Red Curry Vegetable Stir Fry with Seared Tofu

I love veggie stir-fries

I love veggie stir-fries. To me they're like the little black dress of weeknight cooking. You can essentially throw in whatever vegetables you have on hand, add some sort of protein, whizz together a sauce, spoon the whole thing over rice, and that's dinner done.

Quick and easy recipes like HNL community-fave Sticky Tofu or Tempeh Teriyaki are great, but this Red Curry Vegetable Stir Fry is one of my faves, because not only is it LOADED with vegetables (as a nutritionist, this makes me happy) and a rich red curry coconut sauce, but it also uses a super-speedy cooking technique with the tofu that I know you'll love. 

Everything comes together in one pan, and even with all the chopping involved you'll have dinner on the table in 30 minutes or less. And I'll tell you what - if you want to phone it in and use one of those packs of pre-chopped stir-fry veggies, it'll go even faster. No shame in that game. 

Step 1: sear your tofu

This recipe starts with a simple tofu hack: instead of cutting the tofu into tiny cubes, pan-frying it and fussing around with flipping all those little squares over, you sear the ENTIRE block of tofu, just as if  you were cooking a steak.

Then, once it's nice and golden on the outside, you cut the block into cubes, which will be nice and crisp on at least two sides. This saves on both time and cleanup.

Step 2: make your sauce

Before you start stir-frying the veggies, make your sauce. 

All you need to do is whisk together the red curry paste with a bit of coconut milk and your sweetener of choice. Add the coconut milk to the curry paste bit by bit to thin it out, and then whisk in the remaining milk and set aside.

Step 3: stir-fry your veggies

Now it's time to stir fry! Add the diced red onion to the same pan as you seared the tofu in, adding a bit more oil if needed. Stir-fry until the onion is just translucent

Add the carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli florets, continue to fry, stirring frequently (they call it stir-fry for a reason!) for 3-5 minutes.

Add the diced zucchini, sugar snap peas, and baby corn, and continue to stir-fry for another 5 minutes. At this point, the vegetables should be brightly colored, golden in some places, and cooked but still crisp.

Step 4: add the tofu

Now, add the cubes of seared tofu and toss it into the stir-fry with the vegetables.

Step 5: add the sauce

Add the coconut sauce and stir well - be careful, your pan may be VERY full at this point - continuing to cook for another 2-3 minutes, until everything is heated through and the sauce is bubbling.

Step 6: serve!

Serve hot, spooned over bowls of rice. I like to garnish with lime wedges and lots of cilantro.

🧑🏻‍🍳 Notes from the HNL test kitchen

This recipe involves a lot of chopping, but it goes fast! If you do the chopping in advance as part of your weekly meal prep it'll go even faster, but even without prepping in advance this recipe comes together super fast. And seriously, those packets of pre-chopped veggies are awesome!

Feel free to mix and match the vegetables according to your preferences. I hate mushrooms, which is why you'll never see them on this site, but if you like them, throw 'em in!