Tofu Stir-Fry with Tamarind Coconut Sauce

Stir-fried veggies and crispy tofu are cooked up with a rich coconut tamarind sauce in this flavorful Thai inspired tofu stir-fry.

This dish bears very little resemblance to what I originally had in mind. I ate at a Thai restaurant a while back and ordered something described as "stuffed tofu." I remember it being delicious, and I thought stuffing tofu sounded brilliant. It was coated in a delicious tamarind coconut sauce and was filled with some kind of stir-fried veggie mixture. I've really wanted to recreate that one and blog it for a while. What I can't remember is the logistics of stuffing tofu.

I didn't really realize I didn't know how to stuff tofu until I got started on this. As it turns out, tofu, at least as it's normally eaten, isn't that stuffable. It's not all big and hollow like a squash or pepper. I tried finely mincing and stir-frying some veggies (not the same veggies I ended up with, mind you) and sandwiching them between a couple of tofu slabs. It was spoogerific. I tried cutting neat little holes in the tofu, but the parts I cut out wouldn't go back in once I'd completed the stuffing process, and I hate to waste tofu. I kind of suspect the Thai restaurant stuffed tofu was made with something on the order of a whole pound of tofu, because that would be easier to work with than a normal serving size of, say, a quarter pound.

So my stuffed tofu experiment ended up being a bunch of tofu slabs with holes in them and superfine stir-fried veggies on the side. It tasted pretty darn good though, so I decided to salvage the sauce/veggie/tofu combination in a more practical form. That's how we ended up here.

The sauce is nice and rich, with a little bit of sweet and a lot of tangy tamarindy goodness. I'll admit, it was a couple of years ago that I had the original dish that inspired this one (maybe that would explain my inability to recall how exactly the tofu was stuffed), so I can't say for sure if it tastes anything like it. But it's gooooood. The stir fried veggies are a perfect compliment, and the tofu is delightfully crispy if you do it right. Check out some helpful hits here on how to achieve that.

5 from 2 votes

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Tofu Stir-Fry with Tamarind Coconut Sauce

Stir-fried veggies and crispy tofu are cooked up with a rich coconut tamarind sauce in this flavorful Thai inspired tofu stir-fry.

Course Entree

Cuisine American, Asian-Inspired

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 4

Author Alissa

Ingredients

For the Sauce

• ¼ cup coconut milk
• ¼ cup water
• 1 tbsp. tamarind paste
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce or tamari
• 1 tbsp. agave
• 1 tsp. Asian chili paste
• 1 tsp. cornstarch

For the Tofu Stir-Fry

• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil divided
• 1 lb. extra firm tofu drained, pressed and cut into ¼ inch thick triangles
• 1 large shallot sliced
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1 tsp. fresh grated ginger
• 2 cups baby corn cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 red bell pepper sliced

For Serving

• 2 scallions chopped
• ¼ cup roasted peanuts
• cooked rice

Instructions

1. Whisk all sauce ingredients together in small bowl. Set aside.
2. Coat a large skillet with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and place over medium-high heat. Arrange tofu triangles in a single layer. Cook until lightly browned on bottoms, about 5 minutes. Flip and cook another 5 minutes on opposite sides. Remove from skillet and transfer to a plate.
3. Add remaining tablespoon of oil to skillet, along with shallot, garlic, ginger and baby corn pieces. Raise heat to high. Stir fry for about 3 minutes. Add bell pepper and stir fry for another 2 minutes, until veggies are tender-crisp.
4. Return tofu to skillet, along with sauce. Stir fry just until sauce thickens and coats veggies and tofu, about 1 minute.
5. Divide onto plates. Serve with rice and top with peanuts and scallions.