Asparagus & Smoked Tofu Stir Fry
This Asparagus and Smoked Tofu Stir Fry is the ultimate dish when you are hunting around for another way to cook asparagus after you’ve eaten it every which way. Asparagus is still a luxury vegetable so this dish is also a great quick and easy option for a celebration table. I prefer just to eat English asparagus when it’s in season but as we live and buy in a world market this dish works year round.
This recipe is a lovely surprise to me as the asparagus, cooked so that it still retains a crunch, sits happily in the midst of a chilli hot stir fry sauce. This veg isn’t so delicate that it can’t live alongside strong flavours. It’s got character and for most of us it’s still something special.
The other things I love about this dish is it’s quick to make; it’s nutritious for vegans because of the tofu; and it’s one that most non vegans enjoy when you’ve got ‘mixed’ company with differing food must haves or must not haves.
I owe a big thank you to @woon.heng for the inspiration for this recipe which I have tweaked, and for all the knowledge I have soaked up from her about Chinese and Far Eastern cooking. What a connection.
Ingredients
Servings - 2 as a main dish or 4 as a starter or as part of a sharing platter
Sauce
2 tbs sriracha, Thai chilli sauce
2 tbs soy sauce
1tbs maple or fruit syrup
120ml water or veg stock
1tsp cornflour well mixed with a little of the water/optional
Garnish
Fresh Coriander, red chilli and/or sesame seeds
500g fresh asparagus, ideally with spears of a similar thickness
250g smoked tofu, I use @taifun, well dried in several wrappings of kitchen roll or squeezed dry in a nut bag.
Oil for frying
Sticky or other rice of your choosing, I use sushi rice, cooked according to the packet instructions. I allow 75g per person.
Chopped coriander to garnish
10 or so thin slices red chilli to garnish/optional
Sesame seeds/to garnish/optional
Method
Mix sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine.
Prepare the asparagus, by breaking the ends off. Bend them until they snap easily. The woody ends are good kept for stock, but cut the remained of each spear on the diagonal into bite sized pieces. Keep the tips separate from the rest.
Cut the smoked tofu into sliced bread thick slices. Cut each slice into triangles (or use your fav shapes).
In a deep side frying pan warm the oil and fry the tofu pieces until beginning to brown on both sides. Add all the sauce ingredients except the cornflour. Cook for a minute until the tofu is well coated and the sauce has thickened. The sauce should coat the back of a spoon, if it is thinner than that add more cornflour mixed in water to thicken the sauce.
Once the sauce is ready, add the asparagus minus the tips, stir gently, put a lid on the pan and simmer for 3 minutes. Now add the tips for a further minute.
Remove the lid from the pan and check the asparagus is cooked to your liking. It should still the a slight crunch.
Gently stir the mixture, and serve on a bed of rice, garnished with coriander, red chilli or sesame seeds.
