This meal is one I fell in love with at a nearby Thai restaurant. A sweet peanut sauce coats baked tofu and steamed spinach. Served with steamed white sticky rice. If you’d rather, you could use chicken or another type of meat.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 45 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 cups uncooked sushi (sticky) or medium-grain rice
- 4 cups water
- ⅔ cup peanut butter
- 1 cup hot water
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 3 tablespoons white sugar
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 green onions, chopped
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 (10 ounce) bag baby spinach leaves
- 1 (8 ounce) package baked tofu, cut into bite-size pieces
Instructions
- Combine the rice and 4 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low; simmer until rice is tender and water has been absorbed, about 20 minutes.
- In a separate saucepan, whisk together the peanut butter, 1 cup hot water, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, garlic, green onions and red pepper flakes. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, and adding more hot water 1/4 cup at a time to maintain a pourable consistency.
- Bring about 1 inch of water to a boil in a large pot. Place the spinach and tofu into a steamer basket and set over the boiling water. Cover and steam until spinach has wilted and tofu is heated through, about 7 minutes.
- To serve, place spinach and tofu over white rice and smother in peanut sauce.
Reviews
Very good recipe. Will make again
Really good and the kids liked it too. I used chicken instead of tofu and sautéed the chicken with garlic first and when the chicken was almost done, I added one chopped yellow pepper, asparagus, 1/2 an onion and broccoli and cooked all of that. I made the peanut sauce on the side and added it to the chicken/veggie mix. The peanut sauce wasn’t too sweet but I used mostly natural peanut butter.
I’ll definitely make this again.
Very yummy but a tad sweet for my taste. Next time I’ll either use freshly ground peanut butter and/or cut back on the white sugar. Will try the sesame oil saute as well. Thank you very much for the wonderful recipe.
Wow is all I have to say, so yummy
Made this for dinner. Took the advise of most and cut down on the peanut butter, because of this adjustment I had to add cornstarch to thicken up the sauce. I followed the tofu and spinach directions but next time I may take the suggestion to bake it. I would of liked a firm texture. Over all I thought this was a great dish to make when u need to mix up the usual weekday dinner schedule. I will say it is a tasty dish !!!
I’m rating this for 5 stars because this is the first time I’ve EVER made anything like this and a) have my husband actually try it and b) have my husband like it AND compliment it. I made a few changes, but nothing major – I used agave nectar instead of sugar in the sauce and left out the green onions because I didn’t have any. I sauteed my tofu in some garlic and garlic-infused olive oil before I added sliced white onion, sliced bell peppers, and the spinach. I like this because I CAN use up a lot of vegetables for this dish and I can vary it to fit what I have in my fridge. I thought the sauce was great, also. A nice consistency (I didn’t have to add any water to mine, but you easily could if you wanted it a bit thinner.) I also used brown rice instead of white, based on pantry contents. Overall, VERY pleased, especially when my husband nodded and said, “Huh. This is really good, hon.” SUCCESS!
It’s okay, but probably won’t make again. Neither of us cared for the blend of flavors. On the plus side, I had my best day since developing arthritis after eating this.
Fantastic! This is my favorite Thai recipe, and I order it all the time at restaurants. This recipe is restaurant quality. I made it with chicken- cubed, seasoned with salt and pepper, dredged in flour then sauteed in a little butter. Amazing. Favorite meal right now. Can’t wait for the left overs!!
This was soo good! I took the advice and scaled down the peanut butter to 1/4 cup for 2 servings. Also, I added a bit of Worcestershire sauce as well. Four stars because, as written, it would have been too much peanut butter and not enough tang! It was a great guide to an awesome meal, though!! This is a keeper for me!
I added extra veggies and stir fried the tofu. YUM
This was just okay. The sauce was great in the pot, but once I put it over the rice and tofu, for some reason it lost a lot of its pizzazz. To be fair, I did make some of the changes suggested by others. I added a can of coconut milk and ginger. We ended up adding lime juice, soy sauce, and peanuts to our plates and this helped. I will probably make the sauce again and use it as a base. Still definitely worth the try
As a tofu fan and a peanut butter lover, this was AMAZING! An easy way to make an excellent dinner.
5 star for being simple inexpensive and very tasty. I’m amazed. I did not put as much peanut butter and I used corn starch to thicken sauce. I also used snow peas I lieu of spinach w/ is very expensive at this time . I’ll definitely make this again.
This was simply awesome. I used Better N Peanut Butter from Trader Joes which has a lot less fat and it was delish.
Could be way easier if you buy bottled peanut sauce! There’s nothing to it and it’s yummy!
Oh…My…Gosh…It *IS* like the restaurant dish I love and crave! Followed the recipe more or less with the ingredients I had (and didn’t) and followed MamaNicole’s suggestion for baking the tofu and it was FABulous!!! The secret’s in the sauce. Mmm…
This was absolutely delicious. We decided to make it a more veggie packed dish, so we added snow peas, red pepper, onion and mushrooms. I also fried the tofu on the stove top in a little of the sauce so it would absorb the flavor. thumbs up.
This was good, but a little too strong in peanut flavor for my taste, i felt like the peanut flavor overwhelmed the rest of the flavors (and I didn’t even use the full amount of peanut butter). I added extra pepper too, I wanted it spicier.
This was amazing! I pan fried the tofu, added carrots and broccoli, and my fiance couldn’t get enough. The sauce was great, even though I didnt have regular vinegar, I added extra rice vinegar as well as some spices and it still turned out perfect.
really good! i did make a few adjustments after tasting though…i added some more water to thin out the peanut butter – because it was as thick as peanut butter… 😀 and i added some more rice vinegar to add some more tang.