Sautéed Garlic Scapes with Crispy Tofu

Deliciously delicate, the creamy tofu cubes get a crispy golden exterior, sautéed garlic scapes add the perfect crunch to a warm black bean chile sauce and the bed of spinach and pea greens is perfectly wilted.

It’s garlic scape season! These crazy, curly, serpentine shoots are only around for a short time in late spring. Scapes are the flowering stems that grow from the top of hardneck varieties of garlic. The long tubular shape and more muted garlic flavor lends itself to a variety of applications. Popular uses include pesto, hummus, and simple additions to stir-fries and salads.

CSA SHARE #4

• Cosmic Salad Mix
• Dill
• Bok Choy
• Garlic Scapes
• Buttercrunch Head Lettuce
• Pea Shoots
• Sorrel
• Lemon Basil
• Spinach

RECIPES COOKED WITH THIS WEEKS SHARE

• Sautéed Garlic Scapes with Crispy Tofu
• Salt Roasted Potatoes with Garden Fresh Green Goddess Dressing
• Grilled shiitake mushroom & Thai chicken lettuce wraps with spicy finger lime peanut vinaigrette

FROM THE FIELD

This was an exciting week at Foodterra, we were blessed with the birth of a baby boy. Arden picked up the CSA share, Ellie went into labor and at 1:26 am, Anssi Kismet Oksanen was born. Two days later, Eric showed up at the house to cook three nourishing meals with our CSA share veggies. We encourage everyone to share the abundance of your CSA bounty by cooking for family and friends, in good times or in times of need. Watch episode 4 of Just Picked, Cooking Through a CSA below.

 

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Sautéed Garlic Scapes with Crispy Tofu

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• Author: Foodterra
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: serves 2 1x

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Description

Deliciously delicate, the creamy tofu cubes get a crispy golden exterior, sautéed garlic scapes add the perfect crunch to a warm black bean chile sauce and the bed of spinach and pea greens is perfectly wilted.

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Ingredients

• 8 oz silken tofu, ½ a 16 oz container
• 1 tablespoon black bean garlic sauce
• 1 teaspoon chili sauce or chili garlic sauce
• ½ a shallot, minced
• 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled, smashed and small chop
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil, more as needed
• 8–10 garlic scapes, top flower bulb removed, thinly sliced into rounds
• 1/3 cup rice flour
• 1/3 cup corn starch
• 1/3 of a cup peanut oil, for shallow frying, (substitute any high heat oil)
• 1 ½ cups spinach
• 1 ½ cups pea greens
• juice of ¼ lime
• pea green flowers, for garnish, if you have them

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Instructions

1. Drain tofu: Wrap tofu in 3-4 paper towels, place on a plate with a second plate on top to weigh it down and draw out the liquid.
2. Preheat two cast iron pans to medium-high.
3. Make the Garlic Scape Sauce: In a small bowl mix together black bean garlic sauce, spicy chile sauce, shallot, ginger and peanut oil. Add a touch of peanut oil to coat cast iron followed by garlic scapes, sauté until softened, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in black bean sauce and remove pan from heat.
4. Fry tofu: Add a good glug of peanut oil to the second cast iron. Unwrap tofu and gently chuck it into cubes. Mix together rice flour and cornstarch in a bowl. Gently drop in a few pieces of tofu at a time and toss with fingers to coat, dust off excess and place into the hot peanut oil. Fry tofu pieces, turning on all sides until they start to crisp up and take on a golden brown color, about 6 minutes.
5. Plate the dish: Place the hot fried tofu pieces directly on a bed of hand-torn spinach and pea greens, dress with the warm garlic scape sauce, garnish with pea green flowers and a squeeze of lime.

• Category: salad
• Method: sauté, fry

Keywords: tofu, garlic scapes, crispy tofu