed 1 cup
• Fresh mint  leaves, roughly chopped 1/4 cup
• Fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped 1/4 cup
• Butter lettuce, torn 3-4 cups
• Cilantro leaves and blossoms for garnish Option: white radish sprouts is great too.
• 1 small Thai red chili, seeded and thinly sliced for garnish

1. Place the tofu on a cutting board and weight it with another cutting board (or heavy plate) on top to extract water from tofu for 30 minutes.
2. While the tofu is pressing, make marinade sauce – In a medium bowl, whisk together the tamari, rice vinegar, olive oil, red chili paste and sugar until the sugar is dissolved and smooth. Note: I put everything in a zip lock bag, closed tight then massaged the bag.
3. Dry the pressed tofu with paper towel and cut into 1-inch cubes. Put into the bowl or zip-lock bag of marinade. Toss gently to coat. Cover with plastic sheet (if using the bowl). Lay flat (if using bag). Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Turn over once in a while to evenly marinated.
   
4. Meanwhile make dressing – Zest 1 lime, put in the small bowl. Cut the lime you just zested and another lime in half and squeeze the juice out and add to the bowl. Add rest of dressing ingredients to the bowl and whisk until the brown sugar has dissolved. Set aside.
5. Combine the greens except cilantro and Thai red chili. Toss with about 2/3 of dressing. Serve the remaining dressing on the side. Chill in the refrigerator until needed.
   
6. Set oven for broi.l Arrange the tofu in a single layer on a lightly oiled small baking sheet discarding marinade sauce. Broil for 15- 18 minutes. turning every 3 minutes until deeply browned.
7. Place greens on plate, top with tofu and garnish with fresh cilantro leaves and Thai red chili.

Vestiges of the past Summer….  late comer fig…what took you so long?Black Plum tomatoes has good flavor and gorgeous color though I feel like I have to spit it out its thick skin…good news is that because of tough skin, it withstands bugs, mold and other diseases.The seedless watermelon stayed small. What the heck! It was not seedless?Second year thornless, bushy ‘Raspberry short cake’ variety tasted better than previous year.The roses…released pleasant scents all Summer long…really sweet..

The weekend blessing…My husband’s take on Saldkay Bulochaka by Cooking Melangery…everything on her blog is like wow!

He tweaked her recipe a little bit so it looks different…still nice. I often hand him the wish list…printed recipes from other food bloggers…A man in training I guess…try not to surpass the master…k?