Cooking with ChatGPT: Southeast Asian-inspired Grilled Tofu Salad with Lychee

In a previous life, I worked in A.I. (artificial intelligence). I built chatbots during the stone ages (which is like 5 years ago), but recent developments of large language models (LLM) have reignited my interest in the space. So I started asking ChatGPT some fun questions, like give me a recipe for chana masala. This is what it generated:

Ingredients: 
 • 2 cups of dried chickpeas, soaked overnight 
 • 1 large onion, finely chopped 
 • 4 garlic cloves, minced 
 • 1 inch piece of ginger, grated 
 • 2 medium-sized tomatoes, finely chopped 
 • 2 green chilies, slit lengthwise 
 • 1 tablespoon cumin seeds 
 • 1 tablespoon coriander seeds 
 • 1 teaspoon turmeric powder 
 • 1 teaspoon red chili powder 
 • 1 teaspoon garam masala powder 
 • 2 tablespoons cooking oil 
 • Salt, to taste 
 • 1 cup water 
 • 1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves 
 
Instructions: 
 1 Drain the soaked chickpeas and rinse them well. Pressure cook the chickpeas with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 4 cups of water for 20-25 minutes or until they are soft. 
 2 Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the cumin and coriander seeds and let them splutter. 
 3 Add the onions, green chilies, ginger, and garlic to the pan and cook until the onions turn translucent. 
 4 Add the chopped tomatoes, turmeric powder, red chili powder, and salt to the pan and cook until the tomatoes are soft and mushy. 
 5 Add the cooked chickpeas and 1 cup of water to the pan and mix well. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the gravy thickens. 
 6 Add the garam masala powder and chopped coriander leaves to the pan and mix well. Cook for another 2-3 minutes. 
 7 Serve hot with rice or flatbreads. 
 
This recipe is a basic version of chana masala and can be adjusted to suit individual tastes. You can add more or less spice according to your preference. You can also add vegetables like spinach, potatoes, or bell peppers to the dish to make it more nutritious and flavorful.

It’s got the key ingredients, the chickpeas, the tomatoes, the spices. Even the cooking instructions advise pressure cooking the chickpeas (chickpeas require a lot of time on the stove to get that crumbly soft texture we desire). I have absolutely no quibbles and would be confident that this recipe will give me a chana masala that I would enjoy. Perhaps, my only critique would be that the recipe forgets hing powder (or asafetida), which is an essential spice in Indian cooking, but this is really minor. It’s a nice-to-have, since most people would unlikely have this spice in their pantry.

When I queried about why I should pressure cook the chickpeas, it even gave me a nice explanation.

Pressure cooking chickpeas is a faster and more efficient way to cook them compared to boiling. Chickpeas have a tough outer layer and take longer to cook than other legumes. Pressure cooking helps to soften the chickpeas quickly and evenly, resulting in tender and well-cooked chickpeas in a relatively short time. It also helps to break down complex carbohydrates present in the chickpeas, making them more easily digestible and reducing the cooking time. So, pressure cooking the chickpeas is a convenient and efficient way to prepare them for the chana masala recipe.

While all of this is interesting, chana masala is a tried and true recipe, so I would expect a LLM trained on bazillion terabytes of text to give me the standard recipe for India’s most popular curry found on the internet. How good will it do when I ask it something more creative?

I’ve got 2 limes, 1 onion, 5 shallots, fresh lychee, Coleman’s mustard, mayo, soy sauce, olive oil, Sriracha, healthy bread, and a pantry of spices. I can go to a convenience store to get some fruits and veggies and other basic ingredients. Please give me a recipe that will help me efficiently use up my existing ingredients while minimizing the food I need to buy. This recipe has to taste good, but can be any of the cuisines of the world. Please be sure to specify what region the recipe is from.

And it gave me the following Southeast Asian-inspired Lime and Shallot Grilled Chicken Salad, but being a vegetarian, that wasn’t an acceptable recipe. I asked it to revise it so that it’s compliant to my dietary restrictions, while maintaining the protein content of the recipe. It gave me the same recipe but substituted tofu for the chicken. Unfortunately, the corner store in my building doesn’t stock tofu, so I asked it again to revise the recipe, but I also let ChatGPT know that my corner store had paneer. It flawlessly gave me the same recipe but with grilled paneer instead. Here’s the final recipe:

No worries! Here's a revised recipe for Lime and Shallot Grilled Paneer Salad, inspired by Southeast Asian flavors. This recipe uses paneer instead of tofu to keep the protein content the same and is vegetarian-friendly. 
Ingredients: 
 • 200g paneer, cut into 1/2 inch thick pieces 
 • 2 limes, juiced 
 • 1 onion, chopped 
 • 5 shallots, chopped 
 • 1 tbsp Coleman's mustard 
 • 2 tbsp soy sauce 
 • 2 tbsp olive oil 
 • 1 tbsp Sriracha 
 • Salt and pepper to taste 
 • Mixed greens or arugula 
 • Fresh lychee, peeled and deseeded 
 • Healthy bread, toasted and sliced 
Instructions: 
 1 In a small bowl, whisk together lime juice, chopped onion, chopped shallots, Coleman's mustard, soy sauce, olive oil, and Sriracha. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 
 2 In a large resealable bag, marinate paneer with the prepared marinade for at least 30 minutes. 
 3 Preheat a grill or grill pan to medium-high heat. Grill paneer pieces for 3-4 minutes on each side or until lightly charred. Let them rest for a few minutes before slicing them into strips. 
 4 In a large bowl, toss mixed greens or arugula with sliced lychee and the remaining marinade. Divide the salad onto plates and top with grilled paneer strips. 
 5 Serve the Lime and Shallot Grilled Paneer Salad with toasted and sliced healthy bread. 
This Lime and Shallot Grilled Paneer Salad recipe is inspired by Southeast Asian flavors and is perfect for a healthy and vegetarian-friendly lunch or dinner. It's a great way to use up your limes, shallots, and pantry of spices, while also being delicious and refreshing. Enjoy!

This may look like a legit recipe, but it’s still a little weird. The only thing that makes it remotely Southeast Asian is the soy sauce and Sriracha. While I am going to use up all my limes, onion, and shallots, but was it really necessary? Does Coleman’s mustard go with Sriracha? Does olive oil go with soy sauce? These are the thoughts that swirled in my head when I first read this. My mind is trying to make sense of this recipe and my body wonders what it will taste like.

Only one way to find out. Make the damn thing. I’m not going to ruin and waste a bunch of food because my robot overlord told me to, though. Instead, I’m going to cook and interpret as I see fit. I will try to adhere as close to the recipe as possible, but I will still take some liberties as I often do with any recipe, especially poorly written ones.

First off, all five shallots? Seriously? I’m glad I didn’t tell ChatGPT that I actually had ten shallots. Would’ve been a teary nightmare to cut ten shallots just for a salad. I was also a little skeptical of the amount of liquid in the prescribed marinade. After preparing it as instructed, it turned out more to be a paste than the usual marinade I’m used to. Unless you have those fancy vacuum packers for sous vide, the top layer of my tofu (I realized last minute that I had soy-sauce braised tofu in the fridge) wasn’t going to have the full flavor immersion. And how did ChatGPT come up with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and olive oil while only 1 tablespoon of Sriracha and mustard? My guess is that usually the mustard and Sriracha are the spicy components in recipes and therefore used more sparingly. I’m still unsure of the ratio.

The recipe also assumes the marinade will be my salad dressing. There will be no liquid left after my tofu has stewed in its juices. And, really, this dish should be called a ceviche salad. Why didn’t it recommend shrimp or fish for the protein? Lime juice makes up the majority of the liquid in the marinade. This leaves me to wonder, how the hell will I dress this salad without any liquid dressing? Well, turns out ChatGPT knew better. Once I pan-fried the marinated tofu, I did have some liquid left to dress my salad. I also decided to cook down the copious amounts of shallot and onion and tossed it with my salad.

I found it very interesting which ingredients that ChatGPT did not include in the recipe: mayo and spices. I think the reasoning is that most recipes probably don’t list mayonnaise as mayo and when recipes call for spices, they’d be specific on which spices, so unfortunately, while ChatGPT has recipe generation down pat, it’s comprehension is still wanting.

I was pleasantly surprised by the lychee suggestion. I’ve never heard of lychee on salad, and I think it can be a brilliant addition. I love the concept and the final dish didn’t let me down. As for arugula, I’m not too sure. I stuck to a neutral spinach.

Verdict:

Overall, I am pleasantly surprised with the first recipe I cooked from ChatGPT. It was unexpectedly good, well balanced in flavor. Perfectly salted. I didn’t have to add any additional seasoning. The highlight was the delightfully refreshing lychee. It made the dish truly unique. I think I found my new cooking partner.

If you liked this post, let me know and I’ll do more! :) Thanks for reading!