Asian Style Zucchini Noodle Salad with Baked Tofu
An incredibly, addictive salad made with zucchini “noodles”, veggies, baked tofu and an Asian dressing. This healthy dish will be requested by your family again and again.
I have a new toy. I don’t know if I bought it because I like saying the name of it or because it can change the way I cook. The Spiralizer. And you Spiralize with it. Intrigued yet? You will be when I tell you that this cool contraption makes all your veggies curly and fun! AND you will also love this blog that’s completely and utterly devoted to all things spiralized. Ali at Inspiralized posts recipes all using the Spiralizer. I, honestly, don’t think I could ever have come up with as many recipes as she has but in all seriousness. I’m in awe. And what I love most about her is that the recipes are not all vegetarian.
And what I love most about the Spiralizer is that you don’t NEED to cook healthy food with it. You can totally trash up your fun and curly veggies. I christened mine with a big batch of onion straws…..fried in Crisco. Yep. Had to make sure I had options, you know? I love versatility.
But let’s take a step back for a second, if you don’t own a Spiralizer…..don’t want to buy a Spiralizer……or just don’t want to walk around saying “spiralize” all day like I do…..you can simply julienne (cut into small skinny strips) your zucchini for this recipe. I just like to play with my food.
My Asian Style Zucchini Noodle Salad with Baked Tofu is adapted from Ali’s Miso-Ponzu Zucchini Noodles with Veggies and Tofu. I made a few modifications just to punch up the flavor a bit, such as; adding orange juice to the soy sauce “marinade” prior to baking the tofu, leaving the skin on the zucchini, using olive oil instead of canola oil and adding minced ginger to the dressing.
This salad is so full of flavor and just gets better the longer it sits in the dressing. I suggest making it a few hours before serving to allow the flavors to blend but it really is hard to wait. I kept picking at it when I was shooting the photos. And then Katie was picking and then Chris…then Landon. And before you knew it we were eating it out of the serving bowl like a trough. The salad didn’t last long at all in my house.
Get the Recipe: Asian Style Zucchini Noodle Salad with Baked Tofu
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup ponzu sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 2 tablespoons minced ginger
- 1 tablespoon miso paste
- 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
- cooking spray
- 2 cups cubed extra-firm tofu, drained
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- juice from 1 navel orange
- 2 1/12 zucchinis, spiralized or julienned, Blade C
- 1/2 large red bell peppers, thinly sliced
- 1 carrot, julienned
- 1 cup snow peas, cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 teaspoon white sesame seeds
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together the soy sauce and orange juice. Add the cubed tofu and toss gently to coat. Spread the tofu on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray and bake for 10 minutes. Using a spatula, flip the tofu and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Remove and cool to room temperature.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the ponzu sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, honey, ginger, miso and olive oil until thoroughly combined. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, gently toss the zucchini, pepper, carrot, peas and tofu. Pour the sauce over the salad and toss to combine. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
2 Comments on “Asian Style Zucchini Noodle Salad with Baked Tofu”
I saw Ali’s recipe and stumbled across yours. I just bought this Spiralizer, too! Do you still like yours? You made me laugh when you mentioned trashing your fun and curly veggies! I do like the addition of the ginger and the orange juice. I wonder if you can use the dressing to marinate the tofu also? I’m so glad that this can be made ahead and sit. I like to minimize my time in the kitchen since I’m in there a lot already feeding a 14 month-old who seems to graze all day!
I do still like mine, however, I’m not a fan of the zoodles cooked. I do LOVE them in a salad though and I like using the spiralizer for other veggies…and of course, curly fries. 🙂