Something Like Meatiness: Tofu Chili with Soy Sauce
18 Oct
For a book that promotes healthier eating, or sane eating, as Bittman prefers to call it, the Food Matters Cookbook is full of curveballs, interesting dishes that take an idea, spin it, and end up with something completely unexpected. This dish is built like a chili, but it plays out like something else entirely. Whatever it is, it’s something delicious, whether or not it’s chili. The tofu absorbs a ton of flavor and it texture approaches something like meatiness–and I say that as someone very dubious of any meatless but “meatlike” products.*
The dish starts out with browning firm tofu. I didn’t know you could do that. Bittman suggests using smoked tofu to flavor the dish even more, but I had a better idea: I went to Szechuan Gourmet and got an order of their asian celery and tofu salad (Bittman’s written about his love for this dish before, and it really is spectacular), asking them to hold the celery. Starting with this probably transformed the dish into something completely different from the recipe in the book, but it was still delicious.
I browned that tofu–the amount of chili oil made it brown up pretty nicely, in fact–and then added scallion, garlic, and lots of ginger, until the garlic softens. Then goed five spice powder, dried chiles (I used chile powder), diced canned tomatoes, and uncooked black beans. I fudged here and used beans that I had cooked ahead of time. When the beans are just about done, you add some soy sauce, salt and pepper, and you’re pretty much done.
Serve over rice and garnish with a little more scallion and crushed peanuts for a bit of crunch.
*See also: tofu dogs, soy nuggets, Tofurkey (although I love using the word “Tofurkey.”
