Sweet and Sour Tofu With Barberries Recipe (2024)

If you grill or roast the tofu, you will not be requiring any cornstach whilst reducing fat by not deep frying. You could if you wanted to brush the tofu and or the tray with a touch of oil to have them a little crispy. I do the same with Chinese Sesame Prawn Toast and a number of other dishes.

Made this for Valentine’s Day dinner - husband loved it. There are a lot of things to do in this but it’s very tasty. It’s reminds me of a light Chinese orange chicken dish but healthier, not quite as crispy, made with tofu and seasoned with Persian flavors. So not that similar - lol.

On a quest to really enjoy tofu, I was delighted to see this recipe and followed it to the letter. What can I say. Disappointing. Took me close to an hour. For whatever reason the flavours were murky, no bright notes. BUT - used the microwave trick for draining tofu and the texture of that was perfect. Will not make this again but remain an Ottolenghi fan.

Looks like you need enough to coat the tofu cubes; I would treat it like a dredge, where you coat each piece and shake off the excess. That should cut down on the amount in the final dish.

Delish! Will make again. Used 1/4 c olive oil in step 3, and 2 tbsp on a baking sheet, grilling the tofu instead of coating in corn starch and cooking in a pan. Added last ingredients into onion/etc. mixture with 3 tbsp cornstarch in 1 cup water (instead of 1.5 c). Brought to a quick boil, turned down to low, gently stirred in tofu, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, and simmered on low, 5 minutes. Was SO GOOD - thank you!

I was excited to try this recipe..until I got to the 2/3 cup of cornstarch requirement. I can barely stand to use a Tbsp.Do you think it would work with less cornstarch?

This was very good. But felt like a lot of complex effort for a fairly simple end result. Pine nuts and cilantro are key to making it both delicious and appetizing.

I love to cook with tofu, but this was a a very disappointing dish. Slimy tofu texture, unpleasant flavor brought by orange in combination with all spices, tofu and way to much salt. Most of all, this is a very labor intensive dish. Struggled for well over an hour. Was not worth the effort. For the cooks who like to try cooking this dish, I recommend to use ‘extra’ firm tofu and fry it to a crisp and to skip the corn starch.

Made this for my husband on Valentine’s Day because he loves Persian flavors and eating vegetarian. It was a hit. There’s a lot to do in this recipe but it was worth it.

The technique for salting the tofu was interesting and I would do that again. The sauce was okay but not great, particularly given the price of some of the ingredients.

One of the rare times that all of what I call my esoteric pantry ingredients matched a recipe. The only thing I changed in the recipe was cooking the tofu in the oven with an olive oil cornstarch coating. But I’m rather underwhelmed by the final product. Seems like it’s missing something Usually love Ottolenghi recipes but this needed some kind of something else to make it worthwhile.

I don't like tofu so I made this with boneless chicken breast and served with Persian rice. Wonderful.

I use wheatgerm instead of cornstarch. It works beautifully on tofu.

I agree with the others who say it’s “murky” and fussy and the tofu just gets slimy. One of the few times Ottolenghi does not deliver for me.

I have a barberry bush hedge, so I wondered if the berries could be foraged for this dish. Turns out they are edible. They are thorny little buggers, so watch out!https://britishlocalfood.com/barberry/

Where do the sliced oranges go? I added them with the juice & it worked well. This is delicious & I’ll make it again

Pretty good, maybe worth it when you have the time, but it's a lot of steps and a ton of cleanup. Not a weeknight project.

This wasn’t bad, but wasn’t worth the time and effort it took to make. I made as described, with the one exception being the amount of oil. The recipe calls for WAY TOO MUCH oil. I halved the first amount for the onion and carrot mixture and made the tofu in the air fryer. Again, not bad, but it took over an hour to make and was just okay.

The photo looks like you end up with sauced tofu, but the recipe and headnote suggest something much wetter like a stew. What did people who’ve made it get?

Great dish! Having never eaten a barberry, I sampled a hydrated one and I could not tell the difference between it and a dried cranberry. For convenience and to save money, next time I will use dried cranberries, substitute peanuts for pine nuts and skip the saffron.

The people freaking out about the cornstarch: you only are using it to dredge. What isn’t attached to the tofu is left behind. You’re not eating 2/3 cup cornstarch. Also, if you let the dredged tofu sit a minute, the cornstarch on the surface hydrates a bit which I’ll stop it from falling off during cooking and getting into the finished dish

Barberries? Can I pick them off the hedge that separates us from our neighbors? Sounds like they're full of good stuff.

I found this recipe highly disappointing. He doesn’t say to take the tofu out of the bowl before adding the cornstarch, so a lot of the cornstarch just turned to mush. Hence, tofu texture not crisp. Never says what to do with orange slices. Doesn’t say to serve over a bed of rice, which is clearly necessary and which I had to make at the last minute. Too much work for a kind of mushy bland result.

Delish! Will make again. Used 1/4 c olive oil in step 3, and 2 tbsp on a baking sheet, grilling the tofu instead of coating in corn starch and cooking in a pan. Added last ingredients into onion/etc. mixture with 3 tbsp cornstarch in 1 cup water (instead of 1.5 c). Brought to a quick boil, turned down to low, gently stirred in tofu, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, and simmered on low, 5 minutes. Was SO GOOD - thank you!

I followed the recipe, except I only used 1 pkg tofu. I liked the tofu consistency but cooked longer than suggested to get a nice crust. After tossing with sauce, it still had a nice texture. Since I only used 1 pkg tofu, it probably could have used a bit less olive oil with onions. Everyone liked it, I loved it. The orange with the onions and garlic - delish. Took a little longer than an hour. Served with rice. Perfect amount for dinner for 3 and no leftovers.

One of the rare times that all of what I call my esoteric pantry ingredients matched a recipe. The only thing I changed in the recipe was cooking the tofu in the oven with an olive oil cornstarch coating. But I’m rather underwhelmed by the final product. Seems like it’s missing something Usually love Ottolenghi recipes but this needed some kind of something else to make it worthwhile.