Gingered Greens and Tofu

Last week, we received a bounty of greens from our CSA, and I was determined to find some new ways to prepare it. I like leafy vegetables and cook them often enough, but I wanted to branch out this time. It had been a while since I last used the book, Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, and now that I’ve just thumbed through it again, I think I’ll be using it a lot in the near future. The aim of this book is to encourage whole-foods cooking in quick and easy ways. By limiting the number of ingredients, the "natural flavors of good basic foodstuffs" is highlighted. That concept works for me. In fact, most of the items presented in the book could easily become busy week night standard meals.

For the gingered greens and tofu, I used broccoli greens and stems. The leaves of broccoli greens are a little thicker than other greens so they hold their shape well. They have a mild taste and worked perfectly here. The tofu was marinated for five minutes in a mixture of soy sauce, dry sherry, and rice vinegar. Then, it was broiled in the marinade until browned on each side. The greens were simply stir fried with ginger and vegetable oil and then hit with some chili oil, lime juice, and cilantro. For serving, the tofu and sauce were spooned atop the greens, and all was sprinkled with cilantro and chopped, toasted cashews. I also added some sliced hot chiles to the garnishes. It was just that easy.

Kurt gets nervous when dinner includes the phrase stir fry because I usually botch it horribly. But, this time, all went well. In fact, he proclaimed this a success and would be happy with it in our regular meal rotation. I really liked it too. The chili oil and sliced fresh chiles gave it a good punch of spice, and the marinade became a delicious sauce for the dish. I’m glad I finally pulled that book off the shelf again.