Sesame Spring Salad with Tofu

Spring is in the air. The temperature is rising, sunglasses and ice cream on every street corner.  Time to say goodbye to the heart warming meals, hello fresh and light meals!

When I visited my aunt and uncle in the south sea province of Holland, I looked through the many cookbooks they have. My uncle made this great green bean salad, with lemonzest and sesame seeds, inspired by Ottolenghi. Guess it's a family thing, never really adopting recipes from cookbooks. So this 'Spring Salad' as Ottolenghi calls it, was once the starting point. But is now long gone!

Sesame Spring Salad with Tofu
source: Ottolenghi's Spring Salad
1 recipe of Mai's secret to tofu success
scroll down to see the recipe or click here for the post about tofu.
1lbs/500 grams of fresh green beans
2-3 tablespoons of (black/white) sesame seeds
2-3 tablespoons of sesame oil
1-2 tablespoons of soysauce
1 tablespoon of rice vinegar
seasoning
Optional: Other fresh greens, like asparagus, peas, carrot, rocket, watercress or other leafy salads. 

Start with the tofu. 
Mai secret to tofu success
1 block of firm tofu
Paper towels
Soysauce
Optional: ketjap manis
Sunflower or canola oil

Get the tofu out and dab it dry. Slice in 1 cm thick slices. Place them next to each other on a paper towel, now placing another paper towel over it and press down carefully. Place the tofu in a deep plate or tin. Now you can use only the soysauce or you can go 50 / 50 on the soy and ketjap. The ketjap will make it a bit sweeter. Poor over the sauce until it at least is half covered. Let is marinade for a minimum of 15-30 minutes. The longer it can marinade, the more flavor it gets. Now turn around and let it marinade for 15-30 minutes again. Get the tofu out, placing it next to each other on a paper towel, placing another paper towel over it and press down carefully. This is just to get the excess sauce of and to fry it more easily.

Get a non-stick frying pan and pour in 1 cm of oil. Now fry of the slices of tofu, turn around when it's browning. When golden brown on both sides, take it out. Place them on a cooling rack lined with some paper towels, to adsorb the excess oil. For the best result, let the tofu cool down. It will stiffen up a little bit and is easier to get clean cuts.

Clean and wash the green beans (and other vegetables). Blanch the beans and other veggies for 5 minutes. Try if the beans are cooked but still a little crispy and bright green. Drain and set aside to cool down. Heat a skillet and toast the sesame seeds. Keep a close eye, you don't want the seeds to burn.

When the tofu is cooled down you can slice it and assemble the salad. Mix the beans (with the other vegetables), add the vinegar, soysauce and sesame oil. Season well and add the sesame seeds, mix well and taste. Add more to taste. Mix in the tofu and your spring salad is finished!

note: It's also a great side dish! Enjoy!