Meatless Day Challenge #11 – Smoked tofu udon with sugar snap peas and quail eggs

Meatless Day Challenge

With all the over indulgence during the last couple of weeks, all I wanted this week was to have more vegetables in my diet. So over the weekend, I roasted a big batch of vegetables that I had with either fish or lamb during the week. It was just with oven roasted sea salt, black pepper and a good dose of olive oil.

And look what I found? Yellow Zucchinis! Don’t they look super bright and cheery?

Fresh organic vegetables from Victoria Market

These roasted vegetables could be used for mid week pasta. Just add a dollop of pesto or just good olive oil and it is a meal itself.

Oven roasted vegetables

I have been battling with cough and cold this week. I have lost my sense of taste and just want to go under my doona and sleep my sickness away. So I do apologise for my very simple contribution to this week’s meatless day challenge.

The star of this challenge is Smoked tofu. I bought this at Victoria market (Tofu Trek) over the weekend. It is quite firm and I wonder if I can get soft tofu? The smokiness was rather light and so did not overpower the tofu flavour and actually complimented it and had a slight hint of sweetness.

My meatless ingredients

Ingredients:

• 180g udon noodles
• 1 block of smoked tofu, sliced thinly
• 8 quail eggs
• 2 packets of instant dashi
• 150g of sugar snap peas

Method:

1. Boil a pot of salted water. Blanch sugar snap peas for 2 mins and remove from heat. Set aside. Add whole quail eggs and cook it for a couple of minutes. Place in cold water so that it is easy to remove the shell from the eggs later
2. Cook udon noodle to al dente in fresh pot of boiling water. Add a packet of dashi in each bowl. Pour boiling water and stir well
3. Blanch thinly sliced tofu in simmering hot water for about 10secs. Remove and set aside
4. Add udon noodles in the dashi bowl. Place the tofu on top with snap peas and quail eggs. Snip some chives and serve hot

Smoked tofu udon with sugar snap peas and quail eggs

It was a very light soupy dish. Exactly what I needed for my cough and cold. It worked really well together. It would be great if I didn’t have to use instant Dashi but in times of ‘crisis’, I just have to make do. It did say no perservatives and addictives. Did make me feel slightly better. This may become my alternative to a instant noodles that I do crave occassionally!

What is your favourite comfort food when you are feeling a little under the weather?