Lola’s Kitchen: Tofu and Veggies in Peanut Sauce Recipe

Posted February 19, 2016 by Lola in Lola's Kitchen / 18 Comments

Lola’s Kitchen is a feature on Lola’s Reviews where I talk about all things related to food, cooking and baking. These posts can be recipe posts, tens list posts about food or recipes or more discussion type posts about food. I love cooking and spend some time in the kitchen almost every day, so I wanted to give it a place on my blog as well. The banner for this feature is designed by Michelle from Limabean Designs.

When I still lived at my mom’s house my sister often cooked and now and then she made this dish with tofu in peanut butter. When we moved here she had the recipe pinned on the fridge. Eventually I started cooking instead and decided to make this recipe as I liked it. I ended up tweaking it a bit, adding some veggies and more often than not forgot to add the coconut. I am not even sure where the original recipe ever came from, I only know my sister made it and I think she called it something like Thai Tofu, but I thought Tofu and veggies in peanut sauce better describes what it is. I like tofu now and then, but only with the right sauce. I am not a big tofu fan, but if the sauce tastes strongly enough it works well. This peanut sauce is perfect for the tofu and with some veggies added it can be eaten as dinner.
Tofu and Veggies in Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

  • Tofu – 325 gram
  • Red Bell Pepper – 1
  • Onion – 1
  • Peanut Butter – 3 tablespoons
  • Ketjap manis – 2 tablespoons
  • Ginger Powder – 1 tablespoon
  • Olive Oil
  • Water – 250-500ml/ 1-2 cup (optional)

It feeds about 2 people, depending whether you serve anything with it or not. This dish can be served with rice, pasta or bread or as side dish next to another dish.
Ingredients Tofu and Veggies in Peanut Sauce

Method

  1. First slice and dice the onion and the red bell pepper. Then dice the tofu in tiny squares.
  2. Heat some olive oil in a wok or pan and bake the onion until translucent.
  3. Then add the red bell pepper. And some water (optional). Cook for a few minutes until the red bell pepper is softer.
  4. Now add the peanut butter, ketjap manis and ginger powder. Mix for a bit and then add the tofu.
  5. Let cook for a few more minutes while stiring. You can add some water if it bakes dry or a bit more if you want a more fluid sauce.
  6. Service with rice, pasta or bread and enjoy your dinner!

Pictures

Onion

Diced Tofu and red bell pepper

Baking onion and red bell pepper

Add tofu, ginger, peanut butter and ketjap

in the wok

Tofu and Veggies in Peanut Sauce with orzo

Variation Tips

  • Tofu and Veggies in Spicy Peanut Sauce. Like your dishes a bit spicy? Add a teaspoon of sambal and or some cayenne pepper.
  • Tofu and Veggies in Garlick Peanut Sauce. Like Garlic? Add 4 cloves of fresh garlic and some garlic powder.
  • Tofu and Veggies in Coconut Peanut Sauce. The original recipe called for coconut powder through the sauce. Add 2 tablesppoon coconut flakes to the sauce shortly before it’s ready.
  • Tofu and Veggies in Salty Peanut Sauce. Instead of Ketjap manis add 2 tablespoon soy sauce to the sauce to make it more salty instead or salty sweet.
  • Tofu in Peanut Sauce. The original recipe never called for any veggies and it involved only tofu, not sure if the onion was there or not. So if you only want to give your tofu some flavour as a sidedish you can skip the veggis altogether.

Do You like Tofu? What’s your favourite tofu dish?

Tags: ,


18 responses to “Lola’s Kitchen: Tofu and Veggies in Peanut Sauce Recipe

    • I know you share my love for peanut sauces ;). I think this is the third or fourth recipe I shared so far with a sauce where peanut butter is one of the ingredients.

  1. Red Iza

    I wondered what Ketjap manis was, but I see it’s called “kecap manis” in France – sweet soy sauce πŸ™‚ It looks easy to cook and boy, do I love peanut sauce ! And thanks for the alternatives πŸ˜‰ I have several tofu recipes, my favorite tofu is smoked, but the most appreciated recipe home is the chocolate moss with silken tofu.

    • That sounds similiar and yes it’s sweet soy sauce, I usually have both soy sauce and ketjap manis at home as they taste slightly different and work beter for different dishes and sometimes I use both of them in the same dish. I need to find some other good tofu recipes. I’ve seen chocolate mousse with tofu on pinterest a few time and always thought it soudned weir,d but I am glad to hear it’s good, I might give it a try once.

  2. I’m Korean so tofu was a bug part of my meals growing up. I’ve had it in a lot of forms. My sister’s had it in a smoothie form too. My favorite dish has to be something we call soon Dooboo (μˆœλ‘λΆ€). It’s a stew like dish (찌개) that we add spices, though you can have it plain, meats, veggies, and seafood with tofu being it’s main part. You can eat it straight from the pot, but my family likes to spoon some out onto our rice and eat it like that. It’s kind of a simple dish, but it’s almost like comfort food. Personally I only have mine with beef, tofu, and an egg with a little bit of spice.
    Alexa @ Words Off the Page recently posted…The Writing Circle: Character PlaylistsMy Profile

  3. I enjoy tofu in stir fry. Like you, I think it needs a good sauce and haven’t been able to figure one out (besides stir fry). This meal looks so good! I definitely need to make this sooner than later. Thank you for posting πŸ™‚
    Xxertz recently posted…Stacking the Shelves, #10My Profile

    • Let me know how it goes if you give it a try! I only have a few recipes with tofu that I like as it needs a good sauce. It also work pretty well in some curries.

  4. I tried making Tofu for the first time a few weeks ago and it was oookay, but not great. I think I made it with spinach and rice (like a chicken palak kind of thing but with tofu instead of chicken) or maybe with vegetables and a curryish kind of sauce? I can’t remember now to be honest, but I remember that it was a bit too much Tofu and I couldn’t see it anymore after that, but it didn’t taste horrible. I used a lot of seasoning and stuff because I knew it would be bland otherwise, but it still ended up being really, really mediocre. I still have some leftover, so I might try again!
    Vlora recently posted…How to Finish Your ProjectMy Profile

    • Curries often do work well with tofu, but I agree it’s hard to make a dish with tofu that’s great. It often seems to land in the okay territory for me too. And yes it needs a lot of flavour as else it’s bland.
      Lola recently posted…Sunday Post #166My Profile

    • I agree tofu is difficult to season or flavour right, I don’t eat it as often because of that. This is one of the few recipes with tofu that I actually like, the peanut sauce has a strong flavour whihc really works with the tofu. I hope you’ll give it a try!

Leave a Reply to S. J. Pajonas Cancel reply

CommentLuv badge

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.