Colorful Asian Salad with Baked Tofu and a Cilantro Lime Dressing

 

Autumn’s first birthday is coming up and her party is now just in 10 days. Cue my freak out moment!!!! ahhh!!

As I continually pack away the clothes that she (very slowly) grows out of, I just want to grab her and hold her tight while whispering not to grow up too quick. But she is. It’s happening in a blink of an eye. One day she was trying to figure something out and the next day she can do it, and then some, with ease. It’s amazing to see them learning.

With the party fast approaching we are in a mad dash to get the party decorations and food nailed down. Plus, do a major clean up. Dang you dust! All while finally wrapping up moving my craftiness stuff from her room (former office) to the den. Plus, finish projects around the house…you know like the 4 dining chairs we have s-l-o-w-l-y been refinishing this past year. I will be soooo excited to have our dinning chairs all done.

That means our nights and weekends are jam-packed with stuff to do. It feels like we never stop moving. Seriously. I love being busy (and actually organizing stuff!) but it is draining. The last thing I am caring about now is dinner. But it’s important. While I’d love to order some Chinese take-out we are really trying to eat healthy. Plus, who needs to toss money at take-out when they have a party to host!

The key to keeping my sanity lately are quick, healthy dinners so I am not spending tons of time prepping and cooking. Tossing a spaghetti squash into the oven right when I get home works well but when I have been craving and enjoying the most lately are salads. I think the cold air and shrinking day light has me craving bright, fresh veggies. I have not yet caved to soups just yet!

Salads are great but you still need a protein. While I love steak and chicken it’s yet another thing to cook and another pan to clean. So the fully prepared baked tofu that I have been using in my salads has been a huge help. Life saving!

I used Nasoya’s Organic Sesame Ginger TofuBaked in this Asian inspired salad. Since I wasn’t getting my Chinese food any time soon I wanted to at least have something that reminded me of bright, fresh Asian flavors.

In September, Nasoya’s launched a brand new product called TofuBaked.  It’s a marinated and fully cooked tofu that is great to toss on salads and veggie stir fries. Even making a vegetarian Bánh mì would be super simple when using TofuBaked. It comes in two  flavors, Sesame Ginger and Teriyaki that are jam-packed full of flavor. Now you don’t have to worry about draining, pressing, marinating, and cooking tofu… it’s all done for you!

It’s great the creating a meal is a breeze but I love how it is a USDA Organic, Non-GMO food. It has 32g Protein per package. If you divide the package into 4 servings, like I did, it makes for 8g of protein from a preservative and cholesterol free food!

I have made plenty of salads that have lots of chopping involved but I tried to keep that to a minimum with this salad so that I can get it on the table in about 5 minutes. I swear it takes just that long!!! You are mainly tossing together fully prepped ingredients- prewashed kale, grape tomatoes (you can even skip cutting them!) a veggie slaw, and pea sprouts. There is just so fun about the crunch from pea sprouts, plus they remind me of the long bean sprouts that are used throughout Chinese food recipes.

You can’t not make this as it’s so quick, healthy, and flavorful.

Promise me that you will give tofu a try if you have never had it before because this Nasoay TofuBaked is so flavorful that you will have to brush off any misconceptions you have about it. Pinkie swear!

Colorful Asian Salad with Baked Tofu and a Cilantro Lime Dressing

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the salad

• 5oz package of baby kale
• 6 oz shelled edamame
• 2 oz pea sprouts
• 6 oz broccoli slaw or a mixture of shredded carrots, broccoli, and even zucchini
• 1 Cup grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/3 Cup Salted Peanuts
• 1 8oz package of Nasoya’s Organic Sesame Ginger TofuBaked

For the Dressing

•  1/4 Cup rice vinegar
• 1/3 Cup extra virgin olive oil
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 Tablespoon minced cilantro (I used Gourmet Garden’s Stir-in Cilantro Paste)
• salt and pepper

Process

1. To make the salad, toss together the kale, edamame, sprouts, slaw, and tomatoes together in a very large mixing bowl.
2. Cut a piece of tofu cross into 4 equal pieces and then again in the other direction, resulting in 16 pieces. Repeat the process for the other 3 pieces.
3. Sprinkle the top of the salad with the tofu and peanuts.
4. To make the dressing, combine all of the ingredients together in a bowl or a mason jar with a lid, and mix/shake well.
5. Dress the whole salad or dress each plated portion. Enjoy!

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AND NOW THE GIVEAWAY!!!!

If you would like to win some Nasoya TofuBaked coupons for your own salads, stir fries, sandwiches, and more, then all you have to do it leave a comment on this blog post telling me how you would use tofu in your own cooking.

For an extra entry just tweet the following & then come back and leave a comment telling me you did.

“Give @Nasoya‘s TofuBaked a try in this Colorful Asian Salad with Baked Tofu and a Lime Cilantro Dressing. yummy! http://wp.me/pzEAP-4Zq“

Contest ends Wednesday, November 12th at midnight.

*While I did receive complimentary product from Nasoya, these opinions are entirely my own.

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