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Tofu with Peanut Ginger Sauce
Golden crispy pan-fried tofu cubes served with an easy and delicious no-cook creamy peanut butter and ginger sauce. Serve with steamed rice or boiled soba noodles.
Sometimes, no matter how much energy I muster, I just couldn’t bring myself to cook a complicated meal. On days like these, I rely on a quick and easy meal, like this tofu with peanut ginger sauce.
Fry a block of tofu, which can be done in under 15 minutes. And while the tofu is frying, mix all the sauce ingredients to create the peanut ginger sauce.
Arrange fried tofu cubes on a serving plate, then pour the sauce over the tofu. It’s a perfect dish with steamed rice. If you have some extra energy left, boil a pot of soba noodle to serve along with the tofu and peanut sauce, and make it a restaurant-worthy dish.
Ingredients for fried tofu and peanut and ginger sauce
1. Firm/extra-firm tofu
For fried tofu cubes, we need a block of firm or extra-firm tofu. For reference, one block of tofu usually weighs 1 lb (450 gram).
2. Peanut ginger sauce
For the sauce, we need peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce, coconut palm sugar, ginger juice, cayenne powder, and hot water.
Ginger juice is made from fresh ginger, grated with a Microplane/ginger grater, then press/squeeze to obtain ginger juice.
3. Garnish
You can serve the tofu just with the peanut ginger sauce, but you can dress it up a little by garnishing with some chopped scallions and cilantro.
Fry tofu
Drain tofu well, pat dry with a kitchen towel/paper towel, and cut into cubes. I usually cut a block of tofu into eight equal pieces.
Heat a little oil in a non-stick frying pan or well-seasoned cast-iron pan, fry tofu cubes until golden brown.
Since each block of the tofu cube is still quite large, I cut each piece of fried tofu cube into four pieces. Arrange tofu cubes on a serving plate.
Prepare peanut ginger sauce
Whisk peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce, coconut palm sugar, ginger juice, cayenne powder, and warm/hot water into a smooth sauce.
You can make the sauce up to one day ahead and store it in the fridge. The flavor improves with storage time, so it is a good idea to make it the day before you plan to serve the dish.
Serve tofu with peanut ginger sauce
Once you are ready to serve, arrange tofu cubes in a serving plate, then pour the peanut ginger sauce over the tofu.
You don’t need to add any garnish, and the dish should be tasty enough. But you can always perk up the color by adding some freshly chopped cilantro and scallions.
Tofu with Peanut Ginger Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 block (450 gram / 1 lb) firm/extra-firm tofu
- 3 tablespoon peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoon coconut palm sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ginger juice (from 2-inch ginger)
- 1 teaspoon cayenne powder
- 3 tablespoon warm/hot water
- chopped cilantro and/or scallions (optional garnish)
Instructions
- Drain tofu: Drain tofu really well, pat dry with kitchen towel/paper towel, and cut into cubes.
- Fry tofu: Heat a little oil in a non-stick frying pan or well-seasoned cast-iron pan, fry tofu cubes until golden brown. Arrange on a serving plate.
- Prepare sauce: Whisk peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce, coconut palm sugar, ginger juice, cayenne powder, and warm/hot water into a smooth sauce.
- Serve: Pour the sauce over the fried tofu cubes. Garnish with cilantro and/or scallions. Serve immediately.
Comments
This peanut ginger sauce is so flavorful! Love it with the soba noodles, with or without the tofu. Yum!
Such an amazing recipe and loved the clicks. Bookmarking this.
I absolutely love tofu and I'm always looking for new ways to make it! This peanut ginger sauce is amazing! My tofu loving 4 year old loved it too!
Perfect! We can try it for lunch or dinner, even snack! New added to my list yay! :)
No kidding - just last night, I was making a grocery list, and searching for a delicious new tofu recipe to try. Perfect timing! Thank you for exactly the recipe I needed!
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