Summer Rolls w/ Braised Tofu

For this week's recipe, I had to be pretty creative on how I incorporated the technique of braising since I don't eat meat. After looking through many options online, I decided to make a recipe I found on frommybowl.com for summer rolls with braised tofu. I paired the rolls with an easy peanut sauce and roasted sweet potatoes.

The ingredients I used for this recipe include:

Rolls:

• Rice paper
• Cucumber 
• Carrot
• Avocado
• Vermicelli noodles

Braised Tofu:

• 1 block extra firm tofu
• 5 slices of ginger root
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock
• Green onion

Peanut Sauce:

• ½ cup peanut butter
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• ¼ – ½ tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• ½ tbsp honey
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• ½ tbsp ginger
• 2–4 tbsp filtered water

The first step in this recipe was to braise the tofu. For this, I started by pressing the tofu for about 30 minutes to remove any excess liquid. After this, I fried the tofu in 2 tbsp of oil and then added in the ginger and onions. Once the onions and ginger were fragrant, I added the soy sauce, sugar, and stock. I then covered the pan and let the tofu absorb the flavor over medium heat. 

While I was braising the tofu, I also prepared all of the other ingredients I put into my rolls. I thinly sliced carrots, cucumbers, and avocados and also boiled some thin rice noodles for texture. The peanut sauce was super easy and just required me to mix together all of the ingredients in a bowl. Overall, this recipe was very tasty and nutritious but, it was also very time consuming and messy. It ended up taking me around 2.5 hours to prepare this meal w/ all of the extra prep it required. However, I did have enough leftover food for me to take with me for lunch this week, which is nice. I think that if I practiced making spring rolls and experimented with tofu more often, I would be able to cut down the cooking time by a lot.