Lemony Tofu on a Rice Salad

Lemony Tofu on a Rice Salad

21 June 2025 (Saturday)

Woke up at 5.30am and up soon after and I needed a cuppa… and it was already warm verging on hot, though there was a breeze!

Being Saturday, the morning was spent doing some desk work and then writing our list for Sunday Chat and recording it - with a good Word of the Week this week… Yay!

Whilst Richard was editing and uploading, I made hummus for lunch… and a ratatouille for supper, though actually it went into the freezer.

After lunch, I was down at the plot doing some seed sowing, but it was rather bloody humid, especially as I hadn’t thought ahead and was a bit stupid!

I wanted to sow fennel, bulb fennel, chard and also some wild rocket, and as it was pretty sunny and warm I thought the best place to do this was in the poly, out of the bright glare of the sun, but…

When I get down to the plot one of the first jobs I do, sometimes even before opening the shed, is water the poly.  The beds there dry out relatively swiftly so a quick water is always on the cards, followed by another after half-an-hour or so allowing the water to then really soak down to the roots.  On Saturday, I did exactly this - getting down to the plot, into the poly and giving all a good water… It was only then that I realised that doing this would drastically increase the humidity of the poly, in which I was expecting to sow three types of seeds!!

Well, suffice to say I was melting in the poly whilst sowing seeds; I think I was doing a grand impersonation of the baddy German guy in Indiana Jones who has his face melted off when the Holy Grail is opened.  My face was dripping… from my nose, from my brows, from my chin, ears, cheeks, with rivulets of salty sweat torrenting down my face and doing its own great impersonation of Niagara Falls!  I wondered whether I actually needed to water the seeds once I’d sown them as there was so much liquid flying around inside the poly, though of course I did… fresh water will do them far more good than my sweaty offerings.

Anywho, as Greta says, the seed sowing was done and it’s fair to say once back home a change of clothes and a little cooling off was much needed… and a good drink of water, or two!  I then made supper; Lemony Tofu on a Rice Salad.

Lemony Tofu on a Rice Salad

I’d cooked some rice earlier in the day, and take two portions, added some Bragg’s liquid aminos, half a red onion finely diced, two handfuls each of frozen peas and broad beans (brought to boiling in a pan and simmered for three minutes, then drained, plunged into cold water and then drained well after a few minutes), one rounded tablespoon of mayonnaise, a diced red pepper, some sliced radish and lots of torn up basil leaves.  I then placed it in the fridge, covered, to chill.

For the tofu I marinated a well-pressed defrosted firm tofu that had been cubed in some liquid aminos, yeast flakes and garlic for half an hour, and then fried the cubes on each side for a few minutes.  In a bowl I put about a tablespoon of maple syrup, two of lemon juice, and another of liquid aminos, added some garlic, and made up a slurry in a separate bowl of teaspoon of cornflour and a tablespoon of water.

Removing the cooked tofu from the pan, I added the first liquid mix into the pan and stirred, cooking it through, and then after a minute added the cornflour slurry, which thickened the mix.  After a minute I then added the tofu back in, coated it all and then placed it on top of the rice salad which I had previously portioned into two bowls.

It was rather nice, though next time I would use a little less maple syrup, as I found it a tad too sweet!  Richard rather liked it, which is unusual as he's not a fan of tangy dishes like this.


Weather:  Hot, though also slightly overcast.  Despite the clouds it gets to 32° or 33°.

Breakfast:  Lidl Rye with Flora ProActiv, yeast extract and peanut butter
Lunch:   Hummus, pitta, tomatoes, cucumber and radish
Supper:   Lemony Tofu on a Rice Salad