Smitten Kitchen Keepers

When I first paged through Smitten Kitchen Keepers this recipe jumped out at me right away. I’m always looking for new vegetarian mains and I liked how this one included all the elements I usually want to include – a protein, veggies, and rice – but that the veggies and rice were prepared differently than in the tofu dishes I usually make.

As happens every couple of weeks, I did not end up making this on the night planned, and in fact it got bumped twice. Sometimes I account for this in meal planning, and towards the end of the week I’ll plan something that will be fine holding if our plans change. Tofu is in that category, and the nice thing about the rest of this meal is that the veggies it calls for are pretty resilient, too. Or were leftovers / odds & ends to begin with.

This came together very easily. I did make a few tweaks, but nothing that majorly changed the dish (primarily more aromatics, which is typical for me) and did my usual press & drain method on the tofu. I also used leftover rice, as I’d made the rice on the afternoon I’d first planned to cook this. It had dried out a bit in the fridge, so I didn’t have the bigger chunks of rice like the photo in the book, but it was still crunchy and delicious.

I’d make this again. We liked the crispiness of the rice, and the black vinegar gives the sauce a different flavor profile than your typical soy sauce-based sauces. I also like the flexibility of the veggies. I used red and yellow bell peppers, but really you could get away with just about anything you’re willing to eat raw (or maybe blanched – I can see doing green beans that way).

My main tip for this one is to seek out the black vinegar. We already had some on hand and I don’t remember where we got it, but I know you can get it easily online.

A rounded white plate almost entirely fills the frame of a square photo. On the right is a pile of sliced red and yellow bell pepper, at top is a pile of white rice with some lightly-browned cripsy bits, and at left are two slices of browned tofu covered in a dark brown sauce. Everything is scattered with toasted sesame seeds and sliced scallions. — Soy-Glazed Tofu with Crispy Rice from *Smitten Kitchen Keepers.*

I recently saw Deb Perelman speak as part of the tour for her new cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics for Your Forever Files. It was a delightful evening full of good vibes. My favorite part was the low susurration every time she mentioned a recipe from Keepers, as folks flipped through their new copy to dog-ear the page.

I have all three of her cookbooks, have followed her blog for quite a while, and cook from her recipes regularly enough that when my husband asks, “where’s this recipe from?” I just say “it’s one of Deb’s” if it’s one of Deb’s. But her hearing her speak left me inspired to try and cook her recipes more deliberately. Truly, why haven’t I made the Pizza Beans or the I Want Chocolate Cake Cake? When have I ever not wanted pizza or chocolate cake? (Never, that’s when.)

I’ve never been particularly attracted to the idea of cooking every recipe in a book. But Deb has three cookbooks and a long-running blog, surely I could commit to making one Smitten Kitchen recipe every week in 2023? Then I thought about something I heard somewhere — why wait to start something new until an arbitrary future date? Just get started now!

And that’s when I realized that I had actually already started this project when I made the Apple Cider Old-Fashioned last week, and planned the Soy-Glazed Tofu with Crisped Rice for this week. Both are from Keepers, so it’s like it was meant to be.

So, welcome to Why haven’t I made that? in which I will make one Smitten Kitchen recipe every week. That’s it, that’s the plan.

I expect most of them will be for dinner, and I’ll lean into making things I haven’t tried before, but I’m not going to box myself in with rules. The plan is to cook Deb’s food and share it here with (all five of) you, in hopes of inspiring you to make that thing you haven’t made yet, whether or not it’s one of Deb’s.

I’ll link to recipes when Deb’s posted them somewhere, but I’m not going to provide the recipes here or link to other blogs where folks appear to have transcribed them. While recipes themselves are not protected by copyright law, Deb has put a lot of work into developing her recipes and I want to honor that. If you want to try a recipe from one of her books, see if you can get a copy from your local library or borrow a copy from a friend or neighbor.