Ginger & Green Tea Tofu

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited along to a food and drink event at London Excel. Throughout the whole day I got to meet some fantastic new brands and try out a range of food and drink. One brand I met was called Ace Tea London, who allowed me to experience a wide variety of flavoursome teas. I have always been a massive tea drinker so I knew I'd be a big fan of this brand. But then Simeon, the founder of Ace Tea, told me about cooking with tea...

Immediately, a range of ideas rushed through my mind. I thought about steaming fish in a tea broth, baking with earl grey and so much more. However, my mum then told me she had never tried tofu and this was what led to me to this tea crusted tofu dish. For this recipe I have used Ace Tea London's 'Hot Ginger and Green Tea'. This has to be my favourite flavour out of all of the teas I have tried so far because I love the heat from the ginger, whilst the health benefits are an added bonus!

To complement the tofu I have used soba noodles, courgettie, tender stem broccoli and sugarsnap peas - all those greens! This creates a wonderful light dish for lunch or dinner. Alternatively, fry the tofu and enjoy as a protein packed snack alone.

I hope to create many more dishes using tea and I would like to thank Ace Tea London for inspiring me to use it in my cooking!

Ingredients:

(For one portion)

- 100g tofu

- 1 bag of hot ginger and green tea

- 2 tbsp sesame oil

- 1 tsp sesame seeds

- 4 tenderstem brocoli

- ½ courgette

- handful of sugar snap peas

- 45g soba noodles

- 1 spring onion

- ½ tbsp teriyaki sauce

- 1tsp tamarind sauce

Method:

1. Slice the tofu into pieces approximately 1.5cm thick and place them on a plate. Drizzle over the sesame oil. Break open the tea bag and scatter the tea leaves over the tofu, then sprinkle over the sesame seeds. This can be done in advance, allowing the tofu to soak up the marinade.

2. Prepare your vegetables by spiralizing the courgette (you can simply use a peeler if you don't own a spiralizer) and slice the spring onion length ways into strips.

3. Boil some water in a saucepan and begin to cook your soba noodles, following the instructions on the packet. This usually takes around 5-6 minutes and most require rinsing in water after cooking.

4. Place a frying pan on a medium heat and start frying your tofu (place the remaining marinade aside for later). Fry for 3-4 minutes on each side until a gorgeous golden colour appears on its surface, then place on a warm plate.

5. Whilst the tofu is cooking, pour the rest of the marinade onto another frying pan and begin frying the broccoli for a few minutes before adding the sugar snaps, until both have softened to your desired texture (I like it crunchy!). At the very end, add the courgettie (this takes seconds to cook - otherwise it goes soggy!), noodles, teriyaki sauce and tamarind sauce.

6. Put all the vegetables and noodles in a bowl, top with the tofu and feel free to drizzle over some more teriyaki sauce. The flavours in this dish are INSANE!

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