NEW YORK! OMG. I haven't been to NYC in at least five years, and was totally in tourist-mode yesterday as we emerged our of Penn Station into rush hour pedestrian traffic in midtown. With our wheelie-bags. How can there be THAT many people in one city? It's seriously incredible. I know, I know — you're probably thinking "Um, weren't you just in Saigon?" Yes. Yes, I was. And there were not nearly as many pedestrians! Motorbikes, yes — way more — but no throngs of pedestrians moving every-which-way like a crazy school of fish. America, you've impressed me.
We keep joking about how we feel like such country bumpkins here in the big city —but it's really not a joke! After living in Montana, being a city like New York is a total 180. We haven't been here very long, but I've already heard more accents and seen more diverse food options than I probably have in the last five years. It's an incredible place! I'm pretty sure I couldn't handle living here {well, maybe I could but it would be a totally different kind of life than I'm used to!}, but visiting is so, so fun. Bring it on, NYC! Keep an eye on my instagram and you may catch a peek of what we're up to!
Onto another source of extreme excitement: HERBS! Oh boy do I love herbs. I've always known this, but over the last four months in SE Asia I discovered I was severely under-doing it. Why add a half cup of fresh basil when you can add TWO WHOLE CUPS!? Why add a sprinkling of fresh cilantro when you could add A HEAPING HANDFUL! Seriously: they put me to shame, and I've now learned that food is about ten bajillion times better with more herbs. You may have noticed a few herby recipes around here lately — a trend that you might as well get used to (at least as long as the garden is going strong!).
This recipe is basically scrambled tofu with a bunch of delicious flavors soaked in. You really can't go wrong, and if you have an anti-tofu eater, you can probably trick them into thinking this is delicious. Because it is. Basil, sweet chili, soy sauce, lemon grass, honey, lime, sesame — the list goes on, and is so. damn. good! I wish I'd made a triple recipe, because I ate this for dinner and then breakfast and was craving more for lunch! This will definitely be in our normal rotation of dishes...
If you aren't super familiar with using tofu, here's a little tip so it isn't mushy and gross: dry fry it in a nonstick pan before actually cooking it with the sauce. You'll do this over medium-high heat to "sear" the edges and dry out the tofu a little bit. Use a spatula to move it around a bit, browning it as evenly as you can. Then, when you add the sauce it'll get soaked up by the tofu and BLOW YOUR MIND! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Can I go get Thai food for breakfast? Is that appropriate? Because I think I just might do that. CIAO!
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Thai Basil Tofu Scramble with Lemongrass Rice
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- Lemongrass Rice
- 1 ½ cups coconut milk
- 1 ½ cups water
- 3 4" fresh lemongrass stalks
- 1 ½ cups uncooked jasmine rice, rinsed
- 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
- ½ tsp salt
- Tofu
- 2 large carrots, cut into matchsticks
- 2 red bell peppers, sliced
- 1 hot red pepper, sliced
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 2 Tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp honey
- 3 Tbsp toasted sesame oil, divided
- Juice of 2 limes, plus lime wedges for serving
- ⅓ cup + 2 tablespoon sodium soy sauce, divided
- 14 oz extra-firm tofu
- 4 cloves garlic, minced or grated
- 2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- 1 pinch of black pepper
- ⅓ cup sweet thai chili sauce
- 2 cups fresh Thai basil leaves, sliced or chopped, plus extra for serving
- Toasted sesame seeds, chopped roasted peanuts, and chopped cilantro for serving
Instructions
- Combine the coconut milk and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil.
- While heating the liquids, whack the lemon grass stalks firmly with a rolling pin. Don't be shy! Next, chop as finely as you possibly can, discarding the woodiest outside layer.
- When the liquids are boiling, add the lemongrass, rice, sesame oil, and salt. Stir to combine, reduce to a simmer, cover with a lid, and cook for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn the stove off but leave the rice covered {NO PEEKING!} for another 15 before fluffing with a fork.
- Combine the carrots, peppers, and green onions in a small bowl. Mix the fish sauce, honey, 2 tablespoon sesame oil, lime juice, and 2 tablespoon soy sauce together before pouring over the vegetables. Toss a few times, and set aside.
- Heat a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Crumble the tofu, with your hands, into the pan in large chunks. They will break up a bit as you cook, so don't go too small at first. Keep the heat fairly high (you should hear sizzling!), as you brown the tofu. Stir every few minutes to get all sides, and cook until golden brown (I usually do about 10 minutes).
- Turn the heat down to medium, and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, minced garlic, and grated ginger. Cook, stirring, for two minutes before adding the pepper, sweet thai chili sauce, remaining soy sauce, and 1 cup of the fresh basil.
- Stir everything together and cook, simmering, for five minutes. The tofu should absorb most of the liquid. Add the extra liquid from the vegetables, and cook for another two minutes before removing from the heat.
- Stir in the remaining 1 cup of fresh basil.
- Arrange each dish with rice and tofu, topped with the vegetables and garnished with toasted sesames, more fresh herbs, and roasted peanuts.
Notes
If you are making this gluten-free, you will need to omit soy sauce and use tamari in it's place!
Graham @ Glazed & Confused says
Hope you're having fun in NYC!
This stuff right here is genius! So delicious!