Tofu Steaks with Sticky Rice and Spinach Salad

Ingredients (Serves 2):
½ cup white rice
1 tbsp quinoa
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp tamari
¼ tsp Chinese five-spice powder
2 tbsp cashew butter
3 tbsp rice vinegar*
1 tbsp yacon syrup
2 tsp poppy seeds
1 clementine
3 tbsp sliced almonds
14 oz extra firm tofu
2 oz baby spinach

Recipe:

1. Add quinoa and rice, 1 cup water, and a pinch of salt to a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low, and cook until the grains are tender and water is absorbed, 15 – 18 minutes.

2. Peel and mince the garlic. Add minced garlic, tamari, Chinese five-spice powder, cashew butter, just 1 tbsp rice vinegar, just 2 tsp yacon syrup, and 1 tbsp water to a small bowl. Whisk the sauce until smooth.

3. To a medium bowl, add remaining rice vinegar, remaining yacon syrup, poppy seeds, and a pinch of salt and pepper, and whisk. Peel and chop the clementine, remove any seeds, and add chopped clementine to the bowl.

4. Place a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add almonds and cook until fragrant and toasted, 3 – 5 minutes. Transfer toasted almonds to a plate.

5. Drain tofu, pat dry, and cut into 8 “steaks.” Return the large skillet to medium-high heat, with 1 tbsp oil if needed. Add tofu steaks and sprinkle with salt. Cook until lightly browned and crispy, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer cooked tofu steaks to a plate and drizzle with sauce.

6. Add toasted almonds and baby spinach to the medium bowl with the clementine. Toss the spinach poppy seed salad and divide between large plates. Top with tofu steaks and serve with sticky rice.

A quick word on yacon syrup: One of my favorite sweeteners due to its high content of fructo-oligosaccharides. This sweetener has a caramel like taste and is about half as sweet as honey with only roughly a third of the energy. The fructo-oligosaccharides shine as they provide food for our gut microbiome. You can take tons of probiotics (which would do lots of harm) but if you don’t feed your gut bacteria the fiber it needs to thrive, a bacterial imbalance will develop over time. Slowly, this imbalance will lead to inflammation in the gut which can then lead to all sorts of digestive issues such as IBD, IBS, SIBO, etc. Having enough and a diverse variety of fibers is essential to long term gut and metabolic health. Fiber is also important to digestive cancer prevention. For this reason I find yacon syrup to be one of the best sweeteners out there.

Check out my previous recipe, Soba Noodles with Shiitakes and Tofu

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