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Easy Celery Black Pepper Tofu. Spicy, hot. Roasted crisp tofu, added to celery & black pepper sauce. How to make Black pepper Tofu. Vegan Gluten-free nut-free. Can be oil-free. serves 2 with rice.
So I have discovered recently that I love black pepper. Not the usual pepper in usual amounts, but freshly crushed in a mortar pestle and in ridiculous amounts. One would think that when the temps around are in the 80s. why would one eat something that is so sweat inducing. Well I do not have the answer to that question. Its just fun to down a chilled ice cream shake after to cool down.
This black pepper tofu is has pepper in the batter, some red chilies to add more heat, and more, lots more pepper in the sauce. I added celery as it adds a nice balance to all the heat and also because I had to use it up.
Tofu is tossed in starch and pepper batter and baked until crisp. You can also pan fry the tofu or just add plain pressed tofu directly to the pan. The sauce has loads of garlic, ginger and celery and freshly crushed black pepper. I finally used my mortar and pestle after many months. The coarsely crushed pepper is just fabulous. You can make the dish oil free by cooking the sauce ingredients in broth.
More recipes from the blog.
- Kung Pao Lentils
- Tofu Broccoli Bok Choy Stir fry with Garlic Sesame Soy Sauce
- Teriyaki Chickpea Bao steamed buns
- Firecracker Chickpea Salad with Thai Peanut Sauce dressing.
- Spicy Orange Tofu and Peppers.
Did you know that
– in 2010, the global apparel industry produced more than 150 billion garments, enough to provide more than 20 new articles of clothing to every person on the planet.
– Fashion is a super-consumer of water at almost every stage of its highly complex supply chain, from growing the raw materials, to the dyeing of fabrics, from manufacturing the garments, to transporting them to market. If you consider it takes 2,700 litres of water to produce one cotton t-shirt from ‘crop to shop’.
Read more about the impact of fashion here
Ashlee covers Eco-friendly school supplies, backpacks and shoes to paper and pencils on her video segment here
Mercy for Animals’s new video about how we are all born with compassion.
Celery Black Pepper Tofu
Ingredients
For the Black Pepper Tofu
- 14 ounces firm tofu, cubed (1.5 cups) - no need to press
- 3 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoon cornstarch or other starch
For the Sauce
- 2 teaspoons oil
- 6 to 8 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 inch ginger finely chopped
- 2 dried red chilies, chopped or broken into 2 pieces. Use 1 for less heat. I like arbol or cayenne or Indian chilies in this. Use milder chile like california red for less heat
- 1 to 1.5 cup chopped celery
- 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper, or onion
- 1/4 teaspoon white pepper, optional
- 1 teaspoon coarsely crushed black pepper, preferably ground/crushed with a mortar pestle, or more, to taste
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce, , use tamari for gluten-free
- 1 tablespoon maple , or sugar
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 2-3 tablespoon water
- green onion for garnish
Instructions
Baked tofu.
- Chop the tofu and add to a bowl. Add soy sauce and toss to coat. Mix the spices in cornstarch and add to the bowl. Toss to coat. If the tofu is too dry, add a few drops of water to help almost all of the cornstarch to stick to the tofu.
- Alternatively: Make a thick batter of soy sauce through cornstarch. Add a teaspoon more water, if needed, but don't add too much, as the tofu will add its own moisture when you mix it in. Immediately add tofu and mix to coat. If you leave the batter to sit, it will solidify in a few minutes and you will need extra moisture to be batter again.
- Bake: Preheat the oven to 400° F / 200º C. Spread the tofu cubes on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or longer until crisp.
- Pan fry: Or pan fry in oil on a skillet over medium high heat. Once hot, add the coated tofu, let sit for 2 minutes, then flip. Repeat until golden on most edges. Keep aside
Make the sauce while the tofu bakes.
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, reduce heat to medium low. Add garlic, ginger and red chilies and cook until garlic is golden, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the celery and peppers. Increase heat to medium. Mix and cook for 2 minutes. Stir once in between.
- Add the baked tofu, black pepper, soy sauce, maple, vinegar and water and mix. Cook for half to 1 minutes or so to bring the sauce to a boil and slightly thicken. Serve hot with rice or quinoa or in lettuce wraps.
Video
Notes
Variations: You can also use meat subs like beyond meat strips at the last step instead of tofu for a black pepper chikin. Add half the black pepper, if you are unsure about the heat level, and mix in the rest later to preference.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This looks really good, Richa! Love all the black pepper!
Oh yeah!! This looks and sounds wonderful! I am also a total black pepper fanatic. It’s just got such a wonderful flavor, and in large quantities, it has quite a kick. Plus, I am also a major fan of celery (weird but true, I love it so much!), and tofu… so it’s almost like you made this recipe up just for me! Looking forward to trying it. 🙂
Yum. I love lots of black pepper too!
Looks like addictive crack in a bowl–so yummy! 😀
I happened upon this recipe as I was planning dinner and went for it! It came together easily with ingredients most people will have around. And it was really good! Great blend of flavours. Could add just a little more maple syrup or agave as a finishing touch. Thanks for posting!
yay! awesome! sure add more maple if you like. you can also make it more saucy with some extra broth or water. i keep eating it right from the pan.
This recipe is a change of pace. Love the flavors in here. What type of dried chiles did you use?
i used arbol. they are hot! 🙂
This looks stunning. Will definitely make this and comment here on how it went. Well done 🙂
This black pepper dish sounds fantastic, can’t wait to try it. Thank you very much for calling attention to the enormous amount of resources used for clothing. I am going to turn a blind eye to all the slick fashion advertising and buy only what I need! I’ll be searching for linen and hemp fibers free of synthetics.
Thanks Tamar. I know right, with the kind of wear and throw fashion these days, we hardly stop to think of the impact. I miss the good old days when the clothes were great material, not toxic treated, and lasted many many years.
Richa, your cookbook is fabulous! I love the care you took at the beginning to explain the spices, the photography is excellent & of course the recipes are amazing! This was such a great purchase!
Hi Victoria, Thank you so much for getting my book and loving it! a lot of work went into it and I am so thankful that everyone is liking and appreciating it! <3 <3
Well, I know what we are having for dinner now — thanks very much. Too bad I just used all of our tofu the other day, now I am off to the store to buy some more. Cheers! 🙂