I've been dying to try tofu but I want a really good first impression. Does anyone have any good recipes they'd care to share?
I love stir fry, soup, & grilled food.
The secret to good tofu is to FREEZE it first, then thaw it under the weight of a heavy frying pan in the sink sandwiched between some cheesecloth or paper towels. It changes the texture completely and makes it awesome.
I marinate mine in whatever marinade is handy (sometimes just plain ol' BBQ sauce) or honey mustard or lemon chick'n sauce... then stir fry it the next day.
So, do you press the tofu that's already been pressed?
Well, that was a disaster. I hated it. Yuk. The texture was so gross.
From what I understand and what I have done with tofu, and grant you I don't use it very often, has been having it in stuff.
I had a recipe, that is now lost to the ages after our move. But it was from Vegetarian Times for fudgy-style brownies. (No eggs or oil.) Actually pretty good, but just a bit more work that I normally do for homemade brownies.
Part of the issue with tofu for me is the texture and the one time someone gave it to me pretending it was some meat cut. (Like the tofurkey) No, it isn't meat. It isn't the consistancy and texture of meat. Call it what it is and spice it up, but don't pretend it is just like a steak (or whatever they said it was).
That said, I have had crumbled tofu in with chili that worked really well. You couldn't tell there weren't any ground beef. Loads of beans and spices helped.
Also I like the strips of tofu that is in the hot-n-sour soup that we get at our favorite Chinese places. Been told that the Chinese recipes that I like tofu in, the tofu cooked (fried or baked) before put in with the stir-fry.
I am looking for a good hot-n-sour soup recipe, maybe something like that or the chili is the way to start.
I did buy the firm tofu and pressed it overnight as Jo suggested.
I marinaded it in an Asain style marinade and added it to veggie stir fry. I found it too soft and mushy.
I mostly treat it as an ingredient in a recipe.
In vegetarian lasgna, it is like cottage cheese, as an ingredient.
I have a couple pocket -size recipe books that are all about tofu that I can't find at the moment, but a quick search and you can find similar ones used for about a dollar.
A few more:
Soy Miracle Cookbook ( Earl Mindell)
Soyfoods Cookery (Louise Hagler)
More General:
The Gradual Vegetarian ( Lisa Tracy)
Great Meatless Meals ( Lappe and Ewald)
If you do eventually get to liking tofu, my tip is to buy it at an Asian supermarket.
They usually get it in fresh 1-7 times per week and if you buy in bulk ( ie 10 cakes) it is about 10% of the supermarket price and made in the last 24 hours.
Do you guys know of a good source of *easy* vegetarian recipes without tofu? Tofu is too much work for me, and I've been searching around without any luck. There are tons of veg recipes online, but they are all gourmet-type things. I need easy, quick, cheap veggie meals, salad ideas, simple dishes for lunches, dinners etc.
Have you tried
Vegweb.com? They've got a ton of recipes. That link should take you to the recipe catagory page.
Does it? I think link don't work. I hardly find recipe there. You can try tomato sauce with vegetables like cabbage, fried potato, cauliflower, and spinach with fired tofu. You just need to cook, adding garlic cheese make it awesome.
Try once your tofu with my recipe.
HEY! I have been a veg since I was 7....try using FIRM tofu in place of lean hamburger in recipes for meatloaf, and meatballs. I have made the most FANTASTIC meatballs over the years. The trick is to make sure you get the right consistency (just like with meatballs) so that the balls roll properly and stay together. THen I fry them in a pan in olive oil. You can either add them to sauce or not....I often times just mash them down and put them on bread and add some cheese...makes a great sandwich. The thing to remember with tofu is that is ALWAYS absorbs the flavor of what you cook it with...and if you don't fry/bake it long enough, it will be too mushy. Good Luck!
Oh, just use typical meat recipes from places like recipezaar.com and substitute 1lb ground beef with one container FIRM tofu! anything less than firm will be too mushy. Make sure you ALWAYS drain the water, and pat it dry with a paper towel
