Baked Tofu and Green Bean Salad

From Vegetarian Bible, Margaret Barca, Penquin Books, 2008.

This small unpretentious book has proved to be a useful one for vegetarian dishes. I have found it to be reliable with its instructions and the meals that result are generally very successful and flavoursome.

I don’t know what tempted me to make this dish as it had the uninspiring title of Baked Tofu and Green Bean Salad yet, despite this, I thought I’d give it a go.

The tofu was prepared first. It was marinated in a mix of ginger, garlic, lemon juice and soy sauce. After an hour of soaking in the flavour mix it was baked in the oven for about half an hour. It was then left to cool.

The beans were steamed for a few minutes and cooled quickly in cold water.

The dressing was an unusual one as it had a tahini base mixed with sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, lemon juice and some warm water.

A batch of mixed salad greens was placed on the plate, then the green beans, some cherry tomatoes and spring onions. These were tossed with half the dressing. The tofu was put on top and the remainder of the dressing poured over and some toasted sesame seeds.

This was a very satisfying salad. The tofu had a pleasant chewiness to it and it was well flavoured from the marinade. (There was some left over and I found it great to nibble on the following day.) The beans still had a good crunch to them and the tahini dressing made the whole concoction come together satisfactorily with its Asian flavours.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔