Asparagus and Tofu Salad with Málà Chile Oil Vinaigrette

Last week I made the Asparagus and Tofu Salad with Málà Chile Oil Vinaigrette recipe from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook.

It was fine. The wontons with the same dressing were (of course) better. 3 stars ★★★☆☆

Last week I made the Asparagus and Tofu Salad with Málà Chile Oil Vinaigrette recipe from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook.

This uses the same chile oil/vinegar dressing as Sichuan-Style Hot and Sour Wontons (Suanla Chaoshou). Interestingly, Kenji referenced a separate dressing recipe for the wontons, but includes the dressing ingredients and steps for the asparagus-tofu salad. I can only guess that that is some kind of editing artifact where they made the dressing its own recipe, but missed updating all of the recipes that used it.

Regardless, for this recipe, first you make the sauce (dressing).

Cut asparagus is blanched for a minute and then cooled. It gets tossed with scallions and extra-firm tofu matchsticks. The dressing is added and all of that gets tossed together.

A photo of the salad after tossing with the dressing. The asparagus and tofu matchsticks are similar sizes and covered in the sauce.

And that’s it! Easy and straightforward.

The salad was fine. The wontons were way better. As unexciting as it was as a side for dinner, I did find myself frequently helping myself to portions of it with leftovers in the days that followed. My son ate some of the asparagus thinking they were green beans, but didn’t go back for more.

Not sure if I’ll make this again.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.