Thai food is perfect as far as dairy-free food goes, since most dishes are cooked with coconut milk. This is a Thai-style stir-fry with tofu. It's quick to make and is the sort of dish we eat regularly.
It took me a while to get the hang of cooking tofu. This particular recipe was made using a brand of tofu (Tofoo) which comes ready-pressed. If you buy the type of tofu that is floating in liquid you will need to press it first. There's some more information on this in the vegan roast dinner feature. Once the tofu is pressed, it fries really well in vegetable oil with nice crispy edges. Rather than stirring it too much, I tend to place the tofu pieces in the oil and leave them for a couple of minutes before turning them to cook on the other side.
You can get dried kaffir lime leaves in the herbs and spices section of a supermarket, but they are not a patch on the flavour of fresh ones. One of my best ever purchases was a kaffir lime leaf plant, which I bought online from Wholesale Kaffir Limes. You instantly get an authentic Thai flavour just from one or two leaves.
In terms of the low FODMAP diet, there is a small amount of coconut milk in this recipe as I used about 1/4 of a tin. This is about 50g per portion which is in the safe range.
Serves 2 portions.
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 250g pressed tofu
- 1 aubergine
- 1 yellow pepper
- 2 kaffir lime leaves
- 2cm piece fresh ginger
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp garam masala powder
- 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
- 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 100ml coconut milk
- 2 tsp crunchy peanut butter
- 1 tsp lime juice
- handful fresh coriander
- Chop the pressed tofu into bitesize pieces.
- Heat the oil in a wok and fry the tofu until browned (see tip above).
- Remove the tofu from the pan and add the aubergine - fry until it has started to soften.
- Add the pepper, ginger, turmeric, lime leaf, chilli flakes and garam masala and fry for a few minutes.
- Add the coconut milk and soy sauce and return the tofu to the pan.
- Add the peanut butter and cook for a few minutes until the sauce has thickened up.
- Remove the pan from the heat and finish off by stirring in the coriander and lime juice.
- Serve with rice, or rice noodles.