To tempt a carnivore with tofu?

[Tofunoo]

My DP is a committed carnivore but I’d like to eat more vegan/veggie food without us having to make 2 dinners when I do that. Is there any chance I can tempt him over with something deliciously tofu? I have found 2 nice recipes for tofu chilli and bolognaise but he wasn’t keen. Lots of the tofu recipes I’ve found either are deep fried or full of sugar, so not super healthy. Any ideas?!

YABU-DP will never eat vegan

YANBU- there’s hope

DD makes an amazing tofu tacos dish. She grates the pressed tofu and mixes it with spices and bakes it in the oven, then fries it with onions and more spices and serves it in taco wraps with guacamole, red onions, salsa and aioli.

Ooh that sounds amazing! Any idea what/where the recipe is?

What about the marinated Cauldron tofu pieces buried deep in a burrito?
Fwiw, I'm vegan and it took me years to come to terms with tofu (love it now...even raw).

I eat a good amount of very healthy food, but I can't seem to get on with tofu, even flavoured. I think he won't learn to love it.

I’m being persuaded by the frying/air frying suggestions

I use green lentils as a mince replacement. As long as they’re rinsed really well and flavoured, I think they are a great substitute.

Instead of substitutes though, what about just finding delicious total alternatives? Butter beans with feta, tomatoes and fresh herbs with brown rice is delicious. I find foods that are a bit dense with some chewiness tricks me into not missing meat as much.

Frozen soya mince goes down well in our mixed household. I just get a cheap supermarket one. Vegan chili and bolognese were a winner.

You don't need to be vegan to enjoy tofu.

Try scrambled tofu (brown an onion then sautée your crumbled tofu in with nutritional yeast flakes, black pepper and a dash of soy sauce. Great on toast or in place of eggs in East Asian dishes.

Or Teriyaki tofu, leave in a clean tea towel to dry, then marinade in teriyaki or whatever you like really. Oven roast and add to stir fry (it'll break up if you do it too soon)

The most delicious meal I ever had was something called kovuta tofu in Aruba. It was a kind of African flavouring as described in menu. Perhaps try something similar?

Yes it could be a step too far for him

Intriguing! I will Google

Surprised by all the tofu haters. I especially love the smoked tofu, even raw dipped in soy sauce.

I'm a committed meat eater but there are plenty of delicious vegetarian meals I enjoy that are naturally Veggie, so no fake meat or tofu.
Vegan would be much harder, but meat free is fairly do able.

Why are you making two separate meals? Can't he cook his own food?
One thing we also do is a neutral "base" that we can then add our protein of choice too.
I can't handle raw meat, dp will just cook his own and add it to stuff I've made.

Tofu is hardly a 'fake meat' or UPF either. It's been around for over 2000 years!

Buy Tofoo tofu (it’s better than Cauldron). Pat it dry, cut it into cubes and toss in corn flour and your chosen herbs/spices. Shallow fry/air fry/oven bake, then add your favourite sauce. You can do salt and pepper tofu, sweet n sour tofu, black bean tofu, sweet chilli tofu, tofu in curry sauce.

Also check out your local Chinese supermarket for deep fried tofu puffs: https://www.orientalmart.co.uk/tofu-king-deep-fried-tofu-puffs

Tofu deserves to stay in hell where it belongs.

My daughter is vegetarian so for food budgeting reasons I also eat vegetarian.

Our diet consists of lots of beans, pulses and grains, fruits and vegetables, nuts, tubers like potatoes, we do eat dairy, I eat eggs, squashes and loads of water. My daughter (adult) takes vegan vitamins. Mushrooms are a fantastic meat sub. We hate fake meat too 🤢

I use Cranks vegetarian cookbook, Good Food online, OhMyVeg blog online plus various Indian cooks like Madhur Jaffrey. For easy veg meals from the freezer I use strong roots or Goodlife because they don't have much, if any TVP in them.

Ditto seitan / vital wheat gluten. Been used in Buddist temples for so long.

We take it in turns to cook. Have done the veggie base and added tofu into mine and meat into his, so that’s a good option

I'll have to get back to you on this.

I genuinely love tofu! One of the best meals I’ve ever had was a Thai tofu soup. This recipe looks really similar. There’s also loads of air fryer tofu recipes online, it gives it a lovely texture. Good luck, the animals will thank you :)

If you like spicy food I'd recommend a smoked tofu, mushroom and potato stew. Use garlic, soy, honey, sesame, ginger, pepper and gochujang paste for the broth.

Not impossible if properly seasoned and served with the right dish. Try him with a stir-fry...

Your first line made me laugh! I’ll check out that blog and we really like MJ so I’ll look for her recipes too

I don’t much care for tofu but tofu is not a fake meat substitute. It’s an incredibly common east Asian foodstuff that is very often an ingredient in non-vegetarian dishes in Asia. E.g. in Mapo tofu in China, kitsune udon in Japan or kimchi stew in Korea. In the west it get used as a common meat substitute but that isn’t how it’s generally eaten in East Asia.