Lemon-herb tofu with Mediterranean rice
Herb-roasted tofu with rice, courgette and parsley.
About 45 min · 470 kcal · 31 g protein per serving
Vegan
Aubergine caponata with white beans
Sweet and sour aubergine with celery, olives and capers, with white beans.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 22 September 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm aubergine chunks brown in 6 minutes a batch
- Photograph the finished bowl
- Time
- About 55 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 580 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 24 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains celery, gluten. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- chopped tomatoes. Tinned tomatoes vary in added salt; the sodium figure uses a standard salted tin.
- black olives. Olives are packed in brine and are salty; rinsing removes some of it.
- capers. Capers are packed in salted brine or vinegar. Rinsing them lowers the salt; the figure here is for drained capers as the record gives them.
- sourdough bread. Bread often contains soya and can contain milk, egg or sesame; check the label.
Cooking steps
Cut the aubergine into 3 cm chunks. Brown them in half the oil over medium-high heat, in two batches, for about 6 minutes each, until coloured on several sides. Set them aside.
Lower the heat, add the remaining oil and soften the diced onion and celery for 10 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and simmer for 15 minutes, until the sauce has darkened.
Rinse the capers. Return the aubergine to the pan with the olives and the capers and cook for 5 minutes.
Fold in the drained beans and warm through for 5 minutes, turning rather than stirring. Serve with the sourdough bread, toasted.
The useful detail
Brown the aubergine on its own first and put it back at the end. Cooked from raw in the sauce it never colours, it simply collapses into grey threads and takes the texture of the whole dish with it.
Make it work for you
One serving is A deep bowl with a slice of toast. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Courgette instead of aubergine
Much wetter and quicker; brown it hard and briefly.
Per serving: about 20 kcal less, about 1 g more protein, about the same fat.
Chickpeas instead of white beans
Firmer and nuttier, and they hold their shape better.
Per serving: about 50 kcal more, about the same protein, about 5 g more fat.
Leave out the olives
Sharper and much lighter. Add a few more capers if you want the salt back.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A plant dinner where the beans carry the protein and a sweet and sour vegetable stew does everything else.
| Energy | 580 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 24 g |
| Fat | 15 g |
| of which saturates | 2 g |
| Carbohydrate | 95 g |
| of which sugars | 20 g |
| Fibre | 25 g |
| Sodium | 1,640 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 2. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| aubergine | 500 g | FDC 169228Eggplant, raw | 125 kcal | 4.9 g |
| olive oil | 18 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 161 kcal | 0.0 g |
| onion | 120 g | FDC 170000Onions, raw | 48 kcal | 1.3 g |
| celery | 150 g | FDC 169988Celery, raw | 21 kcal | 1.0 g |
| chopped tomatoes | 400 g | FDC 170051Tomatoes, red, ripe, canned, packed in tomato juice | 64 kcal | 3.2 g |
| black olives | 50 g | FDC 169094Olives, ripe, canned (small-extra large) | 58 kcal | 0.4 g |
| capers | 20 g | FDC 172238Capers, canned | 5 kcal | 0.5 g |
| white beans | 400 g | FDC 175204Beans, white, mature seeds, canned | 456 kcal | 29.0 g |
| sourdough bread | 80 g | FDC 172675Bread, french or vienna (includes sourdough)Calculated with FoodData Central's French or Vienna bread record, which it states includes sourdough. | 218 kcal | 8.6 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 1155 kcal | 48.9 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool it quickly, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours. The FDA chart gives soups and stews 3 to 4 days. Distinctly better on the second and third day, which is traditional rather than a concession.
- In the freezer
- The same chart gives soups and stews 2 to 3 months in the freezer for best quality.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout, stirring so it heats evenly.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
Try another recipe
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About 25 min · 355 kcal · 18 g protein per serving
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