China: Silken Tofu with Spicy Soy Garlic Sauce

One of my go-to “lazy” recipes for a healthy and lean dinner is this dish. Silken tofu has a brilliant texture and is packed with Omega-3 and 6, Vitamins A, C and E and calcium. It also has about 7 grams of protein per 100 grams of tofu. It also tends to be very low in calories - that same 100g silken tofu only packs about 55 calories.

This dish is also very easily converts to vegan with zero sacrifice of flavours.

So if you want to make very little effort and feel like fitness is your passion - this dinner recipe may be exactly what you’re after.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

• Silken Tofu (500g)

• 2 cloves of Garlic

• 1 Tb Spoon Sesame Oil

• 2 Tb Spoons Black Vinegar

• 2 Tb Spoons Dark Soy Sauce

• 1 Tb Spoon Oyster Sauce (sub in vegan version if needed)

• 1 Tb Spoon honey (maple syrup for vegan)

• Crispy Chili in Oil (to taste; I use probably about 1 Tb spoon)

• Fresh Scallions (about 1 Tb spoon; to taste and some for garnish)

• Sesame Seeds (for garnish)

Drain the tofu

The most time consuming part of this preparation is draining the tofu. No, I am not joking.

With this in mind, the first thing I would recommend you do is take the tofu out of the packaging and let it rest on a plate as you prepare the rest. Take note to remove some of the access water that will collect on the bottom of the place you stuck it on throughout this period. You don’t want additional water in your dish, as this will mess with the concentrations of the flavours and that would be downright criminal.

Mix the sauce

As your tofu is draining, and consequently investing about as much effort into this meal prep as you are, go ahead and finely chop your fresh garlic and slice up your scallions. Now that the hard labour portion of your evening is complete, add all of your garlic and most your scallions (reserving some for garnish a the end) to the saucer or bowl where you will mix your ingredients in for the sauce.

To this, add all of your wet ingredients. Of course you can adjust proportions to your own palette, but the noted quantities are roughly what I aim for personally.

“Cooking” directions

Once sauce is mixed, it is time to prepare the tofu. I cook the whole block first and then slice it just before putting on the sauce, allowing the sauce to coat more of the surface of the tofu.

In terms of cooking, you are pretty much just heating the tofu. There are essentially two ways you can go about this unsurmountable culinary challenge for this recipe:

Microwaved

Literally the easiest thing you could do. Blast the tofu in the microwave for a 2-3 minutes, or until it is hot. Pretend you steamed it.

Steamed

You can steam this in literally any steamer. My preference is one of the bamboo ones. Steam for about 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

Once tofu is hot, plate it onto your serving plate and slice it up into sections. Pour your sauce over it and sprinkle with sesame seeds and remaining scallions.

I have seen this served as a side, but I personally prefer to just take a spoon to it and devour the whole thing myself in one sitting.