This $20 Tofu And Peanut Butter Stir-Fry Tastes Better Than Takeout

I recently stopped eating red meat, and it's been an adjustment—trust me when I say no one loved a rare steak more than me. I’ve been leaning heavily on chicken and seafood ever since, but wanted to introduce some tofu to my rotation. Enter this incredibly popular Chatelaine recipe for Crispy Tofu Stir-Fry With Peanut Sauce.

It was relatively inexpensive to make (more on that in a minute) and, important for my purposes, incredibly saucy. (Usually, I find many stir-fry recipes are stingy on the sauce.) At first I misread the recipe and tried to fry all of the tofu at once, which was a mistake. Those tofu pieces need a lot of space in the pan for the water to evaporate out of them so they can crisp up, and cooking them in two batches is clearly specified (not sure how I missed this, I’ll blame it on Daylight Savings Time).   

The sauce came together in a flash, as did the vermicelli base. The end result tasted special occasion-ish as opposed to Monday night-ish; even my tofu-averse husband was a fan. And the leftovers reheated perfectly for the next two days’ lunches. I’ll definitely be making again, though I might swap broccoli or spinach—or a bit of both—for the green beans.

Please note I am not a food photographer. Also, yes, my marble countertop is rather stained! If I was renovating my kitchen all over again, I would not get marble.

Here’s the cost breakdown

I costed this out according to this week's grocery prices at the No Frills location near my house. Minus the things I already had in my pantry, here's how it broke down:

Here's what I had in my pantry:

Corn starch, salt, pepper, canola oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, chili sauce, peanut butter

Here's what I bought:

• Sunrise Extra-Firm Tofu, $3.50 for 350 g

• Shiitake mushrooms, ~$3.50 for ~115 g 

• Carrousel Organic French Beans, $4.99 for 350 g

• Mr. Noodles Instant Noodles, $1 for two 85-g pkgs

• Green onions, $1.99 per bunch

• Limes, $1 for two 

• No-Name Salted Peanuts, $3.99 for 500 g (Note: you will be left with many, many peanuts.)

Grand total: $19.97

Ready to cook it? Get our Crispy Tofu Stir-Fry With Peanut Sauce recipe.

Looking for more inexpensive recipes? Try this $10 lentil soup.