Spicy Cauliflower Rice With Crispy Tofu

Perfect for a tasty midweek dinner...

Cauliflower rice is a great way to increase your vegetable intake and makes for a much lighter "rice style" dish. The added vegetables I've used here are what I had on hand at the time, but feel free to use whatever you fancy, or have. This recipe makes a lot, but its easily halved or scaled down.

The tofu recipe creates the most tasty, crispy tofu with minimal effort. You can vary the ingredients to take advantage of different spices or dried herbs you have, or to match a particular side dish. 

Ingredients for the Cauliflower Rice dish

1 medium head of cauliflower (stalk included)

The following finely diced
1 large carrot
1 red pepper
2 sticks celery
1 courgette

The following finely sliced
3 spring onions 
5 or 6 snow peas 
3 or 4 kale leaves 

1/2 cup frozen peas

2 tbsp. of either Indian or Thai curry paste 
2 tbsp. stock powder (I used chicken style)
1 inch piece fresh ginger finely grated
1 garlic clove finely grated
1 red chilli finely chopped

Fresh herbs (I used parsley and coriander)
Fresh lemon or lime
Black pepper

The first thing you need to do is roughly break down the cauliflower head and place it in a food processor with the blade attachment. Process in bursts until you achieve a rice like texture. 

In a small bowl place your curry paste, stock powder, ginger, chilli and garlic and add about 1/2 cup of hot or boiling water and stir until the paste and stock powder are all dissolved. 

Heat a wok or large frying pan. Add in all your chopped and sliced veg, peas and a spoon or two of your stock mixture and stir fry for five minutes or so. Tip in your cauliflower rice and stir it through the veg. With the heat on moderately high, add in the remainder of your stock mixture and keep moving the rice around for another five minutes or so until the majority of the liquid has evaporated and the veg are tender. 

Stir through your fresh herbs just before serving and add a good squeeze of lemon or lime juice and a good grind of black pepper.



Ingredients for the Crispy Tofu

1 large block of firm or extra firm tofu frozen, defrosted, then cut into slices and pressed.

Aquafaba saved from any can of pulses or beans

The following in a screw top jar (I use an old pickle jar as an indication of size)
Wholemeal flour to come halfway up the jar
1 tbsp. stock powder
1 tbsp. nutritional yeast
1 tbsp. garam masala or any powdered spices you fancy

Heat some vegetable oil in a frying pan.

Screw the lid on the jar and shake the dry ingredients together until all well mixed. Lay the mix out in an even layer on a plate. 

Place the aquafaba in a shallow bowl. Dip the tofu pieces into the aquafaba, shake off the excess and quickly press into the dry mix to coat. Place straight into the hot oil and fry on one side until crispy and golden. Flip, fry the other side and allow to drain on kitchen paper. 

Serve with mango chutney, sweet chilli sauce or similar.