Golden crispy tofu with creamy sate sauce
Yummy! One of my favourite dishes. Crispy tofu with sate sauce! I am not a huge tofu fan, I only really like it when it is crispy. For me, preferably baked golden crispy in the oven. This together with the richness of peanuts… And this Tofu all of a sudden becomes my favourite meal!
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
🥘 Main ingredients
- extra firm tofu
- cornstarch
- olive oil
- tamari or soy sauce
- peanut butter
- ginger
- red chilli paste
- coconut milk or coconut cream
- garlic
- spring onion
- rice or noodles
- lambs lettuce, cabbage, or spinach
💭 Tips and thoughts about the sate sauce
I adore sate sauce 😉 And could just eat it on top of everything! Or making it into a my favourite peanut soup.
During my travels in Indonesia, I have eaten sate sauce every single day and tasted all different varieties. Sweet ones, spicy ones, soy sauce based ones. There is no one single recipe for sate sauce, because it all depends on how you use your sauce. The crispy tofu with the smooth rich sate sauce is just a perfect combination in flavour and texture.
So go crazy, feel free to invent your own personal favourite sate sauce! Everything is possible, don’t be shy.
In this recipe I have used coconut milk in my sate sauce, because I love the combination of peanuts and coconut. But you don’t have to use coconut and just use stock, water, or a plant based milk to thin your sate sauce.
I always like adding some ginger to my sate, but again this is not a must. You can add your own preferred spices. I make my sate with home made peanut butter. Why? Simply because it’s better, and oh,.. so easy to make. Just make sure you have a good, powerful strong food processor. Chuck in the peanuts, and blend…
🍻 Beverage pairing
Personally I would actually prefer to drink a nice craft beer with this dish. And even though beer is in general considered a better pairing with this type of dish, that doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t pair at all with a wine. In this recipe I have made the sate sauce quite creamy by using coconut cream. I would go towards a low alcohol white wine, with high acidity. A Chardonnay, Alsatian Pinot gris, or maybe an Australian Semillon.
If you are a lover of sate sauce, than go ahead and go for it. There is no need to make a sate sauce more complex than it is. Get your base ingredient, which is peanut butter, and start experimenting. I just love the flexibility of sate sauce. Please add @haricoco1 to your instagram post, as I would love to see your creations, and learn about your favourite sate sauce.
📋 Recipe
Ingredients
- 225 g g half a block, 1 cup firm, or extra firm tofu, diced
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 11/2 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
- 11/2 tbsp peanut butter
- 1 cm fresh ginger finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp red chilli paste
- 3 tbsp coconut milk or coconut cream
- 1/2 chinese cabbage shredded
- 1 garlic clove finely chopped
- 1 spring onion finely sliced
- 120 g 2/3 cup rice
- 20 g 1 cup lambs lettuce
- 1 tbsp chives chopped
- mustard sprouts to top
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 190 C.
- Press all the water out of the tofu, by covering it with a kitchen towel and put a heavy weight on it (like a package of milk). Than dice it in little cubs.
- Add 1/2 tbsp of oil and 1/2 tbsp of soy sauce (or tamari) to the tofu cubs
- Add the cornstarch and make sure all tofu cubs are coated with it.
- Put all the tofu on a baking tray with baking paper, and bake them nice golden brown in the oven (25 – 30 minutes)
- Meanwhile prepare your sate sauce. Heat a small skillet and saute the ginger until it releases its flavour. Add the chilli paste and give it a stir.
- Add the peanut butter, 1 tbsp of soy sauce, and the coconut milk ( or cream), mix the ingredients well.
- If you want a really smooth silky sate sauce, use a hand blender to mix all ingredients, and sieve.
- Keep warm on a very low heat.
- Cook your rice according package.
- Stir-fry the shredded Chinese cabbage with the chopped garlic, maximum 5 minutes to keep the cabbage a bit crunchy. Season to liking.
- When your tofu is golden brown and crispy, take it out of the oven, and prepare for plating.
- Scatter the crispy tofu over your stir-fried Chinese cabbage, and drizzle a good amount of your sate sauce over the tofu.
- Put your rice on a bed of lettuce.
- And top your plate with spring onion, chives, and mustard sprouts.
