Chilled Sesame Tofu and Collard Ribbon Rice Bowl
Baked tofu cooled in a tamari, ginger, and lime marinade, spooned over brown rice with lime-rubbed collard ribbons, shaved carrot, red cabbage, and toasted sesame seeds.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
This is the bowl I build on Sunday when I want lunch settled for the first half of the week. Everything about it is designed to be eaten cold out of a container, and the cold is not a compromise here, it is the point. Baked tofu firms up further in the refrigerator, the collard ribbons soften without ever going slack, and the marinade keeps soaking into the cubes for hours after you stop paying attention. I have eaten this at a desk, in a car, and standing in an airport, and it holds together in all three places better than anything warm ever has.
Two techniques carry it. The tofu gets pressed and baked hot and dry until the corners pull in and go chewy, because soft tofu will not hold a marinade and will fall apart in a container by Wednesday. Then it goes into the tamari, lime, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil while it is still warm, which is when it absorbs the most. The collards get a different treatment: sliced into thin ribbons and rubbed hard with lime juice and a little salt from the tamari bowl, they collapse just enough to eat raw while keeping the faint chew that makes them worth using.
The eating is all contrast, which is what a cold bowl needs. Chewy tofu, soft rice, crisp shaved carrot, cabbage that snaps, and the collard ribbons somewhere between all of those. The dressing is salty, sour, and just sweet enough from two teaspoons of maple, and the sesame seeds give you something to find in every bite. It is filling in the way a bowl of rice and a real amount of tofu is filling, and by hour four in a container the flavors have gone rounder rather than tired.
Ingredients
- Two 14-oz blocks extra-firm tofu, pressed and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
- 2 1/2 cups cooked short-grain brown rice, cooled
- 6 large collard leaves, stems cut out and leaves rolled and sliced into thin ribbons
- 2 cups shredded red cabbage
- 2 carrots, shaved into ribbons with a peeler
- 6 scallions, sliced thin on an angle
- 3 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
- 1 1/2 tbsp tamari
- 2 tbsp lime juice, from 1 lime, plus wedges to serve
- 1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
- 3 garlic cloves, grated
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 tsp olive oil, for the pan
- 2 tsp maple syrup
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Press the tofu properly: Wrap each block in a clean towel, set it on a plate, and weight it with a heavy skillet for at least twenty minutes. You are looking for a visibly wet towel and a block that feels firm rather than springy. Tofu that goes into the oven wet steams rather than browning, and the difference shows up in the texture four days later.
- Bake the tofu hot and dry: Heat the oven to 425°F. Cut the pressed tofu into three-quarter-inch cubes, toss with the olive oil, and spread on a parchment-lined sheet pan with space between the pieces. Bake twenty-five to thirty minutes, turning once at the halfway mark, until the corners have pulled in and gone golden brown and the cubes feel firm and springy when you press one.
- Mix the marinade and dress the tofu warm: While the tofu bakes, whisk the tamari, lime juice, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, and maple syrup in a wide bowl. Tip the hot tofu straight in and toss. It will hiss and take up almost all of the liquid within a couple of minutes. Leave it to cool to room temperature in the bowl, tossing once more as it goes.
- Ribbon and rub the collards: Stack the destemmed collard leaves, roll them into a tight cigar, and slice across into ribbons no wider than an eighth of an inch. Put them in a bowl and rub them between your hands for a full minute with a spoonful of the marinade that pooled under the tofu. They darken, soften, and lose about a third of their volume, which is exactly right.
- Shave the crisp vegetables: Run a peeler down the carrots to make long ribbons and shred the red cabbage as thin as you can manage. Both stay crisp for days, which is why they are cut this way rather than diced. Toss them with the scallions and the cilantro so the herbs are distributed before anything is layered.
- Build the bowls: Divide the cooled rice among four bowls or containers, then add the collard ribbons, the carrot and cabbage, and the tofu with whatever marinade is left in its bowl poured over. Scatter the toasted sesame seeds across the top. Serve at room temperature or straight from the refrigerator with a lime wedge.
Variations
- Tempeh: Steam and cube tempeh in place of the tofu for a firmer, nuttier bowl that takes the marinade just as well.
- Peanut or almond: Whisk a tablespoon of almond butter into the marinade for a thicker dressing that coats the rice rather than running through it.
- Cucumber and snap pea: Swap the carrot for sliced cucumber and snap peas in the summer, when both are crisper than anything a root can give you.
- Hot chili: Add a thinly sliced jalapeno to the marinade so the heat has hours to spread through the tofu.
- Ribboned kale: Lacinato kale, ribboned and rubbed the same way, is softer and slightly sweeter and needs about half the rubbing time.
Storage & Leftovers
Built in containers, these keep four days in the refrigerator and they are at their best on day two. The tofu goes on absorbing marinade the whole time, the collard ribbons continue to soften, and the rice takes up whatever dressing runs down through the layers.
Do not reheat this. The carrot and cabbage go limp, the collards turn dull, and the chew of the tofu is the first thing lost. If it has been in a cold refrigerator, let the container sit on the counter for fifteen minutes so the rice softens and the sesame smell comes back.
The baked tofu on its own freezes well for two months and comes back with an even chewier texture. Freeze it in the marinade in a flat bag, thaw overnight in the refrigerator, and build fresh bowls around it. The vegetables and the rice should always be made the day you plan to eat them.
Notes & Tips
- Weight the tofu, do not rush it: Twenty minutes under a heavy pan removes more water than an hour of gentle pressing. Wet tofu never gets chewy corners.
- Marinate while it is hot: Tofu straight from the oven drinks the marinade in a way cold tofu simply will not. Have the bowl whisked and waiting.
- Toast the sesame seeds yourself: Three minutes in a dry skillet over medium heat, shaking constantly until they smell nutty and start to pop, and they taste like a different ingredient.
- Roll the collards tight: A loose roll gives you wide, tough ribbons. Squeeze the cigar firmly with your free hand and slice with a sharp knife.
- Cool the rice before it goes in: Warm rice steams the collards and the cabbage inside a closed container and both come out gray. Spread it on a plate for ten minutes first.
- Save the marinade in the bowl: Whatever pools under the tofu is the best-tasting thing on the counter. Use half to rub the collards and pour the rest over the finished bowls.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Tofu, brown rice, and the raw vegetables are working as three layers here. The tofu carries the protein and most of the substance, the rice gives the bowl its base and its whole-grain carbohydrate, and the collards, cabbage, and carrot bring the color and the crunch that keep a cold bowl interesting.
- Tofu made with calcium sulfate is one of the plant foods that genuinely delivers calcium, and pressing and baking it concentrates everything, protein included, into a chewier cube. Check the label on the block you buy, because the setting agent is what determines how much calcium is in there.
- Collard greens are sturdy enough to eat raw once they are ribboned and rubbed, and they hold a surprising amount of calcium along with vitamin K. That toughness people complain about is also why they survive four days in a container without turning to slime.
- Sesame seeds toasted in a dry pan smell nutty and pop against the soft rice, and seed for seed they are one of the better sources of calcium in a kitchen. A scattering across the top is doing real work as well as looking like a garnish.
- Ginger, garlic, lime, and tamari are the whole flavor of this bowl. Salt draws out the sweetness of the carrot, acid keeps the tofu from tasting flat, and ginger and garlic go on getting stronger in the marinade overnight.
- As you eat, look for the contrast between the chewy corners of the tofu and the raw carrot and cabbage under it, and slow down enough to notice when the bowl has actually satisfied you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use raw tofu and skip the oven?
You can press it, cube it, and marinate it raw, and it will taste good on day one. By day three it will have gone soft and started to break up in the container. The oven is what makes this hold, so if you are cooking for the week I would keep it.
The collards are still tough. What did I do wrong?
Almost always the slice. Ribbons wider than an eighth of an inch stay stiff no matter how long you rub them. Roll the leaves tightly, use a sharp knife, and go slowly. The other culprit is skipping the rub, which takes a full minute of real pressure between your hands.
What rice works best here?
Short-grain brown rice, because the grains stay separate but slightly sticky and they do not turn chalky when cold. Long-grain brown rice goes dry in the refrigerator. Cooked quinoa or farro both work if that is what you have already made.
Can I make this without soy at all?
The tofu is the anchor, so not really as written. If soy is the problem, coconut aminos will replace the tamari, and you would need a different protein in the bowl, which changes the dish into something else.