Lemongrass Tofu Vermicelli Bowl
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Lemongrass tofu
- 450 g firm tofu, pressed dry and torn by hand into rough bite-size pieces, or 400 g ready-fried tofu in strips rounded
- 30 ml neutral oil rounded
- 1 onion, diced; or 2 shallots rounded
- 3 garlic cloves, minced rounded
- 2 lemongrass stalks, tough outer layers removed, finely chopped; or 50 g frozen chopped lemongrass rounded
- 1 g dried chili flakes rounded
- 30 ml soy sauce, start here and add more to taste rounded
Nước chấm chay
- 60 ml soy sauce rounded
- 155 ml hot water rounded
- 50 g sugar rounded
- 45 ml lime juice, from about 1 large lime rounded
- 2 garlic cloves, mashed or finely minced rounded
- 5 g chili paste, such as sambal oelek, or 1 fresh red chili mashed with a little of the sugar rounded
Quick-pickled carrot
- 150 g carrot, julienned rounded
- 45 ml rice vinegar rounded
- 15 g sugar rounded
- 2 g fine salt rounded
Bowls
- 300 g dried rice vermicelli rounded
- 200 g lettuce, chopped rounded
- 200 g cucumber, julienned or in half moons rounded
- 150 g bean sprouts, blanched 3 minutes or left fresh rounded
- 10 g cilantro, chopped rounded
Method
Method
- Pickle the carrot first. Toss the julienned carrot with the rice vinegar, sugar and salt and set aside; 20 minutes is enough, and it keeps for a week refrigerated.
- Make the nước chấm chay. Dissolve the sugar in the hot water, then stir in the soy sauce, lime juice, garlic and chili paste. Taste on a piece of lettuce; it should be light, sweet-sour and clearly less salty than straight soy sauce. Set aside.
- Cook the vermicelli. Boil the noodles for 5 to 6 minutes until tender and chewy, drain, rinse cold, then let them drain properly in the colander, laid out loosely so they do not set into a block. Overcooked or wet noodles are the two ways this bowl goes watery.
- Brown the tofu alone. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the torn tofu in one layer and leave it alone until the undersides are deep golden, then turn and brown the other sides. Ready-fried tofu only needs re-crisping. Move it to a plate.
- Cook the aromatics. In the same pan, cook the onion until translucent, then the garlic, lemongrass and chili flakes for 2 to 3 minutes, until the lemongrass smells sweet and toasted rather than grassy.
- Glaze. Return the tofu, add the soy sauce, and toss just long enough for everything to cling to the rough edges of the tofu. Taste and add more soy if it needs it.
- Assemble. Noodles in the base of each bowl, lettuce, cucumber, sprouts, pickled carrot and cilantro in piles, tofu on top while still warm. Dress generously with nước chấm chay at the table and toss before eating.
Notes
- Tear the tofu, do not cube it. Rough torn surfaces brown deeper and give the glaze and dressing something to grip; smooth cubes shrug both off. This is the house rule for sauced tofu and this dish is a textbook case for it.
- Nước chấm chay is not fake fish sauce. It is the standard sauce of Vietnamese Buddhist vegetarian cooking, lighter and rounder than fish-sauce nước chấm. Treat it as its own thing and it never disappoints; compare it to the original and you are asking a different question.
- Ready-fried tofu is the honest shortcut. Asian grocers in Germany and Canada sell it refrigerated or frozen; it skips the pressing and the first browning entirely and takes the glaze beautifully.
- The chicken sibling is lemongrass chicken vermicelli bowl. Same architecture, different protein and dressing; between them they cover almost any table.
Ingredient substitutions
- Lemongrass works fresh or frozen-chopped, as in the chicken sibling; dried never softens and does not belong here.
- Chili paste can be sambal oelek, a mashed fresh chili, or sriracha at a push; sriracha brings vinegar and garlic of its own, so cut the added garlic back.
- Golden Mountain or Maggi seasoning sauce in place of some of the soy in the nước chấm chay is closer to how many Vietnamese kitchens make it, a little rounder and more savoury; plain soy is entirely fine.