Vermicelli Tofu Salad With Peanut Sauce From Lara Lee
Genius Recipes
Photo by Louise Hagger
- Serves
- 2 to 3
- Prep Time
- 15 Minutes
- Cook Time
- 10 Minutes
As Lara Lee writes in A Splash of Soy, “This vermicelli noodle and tofu salad recipe is inspired by ketoprak, a dish so popular in Jakarta that the street-food vendors have usually sold out by 2pm. It’s so delicious that swathes of school children race out of the door as the two o’clock bell rings marking the end of the school day, and rush down to the vendors in an attempt to catch the last of the food cart’s supply. “This iconic dish is eaten by many people as a way to start their day. It’s traditionally served with fried tofu, steamed rice cake (lontong), cabbage, vermicelli, beansprouts, cucumber, and a generous serving of peanut sauce spiked with garlic and chiles. “The kettle is your friend in this no-cook version: boiling water makes instant peanut sauce, softens the rice vermicelli, blanches the edamame and warms through the cubes of tofu in one fell swoop. You can swap the edamame for frozen peas.” A few more tips: Kecap manis is a palm sugar-sweetened fermented soy sauce, a savory, caramel-y staple in Indonesian cooking. It’s well worth picking up at Asian markets or online, or Lara suggests this substitute: equal parts dark soy sauce and coconut sugar or brown sugar, stirred together. If your noodles are still too firm at the end of soaking, you can heat them (with the soaking water and other goodies) in a pot until they’re the texture you’re looking for, a minute or two, then drain.
Ingredients
For the instant peanut sauce:
- 3/4 cup peanut butter (crunchy or creamy)
- 3 tablespoon kecap manis (see tips above)
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed, or 1 teaspoon garlic paste
- 2 teaspoon fresh ginger, peeled and grated or ginger paste (optional)
- 1 to 2 tablespoon sambal oelek or sriracha, to taste
- 2 teaspoon tamarind paste or the juice of ½ lime, plus more to taste
For the vermicelli tofu salad:
- 4 ounce dried rice vermicelli noodles
- 1/3 cup frozen edamame beans, shelled (soybeans)
- 5 ounce smoked or marinated tofu, patted dry and cut into ¾-inch cubes
- 2/3 cup bean sprouts (optional)
- 1 avocado, skin removed, pitted, and cut into wedges
- 1 (1 ½-inch) piece English cucumber, halved lengthways, seeded and sliced
- Kecap manis, for drizzling (see tips above)
- 2 tablespoon crispy fried onions (optional; store-bought are fine)
- Lime wedges, to serve
- 1/4 medium-heat red chile, sliced diagonally (optional; seed if you prefer less heat)
- Shrimp chips or root vegetable chips, to serve
Featured Video
Vermicelli Tofu Salad With Peanut Sauce From Lara Lee
Recipe adapted slightly from A Splash of Soy: Everyday Food from Asia (Bloomsbury Publishing, June 13, 2023).
Directions
Instructions
- Step 1
Make the instant peanut sauce: Put a kettle on (or boil a large pot of water). Put the peanut butter, kecap manis, garlic, ginger (if using), sambal, and tamarind or lime juice in a heatproof bowl. Add ¼ cup hot boiling water and stir with a fork until combined. It can look split at first, but keep stirring until homogenized. Peanut sauce thickens as it sits, so loosen the sauce with water to a thick pourable consistency for serving, if needed.
- Step 2
Read the dried vermicelli noodle packet instructions to see if they need to be cooked on the stovetop or submerged in boiling water. If they cook when submerged, put them in a large heatproof bowl along with the edamame beans, beansprouts (if using) and tofu cubes. Pour boiling hot water over everything until submerged, then leave to sit for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the noodles are cooked and the tofu and edamame are warmed through, then drain.
- Step 3
If the noodles don’t cook when submerged and have a required cook time, follow the package instructions to cook and drain the noodles. Put the kettle on again to soak the edamame beans, beansprouts (if using) and tofu cubes in a heatproof bowl, as above.
- Step 4
Divide the peanut sauce between two serving bowls. Put the noodles on top, along with the edamame beans, bean sprouts (if using), avocado, tofu and cucumber. Drizzle generously with kecap manis, then garnish with the chips, fried onions, lime wedges and chile slices. Serve immediately.