Just home from a trip to Kyoto, the city of tofu, I’ve been thinking more about easy home-cooking tofu recipes, and this tofu and Chinese cabbage combo is a typical one to make at home. It’s not quite a completely stir-fry recipe, so I haven’t called it as such. You will need to drop the tofu and the cabbage leaves into boiling water to remove the slightly odd taste that tofu sometimes has when you just unwrap it, and will need to wilt the cabbage a little so that you don’t need to stir vigorously once it’s in the oil pan – so as not to break the tofu apart.The tofu used here is a medium-firm freshly made tofu that tastes lovely, but tends to fall apart a bit more easily. Also, if you’d like to make a purely veggie version of this, you can replace the chicken stock powder (which is a staple in Chinese cooking) with a crushed vegetable stock cube.

This takes around 15 minutes to make, and is a side that serves 2.

Ingredients
400g medium/firm tofu
1/2 Chinese cabbage (leafy half)
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp chicken stock powder/1 crushed veggie stock cube
1 tsp ginger powder
Salt to taste
Handful of chives

Boil some water in a large pot to begin with.

Step 1: Chop the tofu into cubes roughly 1cm across, and chop the Chinese cabbage into strips roughly 1cm thick.

Step 2: Once the water in the pot is boiled, add a sprinkle of salt, drop the tofu into the pot and allow it to boil for 1 minute.

Step 3: In a pan, add a little oil and add in the chopped garlic. Once the garlic is sizzling and once the tofu has been boiled for 1 minute in the pot, use a slotted draining spoon to spoon out the tofu from the pot and drop it into the pan.

Step 4: Drop the cabbage into the pot now – don’t worry, you can use the same water to boil the cabbage – and allow it to cook for roughly 1 minute, until the leaves have wilted somewhat.

Step 5: Sdd the stock powder, ginger powder and salt to taste to the tofu, and now use the slotted spoon to spoon out the Chinese cabbage. Stir gently and cook for a further 2 minutes on medium heat.

Step 6: Chop the chives and sprinkle it on top. Turn off the heat, and now it’s ready to serve!

You can also make a version of this with pork/bacon, and then there’d be no need to add the stock powder. Simply add it right after the garlic in the pan, and add the tofu and cabbage afterwards. This is a perfect dish for the summer, don’t you think?