The Farm Stand: Broiled Tofu with Broccoli, Snow Peas, and Shitakes

This time of year, it is very easy to get distracted at the farmers’ market. There is almost too much coming in: berries, stone fruit, lettuces. And trying to get enough produce for once a week forces you to contemplate the question of what to pick. The pressure can be almost too much.

Oftentimes, in my quest for the latest berry or fruit, I tend to forget the vegetables, remembering them only after my grocery bags have grown heavy, which means that I retrace my steps, purchase vegetables and try to make it home without collapsing under their weight. 

I take the most fragile things out first – including the mushrooms. And right now the market has a generous assortment of them: chanterelles, baby portabellas, cremini, shitakes. There’s a freshness to them that eludes the supermarket mushrooms, even those in more upscale places. Rub the cap of one and bring them close to your nose, and you’ll smell earth, mosses, rainy dampness – a comforting, soft aroma.

When I was a child, growing up in Russia, mushroom-picking was a family pastime. I used to love mushroom-foraging trips with my father, uncles and cousins. I was pretty good at it too: I could tell you a poisonous mushroom from a good one, even with the inedible mushrooms that masquerade as edible ones. I knew all the rules and tricks of foraging.

For some reason the women in the family stayed back and prepared the kitchen for the onslaught of mushrooms. Later, once we brought back our bounty, there’d be much pickling and drying. Some mushrooms, like chanterelles, had to be cooked immediately – their shelf life was but a few days. The porcinis were dried to be used in the colder seasons in soups and stews. Some mushrooms, the names of which I still don’t know in English, were pickled and canned.

These days, I wouldn’t be able to pick out an edible mushroom from its poisonous counterpart. I’ve forgotten all my useful foraging skills. So I’m extra grateful for the mushroom stall at the market – it allows me to get my delicious fill of funghi without putting my, and others’, lives in danger.

The dish below has become a weekly meal in our household. I could say we eat this regularly because it’s a fast weeknight meal to put on the table, or because we are trying to reduce our meat consumption – both are a true in their own right. But the real reason we have been cooking it so often is because it is so delicious. Broiled tofu, glazed with the soy-ginger marinade, goes beautifully with firm broccoli, crunchy snow peas, and meaty shitakes, which absorb the marinade and really shine here.

No matter how overloaded I am at the farmers’ market, no matter how many bags I have hanging off my shoulders, I always make room for a little bag of mushrooms. Weighing next to nothing, they take up little room, but come dinnertime – they bring ample, fragrant rewards.

Broiled Tofu with Broccoli, Snow Peas, and Shitakes 

Ingredients:

1 package of extra-firm tofu, drained

2 tablespoons grated ginger

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons honey

6 tablespoons sesame oil

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 cup snow peas, trimmed

1/2 head broccoli, chopped into florets

1 cup shitake mushrooms, caps only, thinly sliced

3 scallions, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced diagonally

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Cooked brown rice, for serving

Preparation: 

1. Heat broiler, with rack in top position. Cut tofu cross-wise into 1/2-inch thick pieces. In a medium bowl, whisk together ginger, soy sauce, honey, 3 tablespoons oil, and the garlic. In another bowl, combine the snow peas, broccoli, shitakes, and scallion, with the red pepper flakes and 2 tablespoons of oil. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper.

2. On a rimmed baking sheet, arrange tofu in a single layer and drizzle half the sauce. On another rimmed baking sheet, arrange the vegetables. Broil tofu for 4 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. Broil the vegetables for 2 minutes. Serve tofu with vegetables alongside brown rice, and drizzle with remaining sauce.

Serves 2 to 3.