Nasi goreng simply means ‘fried rice’ and despite its unassuming name, it is a cracking dish – filling and immensely satisfying! I have a particularly soft spot for it as it reminds me of one of my favourite holidays – in Bali – where we spent an entire month living off this stuff.
This was years before we went vegan, which was somewhat lucky as despite nasi goreng being fairly easily veganised, traditional versions almost always feature fried eggs and the ubiquitous fish sauce. This version has neither of these ingredients but just as much of a depth of flavour. To intensify the flavour of the sauce I followed a great tip from Jackie Kearney’s book Vegan Street Food and roasted all the aromatics before blending them into a rich, sticky and spicy sauce. I know, I know, it’s a bit of a pain but it’s totally worth it, trust me! You can always double, triple or even quadruple (yup, that’s my thing 🙂 ) the sauce ingredients and make yourself a big vat of it that will set you up for an entire week of vegan nasi goreng. You know that saying ‘measure twice, cut once?’…Well, my current thing is ‘make once, eat for the rest of the week’ 😉
400 g firm tofu (SEE NOTES)* 2 tbsp finely grated (on a microplane) ginger 1 tsp toasted sesame oil 2 tsp neutral tasting oil salt
REMAINING INGREDIENTS
1½ cups basmati rice**, cooked a day before (without salt) 2 tbsp peanut oil (or other high smoke point oil) 3 spring onions, sliced a large handful of flat green beans, cut diagonally 1 red pepper, finely sliced a wedge of red cabbage, finely sliced ½ large broccoli head, divided into florets ¼ cup roasted peanuts, chopped 1 lime cut into quarters, (optional), to serve
ASSEMBLY
This recipe has been adapted from the Nasi Goreng recipe from this fabulous vegan cookbook.
