Prep Time: 90 minutes Cooking Time: 30 minutes Total Time: 2 hours
Filiz Hussein is one third of the Balance Bowl. Below she shares a recipe from the acclaimed Maltese restaurant’s menu: crunchy Asian salad.
“It’s inspired by the travels of Barbara ‘Basia’ Blaszak – one of the restaurant’s partners – when she visited Thailand,” explains Filiz.
“It’s more of the ‘less naughty’, so we’ve added it to our [Balance Bowl] Meal Plans, which we deliver freshly made each day to people stuck working from home, who want to get their nutrition, but not compromise on great taste,” she adds.
Follow this simple recipe to create a fast, tasty and nutritiously filling vegan dish.
Ingredients – serves 5 people
1 x medium head of red cabbage, sliced very thin
2 x red bell peppers, sliced very thin
1 x small pack of mange tout, cut Asian style*
100 grams of spring onions, cut Asian style*
100 ml of sesame oil
200ml of pineapple juice
50 grams of chopped fresh coriander
500 grams of firm tofu
50 grams of mixed sesame seeds for garnish
2 tsp of tamarind paste
Nachos
*Asian style cutting is essential diagonal cuts, helping expose more of the vegetable, so it absorbs more of the sauces and spices, and also (when cooked) absorbs heat and cooks faster.
Preparation
- Cut tofu into cubes; marinate in pineapple juice, sesame oil and tamarind. Cover, and let the tofu marinate for at least 1 hour in the refrigerator.
- Transfer the tofu pieces and half the marinate mixture into a baking dish and bake in oven on a low heat, at 140 degrees Celsius / Gas Mark 1 for 20 to 30 minutes – until tofu pieces are nicely brown. Remove and put to one side to cool.
- Cut and place the red cabbage, bell peppers, mange tout and spring onion in a large bowl
- Add the sesame oil and pineapple juice to the salad and mix well with your hands. Serve the mixed salad into five plates
- Split the baked tofu into five even portions and add on top of the salad
- For garnish, sprinkle the mixed sesame seeds and fresh coriander on top
- Serve with nachos
