Spicy Kohlrabi Salad with Tofu

OK, folks: we’re still sticking with the ‘salad’ theme here, primarily because we find it so easy and so much in keeping with the season (meaning that our CSA keeps on sending us odd veg that we have to do something with, so we figure out a salad of some sort to bodge it into). Today’s recipe comes in three parts, of which the salad and the dressing could really stand alone. It may seem a wee bit intimidating, but give it a minute, and you will be rewarded.

Salad:

• 1/4 Cup Kohlrabi, match-sticked (using a Benriner Slicer, if you’ve got it)
• 1/4 Cup Cabbage, finely sliced (again, using the dreaded Benriner)
• 1/4 Cup Green Beans, topped / tailed and cut into 1-inch lengths
• 2 small Tomatoes, diced
• 1/8 Cup Pumpkin Seeds, bashed about a bit in your mortar & pestle
• 1/2 Grapefruit, skin and membrane removed

1. Mix
2. Put in bowls

Dressing:

• 1 Slice Grapefruit Zest (use a vegetable peeler, peel a bit of the skin)
• 1/2 Grapefruit
• 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 2 Tbsp Vinegar (I used 1 Tbsp Distilled White and 1 Tbsp Balsamic)
• 1 Tbsp Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 Cloves Garlic
• 1 tsp Pepper Flakes
• 3 Tbsp Thai Pepper Sauce

1. Blend (immersion / ‘stick’ blender)
2. Put in container (you’ll have more than 1 serving, by quite a bit)
3. Pour on salad

Meat:

• 1 ‘brick’ Firm Tofu, cubed
• 3 fillets ‘Chicken’ (we used Quorn in this case), cubed
• 1/2 of an Onion, diced
• 4 large Mushrooms, halved and sliced
• 1/4 tsp Garam Masala (follow the link, look at the notes, grind it all up, you’re there)
• 1/4 tsp Chipotle Powder
• 1/8 tsp Seaweed Flakes (optional: gives a bit of a fishy flavor, if you’re into that)

1. Throw everything except the spices into a pan
2. Brown
3. Add spices

At this point, you’ve done all the work: dress the salad, put the warm ‘meat’ on top of the salad, and you’re done! The different spices in the dressing and the ‘meat’ make for wonderful mouthfuls of flavor, and the dish itself is really actually very easy, provided you’ve made your Garam Masala ahead of time (we make ours as needed by the 1/2 Cup, so that we don’t have to go through all that every time we need it).

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.