Stir-fried pressed tofu with peppers and black beans is an extremely simple and delicious Chinese dish.It happens to be vegan, but also protein-packed and flavorful!  A Restaurant-Inspired RecipE I had this dish at a vegetarian restaurant in Shenzhen.It was super tasty, but I still made a couple small adjustments to my own version.

In this recipe, I added garlic and more black beans.I used long hot peppers, as I like spicy food, but you can substitute any pepper you like, including mild sweet peppers.The result is super savory, a little bit spicy, and texturally satisfying!  If you’ve never heard of pressed tofu, it is basically a very firm, drier type of tofu that has had much of its moisture content pressed out.

It is chewier than regular firm tofu, and stands up well to stir-frying.  It may also be labeled “spiced tofu,” because after pressing, it is often braised in a mixture of soy sauce and spices before another drying process.  If you can’t find pressed tofu (which would be in the refrigerated section of your local Asian market), you can make your own with our own pressed tofu recipe.Simply start with a block of firm tofu (available these days in many mainstream grocery stores), press it, braise it, and dry it in the oven.The process takes about a day, but there is very little active prep you have to do.  Other Recipe Variations Some version of a spiced tofu stir-fry has shown up on the Leung family dinner table for decades.

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