'Butter' tofu curry
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 30 mins to 1 hour
- Serve
- Serves 2
A creamy, veg-packed take on the famous butter curry sauce using the one and only butternut squash. This vegan curry is easy to put together and perfect for batch cooking. Make extra sauce, freeze in portions and you can have creamy curry in minutes.
For this recipe you will need a stick blender or a food processor.
Ingredients
- butternut squash: 300²µ/10½´Ç³ú butternut squash, peeled weight, chopped into small cubes
- oil: 1–2 tbsp vegetable oil
- curry powder: 1 tsp medium curry powder
- garlic: 1 garlic clove, grated
- ginger: 2½cm/1in piece fresh root ginger, grated
- coconut milk: 200g/7oz coconut milk, stirred or shaken so the solids and liquids combine
- : 30g/1oz vegan margarine (or butter, if not vegan)
- tofu: 300²µ/10½´Ç³ú firm tofu, chopped in 2½cm/1in cubes
- peppers: 2 peppers, roughly chopped
- spring greens: 2 handfuls spring greens, spinach, frozen peas, broccoli or other green vegetables
- black pepper: salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
Place the butternut squash on a baking tray and drizzle over some oil. Roast for 30 minutes or until soft and starting to caramelise.
In a medium saucepan, heat a little oil. Fry the curry powder, garlic and ginger for a minute. Add the coconut milk and 200ml/7fl oz water and bring to the boil. Tip in the cooked butternut squash and simmer for 10 minutes. Blend the sauce using a stick blender or in a food processor until smooth. If the sauce is too thick, add some more water. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Put the margarine (or butter) in a frying pan. Fry the tofu over a medium heat for 15 minutes, carefully turning all the cubes so they brown all over. Season with a little salt.
Bring the smooth sauce to a simmer in a saucepan. Add the pepper and green vegetables for 5 minutes or until cooked. Stir in the tofu, check the seasoning and serve.
Recipe tips
Double the ingredients if you need to serve four, it's really easy to do as this will use a whole tin of coconut milk instead of half.
The best way to prepare tofu is to first soak it in salted, boiling water for half an hour before pressing in between sheets of kitchen paper and a heavy weight (I often place a cook book on top to speed up the pressing time). Pressing removes extra moisture from the tofu which helps it to keep it's shape when cooking, especially if it is in larger chunks. You don't have to do this, but it does taste better.
