Tofu Larb

Kaffir lime and makrut lime are the same thing - but kaffir is a highly offensive Afrikaans racial slur. Good on the NY Times for switching to the more appropriate (and also more accurate) makrut. Hopefully this will help readers switch as well!

I highly recommend adding a vegan fish sauce to this. 24 Vegan makes one (and is a Vietnamese-Woman owned company). I love larb and usually make it with Impossible but I will definitely try with tofu (and "fish" sauce).

As a former larb-lover gone vegan, I'm delighted to see this recipe. I've tried the tofu version, but also recommend trying soy mince instead of tofu. IMO the chewiness and shape of the mince more closely mimics pork mince. I've also toasted and ground up brown rice instead of jasmine, as the brown rice has richer, deeper and nuttier notes than white rice. And yes to Seattle Sam's recommendation of vegan fish sauce!

Easy way to get your tofu super crumbly with texture like ground meat: Freeze block of tofu (in package, with liquid), let thaw (takes a few hours on the counter or submerge in warm water for ~1 hr when you've forgotten to take it out of the freezer!), open package and manually squeeze all liquid out of tofu (over a colander in the sink to catch tofu pieces), and crumble into a bowl. Best crumble texture with least amount of work. Also, doesn't waste paper towels as with draining!

I used only one 14-oz block of tofu and kept everything else the same. Was quite tasty that way. I think two blocks would have diluted the flavor too much for my liking. Also agree about adding vegan fish sauce. I added one tablespoon of that to the lime dressing. Nice warm weather meal. Thank you.

You can find a similar dish offered more and more on menus in Bangkok. Another healthy option is mushroom larb, which can be made with any type of mushrooms that have been sautéed first. Or try making it with both tofu and mushrooms which is delicious, too.

So the tofu is eaten uncooked? Or is a step missing?

Apparently if you’re in a pinch and don’t have makrut lime leaves handy you can use 1/4 tsp of lime zest for 2 lime leaves. Going to try this tonight!

We really liked this dish. When we ate it as leftovers for dinner #2, we turned it into a salad with sushi rice, chopped lettuce & cabbage, and added chopped peanuts. Also, I fried my own shallots instead of buying them. I tossed sliced shallots in a little flour and salt and fried them in batches in an inch of veggie oil. They turned out great! And now I can reuse that tasty oil in other dishes.

Really good but I agree with another commenter that the rest of the ingredients (plus a tbsp of fish sauce) are perfect for 1 package of tofu. Having recently discovered lemon grass paste in the produce section of my very conventional suburban supermarket makes dishes like this possible without my having to seek out fresh lemongrass.

Add 1T fish sauce to dressing Only 1 pkg of tofu, or better yet, use soy 'ground meat' or impossible.

Tofu is made by cooking soybeans, so it's not raw. Lots of vegan dishes incorporate tofu without actually cooking it. That said, I suppose you could cook it first if you wanted to.

There is way too little of everything for the the 2 blocks of tofu. I used a 12 oz bag of Quorn crumbles; a mycoprotein (fermented fungus), and found all the ingredients to be not enough to flavor the protein. I would double it all. Also, I added the Quorn crumbles to the frying pan with the lemongrass and shallots because I didn't want to eat it cold. Should have also included some garlic. Finally, I did not see any benefit of the ground up toasted rice.

With all the components this was not a 20-minute recipe! We’ll worth the hour though. After reading the comments, I halved the tofu and added fish sauce. Also made the crispy shallots myself. Loved using all the mixed herbs from the garden… that plus the rice gave it a really unique flavor. Absolutely fantastic.

This was so good! I tasted the dressing w/o the fish sauce, decided to add it and it made wonderful difference. Used one block of tofu and it was the perfect tofu-dressing ratio. It started off a bit bland, but when I added more lime juice and considerably more salt, the flavor bloomed! Skipped the crispy shallots and garnished with chopped lightly salted peanuts for crunch. The bit that was left over was even more delicious today. Great summer recipe!