Warm Rice & Quinoa Salad with Pan Fried Tofu is so healthy and delicious. Packed full of red pepper, carrot, courgette & onion which is paired with crispy fried tofu, rice and quinoa, this tasty vegan dish is sure to be a hit!
This recipe was inspired by a Savoury Rice Salad in my much loved ‘Entertaining with Cranks’ book. Even though I’m not a vegetarian I have always loved vegetarian food and in some ways find it much more adventurous than cooking with meat.
My Warm Rice & Quinoa Salad with Pan Fried Tofu uses the softer variety of Tofu and not the more rubbery one, therefore after the crispy exterior there is a divinely light soft centre to die for! We are all new to eating tofu and this was our first experience eating it – everyone loved it and the warm salad which was both nutritious and delicious.
I’d be interested to find out what you do with your tofu as it’s a food I have yet to fully explore! I did however make a very lush Blackberry Tofu Brulee recently which again went down a storm!
For some more inspiring vegetarian salad ideas you might like to check out:
- Maple Tofu Skewers with Papaya Salsa
- Teriyaki Tofu Stir-fry
- Warm Dressed Noodle Salad
- Tea Smoked Tofu Gado-Gado (Indonesian Peanut Sauce Vegetable Salad
- Egg Noodles with Purple Broccoli and Grilled Tofu.
I am entering my Warm Rice & Quinoa Salad with Pan Fried Tofu into Extra Veg a blog challenge run by Helen and Michelle and hosted by Emily this month.
Pin for later!
Disclaimer: I won the Clearspring Tofu in a Twitter competition and received the other Clearspring products as samples.
Warm Rice & Quinoa Salad with Pan Fried Tofu
Ingredients
- 250 g Quick Cook Rice & Quinoa I used Clearspring or a mixture of long grain brown rice & red quinoa
- 2 Medium Onions finely sliced
- 2 tbsp Rapeseed oil + extra
- 2 tbsp Soya Sauce I used Clearspring Tamari
- 1 Small courgette grated or make matchsticks with a mandolin
- 1 Carrot grated
- 1 Red pepper finely chopped
- 1 300 g Block of Tofu I used Clearspring firm & silken which is actually soft
- Salt flakes & freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Slice the tofu into 8 pieces (or more if wished).
- Put on a plate lined with folded kitchen paper and pat dry the tofu with lots more kitchen paper.
- Once dry, put in a large dish and scatter with salt flakes then gently pour in enough boiling water to cover and leave for a minute. (This will firm up the tofu slightly and extract more moisture).
- Drain the tofu, pat dry again with more kitchen paper and set aside.
- Boil the rice and quinoa according to instructions and then drain.
- Meanwhile fry the onions in 2 tbsp oil until golden.
- Add the rice to the pan along with the freshly ground pepper and soya sauce, leave to one side.
- In a large frying pan or wok add enough oil to coat the bottom and then fry the tofu on both sides until golden (it may break as it’s very fragile).
- Put the fried tofu onto kitchen paper to drain.
- Add the courgette, carrot and red pepper to the rice mixture and mix thoroughly.
- Place into 4 bowls and top with the fried tofu.
- Serve with an extra splash of soya sauce if wished.
kayleigh white
I’ve never heard of this before! Looks yummy and I will be trying it!
Camilla
Great, glad to inspire you:-)
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche
Love this recipe Camilla – so healthy and looks so tasty. Gorgeous photo too!
Camilla
Aaw, thank you so much Becca, that means a lot coming from you;-)
Ursula Hunt
Never had Tofu should give it a try
Camilla
Yes, you really should:-)
Jacqueline Meldrum
This is my kind of dish Camilla. I would happily tuck into that right now. Thanks for linking to me too 🙂
Camilla
Yay, that’s what I like to hear Jacqueline – it was fab:-)
Maddy
Thanks for the tip re Tofu – we often find it rubbery 🙁
Camilla
Maybe that’s because you’re using the harder type of tofu – this one is like soft curd.
Paul Wilson
Have to give this a go – keep meaning to try more quinoa and tofu.
Camilla
Me too!
Shubila
This looks amazing! I love tofu so I will be trying this recipe out soon.
Camilla
Fabulous, so glad you like it:-)
Margot @ Coffee & Vanilla
What a delicious salad and those flying pumpkin-bats are sooo cute!
Camilla
Thank you, it really was:-) I love my flying pumpkins too:-)
Keep Calm and Fanny On
I love the Entertaining with Cranks book, I learnt to cook veggie stuff from their books when I was young! I like my tofu deep fried, nice and crispy – yum… This looks great, thanks!
Camilla
Thank you:-) I was lucky enough to eat in their restaurants too as a teen and always loved all the luscious food there! I have 2 of their books and they are amongst my most treasured cook books:-)
kellie@foodtoglow
As a tofu aficionado (i.e. a vegetarian, leaning toward vegan) I am so happy that you are having success in your experiments with tofu. People deride its blandness but I see its neutral taste as a bonus: we can make it taste like whatever we want. And it is such a shape-shifter, going from unpromising blob to sizzling shimmering slice of deliciousness, like here. Nice recipe, Camilla. And Clearspring is definitely the go-to brand for tofu, tamari and grains.
Camilla
Thank you so much Kellie. I have to say I was a bit confused with all the various types of tofu and wasn’t sure if I’d fried the right variety but as it tasted so good I thought it can’t be wrong!