Hot-Smoked Tofu In No Time: Vegetarian Egg-Fried Rice Recipe
by Nicola Lando
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10 minutes prep time
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40 minutes cook time
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Intermediate
Smoking is a great way add flavour to tofu. If you're pushed for time, just pat a piece of tofu dry, pop it in your stovetop hot smoker, and leave to smoke for 15 to 30 minutes. This is what we've done in our smoked tofu fried rice recipe below.
However, if you have time and can plan ahead, marinate the tofu the night before in a mixture of light soy sauce, sugar or maple syrup and a little water to dilute, for something even more richly flavoured! Again pat dry and simply smoke in the hot smoker. Then enjoy in Chinese dishes, in salads, or just as a snack.
The Cameron Gourmet Mini Smoker will easily fit a 200g block of firm tofu (see image below).
When ready to smoke you'll lift the stainless steel tray and grid with the tofu onto the wood chips (they sit in the base and gently smoulder), close the lid, and pop on the hob.
Once the tofu has been smoking for 15 minutes, you'll start to see an orange smoke-tint at the edges. Taste it, and see if you'd like to smoke it for longer...
... we carry on smoking for 30 minutes, which makes the whole piece of tofu a light chestnut colour (see below). If you prefer the smoke flavour even stronger, you can cut the tofu into pieces before placing it in the smoker.
Smoked tofu works very well in a simple egg-fried rice dish. And of course it looks great served on the beautiful Midori Round Sushi Plate. See recipe below.
Ingredients Serves: 2
- 200g firm tofu
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 eggs, beaten together with a pinch of salt
- Handful cooked peas or edamame beans
- 1 tsp Japanese soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 3 cups of cooked rice
- Salt & white pepper to season
- Spring onion greens, sliced, to garnish
- Hickory wood chips
Method
- First smoke the tofu. Place tofu in a Cameron stovetop smoker, and smoke on a low heat over hickory wood for 30 minutes. Cut into 1cm cubes.
- Fry the onion in sunflower oil over a low heat until translucent, but not brown. Add the eggs and move around until set and lightly scrambled. Add the edamame beans, soy sauce and sesame oil. Mix.
- Add the tofu and cooked rice to the mixture and stir together to warm through. Season with salt and white pepper. Serve garnished with spring onion greens.
About the author
Nicola Lando is the co-founder and CEO of Sous Chef, where she has spent more than a decade sourcing, tasting and selecting specialist ingredients, cookware and tableware from producers around the world.
She trained at Leiths and later completed a stage at a Michelin-starred London restaurant, experiences that helped shape Sous Chef’s original mission: to give home cooks access to the same exceptional ingredients used by professional chefs.
Today, Nicola leads much of Sous Chef’s product sourcing and ingredient selection, working directly with producers and travelling internationally to food fairs, farms, mills and manufacturers. She tastes thousands of products each year and has built deep expertise across storecupboard ingredients, olive oil, condiments, spices, preserved foods and specialist cooking ingredients.
She holds an olive oil sommelier certification from ESAO in Spain, Imperial Executive Education’s Certificate in Nutrition for Health: Evidence-Based Tools and Strategies certificate; as well as studying Food Safety and Control at University of Greenwich.
Nicola also writes recipes and ingredient guides for Sous Chef, combining practical cooking experience with first-hand knowledge from producers, suppliers and specialist food makers. Her work focuses on helping cooks understand how to choose better ingredients, use them well, and get more flavour from their cooking.
