There isn’t always a need to eat meat everyday, and there are thousands of delicious meat-free recipes out there. This vegetarian dish takes barely anytime to whip up, is very simple and colourful.

We’ve used carrots and courgettes in this recipe for a summer stir fry, but feel free to change these for others that are in season.

Preparation time: 20 minutes (including making the hollandaise)

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 200g tofu (in a block)
• 2 carrots
• 1 courgette
• 1 red chilli – finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove – finely grated
• ½ thumb-sized piece of ginger – finely grated
• 300g straight-to-Wok noodles
• Soy sauce (dark)
• Sesame oil
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• Lime juice
• Bunch of fresh asparagus
• Hollandaise sauce (shop bought or see our earlier blog for recipe here)

Recipe:

1. Start by slicing up the block of Tofu into slabs ½ cm thick. Then use heart-shaped cutters to cut into shapes. Any cut-off cans be chopped into small pieces and thrown into the stir fry vegetables. Add a tablespoon of sesame oil to a frying pan over a medium heat, and gently place in the tofu hearts. These will take 6 – 7 minutes per side to become golden. Do not try to move them around too much before they are ready as they are very fragile.
2. Once the tofu is cooked on either side, carefully remove and set aside on a plate. Sprinkle with the smoked paprika, lime juice and soy sauce. This can be prepared just before your date arrives and kept warm.
3. Whilst the tofu is frying, use a vegetable peeler to turn the courgette and carrots into thin strips. These take less time to cook as they are delicate and also when folded, these vegetables look like colourful ribbons on the plate – much more attractive than a standard story fry.
4. Add another tablespoon of sesame oil to the pan once the tofu is cooked, then add the garlic, chilli and ginger. Cook for about 1 minute to release the flavours into the oil then add the vegetables (and any tofu cut offs) and give a good stir around. This should take no more than 5 minutes to cook (depending on the size of your pan). Once tender, remove from the pan and set aside in a bowl, covered with a plate. This helps to keep the veg warm.
5. Add one final drizzle of sesame oil, then add the pre-cooked, packet noodles and warm through for 1 – 2 minutes and stir in a squirt of soy sauce.
6. Trim off the woody parts of the asparagus and plunge into boiling, salted water. These spears will take only 3 – 4 minutes to cook. Take them out and pat dry, then you’re ready to serve up.
7. Pile up the vegetable ribbons and delicately place the tofu hearts on top. Set a small amount of noodles next to these, reserving space for the asparagus and hollandaise sauce on the plate.