Tofu
Some people love tofu and some people hate it. It is often seen as “the” meat replacement for vegans or people on a plant-based diet. The haters often describe tofu as tasteless, rubbery, bland or even spongy. However, tofu is full of protein, low in calories and leaves a much smaller environmental food print behind than the classic protein sources like beef and chicken. Plus, did you know that tofu can absorb flavours like nothing else?
Why people don’t like tofu
You open the packet, some water comes out and there it is… a spongy block of white curd sitting on your chopping board, not very appealing, is it? All it is, is soymilk which is coagulated into curds and then pressed into a block. Very similar to cheese actually, it is the same thing only cheese is made from cow’s milk, do you think cheese looks appealing? I have good news for the haters, nobody eats tofu ‘raw’ straight out of the package. You would fry, bake, marinated and caramelized it. Tofu is a great ingredient to lift up your vegan meal.
What is tofu?
Tofu originally comes from China, it is made from condensed soy milk and pressed into white blocks. Tofu is very high in nutritions: Plant-based Protein, Coper, Fibre, Vitamin A, Iron and much more. Tofu is also renowned for the cholesterol lowering effects!
Tofu is available in many forms and consistencies nowadays, from firm to silky, puffed, fermented and shredded. You can also use it in many dishes, from shakes, to fried, soups, sauces and even desserts.
How to make tofu delicious?
Personally, I think tofu is amazing, but as with a lot of things you need to know how to work with it. If you have not cooked with tofu before it can be a bit daunting. When you learn how to work with tofu you will find it is actually quite easy to cook with this plant-based ingredient.
Things to take in consideration:
- Give this plant-based product some flavour. Let’s be honest, tofu by itself is flavourless and not much fun to eat. However, there are many ways to spice it up! Tofu does absorb flavours like no other product, which means it is really easy to turn the tofu into a flavourful product. Simply add spice mixes, maple syrup, soy sauce or any other Asian condiment, or marinate it in peanut butter to make an amazingly delicious satay. The possibilities are endless.
- Select the right structure for your dish. There is a large variety of different kinds of tofu in every supermarket. Form silky and soft to firm and puffed. For a dessert or scrambled ‘eggs’ you might want to use the silky variant and if you like to grill your tofu the firm option is probably the best way to go.
- Tofu contains a lot of water and especially when you are grilling, frying or baking you want to get rid of it. So, make sure you squeeze the water out. There are special tofu squeezers but you can also use your hands or some paper towel.
- Some handy tricks that I apply in the VegMeUp recipes are coating tofu with corn starch before frying, it gives the tofu a nice crispy texture or shred the tofu up with a fork to get that ‘meaty’ texture.
I hope this article was useful to you and made you want to start experiment with tofu, to give you some inspiration please check these recipes on our website.
- Crispy Korean Tofu with Pickled Salad click here
- Spiced Tofu with Avocado Pickled Red Cabbage Rice bowl click here
- Sticky Orange Tofu with Sesame click here
With Love,
Jimmy