Hoisin Ribs with Veggie Fried Rice: Vegan and Gluten-Free

Have you ever eaten a tofu dish and thought, “This is realllllly tofu?!?! Seriously?” That’s what you’ll be saying when you cook these hoisin “ribs” with veggie fried rice.

If you eat tofu often, you know that some tofu dishes are really bad and others are amazing. Along my vegan journey, I’ve realized that it’s all in how you cook it. You have to know what you’re doing to make tofu taste like what you want it to taste like. Or, you need a follow a recipe written by someone who knows what he/she’s doing.

It’s not difficult to cook a good tofu dish. You don’t need superpowers or anything. You just need the know-how. You’re getting it today!

And, if you’re anything like me and love Chinese food but you can’t digest gluten and want to make sure it’s really vegan, you’ll love this recipe. My husband and I have been trying to nail fried rice without using eggs for a while and we’d always been only sorta happy with the results until this recipe. Finally, we figured out how to make it taste like the most delicious Chinese fried rice you’ve ever eaten.

This is the perfect Friday night or weekend dinner.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked rice (use vegetable stock instead of water when cooking)

1 medium onion, diced

½ cup carrots, diced

½ cup mushrooms, diced

¼ cup soy sauce

½ teaspoon thyme

¼ teaspoon sage

dash of cayenne

1 pound extra firm tofu, drained and pressed

vegetable oil

hoisin sauce (either store-bought or homemade)

toasted sesame seeds

Directions for Fried Rice:

1. Cook rice according the package directions {using vegetable stock instead of water}.

2. Stir-fry the onion, carrots, and mushrooms in a wok on medium-high heat until cooked with ½ cup vegetable oil, being careful not to loose the crunch (about 5 minutes).

3. Add the rice, soy sauce, thyme, sage, cayenne and cook until rice has absorbed most of the oil. If rice starts to dry out, add a little more oil.

Directions for Tofu Hoisin Ribs:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

2. Cut the tofu into rib sized pieces and fry in a large saucepan with vegetable oil until crispy on the outside (you can use the oil to fry the rice above after you’re finished).

3. Cook the ribs in the hoisin sauce on medium heat for about 5-8 minutes on the stovetop, coating the ribs.

4. Place the ribs and sauce in the oven for about 25-30 minutes until hoisin sauce is sticky.

5. Garnish with sesame seeds.