Get a packet of tofu. It'll cost you anywhere from $1 to $5 depending on what kind you get and where you get it from. I'd recommend Firm Tofu, but you can get anything from Medium Firm to Extra Firm or Pressed.
Take it out the packet - There will be water in it, so be careful.
For anything other than Extra Firm or Pressed, you should pat dry the tofu with some paper towels. Then place something heavy on it for a few minutes to get out all the extra water. You can skip this step if you want, doesn't really matter that much.
Meanwhile, heat up a pan and, once its hot, put some oil on it.
Crumble your tofu into little pieces and put it on the pan.
It'll start sizzling and becoming golden brown. You don't have to wait for it to become completely brown or anything. Just cook it for a few minutes.
Now put whatever spices you want/have. I use a minimum of black pepper, turmeric, and salt. But seriously, use whatever you want. For salt, I prefer Kala Namak or Indian Black Salt (it's pink in color). I also put in some nutritional yeast near the end.
Just keep tossing and turning it for a few minutes. Say, five minutes. You can add some spinach or other veggies if you want. Then take it off the pan and enjoy.
You can eat this straight up (if you want) or have it with some ketchup or sriracha. Or on a toast with some avocado.
Seriously. The entire thing takes like 10-15 minutes (if that) and is super cheap and healthy. You get all the protein you need in one meal and you can add some veggies to make it even healthier. One packet of tofu can be anywhere from one meal to three meals depending on how big you are and how much you eat, btw.
You can look up Tofu Scramble online to find a million different ways of making it with different spices and veggies and cooking techniques etc. There are so many variations that you can have this as a meal everyday and never have the same dish twice.
The fact that you said "easiest and cheapest" without mentioning beans is heresy.
All you commenters should also be ashamed that nobody corrected this horrendous mistake for 3 hours so far.
Beans are a lot cheaper (cents range for a porsion) and they do taste better than tofu don't @ me.
you fool, you just played yourself, acktually tofu is made from a bean :very-intelligent:
beans and tofu stay winning :tofu-cool: :solidarity: :bean:
Just look at all the different tips and tricks in this thread! I promise you, it's a good idea.
Yes. Lentils are another option. Do lentils, potatoes, and rice and veggies. There's also this Ethiopian seasoning I use to make a good lentil stew, absolutely delicious and very filling
I just unhinge my jaw and let that sweet sweet bean water lubricate the loaf
Tofu is great, another good way is to just slice it thin (like a quarter inch thick about), marinade it with your favorite sauce/seasonings and then bake it in the oven.
There are so many easy, cheap ways to use tofu. It's really versatile. I wish more people used it and didn't think of it as "that weird Asian food that I never ate when I was a kid so I'm not gonna try it now". It's cheap. It's easy. It's healthy! What more can you want???
also its so easy to adapt so many recipes like stir fries and things that normally have small bits of animal, just use some chunks of fried tofu instead and ta-da!
:soypoint-1: :tofu-cool: :soypoint-2: me and the soyboys soyfacing about soy
I wish more people used it and didn’t think of it as “that weird Asian food that I never ate when I was a kid so I’m not gonna try it now”.
I think it's that most people fundamentally do not know how to prepare food because they were raised by boomers who could only ineptly follow mediocre recipes to the letter or who relied on just resting on the inherent flavor of something instead of shaping it by cooking and never learned to cook themselves because fast food is always available. Like for me growing up everything was pretty much just "throw meat in pan until cooked, eat with plain noodles boiled too long in unsalted water" and shit like that, so I had to learn to cook as an adult through trial and error when trying to turn the random ingredients and scraps I had on hand into something palatable.
I picked up a block of tofu for the first time a few months ago and could prepare it properly without any guidance (ok, I did look up how to press it because I remembered that was a thing you have to do, but I didn't bother with any recipe beyond just checking that yeah it's as simple as adding spices and frying or baking it), because I actually learned how to cook using whatever's on hand. Most Americans would just plop the wobbling cube of it into a pan with some salt and throw a tantrum because it turned out even worse than the steaks they fuck up the same way, because it's a blank slate that has to be shaped into what you want instead of being something that's sort of ok on its own if just tossed in a pan until cooked.
It's the same with beans, people just think of them as the slimy, unseasoned things their parents made them eat next to an unseasoned chunk of rubbery ham and some rice that was burned to the bottom of the pot, because nobody knows how to actually cook.
Like for me growing up everything was pretty much just “throw meat in pan until cooked, eat with plain noodles boiled too long in unsalted water”
I'm so sorry.
It’s the same with beans, people just think of them as the slimy, unseasoned things their parents made them eat next to an unseasoned chunk of rubbery ham and some rice that was burned to the bottom of the pot,
This hurts my soul.
I'm glad you're better now. :avoheart:
This hurts my soul.
I will say that bit applies more to my mother's experience than my own. To this day she insists she hates beans because she was traumatized by my grandparents' cooking, even as I point out like half a dozen mostly-bean dishes that she loved.
I'm been looking for tofu recipes, please keep them coming :D
I like to cut tofu into small cubes and pan fry it until it's crispy, makes great high protein croutons for salads.
for extra crispy when i can be bothered i sometimes like to lightly coat the cubes with a bit of flour with a bit of salt and pepper mixed in and fry in unhealthy amounts of oil, so good
i once did it in someones airfryer and i reckon it was even better (and without all the oil)
I actually just got a toaster oven that also does air frying. I air fried tofu and it came out soo good. The toaster oven was kinda expensive (70 dollars) but tbh it's amazing, been using it every day. Was worth the splurge
Can you make tofu with noodles? Honestly there's so many vegan options out there, it's on me at this point not to go vegan. It's so much cheaper too, the price of meat is only going to continue going up.
Chop cubes of tofu, chop veggies, stir fry with sauce and add said noodles
that's a great idea! there are many tofu recipes with noodles - that's one of the most common ways of having it! tofu cubes in some noodles and broth (with veggies).
yeah i do tofu noodle stirfry all the time
i quickly pre-fry a bunch of (usually firm or hard) tofu cut in rectangles, set them aside, then stirfry all the veg (whatever mix of capsicum, onion, mushroom, eggplant, zucchini, etc i happen to have in the fridge) then add hokkien noodles for a bit then sauces (i usually do an unholy mixture of soy sauce, fake oyster sauce, a little bit of peanut oil, and a bunch of laoganma) and re-add the tofu plus spinach if i have any. cashews too for extra fanciness
In addition to what everyone else has said, I often make cheeze sauce out of tofu, like alfredo, for pasta. I also make a punchier cheeze for mac.
I make tofu tacos this way but add diced onion and garlic and one of those taco seasoning packets
Yes. The tofu packages they sell here are like 400g drained. I do press the tofu for a little bit before crumbling it. Doing so in my experience helps it brown faster since it doesn’t have to cook off all the water while in the pan. While that’s going dice some onion and garlic then toss it all together once the tofu crumbles start getting toasty. Once it’s all where you like add the flavoring packet with the water it calls for and let it simmer for couple more minutes and that’s it.
It lasts a long time in the fridge and if you make a big batch you can freeze it. Most meat snobs can barely tell the difference between beef and this tofu recipe.
You can use the tofu crumbles for lettuce wraps too. Prep is exactly the same just different seasoning
found a place where you can buy dry soy protein chunks near me recently... £1 for 250g, and you're not paying for any water so it's all protein, baby! only gotta soak for 10 minutes before cooking so it's not the time comittment that dry beans require, too
Counterpoint: Put rice, salt, and water in a rice cooker. Add steamer tray and fill with bulk frozen vegetables. Close lid, press button, wait for beep. Extract contents, add soy sauce and like sriracha or furikake or something.
Longer wall-clock time, but even less effort time.
You can skip this step if you want, doesn’t really matter that much.
This is how people come away with the opinion that tofu is bland
the flavor is supposed to go in to the tofu, not on top of it
You can also mash raw tofu with a fork, mix in vegan mayo or something like it, chopped celery and spices (onion flakes, black pepper, herbs), nooch, and black salt. Boom, tofu egg salad, good on bread or with potatoes
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. This meal will turn you into a woman.
