Is your cooking mood to all set to fry something today? Maybe you’d like to try crispy and crunchy tofu tossed in the spicy peppery sauce. You can cook them fast as they are easy to make at home. This is perfect appetizer is a crowd-pleaser at parties. It’s a finger-food!
Salt and Pepper Tofu
- Author: Karishma Shah
- Recipe Category: Snacks
- Cuisine: Indo-Chinese
Description: This Salt and Pepper Tofu Recipe is an absolutely delicious snack dish. This fried tofu snack is spicy, yummy and tummy- filing.
Ingredients for Salt and Pepper Tofu Recipe:
- Tofu – 200 grams
- Garlic (finely chopped) – 1 tbsp.
- Ginger (finely chopped) – 1 tbsp.
- Oil – 2 tbsp.
- Soy Sauce – 2 tsp.
- Rice Vinegar – ½ tsp.
- Corn Flour (corn starch) – 1 tbsp.
- Sichuan Pepper (crushed) – 5 units
- Onions (chopped) – ½ cup
- Spring Onion Greens (chopped) – 2 tbsp.
- Green Chilli (finely chopped) – 1 piece
- Red Chilli (deseeded) – 1 piece
- Red Chilli Flakes – ½ tsp.
- Black Pepper (crushed) – 1 tsp.
- Rice Wine – 1 tsp.
- Celery (optional) – ½ tsp.
- Salt – As per taste
Note: Use firm tofu instead of soft or extra firm tofu. If you get, then use silken tofu. It has a softer texture rather than the regular tofu.
You can use 2 tbsp. of sesame oil. You can substitute regular onions with the whites of green onions. You can also use saffola active oil for cooking.
If you are adding black pepper, then always add the crushed black pepper. Sichuan pepper can be skipped if you do not have it. There would be some loss in both taste and flavour of the dish.
Steps for Salt and Pepper Tofu Recipe
It is very easy to make salt and pepper tofu at home. Before you could start cooking with tofu, clean, dry and chop it. Follow the recipe and make this tasty snack in minutes.
Pre-Preparation:
- Take the tofu and remove excess water from it.
- Apply pressure on the tofu to remove moisture from it.
- Now, use a paper towel to remove the moisture from the surface as well.
- Then, chop the Tofu into equally sized cubes.
- Take a bowl and transfer all the chopped tofu cubes into it.
- Sprinkle 1 tbsp. corn flour (corn starch) on the equally chopped tofu.
- Toss it so that every side of the tofu is covered in the corn flour.
- Once you have gentles coated the tofu with the corn flour, allow it to rest for a minute.
- Also, if you are using celery then take it. Wash, Clean and Chop the Celery.
Note: It is very important to remove excess water from the tofu before you start chopping it. You can also press it between the hands or the weights. Properly press against the towel or the kitchen napkin, till the tofu is dry.
Preparation:
- Now, take a pan or deep fryer and keep it on the stove.
- Add 2 tbsp. of any oil in it and turn on the flame.
- Add the coated tofu cubes in the pan and fry it.
- Turn & flip the tofu cubes so that they get evenly fried from all the directions.
- Fry until each side of tofu turns a golden colour.
- As the tofu are fried and become crispy, transfer them to a plate.
- Use paper towels to remove the excess oil from the fried tofu and keep them aside.
- Now, turn on the flame once again and add very little oil if needed.
- Add chopped onion, garlic, ginger, green chilli and red chilli in the pan.
- Set the flame to medium and saute everything for 2 minutes.
- As the onions turn translucent, add crushed Sichuan pepper, black pepper and red chilli flakes in the pan.
- Stir everything well.
- Now, add 2 tsp. soy sauce and stir again.
- To this pan, add the fried tofu cubes which you had kept aside.
- Add rice wine and rice vinegar in the pan and stir it.
- Season the mixture with a pinch of salt.
- Stir everything properly and taste it.
- Adjust the spices and stir for 30 seconds
- Turn off the flame and transfer the Salt & Pepper tofu into a bowl.
- Sprinkle chopped spring onion greens. Also, mix in the chopped celery.
And the tofu is ready! Serve it Hot.
Note: Deseed and break the dry red chilli before adding it to the pan. Do not add too much of salt as soy sauce is already a bit salty.
1 tsp. of black pepper powder removes the raw taste of tofu. But if you add more crushed black pepper it might not taste nice.
Additional Information:
- Calories: 282 calories
- Total Time: PT30M
- Serves: 3
- Date Published: 2017-01-30
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This simple stir-fried tofu in a peppery sauce is a Chinese starter recipe. The tofu is fried and then seasoned with the spicy mixture of salt and pepper tofu. The salt is the common salt we add in food. Whereas there are two types of pepper used, black pepper and the Sichuan pepper. Both these peppers enhance the dish with their pungent flavours and their unique fragrance.
It is very easy to prepare this dish. The key is to dry the tofu, chop it and crisp fry it. Then make the salt and pepper seasoning with the chillies, scallion and garlic. There would be a sizzling heat of the chillies, peppers and the garlic in every bite of crunchy-chewy-crispy fried tofu. The addition of ingredients not only adds the flavour to the tofu but also makes the dish look colourful.
Remarks:
- The Rice wine is optional. If you don’t have it but want to buy it, then buy it from here.
- You can even cut the tofu in triangle shapes as well.
- You can use other vinegar if you cannot get rice vinegar.
- Do not add too much soy sauce or it won’t taste as it should.
- Frying the tofu cubes requires a bit of time and patience. Do not over fry the tofu.
- Do not forget to remove the excess water before frying tofu cubes.
- Removing excess oil from tofu after frying them is recommended.
- If you do not have tofu in required quantity, you can use paneer along with it.
- You can also make the salt and pepper mixture with the 4 tbsp. salt, 2 tbsp. sugar and 1 tbsp. black pepper. Take them to the grinder and grind to a fine powder.
- If you have some extra veggies in your kitchen, then you can add them as well. You may use mushrooms, bell peppers, diced zucchini, etc.
Garnish:
Transfer the salt and pepper tofu from pan to plate. Serve it plain or with any other complete dish. You can use it as a side dish but generally, it is served as a starter. Have it along with tangy tomato ketchup or any spicy dip of your choice. If you like the tasty and flavourful chutney, then pair this tofu with chutney of any flavour. You may also serve it with spicy and steamed rice. Make the salt and pepper tofu more appealing, attractive, tasty and tempting with some below-mentioned ideas.
- Sprinkle chopped coriander over it.
- Sprinkle Chaat masala to give desi touch to it.
- Grate some cheddar cheese over the crispy tofu.
- Drizzle the maple syrup or honey syrup.
Quick Tip:
- If you do not have corn flour, then use arrowroot flour or tapioca flour.
- Instead of garlic and ginger, you can add the garlic powder.
- You may use peanut oil as well for frying the tofu.
- If in hurry, skip the coating of corn flour.
- To make a real quick tofu appetizer, skip the sautéing the tofu. Serve the plain fried tofu with hot and sizzling chilli sauce.
- This tofu can be fried about an hour ahead of time. Then you can place it the oven at the lowest temperature. Finally, when you want to serve, simply toss the tofu in the sauté.
Entertain your guest and please them with this vegan salt and pepper tofu recipe. Serve it as an appetizer with hot soups or as crunchy bite with steamed rice. This is truly a party dish because all the elements of this recipe can be made early and assembled later. This fancy looking vegan starter tastes like a dish from a Chinese restaurant. A perfect treat for small change from regular cooking.
This super sizzling, super crispy, super delicious tofu seasoned simply with just salt and pepper also taste good. This recipe has two versions, where the basic recipe is to fry tofu and season it with only salt and pepper. The second version has the twist of complex taste and flavours with the addition of garlic and other veggies. Whichever way you prepare, this Sichuan pepper and salt tofu is an excellent vegan recipe for any day and anytime.