First off, What is tofu? It is a gift from the soya gods originating from China almost 2000 years ago. It is made from coagulated soya milk and then pressed and compacted into white blocks called tofu. It’s low in calories, high in protein, calcium and iron. Just 100g of tofu contains 162mg of calcium, that’s 20% of the RDA (100g of chicken has 17mg of calcium btw). On top of that it contains zero cholesterol. You can 100% rest assured tofu will provide you all of the health minus the nastiness that comes with animal protein sources.
Honesty time: The first time I bought tofu I was really confused. It’s safe to say there wasn’t much food experimentation going on in my family home, our meals were very traditionally Irish, you know, bacon and cabbage, chops and spuds that sort of thing. I thought you could only buy tofu in Asia (I’m not exaggerating does that make me backwards? I’m not sure). So you can imagine my confusion when I first brought it home. I cut open the packet and stared at it for a while wondering why it was so sloppy and gross looking. I was determined though so I cut it up into pieces, I didn’t even dry the tofu. This was my biggest mistake. I just through it into the pan straight away with my veg and it turned into mush. I did not enjoy that meal and I avoided tofu for a long time after that. Dont you worry though this tale has a happy ending; eventually I figured out the best ways to cook it and I haven’t looked back since. It took a lot of trail and error, I’ll admit that much, but I think I can say with almost certainty now that I have become a tofu master and I’m here to share my top tofu tips with you.
MY TOP 5 TOFU TIPS:
1. It is essential to get the correct type of tofu. You can get soft/silken and firm types. I always get the firm type because I just find it easier to work with. The tofu that they sell in the veg section of both dunnes and tesco are both firm. I usually buy my tofu in either of these places.
2. Press and dry. Put your tofu between kitchen paper and place something heavy on top like a plate or a book and leave it for about 10 minutes. This removes a lot of moisture from the tofu and gives it a much better texture.
3. Season the hell out of it. Tofu has a very plain taste but it is really good at absorbing flavours. My go-to seasoning is a mixture of tamari, garlic and pepper. 👌
4. For that extra crispiness, stick it in the oven. After you have seasoned the tofu place it in the oven for 20 min on a medium heat to give it a crunchy texture. This is definitely my prefered way to eat tofu.
5. Experiment with and appreciate the awesome versitilty of tofu. Tofu can be used in stirfries/curries, to make tofu scramble, to make creamy pasta sauces, as a meat replacement in veggie lasagna or to make vegan sour cream. I have even seen it used in vegan desserts. 😍
Overall I hope you picked up on how passionate I am about tofu, this passion was freshly ignited this morning when I had scrambled tofu for the first time. I was blown away by how good it tasted. I hope this post has inspired you to experiment with tofu (if you have not already) and that it was at least a little bit helpful.
Guess that’s me signing off for now ✌
Peace & love,
Karen 🐌
Side note: For those of you who care (like maybe my mom or something) I cannot believe it has been almost 2 months since I last posted. What was I doing with my time? Lol who am I kidding I know exactly what I was doing; I was btsing it up. Bts are a kpop band composing of 7 astonishingly glorious human beings, I won’t get into it now but all I’ll say is I regret nothing. I will leave a picture of them below though perhaps that will make things a little clearer 🙈
Vegan Friendly Rambles 