CEiMB: Crispy Tofu Fingers

Happy Thursday! This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly group recipe was Crispy Fish Fingers, as chosen by Anne from Rainforest Recipes. Anne lives in Guatemala and I love learning about jungle ingredients, seeing her market pictures, and reading all the familiar and exotic recipes on her blog.

For this week's recipe I acheived a new level of not following the directions. I swapped the main ingredient, the breading, the sauce, and the cooking method. I know, geez!

I guess I interpret these things like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Remember those? I just want to go to page 297 to have our heroine choose tofu instead of flounder. So here's what I did, follow along, and remember, if it's not going well, only YOU control the adventure!

The original recipe can be found online here.

Crispy Tofu Fingers
oh-so-loosely adapted from Ellie Krieger

1 package extra-firm tofu
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
1 tsp cumin
2 eggs, beaten


Press tofu by wrapping it in paper towels and placing something heavy atop (like a cutting board). Let sit for 10 minutes. Season the flour with salt and pepper and cumin and prepare 3 bowls, one for flour mixture, one for panko, and one for egg. Cut tofu into slices, and dip each slice into flour, then egg, then panko. Place on a cooking rack that has been well sprayed with cooking oil. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes, spray with cooking oil and put under the broiler for 2 minutes on each side to brown. Season with salt and pepper immediately out of the oven.

I took Ellie's sauce and spiced it up using some chipotles, rounded out by lemon juice, like so:

1/3 cup lowfat plain yogurt
1 chipotle in adobo
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper

Combine everything in a food processor and blend. Serve tofu fingers with a generous heap of sauce and a nice cold beer!