Sesame Veggie Stir Fry




I've been eating tofu since high school and thus am very particular of its taste. I used to freeze tofu to get a firm texture. Then recently I started baking tofu to get it to be chewy.  I've tried many brands of tofu over the years and now only use Twin Oaks because they've already squeezed out all the water for me and it's the firmest tofu I've tasted on the market. It's grown on a farm in Virginia from organic, non-GMO soybeans. It my favorite brand because of the wonderful taste straight out of the package, it's like nothing else on the market. I came across this recipe which has been a game changer for me. So for those of you who say you would never eat tofu or didn't like, you must try this recipe with Twin Oaks tofu (available at Whole Foods). The key to delicious tofu is marinating it in a sauce overnight. You can find toasted sesame oil at Trader Joe's, it's absolutely delicious and you only need a little bit.

You can use whatever vegetables you have on hand for this. I found that half a head of red cabbage yielded a ton of food, while still being so low in calories. I made this recipe with quinoa, but you can use any carb that you prefer. I measured dry what 5 servings would be and cooked according to the directions, then I divided equally between my glass containers to take to work. Likewise I divided equally the package of tofu which coincidentally is 5 servings among my containers. For the protein and carbs I felt I needed to eat exactly one serving of but I freely added vegetables making one huge plate at work. I always make my lunch for work on Sundays because it's so easy to just pull out the fridge every morning my lunch ready to go.


Ingredients
1 container extra-firm tofu
Quinoa
Broccoli, florets
1 red bell pepper, chopped
½ head  purple cabbage, chopped
carrots
1/4 cup tamari sauce (or soy sauce)
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
juice from 1 lime
1 large clove garlic, minced
½  teaspoon fresh ginger, minced 
Couple dashes black pepper
dash of red pepper flakes (optional)
sesame oil (for frying)
toasted sesame oil (for flavor)
black sesame seeds 

Directions

  1. In a small bowl, whisk together tamari sauce, lime juice, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes.
  2. Chop tofu into chunks and  add to bowl with marinade. I prefer to let this sit overnight flipping the bowl around a few times.
  3. Pour 1 tablespoon sesame oil in a  large pan and turn on heat to medium-high. When pan is hot, remove tofu from bowl (draining the sauce and saving for later) and brown tofu on all sides until golden. The tofu will not brown if you poured the sauce into the pan. 
  4. Once tofu is golden brown (after about 6 minutes), remove from pan and set aside on a plate. Add sesame seeds to the tofu and flavor with a little toasted sesame seed oil.
  5. Next cook your vegetables, once done flavor with your remaining sauce from the tofu.
  6. Serve veggies and tofu over quinoa.


Nutritional Analysis
368 cal, 22g protein, 11g fiber


Here's my lunch at work when I dump the food out of my containers into a plate. Can you believe this is just one serving of food? When you spread the more nutritious food to cover your plate it looks visually full, so eat as many healthy vegetables as you can.

Recipe Source: theglowingfridge



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