Gado Gado with Tofu
Sweet potato simmered until soft, tofu fried to a golden honey-soy crust, green beans, a boiled egg split in half, and cool cucumber slices. Five components on one plate, each prepared a different way, none touching until the sauce brings them together.
The peanut sauce ties it all into a meal. Peanut butter, red curry paste, crushed garlic, coconut milk, and the rest of the soy sauce stirred in a bowl. Thirty seconds of work for a sauce that carries 31g of the plate's 44g of fat and tastes like it took far longer.
At 837 kcal with 32g of protein from tofu and egg, 78g of carbs mostly from sweet potato, and 17g of fiber, this is a full Indonesian-style gado gado built to cover a lot of ground in 20 minutes flat.
Ingredients
- sweet potato 0.5 pound
- tofu 3 ounces
- green beans (frozen) 1 cup
- egg 1
- olive oil 1 tablespoon
- honey 1 tablespoon
- soy sauce 1.5 tablespoon
- water 2 tablespoons
- cucumber 0.5
- garlic 1 clove
- peanut butter 1 tablespoon
- red curry paste 0.5 tablespoon
- coconut milk 1.5 fluid ounce
Method
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Wash the sweet potato and cut into half slices.
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Drain the tofu well, squeeze out some of the liquid and cut the tofu into cubes.
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Bring two pots of water to a boil. In one pot, cook the green beans and egg for about 8 minutes until done. In the other pot, cook the sweet potato for about 10 minutes until tender.
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Heat the oil in a pan and fry the tofu. After 2 minutes, add honey and half of the soy sauce. Continue frying the tofu for another 4 minutes until golden brown.
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Slice the cucumber. Crush the garlic clove. Peel the egg and cut it in half.
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In a small bowl, make a sauce from the peanut butter, curry paste, garlic, coconut milk, the rest of the soy sauce and water. Stir well.
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Arrange the vegetables, tofu, sweet potato and egg on a plate. Serve this gado gado with the peanut sauce in a separate bowl. Season to taste with pepper.
The peanut sauce in step 6 has a job beyond flavor. Research found that unsaturated fat from peanut butter produced 51% higher beta-carotene absorption compared to the same amount of saturated fat. Sweet potato packs more beta-carotene per gram than nearly anything else in a home kitchen, and the peanut sauce is the fat vehicle that helps the body convert it into usable vitamin A.
Why This Works
Behind this recipe
Is 32g of protein enough for one meal?
Research on per-meal protein utilization found no strict ceiling at 20-30g as previously believed. The body continues to use protein for muscle-related processes well beyond that range. At 32g from tofu and egg combined, this meal sits comfortably well within the range research has shown works for a single sitting.
Read the full evidence reviewDoes it matter that most of the protein comes from tofu?
When overall protein intake across the day is equal, research found no significant difference between plant and animal protein for muscle outcomes. This meal combines tofu (plant) with egg (animal), covering both protein types. The bigger factor is how much protein you eat across the whole day, not the source in any single meal.
Read the full evidence reviewWhy does the recipe fry the tofu in soy sauce?
Flavor first: the honey and soy sauce caramelize into a golden Maillard crust. But research also found that traditionally fermented soy sauce tripled iron absorption from a meal (3.5% to 11.4%). Tofu is a non-heme iron source, and frying it directly in fermented soy sauce puts the iron and the absorption enhancer in contact during cooking.
Read the full evidence review
