Charlotte's Tofu Stir-Fry

Charlotte’s Tofu Stir-Fry

Charlotte Radcliffe RNutr

Featuring:

Effort:

Complexity:

Cost:

Serves: 2

Prep time: 45 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

1 pack extra firm smoked or plain tofu (chopped into cubes)

120 g whole wheat noodles (weight is the dried weight)

70 g baby corn (halved)

70 g sugar snap peas

70 g tenderstem broccoli

1 carrot (sliced into matchsticks)

3 tbsp cornflour

1 tbsp sesame oil

Marinade:

1 clove garlic (finely chopped or grated)

1 tsp ginger paste (or freshly grated ginger)

1/2 tsp crushed dried chillies

1 & 1/2 tbsp light soy

1 tbsp honey (or vegan alternative)

3 tbsp water

Garnish:

2 spring onions (thinly sliced)

1 red chilli (thinly sliced)

1-2 tsp sesame seeds

Veg Portions / Serving: 2

Charlotte Radcliffe, aka The Nutrition Consultant, shares a simple and tasty stir fry everyone can enjoy. If tofu isn’t your cup of tea, you can swap it for prawns, beef or chicken.

Method:

Check the instructions on the tofu packet before starting, some brands may require you to press the tofu before you start. We used no press tofu.
Place the tofu cubes, in one layer, into a bowl or container.
In a small bowl, add all the marinade ingredients and whisk together. Pour the marinade over the tofu, cover and pop into the fridge for 30-45 minutes, turning the tofu in between.
Whilst the tofu is marinating, if using dried noodles, cook as per the pack instructions and set aside. Prepare the vegetables, and garnish ready to go.
Once the tofu is ready, drain the marinade into a separate bowl and set aside.
Add the cornflour to a shallow bowl and evenly coat all the tofu pieces in the cornflour.
Heat the sesame oil in a wok on a high heat. Add the coated tofu pieces into the wok and fry the tofu until all sides are crispy and golden brown. This should take around 4-5 minutes.
Add the vegetables to the wok and fry for 1-2 minutes.
Add the remainder of the cornflour into the marinade and whisk together. Add this to the wok and cook everything for a further 2 minutes.
Add the cooked noodles to the wok, toss everything together (easiest using 2 wooden spoons), until warmed through.
Serve up the stir fry and garnish with the spring onion, chilli slices and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Enjoy!
Don’t fancy noodles? Switch up for some wholegrain rice.

Engaging Kids

Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.

Kids in the kitchen

Get the kids making and pouring over the marinade, and let them help you plate up and garnish the stir-fry when it’s ready!

Activities

While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.

Sensory

Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.

Serving

The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.

Charlotte Radcliffe RNutr

Charlotte Radcliffe is a registered nutritionist (RNutr) and director of The Nutrition Consultant Ltd.

Having worked in the food industry for over 20 years, Charlotte has a unique combination of skills. She incorporates solid, evidence-based nutrition, communications and commercial expertise together with an in-depth understanding of food and ingredients. She has a strong food safety and technical background, and since qualifying as a nutritionist in 2007, she has performed many nutrition roles in the food industry (including working as Company Nutritionist for one of the world’s most recognised food brands).

www.thenutritionconsultant.org.uk

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