Thai Salad with Sweet and Salty Tofu and Red Curry Peanut Sauce

Nicole and I have been meeting every week for the past three weeks to experiment with different Vegan, gluten, and sugar-free recipes and I have really been enjoying finding and discovering new ways to make things that I love! We have recreated some really cool things and I can’t wait to share them all with you guys.

So far I have posted about a rich Beetroot Hummus and Golden Turmeric Hummus and a decadent Chocolate Vegan Brownies covered in the most amazing Chocolate Sauce. All three of these recipes were nice and easy to follow and despite me being slightly skeptical of the brownies before we made them, I was a fan by the end!

This week we thought we would serve up another savoury dish but this time in the form of a Thai Salad with Sweet and Salty Tofu and Red Curry Peanut Sauce (we found the recipe on a cool blog called Cashew Kitchen). We were pretty amped to whip this up because of all the awesome flavours involved and because it really doesn’t require that much time or effort, other than the shredding of the veggies that go into it. So if you’re looking to make something a little different for dinner tonight do not for one second hesitate to try this recipe out. Trust me.

For me, the absolute star of this dish is the Red Curry Peanut Sauce which is so delicious! It’s made up of all the right kind of flavours, sweet, salty, spicy and it sticks to your noodles like velcro, which I love. I’ve landed up making it on numerous occasions for a few other noodle and rice dishes because it’s so quick to make and it tastes so good. I think if I lived alone I’d probably have this sauce every night on everything!

Ok, so I’ll stop rambling and instead share the recipe for one of your new soon-to-be-favourite Thai dishes. Please let Nicole and I know if you make it, we’d love to hear your feedback. do Enjoy!

Thai Salad: serves 4

·1/4 cabbage head
·1 fennel bulb
·2 carrots
·1 broccoli head
·1 red bell pepper
·150g sugar snap peas
·2 handfuls of rocket salad
·1-2 lime slices
·rice noodles (can be omitted)

Sweet’n’Salty Tofu:

·350g firm, non-flavored tofu
·2 tbsp olive oil
·1 tbsp tamari or Chinese soy
·1 tbsp maple syrup
·1 tbsp rice vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
·1 tbsp brown rice miso paste
·1 heaping tsp sesame oil
·1 clove garlic, minced
·1/2 tsp sweet paprika powder
·couple of pinches dried chili flakes
·black pepper

Red Curry Peanut Sauce:

·4 tbsp creamy peanut butter
·2 tbsp olive oil
·2 tbsp maple syrup or honey
·1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
·1 tbsp tamari
·2 tsp red curry paste
·1 large clove garlic, minced
·1 lime, juice
·couple of pinches dried chili flakes
·black pepper

Directions

1. Cut tofu into cubes and pop into a mixing bowl. Combine all the ingredients for the sweet ‘n’ salty marinade and then pour that over the tofu. Gently fold the tofu and sauce a couple of times to make sure all the pieces are covered. Set aside.
2. Rinse all your vegetables and peel the ones that require peeling. Shred the cabbage, broccoli, fennel, bell pepper and sugar snaps. Peel carrots into ribbons. Combine all these with the rocket salad in a large salad bowl and then squeeze lime juice over everything before tossing gently. Set aside.
3. Mix all ingredients for the peanut sauce using an immersion (hand-held) blender. You can also combine it with a fork but the result won’t be as smooth. Set aside.
4. Stir-fry the tofu pieces in a skillet along with all of the marinade on medium heat until golden brown. Turn the pieces over once in a while to make sure all sides get some color. Be careful not to fry them on too high a temperature as the tamari soy sometimes burns quite easily.
5. Right before serving cook your rice noodles until tender, this usually only takes a few minutes. Drain and toss with some olive oil.
6. Transfer to your bowl containing the Thai salad. Now you can either stir the peanut sauce into the large salad or let each person drizzle as much as they want onto their own plate. We stirred the sauce in.
7. Serve with pieces of tofu and black sesame seeds. A couple of wedges of lime on the side are also good!