Tofu

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Embarrassing question, as I've been veggie for nearing 30 years, but how do I cook tofu?!

I've discovered a love of the stuff, mainly in Chinese cooking, and it tastes amazing.

I've been shopping and feeling a bit boggled by all of the different types, firm etc?

Can anyone guide this useless veggie please!

I eat it sometimes! Veggie also for 30+ years.

my favourite is dry frying (spray of oil) with thinly chopped red chilli, garlic, spring onion and salt. Eat with noodles or rice.

Slice then marinate for a bit with sesame oil, soy sauce( naturally brewed - not artificial- kikkoman’s is good) and chopped spring onions. Bake until browned. It’s addictive!

Also firm is better for that recipe.

My favourite is steamed rice and veg, with thin slices of silken tofu laid over the top. (important it's silken - this is the shelf stable stuff). Then saute spring onions, garlic, ginger, and either fresh chilli or chilli flakes, in a generous amount of sesame oil. When golden brown, add a good slug of soy sauce and let it bubble a minute, then pour over the rice and tofu. It's so good. And you can blend any leftover silken tofu with sugar and cocoa powder to taste to make a kind of mousse, good with oranges.

I also quite like the extra firm (no need to press) Tofoo brand, chopped and marinated overnight in a mix of soy sauce, lime juice, and honey. Then either coated in cornflour and baked until crispy and golden, or stirfried with veg.

We do it in the air fryer - use a harder tofu, drain well, cut into large cubes, coat in a bit of flour and sesame seeds and pop in air fryer until crispy looking. Then toss it in with a regular stir fry. It's lovely

Have a look on TikTok, there are loads of recipes.

I have just discovered crumbling it and cooking it in the oven to make crispy pieces, they served it with a sauce and noodles but I just had it with roasted veg. The texture was amazing.

I have also used it to make a fadeaway KFC style fillet recently which was nice.

I buy the firm stuff, especially when it's on offer and freeze it. Freezing makes the cooked tofu deliciously chewy

Air fryer tofu is sooooo good!

Abura-age is fried tofu pockets. If you rinse those in boiling water to take out additional oil, you can stuff them or cut into strips to add either a softness to a broth or bake for crispiness on top of something.

All types benefit from chilli, though.

Ah my little sister loves tofu and cooks it all the time. She showed me once, she drained the block and squashed the extra moisture out between kitchen towel. Then she cut into 'chips' and fried with olive oil and soy sauce, with stir fry vegetables. It was that simple and tasted amazing. She did turn it a lot though.

for the best texture buy extra firm and press it, and then freeze it if you have the time/inclination.

and yes marinate for as long as you can.

Silken tofu is completely different matter!

Silken tofu blended with cocoa powder and honey or maple syrup makes a lovely mousse.

My absolute favourite way to eat tofu is soft tofu, gently coated with seasoned potato starch and deep fried. It has this lacy, crisp exterior and custardy middle. So so so good.

I usually serve it with an agedashi broth, but that contains fish. You can veggie it up by using miso rather than dashi. Boil kombu in it, and season it with veggie fish sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Serve the tofu in it (the broth should come up just under halfway) topped with sesame seeds and spring onions. Soooo good.

And mirin in the broth!

Scrambled tofu. Mash up some firm tofu with a fork. Fry some garlic ( and any other veggies if you like- but I tend not to) and then add mashed tofu to heat. Add chives, pepper, any other herbs you fancy, a little bit of turmeric, chilli if you want and either a bit of boiling water or oat milk ( I prefer water). Mix it and let the liquid reduce ( which only takes a minute or so). Serve with toast.

This sounds very interesting, do you know of a recipe?

It's pretty much as described. One block of silken tofu to four dessertspoons cocoa powder, sugar/ honey to taste (probably equal to the cocoa powder). Blend until smooth.

I'm not a vegetarian but one of my daughters is a vegan, so when she is around I have had to up my game!

I'm not wildly keen on tofu but there are two recipes that I quite like, for both of which I use the firm smoked tofu.

One is sweet and sour tofu with noodles (recipe found by googling) and the other is tofu marinaded in soy sauce and then made into kebabs with mushrooms and red and yellow peppers and grilled.

Will read others' suggestions with interest.

Yes as drawingmaps says @bellac11 but if you want amounts:

I use a whole carton of Morinu silken tofu
40g cocoa powder
3tbsp maple syrup
1 Tsp vanilla extract

Keep it in the fridge. I think others may prefer it sweeter but I prefer the lower calories, I get 3 good sized portions. It does tend to separate the next day so you have to give it a good stir. It’s nice with a sprinkling of chopped cashews or some desiccated coconut on top.

I've only started to enjoy home cooked tofu in the last couple of years, and even so I still have some misses. I love all of these recipes though. If you aren't a huge fan of the taste or texture of tofu, then Felicity Cloake's vegan ragù is perfect.I chopped up the tofu and vegetables into a fine dice. The recipe is rich and delicious, and while tofu gives it body and texture, it's not dominant so perfect if you're more of a tofu sceptic.

Meera Sodha's vegan banh mi is more tofu forward than the ragu, it's an absolute banger, and as the tofu is finely chopped/minced, it might be a good intro dish. It's sharp, spicy, crunchy, fresh and comes together so quickly. It's probably my favourite tofu recipe.

My favourite tofu forward recipe is Ottolenghi's black pepper tofu. It's amazing. Totally packed with flavour and the firey sauce pairs so well with the relatively bland tofu.

Thanks for sharing these

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Cut into cubes and batter it and serve like you would chicken/pork balls at the Chinese.

I've only just started doing that, after browsing the dessert section of my book on making Tofu with a ton of recipes. Really nice use of it. It's not too bad just chopping up the firm stuff and putting into a fruit salad either. There must be some sweet marinades around to make that proper tasty, surely??

For silken also look up making tofu scrambles, and don't be shy on adding in some spices if you like spicy hot food. Throw in a chilli and some of those Indian spices, corriander, spring onion and tomato and a little bit of onion. There's gonna be a variety of recipes out there.

Stir-frying the marinaded pieces is an option as well as baking too. It shrinks more than I'd like when baking it personally.

Your marinaded pieces can also go into salads and buddah bowls too where people who eat meat might do so