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| Stir-Fried Garlic Scapes with Five-Spice Pressed Tofu |
This past week, my CSA Box held a larger variety of vegetables than the last three weeks – Green Leaf Lettuce, Red Kale, Rainbow Swiss Chard, Bok Choy, Zucchini, Sugar Snap Peas, Cilantro, Radishes, Kolhrabi, more Garlic Scapes and a Tomato. My immediate reaction was “Yay, more Sugar Snap Peas, some Baby Kale, and Zucchini! But more Garlic Scapes? And what do I do with the Kolhrabi?”
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| CSA Box #4: Radishes, Red Kale, Kolhrabi, Green Leaf Lettuce, Bok Choy, Cilantro, Zucchini, Tomato and Sugar Snap Peas |
For dinner tonight, I actually made some more Swiss Chard Garlic Scape Pesto, adding in some of the cilantro from my CSA Box, and tossed this pesto with some hot gluten-free pasta, kalamata olives, fresh tomatoes, and zucchini ribbons with a squeeze of lemon juice. Everyone loved this easy, fresh combination! (sorry, no picture as everyone was hungry tonight!)
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| Zucchini Ribbons tossed with Swiss Chard Garlic Scape Cilantro Pesto, sprinkled with lemon juice. |
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| The thin “whip” above the garlic scape bulb needs to be trimmed before stir-frying as they are tough. |
Today, I tried stir-frying Garlic Scapes with Red Kale, as well as recreating a dish I have had in the restaurants a few times that I have enjoyed – Stir-Fried Five-Spice Pressed Tofu with peppers and Chinese chives.
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| Stir-Fry Garlic Scapes with Red Kale from my CSA Box. |
Five-Spice Pressed Tofu is available in Asian grocery stores, and I have seen pressed tofu at Whole Foods. You can also make your own Homemade Five-Spice Pressed Tofu.
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| Five-Spiced Pressed Tofu is readily available in Asian markets, but you can also make your own. |
My husband, who is normally a meat-eater had this twice for dinner – I think that says something! This also happens to be vegan (shhh! don’t tell him – that includes all you dads on the baseball team – I know you’re laughing, but your wives will get you to eat healthy one of these days – believe me, we’ve seen the cholesterol results, and they are good! ;)).
Stir-Fry Garlic Scapes with Pressed Tofu
Ingredients:
- 6 Garlic Scapes, cut into 2″ pieces
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
- 1 Thai bird chili pepper, minced
- 1 piece Five-Spice Pressed Tofu, cut into thin strips
- 1 scallion, cut into 1″ pieces
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/4 teaspoon organic sugar
Directions:
- Bring a pot of water to boil, and drop in garlic scapes. Cook for one minute, then drain.
- Heat oil in a wok or large saute pan. Add red bell pepper, Thai bird chili pepper, and garlic scapes.
- Stir-fry for one minute, then add pressed tofu and scallions.
- Stir-fry another minute, then add soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil and sugar. Toss well for another minute and serve.
I can't wait until my CSA is as colorful as yours is! Five spice is one of my favorite flavors and it sounds delicious in this stir fry!
sooooo beautiful Jeannette – especially love the zucchini ribbons!
i love five spice!! i discovered this spice in a sticky rice dish that my friend made. beautiful recipe jeanette!
Wow your CSA bag is huge! We only got 2 garlic scapes in our last bag….I'm not sure what I'm going to do with just 2…haha.
I have to say that, although my CSA Box started off sparse, it has really filled out the past several weeks, so I've been very happy.
Everything here looks good to me!
Looks so good. I am making tofu tonight, a different recipe but sort of wish I'd seen this earlier so I could make it!
I'm so glad I tried stir-frying garlic scapes as I have plenty of garlic scape pesto at this point. Pressed tofu is a nice meatless option, especially the five-spice variety.
soo beautiful.
Jeanette, this is such a simple & healthy lunch or dinner idea. The 5 spice tofu sounds wonderful. Great way to use that CSA box 🙂
I'm so happy to see tofu so well represented – beautiful Jeanette – I can see why your husband happily devoured the dish… Very good tip par-boiling the garlic scapes. Your photos are stunning.
You've put the contents of your box to good use and your stir-fry sounds and looks delicious. I'd love to have the tofu and garlic scapes for my dinner. I hope you havea great day. Blessings…Mary
Oh, my my! All of the above look AMAZING! I am going to try the zucchini recipe stat! 🙂 Thank you for sharing! I really enjoy your blog!
Cheers!
Christi
christischirps.blogspot.com
I am really enjoying my CSA Boxes – it makes my weekly meals so much easier since I want to use every last garlic scape or lettuce leaf up!
I love to see your posts about your CSA boxes! So full of fresh greens and other vegetables and fruits, looks really really good!