Tofu newbie

[User647647]

Hello,

My husband and I are planning to go Vegan this January (and hopefully longer..) and I know nothing about tofu.

I have two questions from recipes I’ve been seeing:

Is the consistency (firm, medium, etc) important depending on the way you cook it or it is just a preference people have?

Also, a recipe I just saw says ‘drain and press, then cut into cubes’.

Is this something I’ll always have to do before cooking it?

Thanks!

The consistency really makes all the difference. I would suggest that for savoury recipes you always pick hard or firm (some brands will use one term or the other) tofu and keep the soft or even silk tofu for cream and sauces or even dessert. Don't go for medium.
Tofu usually comes in a plastic wrap with water in it. Cut the packet, drain the water and I wrap the block of tofu in 3 sheets of kitchen paper and press hard to squeeze out any excess water.

Now your tofu is ready to use. What you need to know , is that tofu is like a blank canvas. What makes the difference between the blank canvas and the Mona Lisa painting is what you put on the blank canvas.
We often marinate it before cooking . I like 2 table spoons of olive oil, 4 of soy sauce, 2 of nutritional yeast and if you have it one tea spoon of liquid smoke.
You can use variation of the ratios for your marinade. I tend to buy my tofu in the Asian supermarkets.

My non-vegan friends always ask for this recipe when they come over:

= Crunchy tofu finger =

1 bloc of firm tofu
2 table spoons olive oil
6 table spoons soy sauce or tamari

1 cup almond
1 table spoon mixed herbs
1 heaped table spoon smoked paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven at 180

Pat the tofu dry with kitchen paper.
Cut tofu in 1 cm slices and then in half to give the shape of fingers, and put them to marinate in a mix olive oil and soy sauce to the ratio of 1:3. For a typical size bloc, it will be two tbls olive oil for 6 soy sauce.
Leave aside while you prepare coating or longer.

Put almonds, herbs, paprika in blender at max speed until all crushed. Add salt and pepper to taste

Put baking paper on an oven tray.

Put two tbls of the mix in a plate and press one tofu on all sides and put on the baking tray. Repeat until finished.
Do not put all the coating at once in a plate, because it turns wet and moist and won’t adhere to tofu, add it each time you put a new finger

Put tray in the oven for 20-30 minute.
What is left of coating is nice on salads.

I find them nice with some sweet chili sauce

For my salads or bolognese sauce I use this :

Preheat the oven 200 fan forced. In a bowl put 5 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 of oil, 2 of nutritional yeast and the most important ingredient: 1 generous tea spoon of liquid smoke. Mix. Dry the firm tofu with kitchen paper. Holding the tofu in one hand, use a fork on the other to crumble the tofu in small popcorn size chunks/ crumble and let it fall in the bowl. Mix slowly and spread it on an oven tray on which you will have put paper. Put in oven for 15 min and then increase heat to 220 or put grill to make it crispy -dry.
If using it for bolognese, add it to the bolognese base last minute and cook in the sauce for no more than 2 min.

Wow thanks a lot, both for the detailed advice and recipes.

I really hope there will be fresh veggies available in the supermarket.

I’m quite geared for it, I’ve been having gastric issues for a while and can’t wait to see if a vegan diet will make me feel better.

I wish you a successful experiment, that can maybe last beyond the month.

If you are doing it for health reason, I would like to add a personal suggestion to embrace the VEG part in VEGan and avoid all the Frankenstein-food such as vegan sausage, vegan burger, vegan cheese, vegan bacon.... they are heavily processed and from a health point of view , far worse than the animal version.
Learn how to make falafel, veggie or mushroom based burger , discover the versatility of chickpeas, explore tempeh, rice paper wraps and so on.
The second recipe I gave you is a good substitute for minced meat in all its use, so great for Mexican.

I hope you will find veggies in the supermarket, it is a crazy situation you are now facing in the UK. If only weird veggies are left, use that as an opportunity to explore new vegetables. People tend to only eat the same 6 veggies over and over.
Ed Smith has made a wonderful book called On the side, it is not a vegan book, plenty of butter listed as ingredients, but just change it for Extra virgin olive oil, but of all the cookbook I looked at and bought it has the biggest variety.

Middle Eastern cookbook are also a good source of inspiration.
Make it a challenge to try something new at least 3 times a week (out of the 14 meals you will have in a week).

I discovered a new way of cooking and some dishes you will like, other you won't. The New York Times has many recipes such as cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016062-red-lentil-soup-with-lemon

Consider also quinoa. I cook mine with 1 cup quinoa for 2 cups of water, and will keep a container in the fridge. Look for black rice as well.

You might want to start buying vegan essentials now if you can, so nutritional yeast ( a must for cheese substitute : vegan parmesan= 1 cup of cashew, 2 heaped tbls of nutritional yeast, 1 tsp onion powder , 1/4 tsp salt , blitz in blender. ) Note , if you have a lot of it, your pee will be bright yellow because of the high vitamin Bs content.
Good quality extra virgin olive oil, soy sauce, if you can find it liquid smoke, cherry vinegar, a ton of lemons, chickpeas, even dry, edamame . good quality passata (Mutti is expensive but worth every penny) , a variety of seeds to make seeds crackers.

I boil water with salt and then slide the firm tofu in and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Then drain, press to remove water. It is then ready to use.

If you look up some Chinese recipes there are many ways with tofu. Agree with pp, it’s fantastic when cooked well, bland otherwise. Having said that, I like it in a plain Chinese broth with cabbage too. You can buy marinated tofu in supermarkets which is in small cubes and can be added to salads, noodles etc. It’s tasty!

The first few times I tried tofu I wasn't a big fan. But then I had House Premium brand and I loved it. Not all soya milks taste the same and the same for tofu so don't give up if you don't like the first one you try

Thank you everyone, I have so much to learn, but I love cooking so I’m looking forward to experimenting with new ingredients and flavours.

I already have lots of saved recipes on Pinterest.

The main appeal to go vegan is to improve my health so if I see an improvement I’ll definitely stick with it. I quit dairy a few months ago, so that ‘hurdle’ is out of the way. It’s precisely from seeing how I feel better without it that prompted me to go the extra mile.

I've recently found the Tofoo brand, it has very little water and is lovely and firm so doesn't need to be pressed. It's really nice done as crispy fried salt and pepper tofu, with sliced chillies and spring onions. I also recommend pulses in curries, pasta sauces etc instead of meat replacements, green or brown lentils are great with tomato sauces and our current favourite curry is made with kidney beans. Good luck, and hope you find lots of delicious recipes to enjoy!

I hardly ever use tofu (you'll find loads of easier alternatives) but I second Tofoo, or the Cauldron marinated pieces. The Bosh scrambled tofu recipe is lovely.

Oh yes, Bosh! We liked their sweet and sour crispy tofu too, and I normally can't stand sweet and sour dishes. Very nice!

You don't always need to press it, you can just chop it and add to chillies or stir fries.

We like Tofoo best as a brand, never needed to press it or anything as it’s pretty firm

Hi OP, it took me a while to master tofu. My best advice is to look out for Asian recipes. Tofu has been a staple in Asian diets for such a long time, rather than just a meat replacement so they know how to cook with it.

This is a really good Korean recipe I tried for the first time the other day. The only unusual ingredient is gochagaru which they stock in Sainsburys now.

I used Tofoo extra firm.

I also used plain flour rather than potato starch too. Plain flour is the best thing I've found for giving tofu a nice crispiness.

As a previous poster said tofu is really a blank canvas (it tastes of nothing basically, it will totally depend on what you cook it with). Great thing about this recipe is no prior seasoning required and still tastes great.

thekoreanvegan.com/spicy-crunchy-garlic-tofu-kkampoong-tofu/

If you freeze it and then defrost, it tends to retain a firmer consistency. I also sometimes use a tofu press when I want it firmer. You can put something heavy on top and leave it overnight if you like.

I also agree that you should mostly use veggies and pulses rather than “fake meat”

Thanks everyone.

I haven’t started cooking with tofu yet, because I’m self isolating after spending Christmas away, so I haven’t been to a supermarket and I’m living off frozen soups and stuff that I left in the pantry before leaving.

Ordered Chinese the other day with tofu and it was a bit slimy so I think I’ll definitely go for firm tofu when I start cooking it myself.

I’m not missing meat at all and since I gave up dairy a while ago, I’m doing well in that front too.

Will definitely raid the supermarket for loads of stuff on Wednesday.

I’d start with Tofoo as suggested. A really easy way to use is tofu fried rice. Crumble up and fry off in sesame oil, then chuck in some garlic, ginger and soy sauce, then add in your cooked rice and fry. You can add veggies too, I fry up (very tiny) chopped carrot and frozen peas pre-thawed in boiling water and then throw chopped spring onions over once plated. I do a similar dish with rice noodles but also add chopped peanuts and use ketjap manis instead of soy sauce.