With so many households including mine looking for healthy, meat free meal alternatives, this delicious dish has quickly become a weekly favourite with my family. My husband is not a great fan of tofu, but he really enjoys it in this recipe. I always make a serving size for four so we both get to take it cold to work next day. What I love about this recipe is we have the hot version for dinner and then it tastes just as yummy cold the next day for lunch. For this reason, this recipe has been made to serve four.
There are so many recipes out there for peanut sauce and I have seriously tried them all. For me, this one really hits the taste buds in a perfect way. I hope you agree.
I use organic gluten free Japanese buckwheat soba noodles for this recipe as I eat gluten free and there are some wonderful options at many supermarkets and health stores. If you have children or a family member that simply doesn’t enjoy tofu, then it is easy to substitute with chicken or any other form of protein.
There is a lot of controversy and misinformation about soy, and this can be so confusing. Eating whole soy foods in moderation which is similar to traditional Asian diets is not only safe but has health promoting qualities as soybeans are a highly nutritious legume packed with nutrients. Tofu, tempeh, whole soybeans, and miso in certain quantities are the health promoting soy products that I recommend when eaten several times a week. The issue is that processed soy is appearing and often hidden in so many products today. With so many people moving to a plant-based diet, if not educated adequately about vegetarian protein options, soy may be consumed in much larger quantities than I would recommend. As they are a phytoestrogen and mimic estrogen, we all need to be very careful not to overindulge as processed soy in large quantities may be detrimental to health.
The foods I don’t recommend for this reason are soy milk, soy sausages, soy ice cream, soy yoghurt, soy schnitzel, soy cream cheese and all the packaged foods that have added soy flour, soy lecithin, soy oil and soy protein isolate. Before you know it, you are consuming way too much soy!
So, let’s assume you are eating quality soy products in moderation, then this recipe is a wonderful addition to your diet. I recommend organic tofu made with certified organic soybeans that are non-genetically modified with filtered water as the ingredients.
Vegetables in this recipe can be flexible. Sometimes I just use what I have left in the fridge however the following recipe is one I use often.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil or sesame oil for frying tofu
Spicy Peanut Sauce - ½ cup crunchy peanut butter
- ½ cup tamari or gluten free soy sauce
- 6 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- Squeeze juice of 1 lime
- 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
Noodle Bowls - 2 x 500 g packets of firm tofu, drained of liquid and sliced
- 2 x 250 g packs of soba noodles
- 1 large red capsicum, thinly sliced
- 1 cucumber, thinly sliced
- 1 avocado, sliced
- ½ cup of finely chopped coriander
- 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds
- Pepper for taste
Instructions
In a small bowl, mix the peanut butter, honey, tamari, lime juice, vinegar, and chilli flakes for your dressing.
Follow the cooking instructions on the packet for your choice of noodles and toss in a touch of olive oil to avoid being too sticky. Put aside.
Once noodles have cooled, toss in the spicy peanut sauce.
Heat a fry pan or wok with sesame oil or olive oil and add sliced tofu and cook for 5 minutes on each side until a little crispy.
Prepare your 4 bowls with noodles first, then place your evenly split salad, avocado, coriander, sesame seeds and tofu on top of the noodles.
Devour with chopsticks and enjoy!
