Peanut Butter Tofu Salad Sandwich
While it may resemble a tuna salad sandwich, the tofu filling for this sandwich was inspired by a Japanese Buddhist dish called shira-ae. It’s a vegan dish that’s traditionally made with tofu, ground sesame seeds, and seasonal vegetables. While I love the classic preparation, it’s a versatile dish with few rules, so I decided to give it a makeover with Peanut Butter & Co. Old Fashioned Crunchy and flavors from the Mediterranean.
Tofu often gets a bad rap as boring, but it’s loaded with protein and isoflavones, and can actually help lower your cholesterol. Properly prepared, it’s also a delicious ingredient, regardless of whether you swing herbivore or carnivore.
This salad is a symphony of textures and flavors, with bits of crunchy peanuts and crispy celery, enveloped in a nutty mélange of tofu and Peanut Butter & Co. Old Fashioned Crunchy. Salty capers, spicy onions, and vibrant lemon zest all serve to accent the salad with both colors and flavors.
The keys to getting a rich creamy texture are to drain as much water out of the tofu as possible, and then to thoroughly mix the tofu together with the peanut butter and olive oil.
- Yield:4 sandwiches
- Prep Time:10 minutes
- Cook Time:10 minutes
- Total Time:20 minutes
Ingredients
1 (12-ounce) pack firm tofu
1/4 cup Peanut Butter & Co. Old Fashioned Crunchy
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. finely diced red onion (about 1/4 small onion)
2 tbsp. finely diced celery (about 1/2 a stalk)
2 tbsp. minced parsley
2 tbsp. minced parsley
2 tsp, capers
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp. lemon juice (about half a lemon)
1/2 tsp. salt
black pepper to taste
4 sandwich rolls
4 lettuce leaves
Directions
Put the tofu in a pot and cover with water. Heat over medium-high heat until the tofu is hot (about 10 minutes). Crumble the tofu into a strainer, place a small plate on top of the tofu as a weight and allow it to drain for at least 2 hours.
If you have some clean cotton muslin, you can skip the draining and squeeze the water out instead. Just allow the tofu to cool enough to handle, then put the tofu in the center of the cloth and gather up the edges, wringing out as much water as you can.
Place the drained tofu in a bowl along with the Peanut Butter & Co. Old Fashioned Crunchy and olive oil. Use a spatula to mash and stir the tofu and Peanut Butter & Co. Old Fashioned Crunchy together until it reaches a relatively smooth, fluffy consistency and there are no chunks of tofu remaining (though there will be chunks of peanuts).
Add the onions, celery, parsley, capers, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and then stir to combine. Taste the salad and adjust the salt and pepper to suit your tastes.
To assemble your sandwich, open up your rolls, put a leaf of lettuce on the roll, scoop a quarter of the tofu salad onto the lettuce, and then cover with the top of the roll.
Tags: dinner-and-entrees liveamazing Lunch Old Fashioned Crunchy Peanut butter Peanut Butter & Co. picnic Salad Sandwich Tofu Uncategorized vegan Vegetarian