Lemongrass Tofu Vietnamese Farro Salad

I had a heckuva time naming this recipe. First I though, "ooh banh mi! i love banh mi! let's make a farro banh mi salad!" Good idea, right? Everybody loves banh mi (or banh my) these days, and the flavors are hard to beat. But, here's the thing: banh mi, in Vietnam, is actually just the term for bread. All sorts of things made with bread, but always made with the traditional baguette you see made by the thousands all over Vietnam. So, making "banh mi ____" without having bread is like making a Focaccia Sandwich Salad without the focaccia. That'd be weird. Right? I think so.

Luckily for you, you can take Vietnamese flavors that permeate nearly ALL of Vietnamese cooking and throw them into whatever the heck you want. We'll just call it a Vietnamese salad, and skip the banh mi thing altogether. Although I do want to learn how to make a fabulous banh mi, since we had approximately 1.43 per day, on average, while in Hoi An. SO TASTY. I'll never forget you, Banh Mi Phu'ong!

This recipe starts out with searing and drying out some tofu. It's my go-to method for making tasty tofu: dry it out, make it into a sponge, then give it something delicious to soak up. In this case, lemongrass and delightful Asian flavors! Also: we can do this ahead of time! I let my tofu steaks sit in the marinade all night long, then cooked them up the next day when I made the salad.

Another thing you can do ahead, and pretty much the bulk of this salad, is cut the veggies. Really all you have to do to make this salad, other than the tofu, is cut veggies and cook farro. Easy! I promise you can do this, even if you can't cook a poptart. Vietnamese food seems like a perfect time to learn/practice mise en place: you just have to have everything cut up and ready to go, then throw it all together and you'll be delighted by the flavorful mouth-hug you're about to call dinner. Mouth-hug. I'm not sure about that term, but I'm gonna keep throwing it around until it sticks. Mouth-hug. Mouth-hug? Mouth-hug. Sick of me yet?

As for the farro, it's still my favorite little wonderchild of a grain. The texture is TO DIE FOR! It's chewy! It has some structure! It's not going to disintegrate in your mouth like a weird paste. Thank goodness for that. Not only is the texture phenomenal, but it cooks up QUICK! Like, in a jiffy! You could put that baby on the stove, cut up all of your veggies, and have dinner ready in 30 minutes — especially if you did the tofu ahead of time. DO IT. I make our dinners at 11 am for photographing purposes, but for all you folks that actually put on pants and leave the house for the day, I'M THROWING YOU A BONE! Go get it!

Enough of my rambling for one day. I'm excited about this meal. I'm excited about life. I'm in a darn good mood and letting my brain come straight out of my fingertips. I'm keeping quiet about the specifics of my joy for now, but you'll be getting info soon enough! {Just to squash the rumors before they start: NO, I am not pregnant. Sillies!}

Lemongrass Tofu and Vietnamese Farro Salad

• Author: by Mary
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 4 1x

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• For the Tofu and Dressing
• 14 oz extra-firm tofu
• 2 4" stalks of fresh lemongrass
• 1" fresh ginger root
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
• 2 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp sriracha, or other hot pepper sauce
• For the Salad
• 1 ½ cups uncooked farro
• 2 radishes, sliced very thin
• 2 carrots, cut into thin matchsticks
• 1 cucumber, sliced to thin half-moons
• ½ cup fresh thai basil
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 3 green onions, white and light green parts sliced thinly
• ½ cup peanuts
• 1 avocado, sliced thinly

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Instructions

1. Cut the tofu into ½" steaks and heat a skillet to medium-high heat. Sear the edges of the tofu until golden brown, making sure to not crowd the steaks together. Cook until you've seared all sides of all tofu steaks.
2. With a rolling pin, beat the lemongrass to break it down. Remove the outermost layer and discard. Cut the rest into 1" pieces, and add to a food processor or sturdy blender. Add the ginger, and blend both until very finely ground.
3. Combine the ground lemongrass/ginger with the rest of the dressing ingredients in a large ZipLock bag. Mix together, then add the warm tofu. Let marinade at least 30 minutes, and overnight if possible.
4. When you're ready to assemble the salad, cook the farro according to directions (should be 2x water to 1x farro, for 25 minutes or until your desired chewiness). Slice all of your vegetables while the farro is cooking.
5. While the farro is cooking, remove the tofu steaks from the marinade — KEEP THE MARINADE CONTENTS IN THE BAG — and bake at 400F for 12 minutes on each side.
6. When the farro is done cooking, discard any extra water, and pour in the marinade contents. Toss, add salt or soy sauce as needed, and then arrange with a little bit of each vegetable and a tofu steak or two.

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