Tofu 101: Kicking Off the T&T Challenge

Northern California cooking teacher and nutritionist Jill Nussinow, aka The Veggie Queen™, has been eating tofu for more than 30 years. Tofu is her go-to protein and she eats about a pound a week, often plainly baked or stir-fried. She includes a number of tofu recipes in her cookbook The Veggie Queen™: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment and her Breakfast Potatoes, Tofu and Vegetables is a favorite on her DVD, Pressure Cooking: A Fresh Look, Delicious Dishes in Minutes.

I have often heard people say that they don’t like tofu. Hearing that just amazes me since tofu pretty much tastes like nothing. I think that most people dislike tofu’s texture. All tofu, though, is not created equally. Here’s where your tofu education begins.

Jill Nussinow's baked tofu supper. Photo: Jill Nussinow.

Having made my own tofu, I’d like to share the process.  First you soak and cook soybeans. You crack or break them up and cook them with water to produce soy milk. You add a coagulant and curds form. You remove the curds from the milk and press them to varying degrees to make different types of tofu.

Types of Tofu
Regular tofu: Sold refrigerated in plastic boxes filled with water or vacuum packed. Highly perishable and must stay refrigerated until ready to use. Labeled soft, medium, firm or extra firm.

The degree of firmness is often associated more with a brand than with what the label says. You will have to buy and try to see what brand and texture you like. My experience has shown me that extra-firm tofu works well for stir-fries, grilling and roasting.

If your local store sells tofu in bulk, be sure to ask them how often they change the water. (More about this later.) Always check the freshness dates on tofu packages.

Soft or silken tofu: Sold in small vacuum-sealed boxes, often in the produce section of the supermarket. Refrigeration is unnecessary until after it’s been opened. Unopened, keeps one year in your pantry. Texture wise, silken tofu is more Jello-like than regular tofu. It breaks away in pieces rather than cutting well. It’s an integral part of miso soup and works great in  sauces, puddings, salad dressing, smoothies or even for custardy dishes such as quiche or mousse. (KOD note: Stay tuned for pastry chef Fran Costigan’s post later this week on tofu-based desserts.)

Flavored Tofu:  Ready-to-eat tofu that’s flavored any number of ways. My favorite brand is Small Planet Tofu, a small tofu producer in Washington that produces a flavored tofu with a firm texture and incredible flavor. It’s ready to be used right away — no pressing or additional flavoring involved.

Baked Tofu:  Many companies marinate and bake tofu so that it’s ready to eat. But you can try your own baked tofu, with the recipe I’ve provided below. The tofu becomes infused with the flavoring of your choice and firms up a lot.

Whatever type of tofu you decide on, choose organic whenever possible, to avoid eating GMO (genetically modified soy) soybeans.

How to Firm Up Your Tofu
You may have noticed that regular tofu out of the package can be squishy.   To make it firmer and drier (and more absorbent of marinades), you’ve got three choices:

Freeze it: Place entire package in the freezer for about 24 hours. (Alternatively, take the tofu out of the water and wrap it in plastic; will keep for up to 3 months frozen. ) Thaw for three or four hours and then squeeze it out like a sponge.

Once the tofu’s been wrung out, cut it into cubes or crumble it, marinate it, or just use as is, adding it to sauces or stuffing to take the place of another protein source (like you would have used ground meat). The biggest change in texture occurs with freezing. It opens up the structure of the tofu and allows it to absorb a lot of flavor once defrosted and squeezed dry.

Boil it: for about 20 minutes, drain, then let it cool. It will condense and respond well to marinades.

Press it:  Place tofu on a plate and weigh it down with another heavy object to allow water to drain. Keep it mind that storing it in liquid afterwards will cause tofu to reabsorb water and undo what you’ve done.

Storing Tofu
Unless you’re buying shelf-stable varieties, tofu is perishable so treat it as such. If you buy bulk tofu, be sure to cover with water in the refrigerator and change the water every day.  It will keep  up to 7 days this way.

Additionally, once you open a package of any type of plain (not flavored or baked tofu) and use only a portion,  be sure to cover remaining tofu with water as recommended above. If your tofu starts turning color, smells strange or gets slimy on the outside, throw it away –  it is spoiled.

How to Cook It
The first step in choosing tofu is determining how you will use it. Tofu uses are limited only by your imagination. You can mash, bake, fry, steam, crumble, freeze, blend, broil and grill, for starters.

Since most tofu has little flavor to begin with, you can flavor it most any way that you like. I’ve made everything from salad dressings to pancakes, smoothies, quiches, salads, stir-fries and more with tofu.

I don’t care for the texture of silken tofu on its own so almost always use the firmest tofu that I can get my hands on for cooking purposes. For blending, I always use silken tofu, and it’s easiest for me to use the boxes because they can be stored.

The recipes below showcase both fresh and silken, boxed tofu.

Baked Tofu
Baking tofu changes the texture, making it firmer, drier and more acceptable to many people. The joy of doing it yourself is that you don’t have to use any oil, if you don’t want to, and you can season it any way that you prefer.

Ingredients
1 package extra firm or firm tofu, drained
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2  tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
2  teaspoons sesame oil (optional)
2  cloves garlic, minced
1  tablespoon of your favorite herb or spice blend (I especially like mole rub or Berbere spice, but curry, five-spice or an Italian herb blend work well, too.)

Here’s what you do:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Slice the tofu into 4 pieces or more depending upon how you slice it. (I like to slice it horizontally so that the slices are large rectangles. But how you cut it is up to you.)

Lay the tofu slices in a large glass baking dish. Mix the rice vinegar, tamari (or soy) and oil, and pour over the sliced tofu. Tilt the dish a bit so the marinade spreads. Sprinkle the garlic and herbs or spices over the tofu. Let marinate for at least 15 minutes. (If you choose to marinate it for longer than an hour, you must do this in the refrigerator.)  Turn the tofu over and place in the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes. Turn the tofu and bake another 5 to 10 minutes until the marinade in the pan and the tofu pieces are dry. Let the tofu sit in the pan for 5 minutes before removing.

This can be eaten as is or used in sandwiches, stir-fries, salads and other recipes. Keeps up to one week in the refrigerator.

Makes 4 servings.

©2010, from The Veggie Queen™: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment by Jill Nussinow, MS, RD

Caesary Salad Dressing
I have many variations on this salad dressing recipe and I like them all. I think it’s all the garlic that makes it taste great. Someone said that I ought to be called the “Garlic Queen.”

Ingredients
4  cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/2  12.3 ounce box organic silken  tofu (I like Mori-Nu brand)
2-3   tablespoons Dijon mustard
3-4  tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes (KOD note: Nutritional yeast lends a cheesy flavor; if you prefer to use dairy, substitute Parmigiano-Reggiano)
2  tablespoons tamari, Bragg’s liquid amino acids or soy sauce
3  tablespoons lemon juice
2  tablespoons or more water or broth, depending upon consistency you like

Here’s what you do:
Finely chop the garlic in a food processor until it is in small pieces. Add the remaining ingredients and process until smooth. Refrigerate until serving time. (Will last for 1 week in the refrigerator.)

Note: You can make this in the blender but you need to mince the garlic by hand before adding it.

Makes about 1 cup.

Coming up later today: Romancing the Tofu, plus a chance to win a VegNews goodie pack (valued at $50).