Tofu Coconut-Crumbed Dippers With Satay Sauce
I have used a ‘breadcrumb’ mix of cashews, peanut butter and desiccated coconut to give a sweet taste and crispy texture that go brilliantly with this easy satay sauce. This works well with pea shoots or a green leafy salad and sliced avocado. It is important to source your tofu well, making sure it is made from organic and non-genetically modified soya beans and with no added ingredients.
Serves 2
- 280g-325g non-GMO organic plain tofu
- 65g cashews
- 20g desiccated coconut
- 1 teaspoon unsweetened peanut butter
- Pinch mineral-rich salt
- 150g coconut flour
- 6 tablespoons coconut aminos
Satay sauce
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened coconut yogurt
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon coconut aminos (or you can substitute tamari)
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6 and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
Prepare the tofu by patting dry and cutting in half lengthwise. Then cut each half into three and finally cut each of these sections in half diagonally, making 12 triangles in total.
To make the coconut crumb, put the cashews, coconut, peanut butter and a pinch of salt into a food processor and pulse until you get fine, even crumbs. Put this mixture to one side.
Next, prepare your dipping stations. Put 6 tablespoons of coconut flour on a large plate. Put the coconut aminos in a bowl. On a another large plate, put 6 tablespoons of coconut flour and 6 tablespoons of the coconut crumb and stir to combine evenly. Put your tofu pieces through the dipping stations: first into the straight coconut flour to coat evenly, then into the aminos, turning to get all of the tofu covered, and finally into the coconut crumb mix, making sure that the pieces are thoroughly coated. Place them on the baking tray. Bake for 20 minutes and then turn carefully and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes.
While the tofu is cooking, mix together all of the ingredients for the satay sauce in a small bowl. Divide the tofu dippers between two plates and serve with the sauce.
TRUST YOUR GUT
Gut health has become a hot topic in recent years for many different reasons and as we start to uncover just HOW much the gut influences in terms of our overall health we might just start to trust our gut instinct a bit more. Way too often we can ignore that inner wisdom, favouring or taken in by the latest diet, detox, super food or supplement we tend to want to opt for a fast fix solution that invariably never works.
Each and every one of us needs to tend our own gut ‘garden’ as I like to refer to it in our own unique way so not all the advice that you read about is going to be applicable to you. It might be great for your friend but not necessarily the right thing for you or your body. Be critical in your thinking and understand what YOU need. Start with some of the more basic things first like sitting down with cutlery and eating your food from a plate at a table and you can see marked differences in the way your body responds from a digestion and stress perspective. Our modern society tells us we need to do extreme things and over indulge even in what might be considered ‘healthy’ (whatever that means) but actually before we even get into buying up sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir and other fermented ‘gut friendly’ foods like no tomorrow the best thing you can do is to tune into your own gut first and foremost.
And that’s exactly why I wrote this book. To help YOU to uncover where you might need to start your journey. It’s a process after all and one that doesn’t need to be punishing, restrictive or indeed bland. It might mean a few steps forward and a few back but then it’s about learning to work WITH your body and not forcing yourself into some kind of (unsustainable) regime. We are all individuals and our microbiome (the trillions of microoragnisms that reside in the gut) are evidence of that alone. So trust your gut and that innate instinct and you won’t go too far wrong.
