Filipino Tofu and Mushroom Salpicao (Vegan)

Step 1

IF USING TOFU, Press the tofu or tokwa for 10 minutes to drain out excess liquid. I like to wrap mine in a towel and place a chopping board and plate on top. Afterwards, slice the tofu into 1” (2.5 cm) thick pieces or cubes.

Step 2

Heat a large non-stick pan over high heat.

Step 3

Add in the oil or butter for the tofu.

Step 4

Once hot, place the pieces of tofu on the pan. Pan-fry over medium high heat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side until lightly brown, around 10 minutes in total. Remove the tofu from the pan then set side.

Step 5

IF USING SOY CHUNKS, place the chunks in a large heat proof bowl.

Step 6

Pour boiling hot water and leave the chunks to soak and rehydrate for around 12 to 15 minutes until doubled in size. You can cover the bowl to retain the steam.

Step 7

Carefully squeeze out the liquid from the soy chunks and then set aside.

Step 8

While the tofu is pressing/soy chunks are soaking, mix all the sauce ingredients together.

Step 9

Note: You can double the sauce recipe if you'd like it with extra sauce after cooking--this is especially for the soy chunks version since soy chunks absorb more liquid.Feel free to adjust the sauce measurements to your taste.

Step 10

For the Salpicao, heat 2 tbsp butter or olive in the pan over medium high heat. I've tried this with both oil and butter, and would definitely recommend to use vegan butter for more flavour.

Step 11

Once hot, add in the minced garlic.

Step 12

Sauté for 3 to 4 minutes, moving around every 30 seconds, until golden brown and crisp.

Step 13

You can remove some garlic to set aside for topping later on.

Step 14

Add in the onion and sauté for 2 minutes.

Step 15

Add in the button mushrooms and then sauté over medium high heat for 3 to 4 minutes.

Step 16

Add in the pan-fried tofu OR soy chunks into th pan.

Step 17

Pour in the sauce. Turn up the heat to medium high heat and leave everything to cook until the sauce starts to thicken and is absorbed by the tofu.

Step 18

Taste the salpicao and feel free to season it with some salt or pepper to taste, if needed.

Step 19

Turn off the heat and then serve the Salpicao with steamed adlai or your grain of choice.

Step 20

For the turmeric adlai, I simple pan-fried lefotver adlai (or your choice of grain) with sme garlic and turmeric powder in the same pan. You can find my garlic turmeric fried rice recipe here.

Step 21

You can also have this with some singangag or fried garlic rice. See my sinangag recipe here.

Step 22

Top with more toasted garlic and chopped parsley, if desired. Enjoy!