Last night we had Buddha bowls with spicy chilli sauce. I used Chinese cabbage from our allotment, and a really good seitan “beef” from Kristin at Beans and Greens.
However, since I’ve blogged about the spicy chilli sauce before, tonight’s post is about Buddha bowls with black bean sauce that I made a couple of weekends ago. The sauce is easy to make and does not have any of the chemicals with big long names that are often in store-bought sauces.
To make it, you’ll need Chinese fermented black beans, which are actually fermented and salted soya beans. I bought a bag a couple of years ago for less than a quid, and there is still plenty left (it keeps a long time).
This sauce is quite strong and salty, so you may want to make some adjustments if you don’t like salty sauces.
You can substitute tempeh or seitan for the tofu, although I think tofu works best for this sauce because of its neutral flavour.
Buddha bowls with black bean sauce
British | American | |||
150g | fried tofu | 5 ounces | ||
1 tablespoon | groundnut (peanut) oil | 1 tablespoon | ||
450g | assorted vegetables | 1 pound | ||
For the sauce | ||||
1 tablespoon | groundnut (peanut) oil | 1 tablespoon | ||
3 | cloves garlic | 3 | ||
3 tablespoons | fermented black beans | 3 tablespoons | ||
1 teaspoon | fresh minced ginger | 1 teaspoon | ||
1/2 | vegetarian chicken-style bouillon cube | 1/2 | ||
250ml | water | 1 cup | ||
1 tablespoon | soy sauce | 1 tablespoon | ||
1-1/2 teaspoons | sherry | 1-1/2 teaspoons | ||
1 teaspoon | sugar | 1 teaspoon | ||
pinch | pepper | pinch | ||
1-1/2 tablespoons | cornflour (cornstarch) | 1-1/2 tablespoons | ||
To serve | ||||
cooked rice, noodles or quinoa |
1. First, make the sauce. Crush the garlic in a mortar and pestle. Rinse the black beans, then add them to the mortar and crush them with the garlic until you have a paste. In a small saucepan, heat one tablespoon oil over low heat. Gently fry ginger and black bean/garlic mixture for a minute or so. Add bouillon cube and mash to break it up. Reserve two tablespoons of water and pour the rest into the saucepan. Add soy sauce, sherry, sugar & pepper, and bring sauce to a simmer. Mix reserved water with cornflour (cornstarch), then add to simmering sauce and cook until thickened. Keep warm.
2. Cut veggies into bite-size pieces, and set aside.
3. Heat a large wok (I use cast iron) over medium heat. Saute fried tofu until heated through, then remove and keep warm.
4. Increase heat to medium-high. Add one tablespoon oil to wok. Lightly salt the oil, then stir-fry veggies until crisp-tender. Periodically, add a tablespoon of water to create steam and help soften the veggies.
5. When everything is cooked, put rice (or noodles or quinoa) into bottom of two large bowls. Top with veggies and tofu, then with sauce.
Makes two servings.
Thanks for the black bean sauce receipt> I have been looking for one for some time and its not easy to get an understandable reply from your average Chinese restaurant worker. I think that they keep so to themselves so much that they never have need to learn English.
I once asked of the owner of such a restaurant to sell me fermented black beans and I ended up with a hunk of tofu…LOL Oh well, thanks again.