Tofu Piri-Piri Chicken
Peri-peri is a chilli pepper common in Brazil, the Caribbean, Portugal and Angola. This chilli pepper’s name was inspired by another found in West Africa, melegueta pepper (grains of paradise). This is because they both have the same level of spiciness and flavour.
Growing up Nando’s was the biggest African derived chain restaurant going in the UK, as kids we couldn’t get enough of it. To this day peri-peri sauce, made up of chilli and garlic with an acidic base (and various top-secret ingredients) is one of my favourite flavour profiles.
Since turning vegan, it's something I haven't tried making myself and still only rely on the shop-bought sauces. Below is a quick and easy recipe to follow using tofu as the meat substitute to replicate your own Nando’s experience at home. You can even grill this on the bbq to get that smokey flavour through! The chillies used for peri-peri sauce are hard to find in UK local shops, however, the red pepper combined with all the spices used will get you very close!
Tofu Piri-Piri Chicken
Vegan
Prep time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Serves 2
Essential equipment for this recipe: 4 large skewer sticks.
Ingredients
Stage 1
2 red peppers
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Stage 2
400g block tofu
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Stage 3
2 large red chillies
4 garlic cloves
1 lemon
100ml olive oil
½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
Black pepper to taste
Stage 4
100ml olive oil
2 tsp paprika
Stage 5
100g Soy yogurt
Stage 6
Red onion
Stage 5
Left over peri-peri dressing
50g soy yogurt
25g coriander
Serving suggestion:
Naan bread
Prep-work
Prep the red onion in stage 6: Cut the onion from the stem to the root at the centre. Lay the flat side from one half down on the cutting board and cut through the equator of the onion. Repeat for the other half. Peel the layers of onion from each other.
Mix the soy yogurt and coriander together in stage 5 in preparation to add the leftover dressing.
Method
1.Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, gas mark 6.
2.Cut the red pepper in half, de-seed, coat with 1 tbsp of oil and roast for 20-30 mins. Once baked, put to one side to cool down slightly.
3.While the peppers are baking, cut the tofu into cubes by draining the excess water, slice the tofu block in half horizontally, slice it lengthwise into 6 thick strips, slice it width wise 4 times into cubes.
4. Heat a non-stick pan to a medium high heat and pan fry the tofu cubes until all the water has evaporated and tofu has slightly browned. Don’t fully cook the tofu at this stage. Re-move from the pan and put to one side.
5. Place the roasted pepper and all of stage 3 in a food processor / blender and blend until smooth. Half way through ensure to scrap down the sides.
6. Add stage 4 and repeat the process again, blend for a further 1 minute. Pour the sauce into a bowl and mix in the yoghurt in stage 4. Add the tofu cubes in the sauce and let it marinate in the fridge for 1 hour.
7. Once marinaded, one at a time, alternate1 tofu cube and 1 onion slice onto a skewer stick and repeat for all of the tofu. Place on a baking tray once complete and drizzle some of the left over peri-peri sauce on-top. Reserve some sauce for the dressing and finish off the dressing in stage 5.
8. Turn on your grill on your oven to medium-high heat. Alternatively can cook on a bbq.
9. Place your tofu skewers in the oven grill and grill for 10-15 minutes, ensuring to turn it every 5 minutes so one side doesn’t burn.
10. Serve hot with Naan bread.