Recipes

Tofu Satay Lettuce Cups

Serves 4

| Prep Time: 15 mins

| Cook Time: 45 mins

| Total Time: 1 hour

You may need: Indonesian Satay

Discover The Recipe

Satay is a famous Indonesian street food featuring grilled meats marinated in a zesty and brightly seasoned blend of coconut, lemongrass, aromatic herbs, and spices! It’s usually served on skewers as the perfect handheld treat. Popular versions of satay include pork, chicken, or beef but our Tofu Satay Lettuce Cups is a vegetarian’s delight, made with "meaty" spiced and baked tofu. Our Indonesian Satay spice blend makes it easy to infuse bland tofu with a blend of blend of warming spices like coriander, nutmeg, paprika and turmeric.

Finally, don’t forget to top off your baked tofu with a creamy satay sauce. Traditionally this sauce is a freshly ground peanut sauce with hints of coconut, lime and chili. We’re making it easy for you by using smooth peanut butter as the base. Satay makes great party food and even kids love it’s peanut butter flavor.

Ingredients

Marinated Tofu
1/4 cup coconut milk
2 Tbsp lime juice (~1 lime)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sambal oelek (or chili sauce)
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp Piquant Post Indonesian Satay Spice Mix
1” piece of ginger, grated
1 garlic clove, minced
1 stalk of lemongrass (4-6" of lower, white half), coarsely chopped
2 blocks tofu, extra firm
Peanut Sauce
1/4 cup creamy natural peanut butter
2 Tbsp lime juice (~1 lime)
1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
3 Tbsp full fat coconut milk, plus more as needed
Satay Lettuce Cups
1 small bunch vermicelli rice noodles
1/2 cup purple cabbage, chopped
2 scallions, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
Salt to taste
1 head butter lettuce, leaves removed and washed
Garnish: chopped peanuts, fresh cilantro, fresh lime wedges

Notes

We recommend that you use the firmest tofu that you can find for the best texture! If you use extra firm tofu it will have a wonderful meaty and chewy texture! Less firm textured tofu will have a lighter and crispier quality to it.

If you want to prepare these in a more traditional way, try putting the tofu pieces onto skewers and then baking them!

If you use wooden skewers, soak them in water for at least 10 mins to prevent burning in the oven.

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425°F. First, make the tofu marinade: process the coconut milk, lime juice, soy sauce, sambal oelek (or other hot sauce), brown sugar, Piquant Post Indonesian Satay spice, ginger, and minced garlic and lemongrass in a food processor or blender until smooth. Set aside. Drain the tofu and cut into 1/2” cubes. Toss the cubed tofu in the marinade until well coated. Place the tofu on a parchment line baking tray and place in the pre-heated oven. Bake for 45 minutes total, flipping the tofu pieces halfway through the baking time.

To make the peanut sauce, whisk together the peanut butter, lime juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, grated ginger, garlic, and coconut milk in a mixing bowl. Set aside until ready to use.

Soak the vermicelli noodles in hot water according to manufacturer directions. When the noodles are soft, drain them, allow them to cool and then toss with the purple cabbage, scallions, cilantro, and toasted sesame oil.

To assemble the lettuce cups, fill some of the lettuce leaves with the noodle salad and top with some of the marinated & baked tofu. Drizzle with some of the peanut sauce and garnish with chopped peanuts, fresh cilantro, and fresh lime.

Alternatives & Substitutions

For a lower fat version of this dish, swap out the full fat coconut milk with lite coconut milk, and peanut butter powder for regular peanut butter.
If you’re allergic to peanuts, you can still enjoy this dish by substituting almond butter for the peanut butter and skipping the chopped peanuts as garnish. We actually love the way almond butter tastes with this dish!
For meat eaters: try making our traditional Chicken Satay, Indonesian Beef Satay or Indonesian Meatballs (Bakso). If you like seafood, try our Grilled Shrimp Satay.
The Indonesian Satay spice is the perfect seasoning for a Satay marinade. You can also use it as a dry rub seasoning directly on meats or try it on roasted root veggies or carrots.