Spicy jerk, crispy tofu with sweet and spicy pineapple salsa and grilled tender stem broccoli means that your lunch meal prep just got a brand new kickstart. This simple meal prep will only take you 30 minutes and means that you’ll be the lunch envy of your office for the whole week.
It’s taken me a while to jump on the meal prep band wagon, mainly because I hate the idea of having the same thing every day of the week. Lunch is supposed to be exciting! Not a “make do” situation. I also made these meal prep bowls with crispy tofu to keep it totally plant based. I don’t like the idea of eating the same chicken or beef all week. It should really only be a 3 day kinda thing. Make your chicken or beef on Sunday and finish it by Wednesday.
But let’s get to this meal prep bowl. I’ve kept it super simple. Store bought jerk spice to keep it all straight forward and I used smoked tofu for an extra boost of flavour. But you can so easily use regular tofu.
But the main thing we all really want to talk about is how to make this tofu crispy! Because there’s no worse texture than rubbery non crisp tofu, right? And texture plays a huge part in food enjoyment.
Some really important points to know about making crispy tofu:
- The tofu needs to be extra firm. Medium tofu or silky will have too much moisture and be too soft.
- To be safe you should probably press the tofu for about 5 minutes before you cook it. To do that you just wrap it in cheese cloth or kitchen paper and press to extract the moisture.
- Dice into cubes and drizzle with some vegetable oil.
- Cook the tofu in a very hot skillet.
The rest of this dish is straight forward. Roast the broccoli on a baking tray, or you could toss it in the hot pan with the jerk tofu seasoning. Either way you end up with that smokey charred flavour that makes broccoli so irresistible.
The whole thing goes so perfectly with this pineapple salsa too. I’ve used this salsa on chicken, beef, in tacos and on top of nachos and it goes so well with pretty much everything.
This meal prep bowl feels like spring is here. It’s so perfect for this time of year, when the winter fruit is over and so much of the spring fruit isn’t quite here yet.
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Ingredients
For the crispy tofu
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 Tablespoon jerk seasoning
- 10 ounce 280g block of firm or extra firm tofu (smoked or plain)
For the salsa
- 1/2 pineapple chopped
- 1 small red chilli diced
- zest and juice of 1 lime
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Wrap the tofu in cheesecloth and press for 5 minutes to extract the moisture. Dice the tofu into 1 inch cubes and place in a bowl with the seasoning and the vegetable oil. Heat the skillet over a high heat and place the tofu in the pan. Place tofu in a single layer and turn to crisp every side of the tofu. This should take about 1 minute per side.
For the broccoli
- Toss with the olive oil and roast in the oven for about 10 minutes until the broccoli is crispy and charred.
For the salsa
- Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix.
To assemble the bowls, divide some brown rice evenly between 3 microwave or oven safe containers. Divide the tofu and broccoli evenly between the containers and top with the pineapple salsa.
I’m with you… I’m not into having the same thing for 5 days in a row, 3 is about my limit. This whole meal prep phenom makes me laugh. I’ve been cooking a big meal on Sundays so me/my husband can have work lunches (or dinner leftovers) for a few days forever (like long before I started my blog. Now blog leftovers generally replace that practice for me). I think lots of people do the same. Now we call it “meal prep”. Sigh. Whatever makes people interested, I guess. 😛 These crispy tofu bowls look GOOD!
Me too! I get so bored of a meal day after day, but this looks delicious. I keep jumping on and off the meal prep bandwagon so I’ll get back on for this recipe. ha!