With all the food safety issue that is pleading China – bird flu, dead pigs found in the river, sick pork meat, contaminated water and so on – eating has become no easy matter here.
Many people have started given up on eating meat and of course are looking into some alternatives and some have emailed me asking for some meat replacement ideas. This is how I though of making this very tasty, and healthy, vegetarian meatballs.
Here I show you 2 possible ways of cooking them: fried or baked – I tried both and loved them equally.
Happy Monday everyone!
Ingredients (serves 3):
- 400 g firm tofu
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 tbsp. fresh parsley
- 1 tbsp. fresh ginger, mince
- 1/4 cup onion, minced
- 1/4 cup carrot, minced
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. +1 tbsp. sesame oil
- 1 tsp. Worcester sauce
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 whole medium egg
- 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp. breadcrumb
- canola oil to fry
Take the tofu, put it on a strainer , place it on top of a bowl and put some sort of weight on it. Leave it like that for about 30 min. This way it will release all the excess water
Move the tofu to a bowl and mash with a fork
minced garlic, onion, carrot, parsley and ginger
add all the ingredients to the tofu, with salt
1 tbsp. say sauce
1 tbsp. sesame oil
and 1 tsp. of Worcester sauce
then add 3 tbsp. of breadcrumb and mix
oh and don’t forget the egg…I almost did…
Keep mixing until you get a soft mixture (add more breadcrumb if you think it is too soft)
Divide the dough into balls, you should get about 23
Sprinkle them with breadcrumb
Now, first cooking option is to fry them in a pan! Heat up some canola oil and when hot add them tofu meatballs to the skillet and cook on medium heat from one side
then flip to the other
when the meatballs got a nice brown color on the outside, remove them from the skillet, dry the excess oil with paper towel then serve them nice and warm!
Second cooking option (a bit healthier) is to bake them!
Place the tofu meatball onto a baking tray, drizzle them with 1 tbsp. of sesame oil
and bake them for 15-20 min at 200 C, then flip them over and cook for another 15 min. Remove from the oven and serve them!
Try both cooking methods and let me know which on you like most
Love
– LittleDani