soba noodle and vegetable stir fry with peanut crusted tofu
When I first saw my basket of ingredients for my final recipe for the Woolworths Masterchef Campaign I felt a little apprehensive. I’ve never been a big fan of tofu. In fact up until a recent extremely delicious tofu meal at a dim sum restaurant in town, I would have put it in my ‘never bother to eat’ folder. I also felt a tiny bit excited because this assignment meant I was forced to get up close and personal with the stuff, finally.
I think I have fallen in like with it.
Woolies gave me a plethora of vegetables and flavour to make an Asian inspired dish, the only thing missing, and critical, was a sweet element. This dish would have been taken up a notch if I could have added a sweet element to the sir fry dressing. I would normally add hoison, oyster, plum or sweet chilli sauce. Even a smidgen of palm sugar gives it the necessary edge.
Never the less the peanut crusted tofu gives a lovely texture to this stir fry dish and its a good way to cook this silky, protein-rich ingredient. Try and drain the tofu as long as possible to remove the liquid.
soba noodle and vegetable stir fry with peanut crusted tofu
Print RecipeIngredients
- tofu
- 250 g soft tofu drained and dried on kitchen paper
- 750 ml sunflower oil
- 200 ml peanuts ground to a fine crumb
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- stir fry
- 100 g soba noodles
- 2 Tbs sunflower oil
- 200 g baby pak choi
- 150 g baby mange tout and sweetcorn
- 250 ml bean sprouts
- 6 oml soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp ginger finely grated
- 1 tsp garlic minced
- 1 tsp green chilli minced
- 2 Tbs fresh coriander finely chopped (plus extra as garnish)
- 2 Tbsp of peanuts roughly chopped
- 1 lime cut into wedges
Instructions
- Heat the sunflower oil in a medium pot until it reaches 180C.
- 2. Cut the dried tofu into bites size blocks and toss into the beaten egg. Spread the peanut crumbs on a flat plate, and working very quickly, put the egg washed tofu on the nuts and scoop to cover as much of the surface area as possible.
- 3. Fry them in 2 batches, taking care not to overcrowd the pan. When they turn golden, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
- 4. Cook the soba noodles in boiling water for 5 minutes, drain, and refresh under cold water. Set aside.
- 5. Prepare the vegetables. Trim the baby pak choi ends and cut them in half, and then cut the white stem from the dark green leaves. Cut the thicker stems in half again if necessary. Slice the baby corn lengthways and then again in half. Cut the mange tout into roughly 3 or 4 pieces.
- 6. Heat the 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil in a wok or frying pan and stir fry the pak choi stems, sweetcorn and mange tout for about 5 minutes until they soften. Add 60ml of water if the wok goes dry.
- 7. Add the bean sprouts and pak choi leaves with the soy sauce, ginger, chilli and garlic, and stir fry for a further minute or 2.
- 8. Add the noodles and toss these through the vegetables to heat through.
- 9. Add the tofu and toss in the sauce to coat.
- 10. Serve in bowls and spritz with fresh lime juice. Scatter over the extra peanuts and fresh coriander.
1. You can find my recipe on the Woolworths site.
You too can get involved and WIN!
Make your own recipe using the same ingredients I had (or any of the other bloggers) during the competition and Win a R10 000 gift card with Woolworths.
Here are all the details:
This year, it’s not just bloggers getting the chance to get creative in the kitchen along with MasterChef and Woolies. Create a recipe with the same ingredients used each week by the Woolworths Masterchef Competition bloggers and you could win one of 14 R1000 Woolies gift cards, or the grand prize of a R10 000 gift card. Head to the Woolworths Masterchef Hub for more info and T&Cs
And then I got a bit carried away……….
Whilst I was making my stir fry I got a little swept up in the tofu madness and thought Id try out a second recipe since I had all the ingredients up and running in my kitchen. An idea of tofu noodle fritters or patties occurred to me.
The thing I like the most about tofu is how light and clean it is. Being a protein rich, and generally super-healthy food, I love that I’m doing my body a big favour when I eat it. I snacked on these little noodle and vegetable cakes for a day or so after making them and they were quite tasty. Not necessarily the best thing I have ever made, but I thought the idea was worthy of inclusion in case it appeals to you. Perhaps you could make up your own version using your choice of ingredients.
This is my rough recipe and I used all the ingredients for my stir fry except I used leeks instead of the other vegetables, but included sprouts. I mixed together about a cup of cooked soba noodles (roughly chopped), mashed in 250g of soft tofu, one egg, 200g of finely chopped and lightly pan-fried baby leeks (spring onions), 1/2 cup of sprouts, 1 t minced garlic, 1/2 green chilli finely chopped, 2 tablespoons chopped peanuts and 1 tablespoon chopped coriander and I made a dipping sauce with soy and ginger. I formed the mixture into little cakes and pan-fried until golden on each side.
What do you think, and how do you like to eat tofu?
Disclosure: Woolworths have paid me to develop and write this recipes for their campaign. They have also given me with an allowance to buy the ingredients from their stores.
I look forward to connecting with you again in the future.
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Love me some tofu! Can’t wait to try the peanut crusted version xxx
I love soba noodles, gorgeous stir fry!
Simply divine and sumptuous 🙂 Pinned!
Thanks Kiran, tofu is an interesting ingredient.
Aaa, this looks absolutely amazing, just what I’m craving!!
Oh yum! veggie fair I could get used to eating everyday. Nothing like recipe for meatless monday!
Wonderful photographs and a lovely idea how to get a nice tofu crust, I will keep that in mind.
I made this and it was so easy and delicious. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for letting me know Alison, you made my day 🙂