Eggplant soup cooked with tofu, bacon, and guise leaves combined with extremely attractive turmeric. This is a delicious soup that Tasty Touch thinks housewives should not ignore. So how to make a Vietnamese eggplant tofu recipe? Let’s get started!
How to make Vietnamese eggplant and tofu recipes?
How to Make Vietnamese Eggplant Tofu Recipe?
Course: UncategorizedCuisine: Vietnamese4
servings30
minutes40
minutes300
kcalBelow is the simple but tasty Vietnamese Eggplant Tofu recipe. Let’s begin:
Ingredients
4-5 eggplant
3 tofu covers
200g pork belly
2-3 dried onions
1-2 cloves of garlic
Green onions, perilla, bay leaves
Grain salt
1 fresh turmeric or turmeric powder
1-2 chili
Spices: Batch, fish sauce, shrimp paste, monosodium glutamate, sugar, monosodium glutamate, ground pepper
Directions
- Step 1: Prepare eggplant
Eggplant cut off the stem and head, wash thoroughly, then cut into chunks or circles as you like. After cutting, the eggplant will be easily blackened due to the plastic, so you should soak the eggplant in a basin of water mixed with a little salt.
- Step 2: Prepare other ingredients
Bacon is only salted, washed, drained, then cut into half-inch thick pieces, then marinated with 1/2 tablespoon of fish sauce, and a little ground pepper.
Tofu washed, almost fried, and cut into pieces to avoid drying. Onions peeled and chopped. Chili peppers are washed, chopped, or cut into pieces.
Green onions, perilla, and guise leaves are cut off the root and stem and soaked in salt water, washed, then cut into tangles. When adding perilla, you should pay attention to the appropriate amount of leaves to avoid the broth becoming dull and bitter. In addition, if you have cactus leaves, you can use a few more leaves to add a more attractive flavor to the eggplant soup.
If using fresh turmeric, you wash, pound, and filter to get the juice. However, turmeric juice after a while left outside will often darken and often turn red-orange. Therefore, to keep the color of turmeric bright yellow, you add a few drops of lemon juice.
- Step 3: Fried tofu
Put the pan on the stove and add cooking oil, the amount of oil is enough to cover 1/3 – 1/2 of the tofu.
When the oil is hot, fry the tofu until golden brown on both sides. You should fry on medium heat and wait until the tofu is golden on one side, then return to the surface so that the tofu is not crushed.
- Step 4: Fry the eggplant
After soaking the eggplant in salt water, take it out and wash it, drain it, and then put it in the oil pan to fry the tofu. Just lightly fry the eggplant so that the eggplant is fragrant and not mushy when cooking.
- Step 5: Cook eggplant soup
Put the pot on the stove, add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil (reuse the fried tofu oil) then heat it, when the oil is hot, add minced onion and garlic and fry fragrant until. When everything is fragrant, add the eggplant and stir-fry for about 5-6 minutes before the eggplant is slightly soft, then add 2/3 of the cut tomatoes and stir-fry together.
Add 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of seasoning, and 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder. Add about 1 cup of filtered water and boil for another 3-4 minutes. Then add the pork pieces and stir-fry together. You continue to cook until the meat is firm, then add the filtered water to the pot to cover the meat.
When the water is boiled, add the remaining tofu and 1/3 of the tomato, cook for another 3-5 minutes, then re-season the spices to taste and then boil until the water is slightly thickened. Cook for about 5 more minutes until the eggplant is soft and the beans absorb the spices, then add the scallions, perilla and bay leaves, and chili, and stir well.
- Step 6: Finished Vietnamese eggplant tofu recipe
Eggplant with bean sprouts is a simple dish but extremely delicious. Tender braised meat, sweet and sour tomatoes, and eggplants along with the fatty taste of tofu, adding a rich broth. It’s hard to forget once enjoyed.
Nutrients in eggplant bring to the body protein, starch, calcium, iron, fiber, phosphorus, vitamins C, PP, B2… Also, eggplant does not contain fat which causes weight gain.
Recipe Video
How to choose fresh and tasty eggplants?
When cooking dishes with eggplant, the eggplant is not fresh when processed, it will reduce the delicious taste of the dish, making the dish not sweet and fragrant. Sometimes choosing to hit the old eggplant, the seeds of eggplant will make you lose your appetite when eating. Therefore, when buying eggplant, you should pay attention to the following characteristics to choose the right eggplant.
Shape
There are two main types of eggplant shapes, straight and curved. According to the advice of longtime eggplant growers, you should buy slightly more delicious eggplant. Under normal growing conditions, natural eggplant will have a certain curvature, and each eggplant will have a different curvature.
Curved eggplant fruit will be very delicious and have a high nutritional content. For unusually straight eggplants, you should consider and avoid buying eggplants that use stimulants.
Color
To check for doneness, gently press your finger into the skin of the eggplant. After pressing, the eggplant skin leaves an imprint, that is the eggplant is ripe. The fresh eggplants will usually have a deep color, the outer skin is dark purple, smooth, and bright, and the color of the fruit is uniform when held firmly. As for eggplants with dull outer skin, brown spots on the skin, and wrinkled skin, often those fruits are no longer fresh, you should not buy these.
You should also pay attention to avoid buying eggplants that have wrinkled skin or have many bruises and dark spots on the skin. Usually, the best eggplant is in August or September.
The stem of the eggplant
At the stem connecting with the flesh of the eggplant, there will be a white part. The more white part, the fresher and softer the eggplant, and the sweeter it will be when eaten. On the contrary, if the white part is little or purple, it means that the eggplant is old, and with many seeds inside, it will not taste good.
In addition, when choosing an eggplant for the Vietnamese eggplant tofu recipe, you can gently press the eggplant with your hand. If you press on it and you see a mark, it means that the eggplant is ripe and still fresh. On the contrary, when pressed, it is hard, indicating that the eggplant is old and should not be bought.
Check the calyx
Normally, the size of the calyx at the tip of the eggplant should be proportional to the size of the fruit. Therefore, if the radio is small but the fruit is large, this type should not be selected. Most likely they are sprayed with chemicals and pesticides.
You should choose an eggplant with a fruit that is proportionate to the calyx. Eggplant will be delicious and safer. Remember to choose fruits with fresh calyx, which are newly harvested fruits. If the tomatoes are left for a long time, this part of the calyx will wither and dry out.
There is a note when choosing to buy eggplant not everyone knows that is to observe the white area between the calyx and the pulp. The wider this white part, the less delicious the eggplant. You choose to buy fruits with small, narrow white parts, both young and delicious.
Use your hands to check the eggplant
Another tip for you is to check the eggplant with your hand. Fresh and soft eggplants, when pressed, will have a slight elasticity, so you should choose to buy fruits like these. With eggplants when pressed with your hand without elasticity, and hard shells, you should not buy them.
How to prepare eggplant for the Vietnamese eggplant tofu recipe?
- Buy eggplant, wash, cut off the stem, and cut the eggplant into circles with a thickness of about 1-2 cm.
- If the eggplant chunks are too large, you can cut the eggplant in half. In case you do not like to cut circles, housewives should cut and cut the eggplant.
- With the Vietnamese eggplant tofu recipe, it’s best to cut the fruit into small pieces instead of leaving the whole fruit or cutting it lengthwise.
- To relieve the bitterness and firm up the flesh of the eggplant, you can sprinkle it with salt and let it sit for an hour. After salting, soak a little water on a paper towel to wipe the salt off the surface of the eggplant, and then process the dish as you like. Eggplant skins can also be eaten or discarded.
- When the salting time is up, soak a little water on a paper towel and wipe the salt off the surface of the eggplant. Thanks to this salting step, the eggplant meat when cooked will be firm and not bitter.
Tips for frying delicious crispy tofu
- To make tofu crispy when fried, you must first soak tofu in warm water with salt for about 7-10 minutes in a ratio of 4 water – 1/4 salt.
- Then let the tofu drain and put it in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes, then cut it into bite-sized pieces. You should let the tofu dry completely or use a towel to dry it so that it doesn’t splash oil when frying.
- When frying tofu, you should let the pan be hot to add cooking oil, when the oil is hot, add the tofu to fry. Do not let the oil get too hot, if the oil is too hot, the tofu will burn easily, and if the oil is not hot, the tofu will easily stick to the pan.
Above are our share about the secret to making a delicious and nutritious Vietnamese eggplant tofu recipe. Hopefully, sharing the details about the frugal Vietnamese eggplant and tofu recipe can help you have another delicious dish to treat your family and loved ones. Hope you are successful.
