Friday, May 15, 2009

May 11, 2009: Shredded brussels sprouts and smoked tofu salad

Cindy has a small stash of recipes she's tagged as somehow autumn-y, so with the warmth well and truly gone for the year, she's started pulling them out. This week it was tofu and brussels sprout salad courtesy of Heidi from 101 Cookbooks.

We used some smoked tofu (amazingly available from the new Coles on Johnston Street) as the centrepiece of ours, and were both pretty impressed by its texture and flavour (we'd never tried it before). Once you've shredded the sprouts, this whole dish comes together pretty quickly. It was all tasty but I was a little underwhelmed. I think our sprouts were past their best, and this dish is all about the sprouts - the other flavours (tofu, maple syrup, apple and pine nuts) are fine but without awesome sprouts you're going to end up a bit disappointed. We've enjoyed sprout-centric dishes before, so we may try this again when we can pick up our sprouts from somewhere other than the supermarket.


Shredded brussels sprouts and smoked tofu salad
(based on a dish at 101 Cookbooks)

2 fuji apples, cut into bite-sized wedges
juice of one lemon
200 smoked tofu, chopped into small cubes
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted and chopped
1 tablespoon golden syrup
350 grams brussels sprouts, shredded
salt
olive oil

In a bowl, cover the apple slices with water and the lemon juice.

Heat the oil in a pan, and fry the tofu with a pinch of salt for a few minutes, until it starts to brown up. Stir in the garlic and maple syrup and cook for a minute or two.

Drain the apples and add them to the pan, cooking for a couple of minutes. Once they're done, scrape the mixture out into a bowl and set aside.

Add a bit more oil and a pinch of salt to the pan and fry the brussels sprouts for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. When the sprouts are going a little bit golden, add in the apple/tofu mix and the pine nuts, stir it all together and serve straight away.

4 comments:

  1. Interesting recipe, a bit like the other one there http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/caramelized-tofu-recipe.html, which was a tasty dish.
    I'm a big fan of smoked tofu, one of my favorites is a smoke tofu, leak and egg pie, or as a base for risotto, or whenever a bacon substitute is needed.

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  2. Yes, Nudbot, we make that other caramelised tofu recipe often! Thanks for the smoked tofu suggestions, I think we'll be cooking with it more often. :-)

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  3. one of heidi's recipe I have bookmarked to try - I love smoked tofu but it can be quite strong - maybe this overwhelmed the brussel sprouts (although they can be quite strong too and I would think this is a good combination so who knows really)

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  4. Yes, indeed, Johanna - who knows?! I know this one deserves another go at least. :-)

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