Tofu With a Kick

Before you go any further, I think it is fair to say I am not a vegetarian and I am definitely not vegan. But I do love Tofu. I am a firm believer that we should consume wide variety of foods which provide good nutrition for the body and taste good (that’s really important!).

A few weeks ago, I came across this recipe which I adapted and made a bit healthier. Because It wasn’t unhealthy as such to start off with, it was fine as it was, but I felt sodium levels were potentially a bit high. So I reduced the amount of soya sauce by half. In addition I added some chillies to it. Chillies are actually really good for you because they are a good source of vitamins and a few minerals. I tend to use red ones, but you will find that most colours have plenty of nutritional values.

Tofu in itself, is also packed with nutrients as it is a good source of protein because it contains all essential amino acids. They are called Essential because these are the ones we can only get from food as the body can’t make them). Tofu is also a source of calcium too!

By the time you add rice to it. This is not a particularly low calorie meal, but is packed with very healthy ingredients! One way to reduce overall calories is to reduce the amount of rice, or having it with veggies or in an omelette.

Ingredients

• 300 gr tofu
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1 tbs garlic powder
• 5 ts corn starch
• 30 ml soya sauce
• 1 tbs golden syrup (maple syrup ideally if you have it)
• 1 tbs apple cider vinegar
• 1 red chilli
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 ts black pepper
• 125 gr brown rice (I use brown rice as it’s healthier than white)

Preparation

1. Put into a bowl the water, soya sauce, garlic powder, golden syrup, apple cider vinegar and pepper. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly
2. Chop the chilli and garlic nice and fine
3. Drain the tofu and cut into small squares then add to the ingredients above.
4. Leave to marinade in the fridge for a minimum of 15 minutes, the longer the better. I usually do it overnight.
5. After marinading, drain the tofu but make sure you keep the sauce!!!
6. Place the tofu in a frying pan, you can add a bit of olive oil to it, I’ve not needed to do that. Leave on the frying pan until the tofu starts turning a brownish colour.
7. In the mean time, get the rice cooking!!!
8. Go back to the mixture and NOW you can add the corn starch to it. Mix it well and once the tofu has gone a brownish colour, add the sauce to it and leave it to simmer until the sauce thickens up.
9. Serve on rice and enjoy!!!

These quantities are meant to be for two servings, I go through one of these by myself! Try it out and let me know what you think. If you come up with any suggestions how to make it even better, give me a shout!

Other Nutritional Information

• Saturated fat: 0 g
• Polyunsaturated 0 g
• Monounsaturated 0 g
• Transfats 0 g
• Cholesterol 0 g
• Sodium 5.6 mg
• Potassium 76.7 mg
• Fiber 0.7 g
• Sugars 11.4 g
• Vitamin A 0.4%
• Vitamin C 1.9%
• Calcium 17.5%
• Iron 1.1%

Figures based on MyFitnessPal calculations. Please note that different brand ingredients will yield different results.