Easy Vegan Peanut Tofu Stirfry

I’m the kind of person that could spend hours and hours happily working away in the kitchen cooking up a big vegan feast. I especially love cooking at the weekend, because I know I can take my time to cook slowly throughout the day, experimenting with new techniques and flavours. However, not everyone has the time for such luxuries, so it’s good to have a hand full of quick recipes in your arsenal to make sure you can whip up a healthy, tasty dinner when you’re strapped for time. This recipe is perfect for such an occasion: it’s so easy to make and can be cooked and ready to serve in under 30 minutes. Plus, it’s so moreish – we often accidentally eat the leftovers meant for tomorrow, nibbling away at the peanut tofu pieces one at a time until they’ve completely disappeared!

I think there’s definitely some stigma surrounding tofu, especially talking to a lot of my non-vegan friends. It has a bit of a bad rep for being flavourless and a bit mushy. Whilst this can be true, it’s often because the wrong tofu has been used or the time-consuming yet necessary step of pressing the tofu has been skipped. Pre-pressed tofu is your saviour! The one that is easy to find in many supermarkets is ToFoo Co. naked tofu, which is what we used for this recipe, and basically, every other recipe that we make using tofu. We have cooked this for many of the aforementioned friends who had previously stated: “well, I don’t really like tofu.”, and to their surprise, and ours, every single one of them loved it and immediately asked for the recipe. The tofu is lovely and crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, with a delicious sweet and nutty flavour, all thanks to the peanut butter marinade.

To ensure that the tofu is perfectly crispy, we really would suggest that it is cooked in a good quality non-stick pan. I’ve cooked this before in pans that weren’t non-stick and the peanut marinade, instead of coating the tofu, coats the pan. Although this isn’t ideal, it can be a happy accident because it leaves you with a pan full of delicious peanut sprinkles to adorn your dinner with!

The great thing about this dish is that you can mix and match a lot of the vegetable ingredients each time you make it. This recipe says to use stir-fried red pepper and carrot with steamed pak choi because these are our favourites, but the crispy peanut tofu and sauce goes with just about anything. If we’re really pushed for time we sometimes grab one of those bags of stir fry veg mix, and it tastes just as delicious. We love this recipe so much that it always finds its way into our weekly meal plan, we hope it ends up in yours too!

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5 from 1 vote

Easy Vegan Peanut Tofu Stir Fry

A simple and delicious vegan peanut tofu stir fry with pak choi, sweet red peppers, spring onions and rice. A great quick weeknight plant-based dinner.

Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 30 minutes mins

Total Time: 37 minutes mins

Servings: 4

Calories: 507kcal

Ingredients

TOFU MARINADE

• 280 g pack of tofu cut into cubes
• 5 tbsp smooth peanut butter
• 3 tbsp water
• 1 + 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1 cm fresh ginger finely chopped

VEG + RICE

• 2 cups (360g) rice (use your favourite kind)
• 1 cm fresh ginger finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 2 red peppers sliced
• 2 carrots cut into matchsticks
• 2 pak choi sliced into strips

PEANUT SAUCE

• 4 tbsp peanut butter
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 6 tbsp water
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp maple syrup

OPTIONAL TOPPINGS

• sesame seeds
• spring onion sliced
• sweet chilli sauce or sriracha mayo

Method

• Start by cooking your rice according to the packet instructions.
• Then, mix all the ingredients for the tofu marinade in a bowl (peanut butter, water, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup & ginger) and stir until thoroughly combined. Add the tofu cubes to the bowl and mix until the tofu is completely covered.
• Heat some oil in a wide, shallow non-stick frying pan, on a low-medium heat, then add all the tofu pieces and remaining sauce. Leave the bowl to one side as we will use it again later to make the peanut sauce. Make sure every piece of tofu has one side touching the bottom of the pan. Leave to cook like this for 3 minutes, then continue to flip the pieces every few minutes until the outside of the tofu is crispy & golden. It should take about 15 minutes to cook all the tofu.
• Whilst your tofu is cooking, in a separate pan, heat some oil then add in the garlic and ginger. Then add in your carrot & pepper mix and cook for 10 minutes.
• Make your sauce by mixing in the marinade bowl from earlier some peanut butter, soy sauce, water, apple cider vinegar & maple syrup.
• Now steam the pak choi for 5 minutes. The tofu should now be cooked.
• Pour the peanut sauce into the pan with the carrot and pepper, and stir everything together until the sauce has coated the veg, and all the food is hot.
• Plate the rice first, the veg second, then top with the crispy peanut tofu. We also like to sprinkle sesame seeds and sliced spring onion on top, and either a drizzle of sweet chilli sauce or sriracha mayo.

Notes

* Calories estimated per serving

If you gave this a go, we’d love to know how you got on! Write a comment, like, or share this recipe with your friends.