Tofu is a tricky devil to cook with. Easy to chuck in a pan, difficult to make it taste of anything more than flavoured rubber. Which is incredibly sad given tofu's frankly impressive nutritional profile. It's one of the only non-vegetarian sources of protein to contain all the amino acids (the body's building blocks) we need - putting it on a level pegging with meat in terms of protein quality.
The trick is to pick your type of tofu carefully. Spongy types of tofu need to be marinated and pressed before you cook with them, due to their high water content. Smoked or marinated tofu is usually thinner or comes in pre-packaged pieces, and tends to be much easier to cook with if you want something quick or are new to tofu. If you're using a very heavily marinated type of tofu, I'd recommend halving the ingredients below which make for fiery flavouring.
I actually used tempeh in the photos on this page, as I found some lurking at the back of my local health food store's fridge and thought I'd try something new, but either works well in this recipe. While both are made from soy beans, the difference is that tempeh is made by fermenting the whole soy beans, while tofu uses the soy milk.
What's the A to V?
Tofu and tempeh are a fantastic source of calcium, as well as magnesium and (non-heam) iron. They also contain zinc and vitamin K.
Ingredients (Serves 2):
200g of tofu or tempeh
1/2 an aubergine, cubed
1 tbsp of sesame or olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
5 spring onions, roughly chopped
2 tsp of tamarind paste
1 tbsp of harissa paste
1 tbsp of black pepper, crushed (a pestle and mortar, or a rolling pin and a plastic bag work well here)
2 tbsp of kicap manis (this is a sweet type of soy sauce. If you don't have it, double the amount of soy sauce you use and add 1 tsp of honey)
1 tbsp of soy sauce or tamari
2 handfuls of spinach
Coriander and a squeeze of lime to serve.
Method
Heat your oil in a pan. Add your aubergine and cook for 10 minutes until the aubergine has started to brown. Then add your spring onions and tofu to the pan.
Add your spices, the black pepper and sauces, and stir well. After a further 5 minutes of cooking time, add your spinach to the pan. Once the spinach has wilted, sprinkle some coriander on top and serve.
This goes really well with rice, or noodles.