Preparing my own meals is very important to me. It means that I am taking good care of my body, treating myself to clean and nutrient-rich food. I haven’t eaten any ready-to-eat meals or convenience food in years. Pre-processed foods or fast food is something that makes me feel like I am dumping trash into my precious body. In a few days I am turning 33 but people are constantly estimating my age to being around mid twenties. I am highly convinced that my clean eating has a big impact on maintaining a youthful appearance.

However, as much as I love my home-made food, I do not like spending a lot of time in the kitchen. In that sense, my food has to be “fast food”, but the healthy kind. I’m generally having a stock of the same ingredients at home, such as rice and sweet potatoes, veggies, eggs, hummus, beans and lentils and various kinds of nut mousse. Clean eating basics. This makes food shopping a lot easier. I am then getting creative with how to prepare those in different ways.

coconut tofu

I don’t need “haute cuisine” every day. What I want is a meal that is:

  • free from added sugar and preservatives (”clean food),
  • free from or low in “bad fats” (saturated fat and trans fats),
  • rich in nutrients,
  • filling, and
  • tasty but not overly fancy. 

I would like to share a recipe that I recently came up with because of what was left in my fridge. Somehow, I always end up with the nicest food when I’m limited to a handful of ingredients. This recipe is for a delicious coconut-crusted tofu that I had with roasted sweet potato and zucchini. The highlight of the dish was the dip that I created. Clean eating at it’s best.

 

How to make your own delicious coconut-crusted tofu

How long does it take?

Preparation time: about 10-15 minutes

Waiting time: about 20 minutes

What do you need?

Ingredients for 2 people or one hungry person (like me):

Coconut-crusted tofu:

  • 1 chunk of plain, solid tofu
  • A handful of dry, shredded coconut (the baking kind from your grocery store)
  • 1 tablespoon unsweetened cashew mousse
  • 3 tablespoons water

Roasted veggies:

  • 1 small zucchini (or skip it if you don’t like zucchini)
  • 2 medium size sweet potatoes (yellow and/or red)

Spicy coconut-cashew dip:

  • 4 tablespoons cashew mousse
  • Salt & pepper
  • Chili-powder (as much as is good for your taste)
  • About 150ml (5oz) low-fat coconut milk

coconut tofu   roasting veggies and tofu   coconut tofu   coconut tofu

How do you make it?

  1. Cut the sweet potato into dices, put on a baking tray and bake for 5 minutes at 175 degrees celsius (345 fahrenheit).
  2. Cut the zucchini and the chunk of plain tofu into dices.
  3. For the crusted tofu: Mix the water and cashew mousse to a slightly sticky fluid.
  4. Dip the tofu dices first in the fluid, then roll them in the coconut crumbs.
  5. Add both the tofu and zucchini onto the baking tray and bake together with the sweet potato for another 15 minutes.
  6. In the meantime, for the dip mix the coconut milk and cashew mousse in a small pot and bring to the boil. It will start thickening. Reduce the heat and add some chili powder, salt, pepper. Stir well and taste. Add more spice if you like.
  7. The coconut tofu should be slightly crispy by now. Take the tofu and veggies out of the oven, put on plates and add your dip. Ready to eat.

Enjoy!

presenting coconut tofu

Side note: I am not providing nutritional values for my recipes because I am not a fan of tracking calories. Clean eating is more important from my point of view and more sustainable in the long run.

This blog post might be interesting for you: How to avoid stress-related weight gain.