Baked Tofu, Beef and Cheese
I love baked cheese dishes and this is something different from the usual baked rice with cheese one-dish meals I’ve made. The tofu makes this dish extra healthy. I first ate this dish at a local cafe with my buddy Anemone and we really love it. But the dish cost more than S$10 before taxes and the portion (appetizer size) is very small. So we thought, why don’t we try to recreate this at home? We can make more for less. My buddy figured out 99% of the recipe, while I leeched on her expertise and just added some curry powder as a final touch. After all our hard work at recreating the dish, the end result tastes nothing like the cafe version though hehe, but I thought ours is better ;)
Ingredients
(makes 3 appetizer sized servings)– 250g minced beef
– 1/3 beef seasoning cube
– half large yellow/white onion, finely chopped
– 1 tbsp olive oil
– shredded mozzarella cheese
– 150g firm white tofu (water drained), cut to smaller and flat piecesSeasonings
– 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
– freshly cracked black pepper
– 1 tbsp curry powder (I use leftover powder from making curry vegetables)Tools needed
– oven-safe baking dishes (shallow type, for one person size)Note: I used 3 personal size baking dishes (one per person) and divided the ingredients into 3 portions
Directions (Step by Step Photos)
1. In a bowl, add minced beef and seasonings. Mix well and let it marinade for about 10 minutes.
2. Heat up a pan with some olive oil and add the onions and beef cube. Saute or fry on gentle heat till the onions look translucent.
3. Add the minced beef. Stir fry for a very short while (around 30 seconds) and turn off the flame. Continue to fry the beef (breaking them to small bits with your spatula) with the flame off to prevent overcooking. It is all right if the beef is not totally cooked at this point (and it shouldn’t be) as you are going to bake it further. If you overcook the beef, it will taste chewy and tough.
4. In the baking dish, add tofu slices (notice that they are quite thinly sliced) to line the bottom of the dish.
5. Spoon the beef and onions mixture you prepared earlier in step 2 over the tofu.
6. Top it up with a generous layer of shredded cheese.
7. Bake in preheated oven 200c (400F) for about 15-20 minutes.
8. Your baked tofu and beef is ready when the cheese is fully melted and slightly browned.
bookmarked it… I’m gonna try it one of these days!
Reminds me of baked rice. Tofu in this dish is definitely a first for one but who cares … it’s got CHEESE! Great pics.
I love tofu. Can’t wait to try this delicious dish :)
Bookmarked! I will have to try this soon, looks really yummy! I haven’t tried much baked dishes like this before but I don’t think i can pass this up. Thanks for the post =)
hope you like this dish when you try it :)
Tofu and cheese combo, have not thought of it. Would love to try.
yes tofu and cheese is a little odd couple ;)
This looks like shepherd pie but with tofu. Great idea. Looks very delicious. Thanks very much for sharing.
Will make this for my daughter. She loves baked rice with cheese and i am sure she’ll love this.
Wiffy, I don’t really know where to start to express my words…First of all, I’ve never tried combining tofu and cheese. I always feel tofu is something Asian and never would have thought of using cheese. Secondly, you added beef to cheese+tofu. I don’t know…I really gotta try this, though I doubt I might like it but if you say it’s good, it has to be. I tried your sausage cheese baked rice and it didn’t fail me. I hate sausages but I love the sausage cheese baked rice. Take it as a compliment from me Wiffy. Will post soon!
yes it’s a pretty strange combination to me at first but it’s good hehe … thanks for your sweet words, can’t wait to see your post! Hope you like it too.
this is somethin I wil like, cheese n tofu, yum yum.
seem simple yet deli~ i would substitute the beef with something if i were to cook this =]