sweetgreenkitchen

Yum! Grilled Tofu with Tahini Peanut Lime Sauce

On any given day, you can find stacks of cook books around my house, many of them mine, but also a constant rotation from the library, there are just SO many great new books coming out that speak to me like never before, thanks in large part to the amazing and growing array of healthy food bloggers on the scene.  One of the latest I’ve been happily perusing through is Anna Jones – A Modern Way to Eat – lots of yummy looking recipes and I’m working on more than a few, new ideas but plenty you’ve seen before (if you read as many blogs and cookbooks as I do!).  One such recipe, not so different than others I’ve seen and even made, like this, this and that, but it still spoke to me and spurred me to create a new favorite around here, was Anna’s Maple Peanut California Wraps.  It has so many of the flavors I just love, nutty peanut butter and Tahini, maple syrup, miso, soy and citrus.  Of course, I did change up her recipe a bit, varied the measurements of ingredients and most notably swapped out Anna’s lemon for lime and replaced her tempeh for tofu.
What I ended up with was a delicious Tahini peanut lime sauce, perfect drizzled over grilled tofu with greens or rice or soba, yum. 

Grilled Tofu with Tahini Peanut Lime Sauce

If you’re not a fan of tofu, although if that’s how you feel I urge you to try this it may change your mind and may even change your life, really, truly. BUT, this sauce would also work perfectly with grilled chicken (think chicken satay) or even shrimp, as a sauce over soba noodles or nutty brown rice, mixed into shredded cabbage for an awesome slaw, this sauce IS that good, now what are you waiting for go try it.

Now let’s talk a little bit about lime….Forever a fan of citrus, I just love the scent and taste of all things lemon, lime & orange, but lemon has always been my favorite, I am finding myself now using lime more and more, I think lime may be my new fave, sorry lemon I still love you, but.  Lime just wakes up the flavor in sauces, dressings and soups without as much of a hit of acid like you get from lemon, it works in sweet and savory and even just a squeeze of lime over some greens works as a nice light salad.  You can even mix up lemon, lime and orange to replicate the Japanese yuzu, fresh and clean tasting, you just can’t go wrong with citrus.  

Tofu in Tahini-Peanut-Lime Sauce

Author: Sweet Green Kitchen’s Jen Jones 

Adapted from Anna Jones’ – A Modern Way to Eat –

 Ingredients:  

Tofu –

1 package extra firm or super firm tofu – 12 – 15 ounces / sprouted if you can find it

Coconut oil

Sea salt

Optional: black sesame seeds

Tahini-Peanut-Lime Sauce –

4 tablespoons natural creamy peanut butter

2 tablespoon tahini (sesame paste)

2 tablespoon miso paste – white or red or a mix

2 tablespoon maple syrup

4 teaspoons (1 Tbsp + 1 tsp) lite soy sauce – gmo free and gluten free

Zest of 1 lime

Juice of 1 whole lime – 1 1/2 limes

1-3 tablespoons water

Directions:

Remove the tofu from the package, drain and carefully press out as much liquid as you can.

Heat a large non stick skillet over medium-high flame.  Pour in enough coconut oil to cover the pan, sprinkle the pan with salt (flaky sea salt if you have).

Once the tofu is fully pressed, cut into about 8 slices or 16 triangles if you prefer, add the slices to the hot pan.  Don’t stir around, cook until each slice is golden brown, then flip and cook the other side, lowering or raising the temperature as needed or adding additional coconut oil.  Once the tofu is cooked on both sides, remove from the pan to a cutting board and allow to cool a bit, then cut each piece either in half or in thirds lengthwise so you have finger sized pieces of tofu or leave as is if you already cut into triangles.

While the tofu cooks mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl, starting with the juice of 1 lime, adding more if needed, to taste and adding enough water to get the consistency you like.

Spoon the sauce over the tofu or use it as a dip if you prefer.  Sprinkle with black sesame seeds if you like. Yummy warm or cold.  Great for leftovers. Enjoy!

This makes lots of sauce, so you may have extra to enjoy as you will.

 Recipe notes: 

Tofu with Tahini Peanut Lime Sauce with mixed greens & mint & a squeeze of lime

I served this yummy tofu on top of a bed of mixed salad greens and shredded carrots with an extra squeeze of lime and a few sprigs of mint, for a delicious healthy lunch.  The tofu would also be great wrapped up in summer rolls with mint or basil, or stir into soba noodles topped with the tofu, shredded carrots, mint and chopped scallions for a more substantial meal or simply with a side of brown rice & steamed veggies with extra sauce drizzled over the top OR in my next post with cabbage slaw and ginger roasted sweet potatoes!