Tofu Yum Yum Rice Bowl

I love reading through Bon Appetit magazine and learning about fancier cooking ingredients and finding different ways to use them. I’ve tried a lot of things that I never would have heard of otherwise. Plus it gives me an excuse to poke around our fancy grocery store. 😉

They have a feature in the front of each issue where readers write in about restaurants they’ve gone to and they ask the magazine to get and print the recipe. This latest issue had a rice bowl request from a restaurant called World Street Kitchen. It’s called Tofu Yum Yum Rice Bowl and apparently they are quite well known for this creation. Since it’s located in Minneapolis, I’ve never been so I can’t vouch for the flavor of the real thing but I’ll take the reader’s word for it.

I looked over the recipe and I had a bunch of the ingredients on hand. A few I didn’t but I had something close. Instead of basil leaves, I had spinach. I figured it was worth a try since I’m quite partial to rice bowls like Bibimbap and Chirashi Bowls. I modified the recipe a little bit to change up the ingredients, remove a ton of oil used in frying. I turned out pretty tasty.

Tofu Yum Yum Rice Bowl 

• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
• 1 Tbsp sambal oelek
• 1 Tbsp chili garlic paste
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 10oz package of extra firm tofu, cubed
• 1/2 cup (86g) short grain rice, such as sushi rice
• 2 Tbsp (16g) cornstarch
• 2 whole eggs, fried, poached, or cooked how you like
• 1/4 cup (60g) kimchi
• 1 1/2 cups (42g) fresh spinach, chopped
• 2 tsp sesame seeds
• Cilantro for garnish

Place the garlic, soy sauce, cilantro, sambal, chili garlic paste, and ginger in a blender, food processor or Magic Bullet. Blend until smooth. Toss the tofu cubes with the sauce to coat well and put them in a zip top baggie or plastic container. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight. I just tossed mine into a plastic container, popped the lid on, and put it in the fridge for the next day.

Make the rice according to package directions. Once the tofu is ready, sprinkle in the cornstarch and toss to coat. This will help the marinade to stick to the cubes while stir frying. Heat a frying pan or wok over medium high heat and spray with non-stick spray. Once the pan is hot, toss in the tofu cubes and stir fry until the cubes start to brown a bit on the edges and look “dry.” Remove from heat.

Divide the rice into two bowls. Top the rice with the tofu cubes, cooked egg, kimchi and fresh spinach. Sprinkle on the sesame seeds and garnish with a little extra cilantro.

Makes 2 bowls at approximately 411 calories – 27g protein, 51g carbs, and 11g fat.

Notes

• The tofu I got was already cubed. Who knew there was such a thing, but it sure was convenient. If your tofu is in a block, just drain according to package instructions and cut it into cubes that are between 1/4 and 1/2 inch in size.
• I used a mix of white sushi rice and black forbidden rice just for fun. The black forbidden rice was leftover from my Coconut Black Sticky Rice and the sushi rice was left from my Mushroom Spinach Risotto. Waste not, want not. I decided to make it look pretty and use up what I had left of both rices.
• I took the easy way out and just microwaved each egg instead of poaching. I just crack one into a small plastic container, prick the yolk with a fork so it doesn’t explode. and microwave on 50% power until cooked. It’s so much easier than boiling water and poaching it.

I was dying of curiosity, so I poked around Instagram under the hashtag #WorldStreetKitchen. I found a picture of their chicken rice bowl for comparison and it looks pretty close to mine. I like that mine didn’t require a plane trip to Minnesota. Have you ever tried the real World Street Kitchen rice bowl? Does it live up to the hype? I’d love to know. 🙂