In keeping with my plan to reduce my meat in take, I decided to try making a tofu Pad Thai.

Let me state, first off, that I have never been a fan of tofu. The only time I ever liked it was when I had it in a Sichuan chili dish that was so spicy, you couldn’t taste anything anyway. Tofu has always been this weird, bland, mushy stuff that never added anything to a dish. And while I still think actual vegetables are better than tofu, I have to say that I will gladly cook with it more now.

I tried tofu two ways this weekend, in order to give myself a bit more variety and understanding of how to make it taste good. The one trick that I learnt was that you need to get as much of the water out of it as possible. Thanks to The Colorful Kitchen (a vegan blog, and now cookbook) I was taught how to press the water out of tofu. In her cookbook, Ilene (author of The Colorful Kitchen) gives a great marinade for tofu as well, which is a mixture of tamari, onion powder, garlic powder and rice vinegar. I didn’t have any tamari (or soy sauce) so I used teriyaki sauce instead. You then bake the tofu for 15 minutes on each side. It was delicious! I genuinely could have sat and just ate the tofu as it was.

However, I wanted to make Pad Thai. And I decided to try putting the marinated baked tofu in, alongside some more tofu (that had been pressed overnight, but without marinade).

I will put my hand up now and say that I did not make a Pad Thai sauce from scratch. It can be quite fiddly, plus I’d brought some back with my from Phuket – so much easier. And on a Sunday night, who doesn’t love convenience?

I probably overdid it on the noodles, as the sauce was quite a light coating compared to your normal super-orange Pad Thai noodles, but it was the right amount of flavour for me without overdoing it. Especially as it makes it more weight-watcher friendly, using less paste (i.e. less sugar).

Next time, I might add in some more vegetables, make it a bit more colorful, but for tonight it worked wonders. And now, it’s time to get ready for the week.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon coconut oil
400 grams tofu, squeezed of excess water
100 grams Pad Thai rice noodles, soaked for 10 minutes
100 grams baby corn
1 egg
1 packet Pad Thai paste
50 grams bean sprouts

1. Heat the coconut oil in a wok, and add the tofu and baby corn. Cook for a few minutes, until the tofu starts to sizzle.
2. Crack the egg into the wok, and allow to cook for a few minutes without stirring. After a few minutes, mix the egg into the tofu and baby corn.
3. Add in the noodles and the Pad Thai paste, stirring and mixing to ensure even coating.
4. Add the bean sprouts to the wok, and continue to cook until everything is heated through.
5. Divide into 4 servings and enjoy with a squeeze of lime.