Inspiration can come from anywhere. Can’t believe I’m admitting it, but I recreated this dish from something I found at the Whole Foods hot food bar. I was shopping while extremely hungry, saw this, bought it, ate it, loved it. Did it taste so good because I was ravenous? I went back the next week and there it was again. Bought it, ate it, loved it even more.
The key to this dish is the layers of heat. For me, the spicier, the better. Replace the jalapeno with a habanero if you really want to hurt yourself! But feel free to adjust the heat to whatever you can tolerate. There’s no need to melt your dental work!
Ingredients
1 package extra firm tofu, cut into cubes
1 28-ounce can roasted red peppers
1 cup water (or vegetable broth)
1 large onion, sliced in half moons
1 medium jalapeno pepper, diced
½ cup sun dried tomatoes (packed in oil or water – I used oil)
½ cup black olives, sliced (I used Kalamata)
3 large cloves garlic, sliced
3 tbsp. canola oil
1 tsp. chili pepper flakes
1 tsp. hot smoked paprika
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Salt to taste
Directions
- In a pot over medium heat, sauté onion with chili pepper flakes in canola oil for 5 minutes.
- Add jalapeno, garlic, paprika, and cayenne pepper. Cook another 3 minutes.
- Place red peppers, sun dried tomatoes and water in food processor and pulse until well chopped, but not pureed.
- Add tofu, roasted red pepper mixture, black olives and fresh ground pepper to the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer, cover and let cook for 15 minutes.
- Salt to taste. Serve hot immediately.
Johan says
Hi Amy,
Great blog, I love your recipes! Especially this one. I tried the tofu rojo a couple of years ago in London, and I became obsessed as well. I’ve tried to recreate it a couple of times since then (I actually found your blog while googling for it), this is just as good as the original
Amy says
Thank you so much, Johah. Tofu rojo is one of my favorites, and I’m so happy you like this recipe!