Jamaican Tofu Chowder with Collards

There are very few purchased spice blends in our house.

I made my own dukkah and za’atar. Rob made panch phoran to quickly whip up this Cauliflower Dal.

I used to make my own garam masala until I discovered Arvinda’s garam masala, which is what Rob had in his kitchen. It tastes really good so we’ve stuck with it until our stash runs out.

Just as I have been averse to dishes named curry, I have been avoiding dishes calling for “curry powder”. I will typically substitute garam masala.

But this time was different. I forged ahead and tried some higher quality Madras curry powder. I knew that even if I hated it, there was a good chance Rob would adore this – a coconut curry is definitely up his alley! Of course, I wouldn’t be sharing the recipe here if I didn’t love it as well. 😉

While there is definitely an Indian influence to this curry, this is a Jamaican curry that I spotted in Big Vegan. Lime-marinaded tofu chunks, sweet potatoes and carrots are combined with collards in a coconut-curry sauce spiced with thyme.  Caribbean dishes can be quite spicy, but I still used 1 tbsp of curry powder. The coconut milk helps to tame the heat. However, I omitted the Serrano pepper in lieu of my favoured Aleppo chili flakes.

Even though this wasn’t from Terry’s new cookbook we’re testing, we’ve started to rate all our meals as “love”, “really like”, “like”, “just ok”, “not good” as per our cookbook testing guidelines. As Rob put it: On the love-like scale, I give this a love. I gave it a really like, and let Rob polish off the rest of the leftovers. There are bigger battles to win! 😉

This is my submission to Deb for this week’s Souper Sundays, to this week’s Weekend Wellness, to this month’s citrus love blog hop and to My Kitchen, My World for Jamaica.

Jamaican Tofu Chowder with Collards

10 oz super firm tofu, pressed and cut in 1 cm
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp coconut oil
3 green onions, chopped (50g)
1/2 tsp Aleppo chili flakes
1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1lb sweet potato, cubed
1 carrot, chopped
1 tbsp mild curry powder (we used Madras, which is not always so mild)
2 large bay leaves
3 cups vegetable broth
14oz (lite) coconut milk
3 cups chopped collard greens (150g, prepped, half a bunch)
salt, to taste
rice, to serve

1. Mix together tofu with the lime juice and soy sauce and set aside.

2. In a large pot over medium pot, heat the oil. Add the green onions, chili flakes, thyme and garlic. Cook until fragrant, around 2-3 minutes.

3. Add the sweet potatoes, carrot, curry powder and bay leaves and stir over medium heat until the curry powder becomes fragrant. Deglaze the pot with the broth and coconut milk and bring to a boil while covered. Once boiling, uncover and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are tender.

4. Stir in the collards and tofu with its marinade, and simmer for a further 10 minutes until the leaves are soft and bright green. Season with salt and pepper and serve with rice.

Serves 6.