Image by Chris Hilbert from Pixabay
Last week I found one great vegan item from the grocery store called Aldi, which is said to be the fastest growing discount store here. I bought the “Meatless Breakfast Patties” and it is delicious, even better than its counterpart from Trader Joe’s. Most of the vegan items are too high in fat for me, like 8% or 10% or even higher, while I prefer 6% or lower. This has severely limited my vegan purchase options.
Also I discovered a new vegan recipe–eggplant and tofu. It is delicious. And how come I didn’t know this before? It is super easy to make.
First cut 15 oz. firm tofu into small cubes (1/2 inch on each side) , and the eggplants cut into small cubes too. I used to eat a lot of salt, but recently I have attempted to cut down on salt by adding sweetener into my food–this probably is not a good thing to do… Anyway, usually 15 oz. tofu would call for 4 tbsp of dark soy sauce, but I cut that down in half. So I use 2 tbsp of soy sauce and 2 tbsp of sweetener for this recipe. It all depends on the saltiness of the soy sauce. If it’s the very salty version, 2 tbsp can have 5g of salt in it, which accounts for 80% of the recommended daily maximum.
Cook the tofu first in a frying pan with a bit of oil. I usually use 1/2 table spoon, but I think most people would use 1 or 2 tbsp. Add all the soy sauce and sweetener in. I should also add raw garlic cloves and ginger slices, but I am too lazy to do that. So I usually just add some garlic powder. I also add 1/2 table spoon Mizkan sushi seasoning, but if it is unobtainable, a little bit of vinegar can be splashed onto tofu, like 1 tsp.
Cook for 10 minutes. Tofu is something that likes to be cooked longer. The longer it is cooked, the more flavor it has. When the tofu looks like it is all cooked through, add the eggplant cubes. And cook for several minutes until the eggplant cubes become tender.
That’s it and it taste really good. I am going to make it again this weekend.
Sorry, I forgot to mention the tofu cubes do not need to be coated in corn starch. But the eggplant cubes need to be coated in one tea spoon of corn starch to prevent the juice from coming out of the eggplant.
Haoyan Do 
Sounds great and inspiring! I should use tofu more often! Aldi is one of my favorite grocery stores here in Germany as well (it’s a German chain) and especially in Austria with local products at a decent price.
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Me too. Aldi is my favorite store. I heard that Aldi and Trader Joe’s both belong to a German grocery giant. I heard that it is very popular in England too (from youtube videos).
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Thank you for sharing this find. I used to shop at Aldi exclusively until recently. They carry more stuff than food here in my area.
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Me too. I shop at Aldi a lot, although I hope they have more vegan options.
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I love eggplant and tofu but have never made the two together although I have eaten them together at a restaurant. Your recipe sounds really delicious and I will definitely give it a try. Thanks for sharing it with us. Your vegan followers like myself appreciate it.
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Sorry, I forgot to mention the tofu cubes need to be coated in one tea spoon of corn starch. And the eggplant cubes too needs to be coated in one tea spoon of corn starch. Otherwise, the eggplant is going to seep out too much juice to make the dish watery.
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Oh I see, I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for letting me know.
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sorry, I just cooked it and the tofu don’t need starch, but the eggplant cubes will need a little less than half tea spoon of starch.
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Okay, got it. I’ll just use the starch for the eggplant.
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The eggplant and tofu sounds so tasty! I’m going to try that.
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Sorry, I forgot to mention the tofu cubes need to be coated in one tea spoon of corn starch. And the eggplant cubes too needs to be coated in one tea spoon of corn starch.
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Thank you! I’ll try this out next week. 😊
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sorry, I just cooked it and the tofu don’t need starch, but the eggplant cubes will need a little less than half tea spoon of starch.
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