Greening Austin Daily

Recipe Review Tuesday: Broiled Tofu with Cilantro Pesto

19th April, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

picture from Epicurious

This recipe from epicurious was a very easy and tasty dish.  Plus it used up a lot of cilantro, which was great since we got a bunch in our CSA box the week I made this. If you’re like me you may have noticed that most recipes using cilantro just call for a small amount of it, and then you’re left with a bunch of leftover cilantro that’s hard to use up and may end up going bad before you can use it.  Many a time I’ve found some old cilantro in the veggie drawer of my fridge, slowly turning into a disgusting green sludge. Well this recipe a great way to avoid wasting leftover cilantro, and although it was really good with tofu, it would probably be good served with chicken or fish as well.  Plus you only need 2 tablespoons of pine nuts to make this pesto, which is nice since pine nuts can be pretty expensive.  I ended up frying the tofu in a little olive oil rather than broiling it, and using extra firm worked really well for me.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup mild olive oil plus additional for brushing
• 2 (14- to 16-oz) packages firm tofu, rinsed and drained
• 2 cups packed fresh cilantro leaves
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 2 teaspoons Asian fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Directions: