Red Curried Tofu

As I start on the 3rd week of my serious effort at reducing the amount of sodium, cholesterol, saturated fat, and calories in my diet, I have a new found appreciation for fruits, vegetables, and vegetarian cooking.    My wife and I were both vegetarians when we met and we maintained a vegetarian diet for a few years after we got married.   I started eating meat again when I felt like I wasn't getting enough nutrition from my vegetarian diet.

So, its been nice to revisit vegetarian cuisine again after many years and after my skills in the kitchen have improved.   I am enjoying the food more than I did those many years ago and I really appreciate being able to eat a delicious and satisfying dinner without blowing my calorie or sodium budget.

On Sunday night for dinner I made Red Curried Tofu.    I tend to think of Thai food when I think of Red Curried Tofu, but this dish has more of an Indian flavor.   I added the tofu into the pan at the same time I started the peppers and onions so that the tofu would be well cooked and even a little browned.   I served the Red Curried Tofu over rice.  This dish was delicious and very filling and really healthy.

photo:  Randy Mayor; Lydia DeGaris-Pursell

 To go along with this dish I made Indian Spiced green beans based on a Cooking Light recipe for Indian Spiced Okra.   I did steam the green beans before I stir fried them just because I really like my green beans very soft.   I also used half the amount of salt recommended in the recipe for the okra.

Both the tofu dish and the green beans made great left overs and we really enjoyed both dishes.

The tofu dish and green beans combined had over 700mg of sodium, but I planned for this and made sure I did not take in too much sodium for breakfast and lunch.    Total calories for this meal is around 400 calories and I left the table feeling full.