Easy Eats Recipe: Crispy Red Curry Rice and Tofu Salad

Crispy red curry rice and tofu salad Photo: Kelly Gibney

Use leftover cooked and cooled rice to make this flavour-explosion of a salad. Look for a red curry paste without shrimp paste to make this vegetarian.

Serves 2

Ingredients

For the crispy rice and tofu:

• 2 Tbsp red curry paste 
• 1 Tbsp oil
• 2 ½ cups cooked and cooled rice
• 300g firm tofu, cut into 2cm cubes
• 1 Tbsp cornflour
• Salt to season

For the dressing:

• 4 Tbsp lime juice (could use lemon juice)
• 1 Tbsp neutral oil
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce (vegetarians, use soy sauce or tamari)
• 1 garlic clove, finely diced
• 1 tsp finely grated ginger
• ½-1 red chilli, seeds removed and diced
• 3 tsp sugar

For the salad

• ½ medium telegraph cucumber, halved lengthways and sliced thinly
• 1 cup shelled edamame beans, thawed
• 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
• Handful fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
• Large handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
• 1/3 cup roasted peanuts, roughly chopped

Method

Preheat oven to 220C.

Place the red curry paste and oil in a large bowl and whisk together. Add the rice and tofu and mix well to ensure an evening coating. Sprinkle over the cornflour and a generous seasoning of salt. Toss well.

Spread out on a lined large baking tray – makes sure it’s got plenty of space.

Place in oven and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes before combining with the other ingredients

Whisk together all the dressing ingredients.

To assemble, toss the rice and tofu together with the salad components. Drizzle with half the dressing, taste and then add more as desired. Garnish with roasted peanuts.

Tip: if you don’t have leftover rice on hand, simply cook one cup of uncooked rice (this will make just slightly more than you’ll need), spread it out on two plates and cool in the fridge for around an hour or in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Photo: Kelly Gibney

Kelly Gibney is an Auckland-based food writer, photographer and cookbook author. Her latest book ENJOY: Food worth sharing with the people you love shares delicious and achievable ideas for making every meal memorable. She also shares weekly recipes via her newsletter.