Better Butter Tofu

Happy Boxing Day!

Now let me start this post by warning you that this recipe is trying to be a 'healthier' butter chicken (or in my case, tofu) - but I wouldn't tell anyone to make it if you were actually craving rich, restaurant-style butter chicken. Having said that, it's a tasty, easy Indian-flavoured dinner. The recipe comes courtesy of Greta and Janet Podleski of Looney Spoons and Eat, Shrink and Be Merry fame.

The ladies first call for marinating chicken thighs in PC Tandoori sauce and baking them. I instead fried up some tofu with some vindaloo curry paste I have in the fridge (those jars last a long time and do go on sale occasionally). Hey, Indian flavour is Indian flavour, right? I then added (real!) butter to the pan with some oil, 1 large onion and 3 garlic cloves. My spice mix was mostly the same as listed in the recipe, omitting turmeric (just don't have any) and replacing the fresh ginger with 2 tsp dried ginger.

I added in the diced tomatoes, 1 cup only of stock, and 1 tsp molasses instead of brown sugar. After simmering, I skipped the part where they blend half of the sauce - if I had an immersion blender, I would, because I'm sure it makes it much creamier, but I couldn't be bothered to dirty my blender. I also threw in some extra veggies - carrots and cauliflower - and put the tofu back in.

Some delicious ingredients go in next - sour cream, and a Tbsp of peanut butter. No cilantro this time, but if I had some I would add way more than 1 Tbsp! I just threw some green onions on top.

The result was more like a chunky, peanuty Indian stew, since I didn't eat it over rice - just inhaled a bowl of it. But I could see if you blended half of it and ate a more manageable portion over rice, it would be like butter chicken/tofu. Either way it was damn good.