Tofu Salad with Honey Miso Dressing

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Little Leaf Farms.

Crisp green lettuce gets combined with pan-seared tofu, sliced snow peas and radishes, and a luscious honey miso dressing for a quick and filling vegetarian salad.

I’m here with an ingredient that’s slightly different for me: tofu. While this is the first time I’ve cooked with tofu for as long as I can remember, it is a food that I eat on occasion but always enjoy. And with many of you looking for more plant-based recipes, I figured this salad was the perfect way to share it with you. Even if you aren’t already a tofu fan, the honey miso vinaigrette everything gets dressed in has enough flavor to win over anyone that might be hesitant to give it a try.

Tofu Salad with Honey Miso Dressing Ingredients

The star of this salad is the Baby Crispy Green Leaf lettuce from Little Leaf Farms. It’s a cross between iceberg and romaine lettuce, so when they say crispy they really mean it! To add even more crunch, I add snow peas and radishes. Firm tofu is a great vegetarian protein source that could transform this from a side dish to a light meal depending on portion size. And last but not least you need honey, red miso paste, extra-virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and apple cider vinegar to make the dressing.

For those unfamiliar with Little Leaf Farms, it’s a greenhouse grower in Massachusetts that grows lettuce sustainably all year round. The company’s lettuce is available at all major grocery retailers in the Northeast, as well as Amazon Fresh and Instacart. You can look up where to buy Little Leaf Farms here.

Honey Miso Salad Dressing

Honey and miso is one of my favorite ingredient combinations currently. I love the mix of sweet with salty (and all of the other wonderful flavors that miso brings). To make the honey miso vinaigrette, we mix the two star ingredients with extra-virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper. If you only have white miso paste, you can certainly use it instead of the red miso paste the recipe calls for, but the flavor will be a bit milder. And I like the fruitiness apple cider vinegar adds to the honey miso salad dressing, but most any acid or vinegar (such as lemon juice or white wine vinegar) should work just fine.

How to Cook Tofu on the Stove

The first thing you need to do when trying to cook and brown tofu, or most things for that matter, on the stove is to remove excess moisture. With tofu, this starts with draining the liquid the tofu was packed in and then pressing it to get rid of as much excess liquid as you can. Some people use a tofu press for this, which I hear is great although probably unnecessary unless you cook a lot of tofu at home. For a makeshift version, simply wrap the block of tofu in a few layers of paper towels and weigh it down to press out the liquid. From there, cut it into pieces, season it as desired, and fry in a little bit of oil until nicely browned.

If you aren’t necessarily vegetarian or don’t like tofu for some reason, then you can swap it out for another item of choice, like chicken, hard-boiled eggs, or chick peas.

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Little Leaf Farms.