Stir Fry with Tofu

A few weeks ago, my friend Michael and I made a trip to Trader Joe’s in Center City, Philadelphia… and I was completely unaware how challenging this journey would be! There were cars in line to get into the parking lot (waiting for cars to leave before entering), a line to get into the grocery store itself, and a line that wrapped around the isles for the checkout. There was even a worker who stood at the end of the line with a tall pole that said, “Line Ends Here”. I kept thinking to myself, “Where the heck am I? Is this what people have to go through to get Trader Joe’s food in Philly? Is this even worth it?”. Michael and I were smart and made the decision to jump in the check-out line before we even started to shop. We took turns, running around the store, then dumping our belongings into the cart. Needless to say, it was definitely an interesting experience!

Anyways, I decided to buy tofu (this was weeks before I decided to start my clean eating diet) and since then, I’ve been trying to find a recipe to cook it with. I had a wide variety of vegetables left over from other recipes, and then quickly realized that I had all the ingredients I needed to make stir fry!

Now, I’ve only made stir fry once before. My siblings and I cooked this huge stir fry dinner for my Mom’s birthday last month, and it was a hit! It ended up being quite an ordeal, as we ended up cooking for 10 people! Thankfully, this recipe is smaller, not as complex, and perfect for a single person, or a couple.

Ingredients:

• 18 oz firm tofu
• 2 cups green beans
• 3 cups asparagus (approx. 36 spears)
• 3 cups chopped broccoli
• 1 cups baby carrots (sliced vertically)
• (Scroll down to see ingredients for the sauce)

Tofu: My experience with tofu? Well, none. I’ve had it before in Pho soup, or in a salad, but never prepared it on my own in a meal. I knew that I wanted the tofu to be crunchy and not in its original squishy texture. As I knew nothing about cooking tofu, I was thankful to stumble upon this blog through Pinterest.

Preparing Tofu:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Remove from the package, drain of all liquid.
• Wrap the tofu in towels to remove all the moisture.

• Place something heavy (a pot or pan, book, etc) on top of the tofu to put pressure on it. Leave like this for approx. 10 minutes. Change paper towels if needed.

My bowl of veggies on top of the tofu!

• Slice and dice tofu into small 1″ cubes.
• Lightly spray cooking sheet with non-grease spray.
• Place in oven for 20 minutes, flipping cubes over after the first 10 minutes. If you want your tofu to be extra crunchy, leave it in longer!
• While the tofu is baking, start slicing up your veggies and preparing your sauce.

My tofu is done! Lightly brown, not too crispy.

Sauce:

• Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any sesame oil in the store, but that didn’t stop me. I had the soy sauce, so I just needed to create a sauce that would work with this stir fry. I found this great website that lists 10 different stir fry sauces and recipes.
• My sauce recipe:
  • 1/4 cup lite (or low sodium) soy sauce
  • 2 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 Tbsp ground basil
  • 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 Tbsp raw honey

Veggies:

• This is where you can really pick and choose what vegetables you’d like to use. I planned on using broccoli and asparagus, but happened to have some extra mushroom and carrots on hand, so I threw them in the pan. Why not, right?!
• You can start cooking your veggies when you pull the tofu out of the oven.
• Grease stir fry pan with 1 Tbsp of oil (you can use sesame, coconut, olive oil… whatever floats your boat!).

  

  I decided to use coconut oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and some minced garlic!

• Pour in veggies and stir continuously. You know, that’s why it’s called STIR fry. Get it?! 🙂

• When veggies reach desired texture (usually after 10-15 minutes stirring on a low setting), add tofu and sauce. Stir for a few more minutes, then serve. Optional: serve with brown rice or quinoa!

Nutrition Facts: 

Servings: 3, Calories: 313

Total Fat 6g, Sodium 857mg, Total Carbs 41g, Dietary Fiber 10g, Sugar 22g, Protein 26g

Looking for a recipe nutrition calculator? MyFitnessPal has a very user friendly website just for that!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/calculator