Vinegar-Glazed Tofu and Tempeh Skillet with Mustard Greens and White Pepper
Batons of tofu and thin-sliced tempeh browned with mushrooms in a sharp, peppery broth of vinegar, soy, and tomato paste, finished with mustard greens and scallion.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Some mornings nothing sweet or soft will do and what I want is something sharp enough to wake me all the way up. This is that pan. The flavor is built on two cheap things, vinegar and ground pepper, both used with far more nerve than seems reasonable, and it works on tofu better than on almost anything else because tofu is a blank that soaks up whatever it is given. Cutting it into batons rather than cubes gives you long faces to brown and a shape that holds up to being tossed in sauce. Thirty five minutes, one skillet, four people.
The browning happens before the sauce, and if you reverse that you get something soggy. Tempeh slices go in first and take five minutes to gild, tofu batons follow and want eight undisturbed minutes to get color on two faces, and the shiitakes cook down in the same pan until they squeak and go dark. Then the tomato paste goes in and fries for a minute, which takes the raw tin edge off it and gives the sauce its depth and color. Vinegar, soy, broth, and a genuinely startling amount of pepper come next and reduce until they cling, and the mustard greens go in for the last three minutes.
What lands in the bowl is glossy, savory, hot from pepper rather than from chile, and sour in a way that makes you want the next bite immediately. Mustard greens are the right leaf here because they are already peppery and they hold their nerve in a strong sauce where a milder green would disappear. There is a lot of tofu and tempeh in each serving, so it eats like a full plate rather than a starter, and it is one of the very few things I will happily eat cold out of the container the following day.
Ingredients
- 18 oz firm tofu, drained, pressed 20 minutes, and cut into 1/2-inch batons
- 8 oz tempeh, halved and cut into thin slices
- 1 large bunch mustard greens (about 10 oz), stems removed and leaves torn
- 5 oz shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded and caps sliced
- 6 scallions, whites and greens sliced and kept separate
- 1 (2-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely julienned
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
- 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar or Chinkiang black vinegar
- 2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1 1/2 tsp finely ground white pepper, or black pepper
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne, to taste
- 1 tbsp avocado oil
- 2 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
Instructions
- Press and cut: Press the drained tofu between towels under a weight for 20 minutes, then cut it into batons about half an inch thick and two inches long and pat them dry. Slice the tempeh thin. Have everything else cut and within reach before you start, because once the pan is hot this moves quickly.
- Brown the tempeh: Heat the avocado oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high. Lay the tempeh slices in one layer and cook four to five minutes, turning once, until both faces are gold and the edges have gone slightly crisp. Move them to a plate.
- Brown the tofu and mushrooms: Add the tofu batons to the pan in one layer and leave them for four minutes without touching them, then turn and give them four more, until two faces are golden and they release cleanly. Add the shiitakes and the scallion whites and cook four minutes more, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have given up their water and gone dark.
- Fry the tomato paste: Push everything to the sides, add the tomato paste to the center of the pan, and let it fry undisturbed for 45 seconds, then stir it around for another 30. It will darken from bright red to brick and stop smelling raw. Add the garlic and ginger and cook one minute.
- Build the sauce: Return the tempeh, then pour in the vinegar, soy sauce, and broth and add the white pepper and cayenne. Bring to a brisk simmer and cook six to eight minutes, stirring now and then, until the liquid has reduced by about half and coats the tofu in a glossy sauce rather than pooling under it.
- Fold in the greens and finish: Add the torn mustard greens in two handfuls, stirring each down before the next, and cook three minutes until they are wilted, dark, and still slightly ruffled. Take the pan off the heat, stir in the sesame oil, and taste. It should be sharp first and savory second. Scatter the scallion greens over the top.
Variations
- Sichuan peppercorn: Toast and grind a teaspoon of Sichuan peppercorn and add it with the white pepper for a numbing, citrusy layer over the heat.
- Bamboo and wood ear: Add a cup of sliced bamboo shoots and a handful of rehydrated wood ear mushrooms with the shiitakes for more texture.
- Napa cabbage: Swap half the mustard greens for shredded napa cabbage, which sweetens the pan and softens the peppery edge.
- Soupy version: Double the broth and do not reduce it, then serve it in bowls as a breakfast soup with the tofu batons floating.
- Extra sour: Add a final tablespoon of vinegar off the heat for a pan that leans hard into sharpness.
Storage & Leftovers
Four days sealed in the refrigerator. The sauce thickens as it chills and the tofu batons keep absorbing it, so by the next day they taste all the way through rather than only on the outside. The mustard greens soften but keep their pepper, which is the thing that makes this hold up better than most cooked greens.
Reheat in a skillet over medium-high with a splash of water, four to five minutes, tossing once or twice until the sauce loosens and glosses again. A microwave will do it in two minutes and the tofu goes a little softer. Either way, finish with a few drops of vinegar, because sourness is the first thing that fades overnight.
I would not freeze this one. Frozen tofu comes back spongy and this dish depends on batons that still have some density to them, and mustard greens turn slack after thawing. If you want to get ahead, press and cut the tofu and slice the tempeh up to two days early, and the cooking itself is only about twenty five minutes.
Notes & Tips
- Cut batons, not cubes: Long flat faces brown in two turns. Cubes need six turns to get the same color and fall apart before you finish.
- Fry the tomato paste: Forty five seconds in a hot dry spot in the pan takes the raw tinny edge off and turns the sauce dark and round. Stirred straight into liquid it tastes like the can.
- Grind the pepper fresh: Ground pepper loses most of its punch within weeks of grinding, and this dish leans on it entirely. If your jar has been open a year, buy new before you make this.
- Reduce before the greens go in: Mustard greens release water. Get the sauce to the consistency you want first and the greens will bring it back to exactly right.
- Sesame oil off the heat: It is a finishing oil. Heated hard it turns flat and slightly bitter, and its whole job here is the smell that reaches you when the bowl arrives.
- Taste for sour last: Vinegar cooks off faster than anything else in the pan. Whatever it tastes like at minute three, it will be milder at minute eight, so adjust at the end.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Tofu, tempeh, shiitakes, and mustard greens each hold a different job in one pan. The tofu soaks up the sauce and carries most of the calcium, the tempeh brings chew and protein, the mushrooms give the sauce its savory backbone, and the greens keep something this rich and glossy from feeling one-note.
- Firm tofu is set with calcium salts as the curds form, which is where its calcium comes from, and batons pressed and browned keep enough density to stand up in a sauce rather than dissolving into it.
- Tempeh is whole soybeans bound by a culture, so it holds on to its fiber and comes out firm and nutty when it is browned, and the fermentation is part of why it tastes of something on its own before any sauce goes near it.
- Mustard greens carry a natural pepperiness from the same family of compounds that make horseradish sharp, and they bring calcium and vitamin K along with dark leaves that hold their shape in three minutes of hard heat.
- White pepper and vinegar are doing all the loud work here, and neither is a background player. Sourness and heat together make a breakfast register as a real meal in a way that something mild rarely does, and the tofu and tempeh underneath keep it holding you well into the day.
- As you eat, let the sourness arrive first and the pepper come up behind it, notice the mustard greens still ruffled at the edges, and slow down enough that the heat has time to tell you when you have had enough.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much pepper is too much?
A tablespoon and a half of ground white pepper across four servings sounds alarming and is roughly what a good sour and peppery broth carries. Start with a teaspoon if you are unsure, taste after the sauce reduces, and add more from there. The heat in this dish is meant to come from pepper rather than from chile, and the cayenne is only there to round it.
What vinegar should I use?
Chinkiang black vinegar is the traditional one and it is worth seeking out for its malty, almost smoky depth. Cider vinegar is the everyday stand-in and makes a brighter, fruitier pan. Rice vinegar is milder, so use an extra tablespoon of it. Whatever you use, add a few extra drops at the very end, since sourness fades as it cooks.
Can I use only tofu, or only tempeh?
Yes to both. All tofu gives you a softer, more sauce-soaked pan and you will want about 26 oz. All tempeh gives you something firmer, nuttier, and chewier, and 18 oz is plenty. I like the two together because you get two textures out of one skillet, but neither version is a compromise.
My sauce stayed thin. What do I do?
Keep simmering it uncovered. A cup of broth plus vinegar and soy takes six to eight minutes to reduce by half in a wide pan, longer if the pan is narrow or the heat is low. Do not add cornstarch, since the sauce here is meant to cling lightly rather than sit thick, and the mushrooms give it body as they cook.