In Caroline Chambers’ latest cookbook, What To Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking, she shares this recipe for a crispy miso lime tofu served in butter lettuce leaves with a tangy sauce.
“Sometimes greatness is born out of necessity, which is how this recipe came to be. George and I were hosting friends for dinner, serving Bo Ssam. Just before we brought the food out, I remembered one of our guests was a vegetarian. I happened to have a block of tofu in the fridge, but with no time to press it, I just started squeezing the moisture out of it with my hands over the sink. I then cooked it over super high heat to get it crispy, stirred in a simple pantry sauce, and the rest is history. We were all obsessed—all of the pork lovers at the table kept stealing the tofu!”
recipe 
yields
Serves 2
1 head butter lettuce
2 limes
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon white or yellow miso
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (14- to 16-ounce) block extra firm tofu
3 tablespoons neutral oil, plus more as needed
Toppings (optional): sesame seeds, sriracha, fresh herbs, chopped peanuts
ingredients
steps
- Pull the leaves off the head of butter lettuce, then wash and dry them. Cut the limes in half.
- In a medium bowl or liquid measuring cup, stir together the juice of 1 lime, the soy sauce, 2 tablespoons water, the miso, vinegar, honey, ginger, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes. Smash the miso against the side of the cup to be sure it incorporates to make a smooth sauce.
- Warm your largest skillet over medium-high heat. Working over the sink, remove the tofu from the container, pour out any liquid, and reserve the container. Use your hands to break the tofu into a few pieces and squeeze out as much liquid as you possibly can. This won’t be pretty! It’ll break apart into little bits. That’s perfect, you’re doing it right. When you feel like you’ve squeezed all the liquid you can out of the tofu, place it back in the container it came in.
- Add the oil to the super hot skillet. When it shimmers, add the squeezed, crumbled tofu in an even layer and let it sit, undisturbed, for 3 minutes. Give it a stir, then let it sit for 3 minutes more. It should start to look crispy and golden brown at this point. Keep going with this stir-and sit pattern once or twice more, adding more oil to the pan as needed, until the tofu is crispy all over. Add the sauce and stir rapidly until it’s all absorbed into the tofu, not even a minute. Turn off the heat.
- To serve, fill the lettuce leaves with crispy tofu and any toppings you like, including sesame seeds, sriracha, chopped fresh herbs, chopped peanuts, or any combination thereof. Squeeze the juice from the remaining lime over top just before eating.
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Recipe adapted from
What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking by Caroline Chambers © 2024. Published by Union Square & Co. Photos © Eva Kolenko.
