This is the perfect dish if you have a hankering for sushi but can’t be bothered making it or or you don’t know how (it can be quite tricky, I know!).

I’m making a bit of an effort to add some meat-free meals into my diet. As part of this I’m going to add a meat-free recipe to my blog each Monday for Meat Free Monday – you can find out more about it here. Don’t get me wrong, I love meat. But I also LOVE tofu. It has to be one of my favs!

This recipe is quick and easy and makes the perfect dinner or lunch.

Serves 2

Ingredients

1/2 cup uncooked rice
2 tbsp spicy Japanese mayo (recipe below)
1 nori/seaweed sheet sliced
1 carrot
1/3 cucumber
3 tbsp of rice wine vinegar
3 tbsp sugar
soy, garlic and sesame sauce (recipe below)
250g tofu – my absolute favourite is the ginger & honey marinated tofu from Bean Supreme.

Start off by cooking your rice. I always do mine in a rice cooker but just follow the instructions on the packet.

While your rice is cooking julienne/grate your carrot and cucumber. Once done place in a bowl with 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar and 2 tbsp of the sugar. Leave to sit for 30 minutes. This pickles the vegetables and gives them a nice flavour. Of course, you don’t have to do this step though. Simple grated veggies will work nicely too.

Next make up your spicy Japanese mayo. Mix 2 tbsp of Japanese mayo with 1 tbsp of sriracha. You can substitute the Japanese mayo for normal aioli if you like.

Now make the soy garlic and sesame sauce. Mix 4 tbsp soy, 1 tsp of sesame oil and 1 tsp crushed garlic. Done!

Get a pan heating with some oil and cook your tofu. If you have used the marinated one I mentioned before you won’t need any additional flavouring but if you’ve used plain tofu then I recommend you marinate it before cooking. You could do a soy and garlic marinade or anything you like! That’s the beauty of tofu.

When your tofu is cooked and your rice has cooled you can start building your tofu bowl. Fill a bowl with rice then top with the soy sauce, pickled carrot and cucumber, tofu, spicy mayo and nori sheets. Garnish with some sesame seeds and some chilli if you’re that way inclined (I certainly am!).

I hope you enjoy this recipe. If you’re not a tofu fan this would also work really nicely with some stir-fried chicken or beef. NOM!