Guess what?
It was my birthday last week, and my wonderful, funny, thoughtful, goofy husband thought it would be nice to get me some stuff to play with for the website photography. Like…. a tripod stand, some new dishes, spoons, glassware, books, and other fun food photography gear.
So, I’ve been playing with all this new stuff and guess what, I am so impressed! Look at these pictures, they are beautiful… It amazing, if you look at the food photos from 2012 to now you can see a gradual and incredible improvement in the photography over the months. I’ve been reading books, watching videos, learning as much as I can about the art of food photography… and the most important thing I’ve learned about the whole process: learning this stuff takes time! But, it is SO MUCH fun!
It’s no surprise, I’ve been a fan of tofu dishes for a long time.
I’ve found that tofu is the vegetarian/vegan’s best friend when it come to a protein packed meal that soaks up any combination of flavorful sauces you throw at it. In this dish we use a light, mildly sweet, ginger-garlic sauce, to flavor the tofu. It’s so good I sometimes make extra to dip rice rolls in when I want to change up the usual peanut sauce.
I like sautéing the tofu rather then frying it. It still has a nice crisp bite on the outside and is warm, moist and tender on the inside. The combination of farro, veggies, tofu and a light finger-licking yummy sauce make a very well balanced and healthy meal you can literally cook up in 30 minutes from start to finish.
The asparagus and carrots give this dish a beautiful color. I cook the asparagus just enough so that it tender but still has a nice bite. The carrots are pre-shredded so I like to throw them into the sauté at the last minute thereby preserving all their raw sweetness and nutrition.
This dish is so yummy, it’s sweet, but not too sweet, savory, but not too savory, satisfying, loaded with flavor, packed with veggies, entirely vegan, a quick meal and perfect for a night in.
My favorite part of the dish might be the fact that all this yumminess in nestled in a bed of soft, chewy, belly filling farro. We ate about half of this, put it in the refrigerator and reheated it the next day with a little leftover sauce…. yup, still delicious!
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 in. piece of ginger, skin removed, roughly chopped
- 2½ tbsp. honey
- ½ cup low sodium soy sauce
- ¼ cup rice cooking wine
- 14 cup canola oil
- ¼ cup water
- ½ tsp red pepper flake (optional, I did not use)
- 1½ cup uncooked farro
- 2 tbsp. canola oil
- 16 oz. extra firm tofu
- 2 cups asparagus, chopped
- 2 cups shredded carrots
- 3 green onions, minced
- Put all the ingredients for the sauce in a food processor and puree until smooth. Set aside.
- Cook the farro according to directions on the package
- Cut the tofu into small cubes and pat them dry with a paper towel. Heat the oil in a large non-stick skillet on medium-high heat. Add the tofu and ½ cup of the sauce. Be careful because the sauce will splatter then you first add it. Cook, stirring occasionally until all the liquid has evaporated and sides of the tofu are golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside in a paper towel lined bowl.
- Next, add the asparagus to the skillet and the remaining sauce. Cook until asparagus is still bright green and tender-crisp. Add the carrots and toss.
- Arrange the platter with farro, topped with the veggies and then the tofu. Serve immediately.