I love love LOVE baked potatoes. They are glorious, wonderful, fluffy, salty, carby wonders. And if you do them right you will load ‘m with butter and sour cream. I even had a Baked Potato Buddy t-shirt and my friend Faye crocheted me baked potato for my 40th birthday. Because I am an adult who loves baked potatos.
Baked sweet potato with miso mince
So when I saw a recipe for baked sweet potatoes with miso glazed mince in Joe Yonan‘s Serve Yourself, a few years ago, I had to make it. It’s a quick and easy recipe, so it quickly became a staple for me, switching out the miso for gochujang when the mood strikes.
As Joe Yonan has since abandoned meat all-together, and has a cool new book about beans out, and I have semi-followed suit this seemed the perfect candidate for veganization.
I try to eat meat or fish twice a week at most. Though of course sometimes it’s more and then other times it’s a lot less. Some people call this being a flexitarian but I prefer to just call it eating.
What you’ll need
My recipe for home-made vegan minced tofu. Don’t worry, it’s written out in full in the recipe below as well for easy access. Alternatively you can buy ready-made vegan or meat mince.
Other sauces that will work well with this:
- Harissa, or the tahin used for the noodles
- Hot-tingle hot sauce or its slightly milder cousin with peanut butter
- The flavors for laab or larb gai
- Buffalo sauce (duh, store-bought with maybe a blue cheese yoghurt sauce)
Baked Sweet Potato with Miso Glazed Tofu
Equipment
- Heavy pot or object
- Kitchen towel
- Fork
- Microwave or oven
- Large skillet or frying pan
Ingredients
For the tofu mince, you can also use store bought (vegan) mince
- 9 oz - 250 gr firm tofu get it from an Asian supermarket and thank me later
- 1/2 T - 7 gr corn starch other starches also work
- pinch salt
- neutral oil for shallow frying
For the sweet potato and filling
- 1 large sweet potato
- 1/2 head broccoli cut into small florets
- 1 T -15 gr miso
- 3 spring onions optional but they do lift up the entire dish
- swirl Sriracha or other hot sauce as above, so below
Instructions
To make the tofu mince, or use store bought (vegan) mince
- If you're using store bought mince of choice, pick up the process for this from step 3 under the header 'Back to minced tofu'. If you do make your own, make sure you start this part of the recipe about 45 minutes before you want to eat.
- Press 9 oz - 250 gr of tofu by placing it between some kitchen towels and placing a heavy object on top for 30 minutes or so. We will come back to the tofu later on in this recipe
Two ways to bake a sweet potato
- In both cases you need wash your sweet potato and then poke holes in it all over with a fork.
- In the microwave (fast): Place your stabbed sweet potato on some kitchen towels in your microwave and microwave for 5 minutes at the highest setting, before turning it over and microwaving it for another 5 minutes.
- In the oven (slow): Preheat your oven at 200° C - 400° F. Bake your potatoes on a rack for 45-60 minutes or until soft. Depending on the size of your potato this can take longer. You can start testing the potato by squeezing it gently (use a potholder, these motherfuckers get hot) to check for doneness starting at the 45 minute mark. What you're looking for is complete give.
For the miso glazed minced tofu
- Crumble the pressed tofu into a bowl. The pieces should remain of uneven in size and shape, as if you've fried off some actual minced meat in a frying pan.
- Thinly coat the crumbled tofu with 1/2 T - 7 gr corn flour or any starch at hand and salt generously.
- Fry the crumbled tofu in a thin layer of neutral oil in a (non-stick) frying pan. Do this in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan and ensure crisp. Keeping frying until the tofu is golden and partially crisp.
- Now add the broccoli florets. Note: I like my broccoli crunchy, if you like it a little softer cook them for 5 to 10 minutes until they have the right bite for you.
- Mix the 1 T - 15 gr of miso with a little bit of water, until it has the consistency of a thick Hollandaise.
- Strain any remaining oil from the tofu mince and broccoli and turn off the heat.
- Add the miso sauce to the tofu/ broccoli mixture and stir until evenly coated.
- Cut your sweet potato in half and dab a good helping of the tofu/ broccoli mixture on top.
- Finish with sprinkles of spring onion and ribbons of Sriracha.
