As a family we are used to meat substitutes. We’ve taken on ‘non meat months’, along with ‘no meat weeks’ plus I’ve been a pescatarian before ( three years) removing meat completely from my diet as a way of trying to improve my overall health.

With the cost of living being the buzz word at the minute on everyone’s lips the cost of meat is a concern. Whilst having a walk around our local Sainsburys I picked up this block of Tofu for £2.87 as it was on offer.

I’d never eaten tofu before but it does feature in many of the Asian inspired cook books I have. In large areas of Asia tofu is a daily meal. So why not give it a go??

For my birthday in May from my in-laws I was gifted Atul Kochhar’s new cook book – Curry Everyday. This book focuses on vegetarian dishes from India to Japan.

Having travelled to Leeds from the Midlands and back to clear my head I decided to tackle to tofu. I picked out this simple recipe from his many tofu recipes, mainly because I had virtually every ingredient apart from one. The recipe required mangetout but as I didn’t have any I decided to use a couple of carrots plus some beansprouts which needed eating.

Ingredients- 2 tbsp of groundnut oil, 3 shallots thinly sliced, 4 garlic cloves thinly sliced, 2 red chillies thinly sliced, 1 tsp of turmeric powder, 2 star anise, 1 tsp of galangal, seeds from 4 green cardamom pods, 2 tbsp of curry powder, 400ml of coconut milk, 400ml of vegetable stock, 1 tsp of fish sauce, pack of tofu cut into small cubes, 2 carrots sliced, beansprouts, juice of a lime, sea salt, handful of coriander and an amazing touch – a drizzle of toasted sesame oil to serve.

From start to finish including the prep this dish to 25 minutes to cook.

Method – heat a wok over a medium heat. Add the oil to coat the wok. Add the shallots, garlic and pinch of salt stir-frying until the shallots take on a nice colour.

Add the red chillies, carrots, turmeric, star anise, galangal and cardamom pod seeds and stir-fry again for another minute or so.

Lower the heat then add the curry powder coating all the ingredients for another 30 seconds or so.

Add the fish sauce and vegetable stock.

Closely followed by the coconut milk.

Bring this to a simmer. Allow this then to do it’s magic for 5 minutes.

Add the cubes of tofu along with the beansprouts.

Let this simmer again until the tofu has warmed through, it should retain it bite nicely. Add the lime juice, touch of salt but not too much as you salted the dish at the start and the fish sauce is salty then garnish with chopped coriander.

To serve I just warmed through a shop bought nann bread to soak up the sauce. Then I drizzled over a little toasted sesame oil which if I’m honest is a genius touch. Lifts the dish to another level. The dish was like a tofu broth. So many good flavours. I think now not doing any rice was the right thing to do. t

Thanks for reading my ramblings. Really appreciate it.