Teriyaki Tofu with Broccoli and Rice

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Teriyaki tofu with broccoli and rice is a simple and great dish for any time of year with great Asian flavors. The tofu is still a little soft from frying and the teriyaki sauce makes it a little sticky, the broccoli is fresh, and the rice keeps it from being too intense.

Teriyaki is a Japanese cooking technique that was originally used for fish, but can also be used for meat, vegetables, and even tofu: The pieces are marinated in a flavored soy sauce and then fried or grilled. (We make a little cheat teriyaki here by sautéing the tofu first).

This dish is also a great meal prep option: you can actually prepare all the components and then reheat and combine them for serving. (I would only prep the broccoli fresh.) You can find a similar recipe at Jessica in the Kitchen.

When it comes to tofu, I personally like smoked tofu very much because it brings its own flavor. Natural tofu will also work, but I tend to make the teriyaki sauce the day before, marinate the (unfried) tofu cubes in it overnight, and then fry them together for about 10 minutes while the rice is cooking.

Recipe #

Teriyaki Tofu with Broccoli and Rice

50 minutes

2 portions

Ingredients #

For the tofu:

• 250 g smoked tofu
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch

For the teriyaki sauce:

• 5 g ginger
• 1 garlic clove
• 70 g soy sauce
• 15 g maple syrup or agave syrup
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
• 60 g water

As a supplement:

• about 120 g rice
• 350 g of broccoli
• 2 tablespoons oil

Directions #

1. Cut the tofu into cubes about 1 cm long. Peel and chop the garlic and mix with the soy sauce, sesame oil and cornstarch to make a sauce. Leave the tofu cubes in this marinade for at least a quarter of an hour or longer.
2. Meanwhile, cook the rice with double the amount of water and a pinch of salt.
3. Wash and chop the broccoli. Sauté in a little oil, then remove from the pan. Stir-fry the tofu cubes in the marinade for 5-10 minutes and remove from the pan.
4. While the broccoli and tofu are frying, peel and chop the ginger and garlic. When the broccoli and tofu are cooked, sauté the garlic and ginger in the same pan, then add the remaining ingredients for the teriyaki sauce. Heat well and stir until the cornstarch thickens. Allow to reduce slightly, then add the tofu cubes and cover with the sauce.
5. Serve the rice with the tofu, teriyaki sauce and broccoli.

Carbon Footprint #

In total, two portions of teriyaki tofu with broccoli and rice have an estimated carbon footprint of 996 g.

This ranks it number 12 out of 53 recipes published on the blog so far in terms of estimated carbon footprint.

This means that it belongs to the quarter of recipes that have the lowest climate impact (i.e. top 25%). 🥰

The Lime Dal (1003 g CO₂) or the Gazpacho (946 g CO₂), for example, have a similar carbon footprint.

Looking at the individual ingredients, broccoli and rice stand out because they are almost mirror images of each other. Broccoli accounts for about 38% of the ingredient weight, but only about 11% of the GHG footprint. We have also seen this pattern with other fresh vegetables: In particular, fresh and unprocessed vegetables often have a relatively low climate impact. Rice is a bit different: It accounts for 13% of the ingredient weight, but 37% of the estimated carbon footprint. This is largely due to the relatively common practice of growing rice in flooded terraces, which causes organic matter in the soil to decompose, releasing methane and sometimes nitrous oxide - both of which have a much greater impact on the planet’s climate than CO2 (source).

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