Salt and Pepper Tofu and Crunchy Green Noodle Salad

This salad is so scrumptious the combination of crunchy green vegetables, fennel, cucumber ribbons, green beans, fresh herbs, soft ribbons of rice noodles, crispy salt and pepper tofu, a tangy Asian dressing and finished with the crunch of toasted coconut flakes and cashew nuts Is an absolute winner. I have a feeling it will be on repeat my house for Some time to come.

It takes no time at all to whip together and there is barely any cooking really involved. Feel free to change the salad ingredients as you wish or to what you happen to have in your cupboard. I highly recommend this combination, however. You may also swap the cashews for peanuts or almonds or omit altogether if you have a nut allergy. The rice noodles also make it completely gluten free.

This recipe serves 4 People can easily be halved or doubled as you wish.

SERVES:
4

Ingredients
Instructions

Ingredients

Salad

1 fennel bulb

½ a cucumber

small bunch of dill

4 spring onions

100 grams green bean

½ standard large red chilli sliced

small handful fresh mint leaves

juice ½ lime

1 tsp sesame oil

200 grams rice noodle

Dressing

½ Cup sweet chilli sauce

½ Cup tomorrow sauce

2 tablespoon sesame oil

juice 3 limes

Salt and Pepper Tofu

280 g block off extra firm tofu

2 heaped tbsp corn flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

100ml light oil like groundnut

To Serve

2 limes

75 g of cashew toasted

1/4 Cup toasted coconut flakes

1 red chilli sliced

Instructions

In a large bowl add the rice noodles and cover with boiling water, set aside for 10 minutes.
Cut the tofu into large chunks or 1-inch cubes as you wish and place in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix together the corn flour, salt and pepper. Add this to the tofu and give the whole thing a toss to coat evenly. Set aside.
Using a mandolin or a sharp knife slice your fennel bulb as thinly as possible I'm place into a large bowl, cut the cucumber into ribbons using a mandolin or a peeler also add this to the bowl. Slice the spring onions finally add those to the bowl along with the French beans, dill roughly chopped and chilli. Finally, at the juice of half a lime and sesame oil, gently toss everything together and set aside.
In a small bowl whisk together the juice of the limes, sweet chilli sauce, tamari and sesame oil and set aside.
If you haven't toasted your nuts and coconut flakes do this now. You can toast them in oven at 180°C for approximately 5 to 10 minutes Max. Cashew will take about 10 minutes coconut more like 5.
Drain the rice noodles from the boiling water and rinse under cold tap, set aside.
When you are ready to serve heat a frying pan with the with about 100 ml of light oil. When the oil is hot add the tofu and cook on each side for 2 to 3 minutes before turning over, you may want to do this in batches. The tofu will crisp up quickly try not to let it burn, if the oil is getting too hot reduce the heat. Remove the tofu from the Pam and drain on kitchen towel.
Take your serving plate and divide the rice noodles and salad between the plates, Top with a few pieces of crispy tofu, a sprinkle of toasted cashew and coconut flakes, half a lime and drizzle over the dressing.