Ever since I have moved to San Francisco, I have tried various cuisines for the first time and Vegan happens to be at the top of my list. Being a vegetarian, I never felt the desire or urge to try any meat. However, I used to often look at the fancy names of non-vegetarian dishes on restaurant menus and wonder if they could be made vegetarian because I found the sauce interesting.
Orange Chicken is one such dish. I remember reading the description on a menu: Succulent pieces of chicken served in a spicy orange sauce. I always thought it sounded super cool to cook with orange juice!! However I wasn't sure what to replace chicken with. My confusion was solved recently, when I went to a Vegan restaurant and ordered orange chicken a.k.a orange tofu.
I have never tasted the original orange chicken, however I loved the way this restaurant made orange tofu and served it on a bed of fried rice. I tried to vary a couple of things from that recipe to make it my own. I used clementines to make the sauce and about 3-4 of them should be enough for ½ cup juice. I used ¾ of the clementine to get enough zest for the dish and the garnish. This may not be the original recipe to make orange chicken the vegan way, but if definitely is super awesome in taste and we love it this way!
Ingredients
Firm Tofu 1 packet (14 oz)
Garlic 3-4 cloves
Ginger 1 inch piece
Green Chili 1-2
Green Peppers 1 cup
Spring Onion ½ cup
Vegetable Oil 1 tsp
Chili Oil ½ tsp
Salt, Pepper powder
For the Sauce
Orange Juice ½ cup
Orange Zest 2 tsp
Soy Sauce, Vinegar
Sriracha Garlic Sauce 2 tbsp
Corn Starch 1-2 tsp
Method
Drain and press tofu between a couple of kitchen towels and place a weight on it, so that the water drains out. Cut the tofu into equal size pieces and set aside. For the sauce, mix the sauces and corn starch in ¼ cup water.
In a pan, heat the chili oil and place the tofu pieces. Keep the tofu pieces on the pan till they turn golden brown and then turn the pieces over. Move the pieces to the edge of the pan and add the oil in the centre. Once hot, add minced garlic and ginger. Once the raw flavor goes, add green chili and green peppers. Cook till the peppers are soft.
Next, add the sauce to tofu and mix well. Add the orange juice and zest mix everything well. Let the sauce thicken and become little glossy. Add salt and pepper powder and adjust the taste with Sriracha sauce. Turn down the flame and season with spring onions and orange zest pieces. Serve with Fried Rice, Quinoa Fried Rice or Chili Garlic Noodles.
Looking for other Indo-Chinese main courses? Try this Tofu in Chili Garlic Sauce or Babycorn Chili.
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